Ever since I’ve seen Amazon’s Echo (or Echo Dot), I’ve been worried about all of the things that could go wrong with this new product.

Yeah, it’s nice you can just tell this object to order you items off of Amazon. But it seems easy enough to order things you don’t need/want by accidentally uttering the wrong phrase.

My concerns appear to have been confirmed. San Diego’s CW-6 did a news story on how a young girl used an Echo Dot to order herself a dollhouse and sugar cookies via her parents’ Amazon account.

A CW-6 news anchor said, “I love the little girl, saying ‘Alexa ordered me a dollhouse’.”

From there, the ordering of dollhouses was on. For those watching this report with the volume up and an Echo or Echo Dot on, the Amazon-powered device heard the story and decided to order a dollhouse for the consumer.

While no one has apologized for this screw-up, I’m guessing TV stations will be a little more cautious about showing clips of people ordering through Alexa devices on the air from now on.

This instance is a good reminder, however, of some of Alexa’s features. Alexa is set so anything requested from Amazon will be ordered. Also, if you do screw up and order something accidentally, Amazon will take back a return.

So, if you really want to screw with someone who has an Echo or Echo dot, here’s something to do: order something for the person who owns the Alexa device when they’re not looking (P.S. you didn’t hear this tip from me).

[The Register; Photo Credit: CNET]

About Ryan Williamson

Ryan is a recent graduate of the University of Missouri and has recently returned to his Minnesota roots. He previously has worked for the Columbia Missourian, KFAN radio in Minneapolis and BringMeTheNews.com. Feel free to email me at rwilliamson29 AT Gmail dot com.