You’ve heard the crazy, if not somewhat funny (as long as it didn’t happen to you) stories of Amazon’s Siri-esque Home Assistant, Alexa, from the Echo and the Echo Dot accidentally ordering things because a child ordered it… This one takes a whole new level of bizarre.
First of all, the original story talked about a girl who ordered a doll house and 4lbs of cookies through Alexa. Her parents were confused when a dollhouse and cookies arrived at their home in Dallas, so they asked their six year old daughter, Brooke. Brooke told her mom that she was “talking to Alexa about a dollhouse an cookies.” Here’s the original story out of Dallas, but if you’re watching near your Echo, you might want to relocate. I’ll explain more below.
It wasn’t long before this story went viral on the internet and in news outlets. During a report on CW6, a TV station in San Diego, they were naturally reporting the adorable and funny story, and here’s where a bit of chaos ensued. Anchor, Jim Patton said “I love the little girl, saying ‘Alexa ordered me a dollhouse.” San Diego viewers who had an Echo reported that immediately upon that statement, their Echos tried to order a dollhouse, as well.
While Amazon says any accidental orders can be returned for free, you might want to change the settings on your Echo to turn off voice purchasing if it’s not a feature you use, or set a confirmation code before Alexa will put the order through.
