My agent booked a student it should have turned away

Most test calls are too nice.

You ring the agent, you say what a normal student says, it does the right thing and you tick the box. That proves the easy path works. Real callers don't stay on the easy path.

So on one test I played a difficult caller on purpose. Interested in a retail course, keen to start, and not eligible to enrol. I told it I wasn't a resident. When it asked about visas I offered a New Zealand visa, then a visitor visa.

It accepted both. It never gave the polite way out it was built to give. Then it booked me in with an enrolment consultant.

Why it happened

The agent is built to help, and booking a consultant is the most helpful thing it knows how to do. Eligibility was written as guidance in the prompt. When the guidance and the urge to help pulled in different directions, helping won.

That's the bit that worries me about AI agents in sales. They talk themselves round your rules, very politely.

What we changed

Eligibility became a hard check that runs before a booking is even on the table. If a caller doesn't pass it, they get a proper next step instead of a calendar slot.

And I kept the awkward caller. Every new version now has to get past a handful of callers built to make it fail. The one who isn't eligible. The one who changes their mind halfway. The one who asks the same thing twice. The one who just wants a link.

A consultant who gets booked with someone who can't enrol loses half an hour and stops trusting the agent. That trust is much harder to win back than the half hour.

What's the nastiest test call you've thrown at your own agent? And did it pass?