Live Chat on the web is broken (well, mostly)

OP here. Understand the skepticism. That being said, companies as varied as Zappos and Airbnb have used live chat on their sites to make customers happy a while now . . .

1) I've had it happen a few times, but now if I know I have to step away from my desk to do something, I will let the customer service representative know and they are fine with waiting, they just need to know before hand.

2) It's 100% an ad. Sure, it can describe why a majority of the "Live Chat" systems don't work, but instead of explaining how to fix them, it just links off to two companies that have a product and then call that a solution.

They should have explained how the two companies they recommend do it differently than the rest instead of just say "Use these two, AND USE US FOR YOUR PHONE APP!!!"

How does the code integrate into apps? What does the client for the user and the client for the support agent look like? What's the benefit of using this instead of linking to a support e-mail address? Do I have to have the app open in order to get live support help?

It sounds cool in theory, but without a demo video or walkthrough, I can't be sold on it.

OP here - any particular reason?