Originally Posted by Etoile

There are definitely mean callers. You just have to smile and place their call. It's almost never personal, they're just mad at a previous negative experience. If they are making it personal and about you, you just sweetly offer to transfer them to another interpreter. (I am pretty sure all VRS companies have that option for the terp.) If the person is truly abusive, you should usually file a report just so you have yourself covered in case they want to complain to your company.

Recently I had someone call in, and when they came up on my screen, they gave me the finger and immediately disconnected. I just had to laugh, shrug it off, and go on to the next call.

I've never had anything inappropriate, but it does happen. People are often in their homes when they call, and we are basically looking into their homes. Sometimes they are just in their underwear (which is allowed, just weird) but sometimes they flash the terp - which is not okay, and you file a report for that. If somebody tries to pick you up, asks for your phone number, etc. you just have to say "sorry, I can't give out that information."