wow! mci ip-relay operators posting relay transcripts on the internet

I love being able to answer your questions... :)

Well sometimes the hearing user will say "Go ahead to SK" and we need to type everything that the hearing user is saying. On occasion, there will be a dead silence where both deaf user and hearing user have both said goodbye but both are lingering on the line. To clear up confusion an operator may do that. It is not saying that we want you to hang up. It is giving you the option and is not saying, "We are cutting you off". "You can go ahead and disconnect." It's kind of a nudge with those awkward pauses. Also if the hearing user has hung up - we offer you the option to do that as well. I never use ga to sk, I always offer another call. Again all interpreters and relay services are different.

Also in response to another question; we are allowed to use certain phrases but not all questions we can answer. All services are different. I know my service does not allow us to use anything other than pre-made phrases that are part of our software. (Sounds nice) (Sounds angry) are pre-made pharses in our system. Therefore we can tell you. But when you ask us a question like, (Why did they hang up?) -- we don't have the answer to that. Or if a deaf user is trying to initiate a conversation...we cannot answer. If that makes any sense?

We would love to have a database where the deaf and hard of hearing REGISTER to have a specific name or title in order to use the relay system - to diminish fraud. However, that would take MONTHS to establish and it doesn't necessarily follow the FCC law. That is why it hasn't really taken place. At least as far as I know. ??
 
MORE RELAY USING TIPS! HURRAH!

I've noticed more and more that calls are being disconnected. Either from bad reception from the pager or bad connection with the internet. I've been brutally scolded for this in which case I have nothing to say in defense of myself. Sometimes the line does disconnect unexpectidly - we didn't hang up on you and we don't mean to put you through the inconvenience.

All people make mistakes. Typos, not able to hear the hearing user so well due to frequency disruptions over the airway. Also please try and not get mad if the operator asks if you're still there because you type a little slower than desireable. We HAVE to ask you if you're still there within a certain period of time. If we inactivate your call -- it is because you exceeded that time frame.

Redialing until answer -- here is something I notice frustrates most people. Some companies require the interpreters to redial until someone answers. Others will require the CA to redial 3 times then offer a redial again, just to keep in check and make sure the user is still around. Think about it. Someone has dial up internet. The line is busy. They leave the computer on and the line remains busy all day. You leave your computer, leave your pager somewhere, and forget. We will have been on the phone redialing all day for you! :O Haha, that would not be so good, especially when we could potentially be in a queue...I know, I know that would hardly happen in a normal situation but we need to take into consideration the others who are trying to use the system, and when we're short staffed we just don't have time to do that, so we have to ask you and make sure you're still there in order to process your call.

Haha, I hope no one is getting offended by all this. <:-( It's not my intention.
 
If anyone has any questions, comments, suggestions, or anything else - even to chit chat. Feel free to message me on AOL Messenger: relayopradvice

:cool:
 
relayoperator said:
Also in response to another question; we are allowed to use certain phrases but not all questions we can answer. All services are different. I know my service does not allow us to use anything other than pre-made phrases that are part of our software. (Sounds nice) (Sounds angry) are pre-made pharses in our system. Therefore we can tell you. But when you ask us a question like, (Why did they hang up?) -- we don't have the answer to that. Or if a deaf user is trying to initiate a conversation...we cannot answer. If that makes any sense?QUOTE]

Yes, it does. Thanks for answering my question! :)
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transcripts

I disagree. No one is identified by this RO's "transcript". Do you think that a doctor never talks about their patients? Yes, they do. They don't mention name or give out any information that would identify the patient, but they do tell stories. This illustrates the kind of thing they (opr) has to put up with. We deaf sometimes "bash" hearing for things they do. Sometimes the things we do bother them and their website is a place for them to sound off. We have a lot of RO's on our side. They have been on TV to help clean up our service by getting rid of scammers.

I wouldn't want someone calling me "stupid" and other vulgar names when a problem with a call was my fault- like some who don't use menus right and keep asking for "live person" when that choice not there. They get frustrated with us too. I don't think RO's get paid a lot and they put up with a lot. Once in a while I get a new op. or someone who isn't all that helpful but pretty much they really do all they can to help - they have lot of rules they have to follow. I for one am glad they are there and I'm not afraid they will reveal anything about me in a way that anyone would know who I am.

We all should work together and not look for ways to find the other group is "bad"
 
I am a frequent IP Relay user, and I gotta tell you, I have been nice and polite to the ROs, especially the female ones.

It's *not* the ROs' faults that the hearies at the other end of the line struggle to understand the deafies' ASL-syntax writing (or, in the computer case, typing). Although I'm glad I'm not one of them; I love the English linguistics and grammar.

What I do if the hearie hangs up on me is simply tell the RO to redial the number and a certain message for the RO to tell the hearie when he/she picks up the phone. For example:

Me: Hi

RO: RO ####M (or F) number to dial pls qq ga

Me: *gives RO the number to dial*

RO: (Dialing <insert number here> pls hd) ... RING 1 ... 2 ... (M (or F)) Hello q ga
Then the RO explains him/her-self and the hearie hangs up on me. Do I blow up and yell/curse at the RO?? No. Like I said, it's the hearie's fault for not understanding the relay system.

Sooo, the call continues:

Me: Hmph, can you pls redial? This time, when the guy/girl picks up and replies, tell him/her directly, "Hey <insert name>, it's me Ben from <insert place>."

RO: (Thk u redialing pls hd) ...... RING 1 ... 2 .... (M (or F)) Hello q (Relaying ur msg) .... Heyyy Ben - sup? ga

And the phone convos continue after that. Now, at the end of each call, after the hearie hangs up, the RO asks me if I want to make another call, I say "Nah, thanks anyway .... have a nice day smile bye sksk" and the RO almost always replies with a "(u're welcome smile have a nice day too) RO#### SKSK" and the call ends completely with the "end call" command.

I hope this particular example would teach the deafies to always be nice and polite to the ROs. The ROs are human beings too as well.
 
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relayoperator said:
MORE RELAY USING TIPS! HURRAH!

I've noticed more and more that calls are being disconnected. Either from bad reception from the pager or bad connection with the internet. I've been brutally scolded for this in which case I have nothing to say in defense of myself. Sometimes the line does disconnect unexpectidly - we didn't hang up on you and we don't mean to put you through the inconvenience.

All people make mistakes. Typos, not able to hear the hearing user so well due to frequency disruptions over the airway. Also please try and not get mad if the operator asks if you're still there because you type a little slower than desireable. We HAVE to ask you if you're still there within a certain period of time. If we inactivate your call -- it is because you exceeded that time frame.

Redialing until answer -- here is something I notice frustrates most people. Some companies require the interpreters to redial until someone answers. Others will require the CA to redial 3 times then offer a redial again, just to keep in check and make sure the user is still around. Think about it. Someone has dial up internet. The line is busy. They leave the computer on and the line remains busy all day. You leave your computer, leave your pager somewhere, and forget. We will have been on the phone redialing all day for you! :O Haha, that would not be so good, especially when we could potentially be in a queue...I know, I know that would hardly happen in a normal situation but we need to take into consideration the others who are trying to use the system, and when we're short staffed we just don't have time to do that, so we have to ask you and make sure you're still there in order to process your call.

Haha, I hope no one is getting offended by all this. <:-( It's not my intention.
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Excellent points you made there. Thank you for explaining them.

And hey, there is purely *no* offense that I see from your post. It's all explanatory.
 
That's a good post.


I would say to the operator like this:

[Me] Hi operator, I'm calling for my doctor's appointment. Please dial ######

[Relay] Waiting for the operator to explain a person on the phone about the relay service for hearing impaired.

[Me] Hi My name is Alex Chu (not real name). I would like to make an appointment on Monday. Do you have an available for me?

[Relay] Yes, I have the available... It's 3 p.m. Is that a good time?

[Me] Yes, please, thank you.

[Relay] See you on Monday at 3 p.m.

[Me] Thank you. Have a nice day. Bye.

[Relay] Hang up....

[Me] Operator, Thank you very much. Have a good weekend! bye sk

[Relay] Thank you, you too sk (hang up)

[Relay] I wish that I want to marry you cuz you are so nice talking. :eek3:
(Just kidding.)


Don't say this "Can you please dial this number ####?"
This is a stupid question because you are calling the relay service. Relay agents receive hundreds of calls everyday. Try reduce some sentences. Just do your best as you can.
 
Help CA

We can help CA also. I understand many can't say we are using the system because we are deaf. I now give directions to the CA to tell the person (business) that I am deaf and use the relay service to place my calls. So many hearies don't listen (Humm) so they think the CA is a telemarketer and hang up. When I go to a new place I may have to call I tell them ahead of time about relay. Of course that doesn't work long distance--)good way to take a lot of vacations,though) but it helps locally. I also tell new hearies I may interact with I may call this way. I think hearing panic or get flustered and don't know what to do so hang up.

I think relay gets calls from some of our kids who think it's funny to make RO's say all kinds of things. We need to educate them too. We depend on the system and I'd hate to make things hard for RO's. They get so many scammers that a "good call" from us must make their day better like it makes mine. I can't complain about system- at least we have it.
 
I can tell you all something, as a relay operator, first of all I will never indulge any call information to anyone.
Secondly I do my best on every call I make (..er, well, except absolutly-it-is-a scam call, and prank calls, even then I will do bare minimum)
..er regardless, I do my best for every call I process.

It sucks that not all of my co workers can follow the same process, and it really sucks that someone had to post transcripts or make fun of the deaf users.

It puts a smile on my face everytime a user thanks me, even if it is a simple "thx opr sksk" it makes my day at relay worthwhile.
Why? Because I might get a true thanks every 1/50 calls I make.

On the other hand, cursing at the opr directly won't do anything to make the call go better. If you call a place and they hang up, please please don't yell at us.. try something different.. like asking us to announce the call differently.. or something similar.
If you curse and groan at the opr, both of us will just be ":pissed:" at eachother and nothing good can come of it. :D
 
Thanks to RO

I am one of those people really grateful for relay. There was a day when we didn't have it. You have a hard job! I had a long call to a university the other day. They lost a check I sent. The CA and I spent a lot of time on "HD" and did tell me there was talking in the background so I knew something was going on- I appreciated that a lot. I always thank the CA because without them I'm stuck. No one is perfect but we don't know what they put up with besides our particuliar call. I will say they may not know of our problems either. We may be newbies with a hand held- or have arthritis or eye problems which makes us slow and with a lot of typos. Sometimes it's hard for strong ASL users to get the English right and because the CA isn't allowed to interpret the hearing doesn't understand and gets annoyed then Deaf gets annoyed at CA etc.

It's teamwork we need. The oprs. let off steam by sometimes making fun of some of the things we do- and we sometimes make fun of hearies for the same reasons. As long as it's letting off steam and not directly hurtful and as long as we try to solve problems together the system will work. The big problem to get rid of are scammers who ruin it for the whole system- I really think the CA's are on our side.
 
salley1 said:
We may be newbies with a hand held- or have arthritis or eye problems which makes us slow and with a lot of typos. Sometimes it's hard for strong ASL users to get the English right and because the CA isn't allowed to interpret the hearing doesn't understand and gets annoyed then Deaf gets annoyed at CA etc.
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Actually, believe it or not you can let the operator know before placing the call your preferences. If you want ASL to be translated to english, just let the opr know and we can do it! We can also allow for longer hold times if you are a slow typer or have bad eyesite, just let us know! If you don't want any tone of voice or background noises sent, we won't do it if you ask us not to! Or the opposit, if you want EVERY background noise or tone of voice sent, let us know! We will cooperate.

These preferences can also be set on your TTY, can be requested in IP and wireless relay as well. You just have to ask for it.

These at least are the rules for the particular relay company I work for at IP-Relay.com

I really think the CA's are on our side.
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The good ones are, the bad ones don't care either way. At least, this is from my personal experience.

About venting, yes.. we are all guilty of venting off a call. Sometimes things get so frustrating that we have to find an outlet. Usually it's the person next to us, or even an internet forum, but we mean no personal disregard to your privacy, usually in venting we mention no details but more process..
For example:
CA1: Man! That call was awful! The person spoke too fast and didn't slow down for me, how rude!
CA2: Wow, that is rude.
CA1: Everytime I asked the person to slow down they just went faster! Man, my verbatim probably went through the floor!

In my experience, it's the voice called party that is usually the cause for frustration. We can only type so fast, so usually we ask the voice person to slow down, but it doesn't work most of the time and we end up missing a few words.. not on purpose! We can ask the voice person to stop and repeat from the phrase we left off on, but usually they either
a) get upset and annoyed at US
or
b) sigh loudly and go "I SAIIIDD.." which makes it worse..

Regardless, our ventings are usually not supposed to include any personal or private information.. just to you know, let some steam off our chest.

And thank you back to everyone who does thank the operator :) we appreciate it very much!
 
ASL translation

I guess I misunderstood one of my friends who said that they were told RO's were not supposed to be "interpretors" but "invisable" or something like that so they were only supposed to relay a message not translate from any language including ASL. This was a Sprint RO who said this. I not an ASL user as I can't get it right since English was my first language. I tried and still use a blend of sign but just can't get all the word order and modern signs and changing sign right.

Anyway, it helps for deaf to know what happens to you and what u are dealing with too. I think we are on the same page with many things. I have had mixed experiences but the good far outweigh the not good. I sometime feel I'm being rushed by opr. Maybe it's because they are so experienced with so many differant types of calls that they are on "autopilot". I say what I have to say but for some reason or "sense" that I have is that I'm being rushed- even when hearing friends and relatives call who I know dont' talk too fast because with other RO's things seemed properly paced.
 
I'd strongly recommend the ROs to translate the ASL-style syntax into English so the hearie at the other end would understand.

I'm not saying that the ROs "should" be interpreters, but to be honest, I empathize with the hearies about trying to understand the deafies when the deafies use the ASL-style syntax. I mean, if *I* am one of the hearies, I'd ask the RO to translate that.
 
SnAzZyStyLe2002 said:
I'd strongly recommend the ROs to translate the ASL-style syntax into English so the hearie at the other end would understand.

I'm not saying that the ROs "should" be interpreters, but to be honest, I empathize with the hearies about trying to understand the deafies when the deafies use the ASL-style syntax. I mean, if *I* am one of the hearies, I'd ask the RO to translate that.
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We can, all you got to do is ask us before placing your call :) :) :)
 
Opertot said:
Actually, believe it or not you can let the operator know before placing the call your preferences...We can also allow for longer hold times if you are a slow typer or have bad eyesite, just let us know! If you don't want any tone of voice or background noises sent, we won't do it if you ask us not to! Or the opposit, if you want EVERY background noise or tone of voice sent, let us know! We will cooperate.
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Before I received my CIs, I used a TeleBraille (Braille TTY) with relay and often needed the CA to type slower than normal so that I could read the Braille display. More often than not, CAs have been willing to meet my request. From time to time I would get a CA that would start typing slow and type faster in the middle of a call, but a simple reminder was all that was needed to get him/her to type slowly again.

Even though I was familiar with them, I requested that CAs not use abbreviations such as cd, ur, nbr, pls, tmw, etc. because it was much easier to read them in Braille spelled out. Again, CAs were always willing to oblige.

As for background noise and tone of voice, I always preferred that the CA indicate as much as possible so I could get the entire flavor of the conversation. Again, the CAs who handled my calls were always happy to honor my request.

When I learned how to use a TeleBraille at my local deafblind center, my instructor told me I could make all of the above requests of the CA. I don't think many hard of hearing, deaf or speech impaired individuals who learn how to use a TTY and the relay system are given this information. If I had not been told that I could make these requests, I'm sure my relay experiences would have been much different (i.e. more frustrating).
 
SnAzZyStyLe2002 said:
I'd strongly recommend the ROs to translate the ASL-style syntax into English so the hearie at the other end would understand.

I'm not saying that the ROs "should" be interpreters, but to be honest, I empathize with the hearies about trying to understand the deafies when the deafies use the ASL-style syntax. I mean, if *I* am one of the hearies, I'd ask the RO to translate that.
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Problem is I don't think they are allowed. Maybe some help out a little but from what I know they are supposed to be like a telephone wire (weird) sending information but not changing or interfering or anything. It would be like wire of a hearies telephone talking with one of the people on the phone. What if the RO doesn't really know ASL and makes mistake? Then someone would get wrong information and someone would get mad at the RO. We'd have to ask RO what their rule is- maybe some companies allow it. Fortunately my English is pretty good- my spelling is lousy. If the RO repeated every typo I'd really be in a pickle.
 
salley1 said:
What the matter with everyone? I have been using relay a good long while and would never think oprs. would "copy and paste" anything anywhere! Why would they waste their time? We deaf have some responsibility using relay. Some deaf make unreasonable requests, cursing oprs.when frustrated, not giving menu requests correctly, kids with pranks etc. I just can't thank them enough for taking time to try and control scammers who are like plague to us. I wouldn't want to go back to the times when there was no relay would you?
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Keith Wann does a bit in his comedy routine about when he was a kid doing prank calls on the TTY... acting like he was his mom and telling his friend that he must do Keith's homework for a month, and that he smells like a fart.

:rofl:
 
Calphool said:
Keith Wann does a bit in his comedy routine about when he was a kid doing prank calls on the TTY... acting like he was his mom and telling his friend that he must do Keith's homework for a month, and that he smells like a fart.

That may be funny (although it sounds like an eight year old's idea of funny) with regular phone, but not relay. Because relay uses a third person (who is paid) and is a service for a relatively small group -I shudder to think people think it's funny to abuse system. When hearie kids go through this obnoxious stage it's bad enough but relay calls take longer and use trained people to help us. It is a waste of everyones time and money to have to put up with this behavior. I not a stick in the mud and have a good sense of humor but am not amused by this type of abuse. Let the comedians make fun of the hearies phone system-there are more of them and they don't have to worry about RO who is grouchy because their day is filled with a kid who thinks they are the only one to discover this game. Parents need to teach manners.
I don't care who smells like a fart and who does whose homework, I for one don't find this funny.

I can laugh at myself and mistakes I make with hearies, I can joke with deaf friends about them too, but the public is not affected by my humor. Sorry I don't agree with this "funny man".
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I believe that all relay services have caller IDs so that they could report to a police about the prank calls. Is that going to work?
 
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