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Things relay users need to stop doing

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  • #16
    i've never received a relay call at work but i'd like to feel that i'd at least have half a clue, after reading smiley's posts about them.

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    • #17
      The one time I got a relay call I freaked out, rambled a quick 'just a moment, let me get someone to help you.' put them on hold, and paged for help.
      I felt like an asshole afterwards, and was ashamed cause I knew better (from reading posts by Smiley).
      Next time I'll be better prepared.

      Note: I was working register at a drugstore and I couldn't leave my register. Also it was late, like 9 pm (an hour before we closed).
      Driver Picks the Music, Shotgun Shuts His Cakehole.
      Supernatural 9-13-05 to forever

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      • #18
        I very rarely get relay calls, and when I do it can be a pain, because I do tech support and there are frequently very detailed and technical things that need to be done to fix the problem.

        Luckily we have a way people can contact us by email. We actually prefer that people, hearing or deaf, contact us via email because its just easier for everyone involved that way.

        For some reason there are the occasional hearing impaired person who insists on contacting us by phone rather than going through email, which has always confused me.

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        • #19
          Yeah, I remember those "This is a business!" calls.
          There was one hotel that was near a conference that was related to the deaf community, but the manager/owner had never heard of a relay call before, would scream at the operators, threatening to sue us for harrassing him, etc.
          As far as I know, his suck cost him a full hotel that weekend during what is normally a dead period

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          • #20
            Quoth Hyndis View Post
            For some reason there are the occasional hearing impaired person who insists on contacting us by phone rather than going through email, which has always confused me.
            You are preaching to the choir on that one. We have callers calling for things that even I, with near perfect hearing (okay, so I am have slight difficulty in determining pitch out of my right ear, but that is fairly inconsequential), would never call for. Ordering a credit report, are you kidding me, even without having to redial to go through the menu 20 times because we can't type fast enough to keep up and the menu hangs up on us, it would take well over 15-20 minutes... it takes 3 to order it online. Ordering pizza, takes me 2 minutes to do that online, takes me 4 or 5 to call if you include time on hold. So why would someone, who has to have some form of internet access to use our service, not just go to the website themselves and take a fraction of the time (for the record, if you include going through the menu multiple times, ordering that credit report took nearly 2 hours because it is a menu where you can't skip messages).

            Quoth Redbeard View Post
            Yeah, I remember those "This is a business!" calls.
            There was one hotel that was near a conference that was related to the deaf community, but the manager/owner had never heard of a relay call before, would scream at the operators, threatening to sue us for harrassing him, etc.
            As far as I know, his suck cost him a full hotel that weekend during what is normally a dead period
            And he's damned lucky that all it cost him was a full hotel... all it would take is one or two operators having a bad enough day to relay everything he is saying back to the deaf user (which I do even on good days, because I'm tired of protecting the ignorant from themselves), one or two of the deaf users being upset enough to screen capture the conversation and use it as evidence in a discrimination suit, and he's out his entire business (which I can't speak for all hotel families, but at least at the ones I'm familiar with they have a very strict one violation rule, as in the first time you were proven to be violating discrimination laws at the management level and your hotel lost its franchise).
            If you wish to find meaning, listen to the music not the song

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            • #21
              Luckily we have a way people can contact us by email. We actually prefer that people, hearing or deaf, contact us via email because its just easier for everyone involved that way.
              we had a customer like that actually. kinda. we could never get ahold of her cos her number was set up to never accept calls - just text messages. only she had no email either.

              A (now former) coworker said "o i know her, she's deaf" so i passed it off to the managers. they wanted me to text her myself and i said "no" cos i pay per text and ... i don't want to give my personal number out to customers.

              i think they eventually ended up sending her computer in to our recycling center (long story short - yes that's legal. i disagree with it somewhat but it's legal cos it's on the service contract you sign)

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              • #22
                I've gotten relay calls at work a few times. Since I've had both kinds, I always ask the operator which kind they are-- the traditional (text) kind where they TYPE the message to the caller and read me the response, and the newer video kind where they sign with the user and talk to me. The reason I ask is so I know if I can speak normally, since signing is much faster than typing and can usually be done real-time. (plus signing you don't have to say "go ahead" and can expand on what you just said without waiting for the initial response first-- more natural in that respect.

                Odd thing is-- my first call center job (where I received almost all of them, not sure if I've received ANY in my current job) we had a special TDD line, so they could have just used that instead of a relay service.

                One problem we ran into at that job was the services were frequently used by scammers, sometimes to the point where we suspected a scam before assuming a person with legitimate reasons to use such a service.

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                • #23
                  Quoth Redbeard View Post
                  Yeah, I remember those "This is a business!" calls.
                  There was one hotel that was near a conference that was related to the deaf community, but the manager/owner had never heard of a relay call before, would scream at the operators, threatening to sue us for harrassing him, etc.
                  As far as I know, his suck cost him a full hotel that weekend during what is normally a dead period
                  Quoth smileyeagle1021 View Post
                  And he's damned lucky that all it cost him was a full hotel... all it would take is one or two operators having a bad enough day to relay everything he is saying back to the deaf user (which I do even on good days, because I'm tired of protecting the ignorant from themselves), one or two of the deaf users being upset enough to screen capture the conversation and use it as evidence in a discrimination suit, and he's out his entire business (which I can't speak for all hotel families, but at least at the ones I'm familiar with they have a very strict one violation rule, as in the first time you were proven to be violating discrimination laws at the management level and your hotel lost its franchise).
                  Not in the hotel industry, but curious - would there be any legal issues if a (smart) hotel person, on finding out that there was going to be an event attracting a large number of out-of-town people during a dead period, asked the caller for contact information for the event organizers in order to "scoop" a larger share of the hotel bookings than they would get from people randomly choosing a hotel in the area?
                  Any fool can piss on the floor. It takes a talented SC to shit on the ceiling.

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                  • #24
                    I don't think so, since conventions booking rooms for delegates has been mentioned on this site several times before. You'd probably want to offer a discount, but its legal.

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                    • #25
                      Quoth wolfie View Post
                      Not in the hotel industry, but curious - would there be any legal issues if a (smart) hotel person, on finding out that there was going to be an event attracting a large number of out-of-town people during a dead period, asked the caller for contact information for the event organizers in order to "scoop" a larger share of the hotel bookings than they would get from people randomly choosing a hotel in the area?
                      Actually smart event organizers contact local hotels and offer to sell them advertising space in/on their schedule/brochure/website.

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