Things relay users need to stop doing

[Teskeria]

Quoth smileyeagle1021

And Teskeria, when you have that happen, make sure to get their interpreter ID and the company they work for and find a way to contact that company (you don't have to be confrontational about it, by law we are required to disclose our ID, company name, and a method of contact, and it is quite common for people to ask for that information to verify the validity of the call). You definitely want to file a complaint about them, FCC standards are at least 60 words per minute with at least 93% accuracy, so if they are that slow then the company is not meeting FCC requirements and needs to be aware of it.

I must not be getting many good companies. because all they say is 'this is relay operator ###. Are you familiar with how a relay call works?' They never give company name and contact info. I think I will start asking that.

Thanks Smiley!

[depechemodefan]

One hearing impaired person called, I get tired of her saying "well, this will take a minute, they are typing my answer, it takes a while for me to read what they typed blah blah blah...." I already know this is a relay call, I really don't need a whole coversation with you and I don't need to know what is going on on your end, since I know I have to wait a while. Ok, if you need to say, "one moment, I'm reading," ok, but not a whole conversation about it.

[Chanlin]

Quoth Aria

if the telemarketing calls are so frequent that that's the first thing to pop into their head.

I don't think it's so much this as it is most hearing folk have never taken a relay call. Even working for two large companies as a front line CSR for 10 years I think i took maybe 5 relay calls ever and that was with my average calls per day at around 220 during peak days.

[raudf]

When I worked for Monkey Wards Repair, I had exactly 1 relay call the entire time. Didn't take much to figure out how it worked and since there was two of us typing at the same time... I had to enter information in my brick of a dumbset computer. It went far smoother than some of my hearing (but brain impaired) calls!

[EricKei]

Quoth Aria

if the telemarketing calls are so frequent that that's the first thing to pop into their head.

Well, to be fair -- in the US, at least -- businesses are not allowed to put their numbers on the "Do Not Call" list (tho I have no idea why not, or how often such a thing would be checked); charities, political campaigns (which are one of the things I REALLY want blocked), and businesses with which you are connected (including creditors and their collection agencies) are exempt. If I ran a TM company, heck, I'd be eager to always have a current DNC list -- I'd save money by never calling the people who are just gonna hang up on my operators, curse them out, or lead them along and then hang up right when it's time to get shipping/payment info ^_^ Er...not that I endorse doing the second two. The ops are people, too.

I really don't understand why TM companies call businesses anyway -- If the employees are doing their job, they'll ignore the calls and get back to real customers anyway.

[PepperElf]

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.

[dragon_wings]

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).

[Hyndis]

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.

[Redbeard]

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

[smileyeagle1021]

Quoth Hyndis

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

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).