VamPyroX

They probably just don't understand.

I've had that problem in my hometown.

In Rochester, it's fine. In Dallas, it's a problem.

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Deafness

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shel90

On Thursday, I was calling the inspecting company to make an appt with an inspector to check the house. The line was busy the first 7 times I tried and finally I got a live person on the line. When the relay announced itself, the person said "Iam sorry..I am not permitted to take relay calls." Then that person hung up. I was so frustrated cuz I needed to get an inspector set up asap and I didnt have time to stay on the phone due to the demands of my job. Ugh! My husband had to call and set up an appt and the guy said that the company has a policy not to take calls from telemarkers. I explained that it was a relay call, not someone selling something but they kept saying "We cant take telemarketing companies so if u want to call us, call directly." I was like how can I call them directly if I cant hear the phone. That was so bizarre!

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~Shel~

javapride

simplicty comes in 2fold EDUCATE GOES BOTH WAYS! here in hawaii on my island i go and educate poeple who are unfimilar with relay calls this way WE the poeple can tell them hey a deaf person is calling and its a legit call. then when i make the relay call I let them know im deaf in my own way, and if theres one i know that doesn't take relay calls i tell interp not to mention who i am. So thats the concept and u know VRS interp needs to get back to school many do not get the perception at all. took me 5 minutes to explain about one simple thing and i finally fed up told my own mother i would call her back with another interp on line that can understand so i called mom and told mom who i am and she said thank u at least no confusions! one woman was india and she BOTCHED up a simple relay call sheesh!

Deafilmedia

Yeah relay takes too long....


What I do is... figure out what I'm gonna say first...

then give relay opr the phone number...

and while the opr dial the phone number, I would type
out what I want to say....

Then when someone answer, I would push enter...

And then while the relay opr type, *you know they type real slow*..

If a relay opr type "may I have your name and....


Then hurry up and type in your name....

While Opr type, " and your home number?"

Then hurry up and type in your home number and
then push enter after ga.

So that way... caller won't have to wait long time.

Aleser

They probably didn't understand you're deaf? Donno.

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shel90

My husband explained that I am deaf and that was when they told him that I needed to call directly not thru a telemarker. That was so bizzare. My husband explained that I couldnt hear on the phone but it seems like they either didnt get it or were not listening to him.

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~Shel~

relayopr1

Sometimes people think u are trying to sell them relay service which duh of course not but people hang up because they say s it takes too long or sometimes we have people who will sit and not respond for like 10 mins and then they will say something

purpleagent711

I am a tty relay opr. Trust me when I say it can be frustrating for us too.... We get yelled at, screamed at, and are told that we are stupid... all while trying to explain to them they have a deaf/ hoh customer/ client/ patient on the line. We can't always type everything they are yelling and screaming because they go too fast. They often yell in our ears bec they are convinced if they yell loud enough that you will hear it! Half of them want to talk to our supervisors, ask us for our names (we repeat our opr nbrs), threaten to report relay to the police, ask relay to take them off their calling list, curse us out, and the list goes on and on and on. They also love to talk to the oprs (as if you are not there) and we just continue typing everything we can to them, all while trying to get them to slow down to be able to relay everything heard (even though many of us type over 80wpm verbatium) and that makes me want to personally reach through the computer and strangle them so NO ONE has to deal with them, including you

It is hard because so many people don't understand what relay is all about. Thankfully we have what is called CSI at my center, which means we can often break out of our script and explain to the hearing person in ENGLISH what is going on (vs the standard explaination for relay). CSI stands for Customer Service Iniative --- we can now announce calls as coming from a deaf or hoh person, which has helped a lot. Where I work, we can vary the script a little bit so we don't sound so automated or like a solicitor.

My favorite response when someone says they dont accept relay calls is, "Oh... so you dont take calls from deaf clients/ patients/ customers. I am sorry to hear this but this is not a problem sir/ madam, I'll gladly relay that to your caller. Thank you and have a great day!!" This usually freaks them out, they get all defensive, and then start yelling at me because I never told them you were deaf or hoh... but announcing the caller as deaf or hoh is not *standard* on every call! Sometimes shocking them into realizing they are outwardly denying services to the deaf and hoh population scares them into taking the call, however this often happens upon redialing multiple times.

Be reassured, many oprs will go to great lengths to try and convince companies to take your calls. Not all oprs will, but I know many people where I work will stand up to and defend the relay system on the phone to the UNDER-EDUCATED portions of society who have not a clue what relay is about. The only thing the oprs can really get in trouble for saying (without the callers permission) is to not hang up on the deaf or hoh caller --- but we can say almost everything else to try and convince them.

deafdyke

A funny story. One day I didn't have change to use a payphone, and my cell was broken. So I called my dad's work via my buddy list. Although EVERYONE at his work knows I'm hoh, they thought it was a scammer. LOL.

jasin

Send them a letter telling them you'll never do business with them again. Tell them because of their insensitivity to your needs you are going to do business elsewhere.

Sceptre71

I had this happen to me many times,even before the BS nigerian scammers were well onto the scene.These days,if I use SIP relay or typing on the computer,I use the "operators instructions" and fill that out before making the call.I tell the relay not to ID them as a relay since most hearing people have no clue what this is and hang up.

Since using the operators instruction box to tell relay to not ID themselves,most calls dont get hang ups anymore.Its suxs but its what I been doing to stay on the line.

Btw my wife has called the relay a few times to leave me a message and she always got a foreigner that she could barely understand the english they were speaking on the phone.That can be a factor in some calls...not syaing its everywhere,but dont be suprised if the relay OP who takes your call sounds like shes from France or Bosnia,hence the hang ups people assume its a foreign scammer.

Chase

The operators serving Montana Relay were for the most part angels and fierce advocates for the deaf. They worked the prevailing systems to get my calls through.

My problem with relay calls is that no business or government agency EVER returned a call, even when they promised they would be different and call back with whatever information I needed.