Troubleshooting
Your agent is not replying: what to check
Your agent has stopped answering on the website, WhatsApp or Instagram. These are the causes, from the most to the least frequent, and how to fix each.
- Reviewed on
- 5 min read
In this article
- Look first at the notice at the top of the app
- No credits left
- The agent is paused or a draft
- A person is in charge of that conversation
- The channel is not installed or connected
- The customer sent a photo, a voice note or a file
- Too many messages in a very short time
- The customer asked not to receive automatic replies
- It replies, but says it does not know
- The AI service is not available
- What to send to support if none of this explains it
When an agent stops replying it is almost always for one of three reasons: the credits or the trial have run out, the agent is not active, or a person on your team is in charge of that conversation. The first two affect all your customers; the third, a single conversation.
Look first at the notice at the top of the app
If the reason affects the whole account, the app says so in a strip at the top of every screen, with a button to sort it out.
| Notice | What to do |
|---|---|
| “Your agents are paused: there are no credits left.” | Press Buy credits. See no credits left |
| “Your trial has ended and your agents have stopped replying.” | Press Choose a plan. See subscribe to a plan |
| “Your subscription is not active and your agents have stopped replying.” | Press Review billing. See payment problems |
| “Your agents will not reply until you verify your email”, with your address | Press Resend email and open the link you receive. The link is valid for 48 hours |
| “This account is suspended and its agents are not replying.” | Press Contact support |
If there is no notice, the reason lies in the agent, the conversation or the channel. Read on.
No credits left
Every reply from the agent uses credits. When the balance does not cover one more reply, the agent stops answering on every channel:
- On your website chat, the visitor reads “This chat is not available right now.”
- On WhatsApp and Instagram, the customer gets no automatic reply.
Messages are not lost: they are stored under Conversations and your team can reply by hand. A reply written by a person does not use the credits of an agent reply. Owners and admins get a notice when credits are running low and another when they run out.
To get it answering again, buy extra credits or wait for the plan to renew, which brings the month’s credits. See buy extra credits and the free trial and credits.
The agent is paused or a draft
Go to Agents and look at the status next to the name. Only an Active agent replies.
- Paused: someone paused it. Open the agent and press Resume.
- Draft: it has not been activated yet. This happens with duplicated agents, which start as drafts. Open the agent and press Activate.
While it is not active, the website chat is not shown and there is no automatic reply on WhatsApp or Instagram.
A person is in charge of that conversation
If the agent answers some customers and not others, open the conversation under Conversations and look at its status:
- Person in charge: the agent stays silent until someone presses Return to the AI. A conversation gets here when someone on the team presses Take over or sends a reply, when the customer asks to talk to a person, when one of your handoff rules applies or when the agent could not answer automatically.
- Paused: nobody replies automatically. Press Return to the AI for the agent to answer again.
The reason is shown in the conversation itself. How it works is in take over a conversation.
The channel is not installed or connected
- Website chat: if the chat button does not appear on your page, it is an installation problem. See the chat does not appear on your website.
- WhatsApp or Instagram: go to Channels and look at the status of the connection. If it does not say Connected, the agent cannot receive or send there. See a WhatsApp message was not answered.
The customer sent a photo, a voice note or a file
The agent only reads text. On WhatsApp and Instagram, a customer who sends anything else receives this notice once: “I can only read text messages for now. Could you type what you need?” The message stays in the conversation for your team to see.
Too many messages in a very short time
To stop abuse there is a maximum number of replies per conversation in a minute and per customer in a day. A normal customer does not reach it. If it happens, on the website the visitor reads “You are sending messages too quickly. Please wait a moment.” and on WhatsApp and Instagram those messages get no automatic reply.
The customer asked not to receive automatic replies
On WhatsApp and Instagram, if a customer sends a message that only says STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, BAJA, CANCELAR or PARAR, the agent stops replying to them. Their messages are still stored and your team can reply by hand. They receive automatic replies again once they send START or ALTA.
It replies, but says it does not know
That is not a fault of the agent but a gap in its knowledge. See why your agent says it does not know.
The AI service is not available
If the Playground tab shows “The AI service is not responding right now”, it is temporary: try again in a few minutes. If it shows “The AI service is not available yet”, it is not about your account: write to us from Support. No credits are charged in either case.
While it lasts, on the website chat the visitor reads “This chat is not available right now.” On WhatsApp and Instagram the customer receives a message saying that a member of the team will continue the conversation, and the conversation moves to Person in charge so that you can look after it.
What to send to support if none of this explains it
Open a ticket from Support with the agent’s name, the channel, the approximate time of the unanswered message and, if you can, the contact’s name or phone number as it appears under Conversations. If your agents are not replying to any customer, choose the Urgent priority.
Related articles
- The free trial and credits: what happens when they run outThe trial lasts 30 days and includes 300 credits, with no card. What uses credits, where to see your balance, and what happens when they run out or the trial ends.
- Take over a conversation and return it to the AIHow to reply to a customer yourself, what they notice on each channel and how to pause, resolve or return the conversation to the agent. The AI does not come back on its own.
- The chat does not appear on your website: what to checkIf the chat button does not show on your website, go through these causes in order: the agent, the code, the allowed domains, caching and whatever your site may be blocking.
- A WhatsApp message was not answeredWhy your agent did not reply to a customer on WhatsApp. Each cause, with how to recognise it under Conversations or Channels and what to do so that it answers again.