S Twatter: When text-to-speech goes down the drain

Bork!Bork!Bork! UK water company Severn Trent learned an unfortunate lesson about text-to-speech systems when a robocall to customers went hilariously wrong.

A Reg reader received an automated call warning of potential water discoloration during planned works from January 19-25. The message advised running taps for twenty minutes if the water appeared discolored - standard stuff, if a bit robotic.

In the recording forwarded to us, a female voice told our reader what to expect. All good, if a little robotic.

However, things went off the rails a bit when the robot attempted to read out the URL for Severn Trent: http://www.stwater.co.uk/discolouration.

For anyone concerned, the URL redirects to a secure connection.

The robot took a run at it, but the result was unlikely to be what the water company wanted. We imagine Severn Trent was hoping for "S T Water," but instead got "S ...