Businesses hanging up on relay calls

[deafdrummer]

If only my sons know how to speak like a woman!

How old are they now? If they are still before the age where their voice has broken, tell them to remember how to speak in their pre-adolescent voice. There are men out there who remember how to speak in that voice. When their voice breaks, that is the time when suddenly, their thicker vocal cord start working. Once they get the hang of using the more mature voice, they stop using their younger voice and eventually forget how to access that voice. Do you have a friend who is a drag queen, I mean a really good one who can do the voice impersonation? That'd be your ticket.

I've had problems with getting hung up on. What I do is tell the relay agent "Please do not announce the relay and immediately ask if such and such band is playing ..." That way, the callee, realizes that this is a legitimate call and not a wrong number or a Nigeria call.

I remember a car stereo shop in the 90s when I called about something, and he said, "Yeah right, you are deaf," and hung up on me. I never went back to the store.

This is something even worse - the violation of representation. Representation means, what you type is exactly what your agent says to the callee. I've had a contentious relationship with my company over health benefits because of eligibility requirements and how I fall in and out of the full-time health benefits program because of my income limit and bonus conflict.

I was told over the years, "You know, you can't go yelling at people, cussing, and saying insulting things." At first, it was subtle, and I didn't realize it. The last time we talked about this, my boss said, "You have to stop doing that. We do this and do that to help you, and you tear us down like that. Especially when you talked to such and such on the phone the other day and told her (whatever it was)." And I said, "What? I didn't say that..." He said, "Well, she came to me and told me what you said."

It then dawned on me what was going on. As I first mentioned, it was subtle at first, and then apparently had gotten worse over the years. I told him I knew that was not what I said and would pull up the relay transcript (I record every F* thing, every GD thing) and bring it in. What was funny was, I came in the next day after talking to that person in question over the phone, and she asked me if everything was ok. I wondered why she was asking me that. Nothing particularly bad had happened to me that I could recall. I didn't realize she said it out of concern for me rather than just casually asking how I was doing. Our signals were crossed up big time!

I went home THAT DAY after work and pulled that specific conversion. As usual, no cussing listed anywhere in the transcript. I printed it out and contacted Hamilton Relay about this. They replied, admitting that they had finally caught the person violating my trust with putting words of their own into the conversation, and that I was not the only person making the complaint against this particular relay agent. He was fired, period. This is what he did.

Me typing - I don't understand. Why didn't it go through q is the computer system down q ga

A-hole saying - I don't understand, this is BS. What the hell is going on? Is the computer system FU or something??

Or something like that, but DEFINITELY NOT what I typed. I also printed out the response from the relay agent supervisor, and I took both the conversation and the response to my bosses to get them to realize that I wasn't doing the cussing. At that point, I made it my personal policy that I will never use relay with my company again. If I am late for work or don't show up, every supervisor must check their e-mail in case I "e-mailed in sick" (as in "called in sick"). I want everything I have typed to be EXACTLY everything THEY read, and what they say is EXACTLY what I read. That way, there's no miscommunication of material facts. What if I had been fired for this reason, and I discovered years later this fact? I probably would sue for ownership of the company (because they wouldn't be able to cover the attorney's fees and award for damaging my job prospects).

In the end, things were ironed out, smoothed over. I would NOT trust relay in conversations with my own employer, because you never know if you have a rogue agent like that working there. The relationship is way too important to risk or destroy over something like this. I go to e-mail (since chat or IM is not allowed per company policy).

 

[diehardbiker]

^^^ Whoa! glad that operator was fired! Hope he can't find other relay job. He does not deserve like that. Whoa!

 

[Smithtr]

I against to Nigera because something awful news! that is reason serious!

It is very guilty onbroken law because!
something

many
VRS fires broken reason no deserves !

Not please

I reading to terribleness serious I notice it

 

[SilentRider]

Yep I get "im not interested" and hang up on me so many times! that I try to get the persons name and remember them for the next call and simply tell crs to ask for that persons name.. but otherwise it can be time consuming and frustrating as hell!

 

[whatdidyousay!]

I think this is a discrimination and any businesses that knowingly hang up on a deaf or hoh person should be fined! Your states representatives should made aware this is happening and consumers advocates should imformed too. You have rights and and they're being vilolented. If it was me I would have a relay opertor call one of your states representatives and have him or her made the call for you! I would like to see a businesses hang up a states representative.
I aways go over people heads to get what I want.

 

[Smithtr]

I think this is a discrimination and any businesses that knowingly hang up on a deaf or hoh person should be fined! Your states representatives should made aware this is happening and consumers advocates should imformed too. You have rights and and they're being vilolented. If it was me I would have a relay opertor call one of your states representatives and have him or her made the call for you! I would like to see a businesses hang up a states representative.
I aways go over people heads to get what I want.

I agree because probably sue to court to Law because invesitagee reason fines or Hoh or deaf

because how much hung up because reaosn ashamed because waste of times because person tried not happy complaint! they want to sue to FCC TRC I can't remember TRC complaint report issues fill name or something,

business person hung up many times rudes inappropriate! suggest to report court or report complaint to fill

broken of voilentt o because rules promise not pleasure! people unfriendly not respect to people! not fair to hung up rude!

 

[purplecatty]

I'm not sure what you are saying Catty. For the difficult businesses, did you do the same thing as me? Have the relay operator act like they were asking a general question, or calling for their boss, or pretending to be me (I'm not sure what they did -- I guess it varied), until it came time to make a appt. or something similar?

FWIW, I never made a call with a relay operator that involved making a payment.

It's actually simple. Just tell VRS Operator NOT to make announcment "Hello this is xxx Relay...." Just simply tell them No announcement, Tell them to state your name and nature of issue you want to say then Operator calls and state "Hello this is xxxxx, I would like to speak with you concerning cancelling my service." Then the other end of line would NOT EVEN notice that you're calling through Relay.

There is NO such charges or NO violation of FCC Laws. It's actually very simple. Operator would do what you want them to say once the other end of line answers. As long as you don't tell VRS Operator to say profanity the first thing when they answer (I'm sure that VRS won't do it on that particular part).


I did this long time ago when we had TTY Relay. I had to tell operator to state my name and nature of my message ahead of time so that She can state my name and nature of my conversation and plus tell them to switch me to one deptartment (If I knew their pattern ahead of time like T-mobile that I called many times before) It did works sometime. Other time they hung up on me due to gap of conversation cuz my typing to operator. It was particularly hard for me until Video Phone came. Some TTY Operator knew me well enough and she did help me get through.

Catty

 

[diehardbiker]

You explained better than I do, and yes it is simple as is.

It's actually simple. Just tell VRS Operator NOT to make announcment "Hello this is xxx Relay...." Just simply tell them No announcement, Tell them to state your name and nature of issue you want to say then Operator calls and state "Hello this is xxxxx, I would like to speak with you concerning cancelling my service." Then the other end of line would NOT EVEN notice that you're calling through Relay.

There is NO such charges or NO violation of FCC Laws. It's actually very simple. Operator would do what you want them to say once the other end of line answers. As long as you don't tell VRS Operator to say profanity the first thing when they answer (I'm sure that VRS won't do it on that particular part).


I did this long time ago when we had TTY Relay. I had to tell operator to state my name and nature of my message ahead of time so that She can state my name and nature of my conversation and plus tell them to switch me to one deptartment (If I knew their pattern ahead of time like T-mobile that I called many times before) It did works sometime. Other time they hung up on me due to gap of conversation cuz my typing to operator. It was particularly hard for me until Video Phone came. Some TTY Operator knew me well enough and she did help me get through.

Catty

 

[rockin'robin]

Many, many times over the years I've told the relay operator to please not to announce it was a relay call....because of the hang-ups....grrrrr....and at times, when I've had to dial/call back 2 or 3 times....I really gave them HELL!....

Unbelievable....after all these years, even on TV, advertising about Relay Calls...people still do not get it!...Seems "more exposure" regarding Relay Calls is needed these days.

I would not depend on my children/family to make my business calls...it's an adult thing to do, the way I see it....Frustrating at times, yes.

I really get a "laugh" sometimes when people ask for my #....and I tell them to dial "1-800-???-????"....

 

[diehardbiker]

Even though I do work for VRS company, I still am VRS customer, I use them and depend on them all the time.

I try to tell myself, that there are vast amount of hearing people in relativity to how many Deaf people out there. I do not think it is somebody's fault. I can see where the problem is because "Deaf" to hearing people is not common to them. This is just an example, not a statistic estimate but this can give you general idea what I mean. The chances for a hearing person to ever encounter a Deaf person in any way is like one out of a million. So, if Hearing person never met a Deaf person before and finally met one or encounter one, they get confused and not know what to do. That is something that could shock hearing person and send themselves wrong idea, or freaked out and run away from it. Is it their fault? I don't think so. Other hearing people may have bad experience with Deaf person, or that damn nigerian scammer, would be terrified to deal with them again. Their fault? I don't think so.

Making huge drama with ideas of sue them or whatever just feed in their fire of terror, which would result bad image to hearing people us, thus causing them to stereotyping us.

The best approach is education, IMHO. Also, best approach is request an operators not to announce that the calls being made is via relay.

There are times when I call a hearing person on other end. When I sense their confusion. I often explain to them that it is necessary for one to help me complete call with them. Let them know that they can treat relay operator as invisible person. I sometimes warn them that relay are required to relay every word. Often, I get better conversation afterwards.

DHB as relay customer

Wait! Im not saying it is not Nigeria scammers fault, yes damn them they should be caught, throw out in prison and get their rear f**ked!

 

[Jazzberry]

Yes, I saw that

Generally though text relay, average speed is around 60 WPM. While speech and ASL has speed of about 200 WPM, that is why VRS is faster, If you are hard of hearing, why not try VCO option?

See post #11.


Most of the time I prefer to use e-mail or text. I can have a phone call if absolute necc. except when my HAs are broken down.

During that winter the only time I had to use the phone was during business hours with my doctor (hospital employee and was not allowed to use e-mail at the time) and the health insurance company. Everyone else was OK with e-mail or text.

I'm not sure, but I think you can only set up free VCO for your home landline phone? I'm always working at different places, its not worth it for me to try to give a clients phone number to the VCO relay company because I can't predict when I will be there.

So I used PC based virtual TTY companies.

Anyway for the health insurance company it was my preference to have a TTY call because I wanted a typed transcript of both sides of the conversation for my records.

 

[SilentRider]

It's actually simple. Just tell VRS Operator NOT to make announcment "Hello this is xxx Relay...." Just simply tell them No announcement, Tell them to state your name and nature of issue you want to say then Operator calls and state "Hello this is xxxxx, I would like to speak with you concerning cancelling my service." Then the other end of line would NOT EVEN notice that you're calling through Relay.

There is NO such charges or NO violation of FCC Laws. It's actually very simple. Operator would do what you want them to say once the other end of line answers. As long as you don't tell VRS Operator to say profanity the first thing when they answer (I'm sure that VRS won't do it on that particular part).


I did this long time ago when we had TTY Relay. I had to tell operator to state my name and nature of my message ahead of time so that She can state my name and nature of my conversation and plus tell them to switch me to one deptartment (If I knew their pattern ahead of time like T-mobile that I called many times before) It did works sometime. Other time they hung up on me due to gap of conversation cuz my typing to operator. It was particularly hard for me until Video Phone came. Some TTY Operator knew me well enough and she did help me get through.

Catty

Hey thanks for the tip ill give it a try

 

[Jazzberry]

long outrageous story

Wow! That is really outrageous! I'm glad that relay operator got fired and I'm also glad that it didn't end up going badly for you.

I wonder how often that happens?

When I use relay operators, sometimes I can tell that the operator is getting the names wrong but I never experienced anything like a relay op pretending that I'm cussing. Wow!

 

[Lily7]

This has been one of my biggest frustrations with interacting with the hearing world.

I seriously HATE making relay calls because I do get hung up on more than I don't, and even if I ask the operator to NOT announce Relay, I still get hung up on because I am "too slow responding".

And the whole "You have to talk directly to us" thing, I get whether I use relay or have my ex make a call for me - even if I am sitting RIGHT THERE with him and can talk into the phone they refuse to let me take care of my business because *I* am not on the phone myself. SO stupid. I mean really, there should be something done about this, some way around it - not every deaf person has a hearing person or is able to drive to go talk to the company in person (nor should they have to.)

I understand account security and all that. But MOST companies have some sort of question and answer thing in place to verify whoever is calling - like your mother's maiden name or whatever. So if they get that information it really shouldn't matter whose voice it is that is speaking into the phone - it's the deaf person's words! Dumb.

My sign isn't good enough to use VRS, but I do use CapTel and I have noticed I have FAR fewer problems when I use CapTel and voice myself - even if I tell them I am slow responding because it's being typed out for me. I hope to be able to use VRS someday since it's faster but I am not really looking forward to the relay issues again.

 

[diehardbiker]

I can't say that it won't happen again. I am sure that it has happened again from time to time. I do hope that it won't happen again for a long time.

Whats important is that we all are customers (Yes, even myself) have the right to voice complaint. How it works? It applies to all VRS providers regardless. When you make a VRS call or recieve VRS calls, always note date, time, operator ID, whether it is male or female operator, who you called. If there is any issues with operator not doing their job as expected including professionalism, report to your VRS provider. The more details you explained to your VRS provider the better response you will get. I do not think this ever happens but never know that if your default provider didn't say anything or not respond your complaint then the next step is contact FCC. Again FCC needs all detailed information so that FCC can better investigate.

Do not forget these wonderful VRS operators. They all are human, they would love to hear compliment from VRS provider on behalf of yourself as customer, this can increase their morale making their work more productive and offer us better service. Send them compliment as well!

DHB as VRS customer.

Wow! That is really outrageous! I'm glad that relay operator got fired and I'm also glad that it didn't end up going badly for you.

I wonder how often that happens?

When I use relay operators, sometimes I can tell that the operator is getting the names wrong but I never experienced anything like a relay op pretending that I'm cussing. Wow!

 

[Jazzberry]

@ dhb -- great idea about complimenting the good relay operators to the company. I have thanked quite a few personally, but I had not thought to let their employers know.

 

[DeafBadger]

If only my sons know how to speak like a woman!

You could change your account name to something like "C. Smith". Then when your sons call for you, they can announce themselves with, "Hello, this is Cornelius Smith!" Or "Chris Smith" if you want an easier name for them. lol

 

[RachelRene]

I have to say that up until a few months ago, I never used relay at all. I knew about TTYs and VRS (and I'd seen a captioned phone, but I don't have one). I worried my ASL wasn't good enough to do a VRS call, and I don't have a TTY...

I started using Clear Captions, but I find that I have a lot of issues with mistakes, delays, and just bad service. (I have twice had the captioner just stop typing, and once all of a sudden they started typing in gibberish.) Then I discovered Purple, and I have to say by the end of most of my calls (especially when I'm wading through some crappy automatic system), I feel this appreciation and kinship with the captioners. I always tell them thank you. I wish I could do VCO with the IP relay, like I do when I use clear captions (which is what I use when I'm calling people who know me), but I am honestly so happy to NOT have to rely on my hearing friends to speak for me that I can't get too worked up about it.

Then to have people dismiss the calls... especially in instances where the person knows it's a relay call, not a scam call... It's so frustrating.

I still haven't used the VRS. I'd probably be fine, but when I get nervous my sign expression goes out the window.

 

[Steinhauer]

Is there anything I could do if there's no possible way to make a simple call to my housing management where I live without being hung up on and denied connection? I have been finding it very impossible to use relay services anymore due to the constant hanging up by hearing user.

It should be a law that all businesses should educate their employees about Deaf clients making relay calls.

Any info and help is greatly appreciated.

I do not know what State you are in, but look up an advocacy center for the deaf and HoH and let them know what you are experiencing. They may call your housing management for you and explain relay to them.

I know it is a pain, more and more businesses are doing this. County Clerks are doing it too. They get a large volume of phone calls and claim they do not have the time (patience) to take relay calls.

 

[cdmeggers]

I use text relay online through i711.com and haven't had any problems in terms of making phone calls (no one has hung up on me in more than a year). Only problem is that Purple/i711's tech support is of no help at all whatsoever in helping me and the tech people at my job figure out why I can't use the internet relay online on my work computer. I have downloaded the i711 relay app on my blackberry and that's been working out pretty well, so I'm not too worried about needing to use the relay on the computer at work anymore.