Get a hearing aid

[solidmetalgear19]

So, I finally decided to upgrade to a new cell phone since the one that I was using had crap reception. And by crap reception I mean, every call was like trying to talk to every deaf, retarded person on the planet. i.e. s**t phone.

So I'm standing in the phone store with my mom (who was there to take care of all the paper work and what have you) When this old woman (late 70's-80's) walks into the store. The conversation goes like this (not word for word, but you get the gist).

SG: sales girl
(OW) old woman: lacks tempanic membrane's

Sg: Hi, what can I help you with today.
OW: Well, I recieved this phone as a give away and I think it's broken.
SG: Really? That can't be right. It's brand new. What's wrong with it?
OW: The ringer doesn't work.

SG procedes to play with the phone untill the ring tone goes off. And it was LOUD. So loud that if i had put the thing to my head, my ears would be bleeding profusly.

SG: You can't hear that?
OW: Hear what?

Me: (inside my head) Holy S**t. This woman is stone deaf.

They then procede to try out every frikin tone on the phone, landing across a few that the woman can actually pic up on. Like the ridicuously loud ones that make you want to take the gizmo and jam it up the person's urethra.

All I could do was stand there and exchange WTF glances with my mom. And thus my faith in humanity took a small dive today.

[Boochan]

At least she could hear the Sales Girl.
I get tired of having to deal with senile customers who I have to talk to very slowly and literally scream at them for them to actually hear me.

[Ree]

Yeah, old people. Why do we allow them in our stores?

I think the Eskimos had it right when they set all the old people out on ice floes to get rid of them so they didn't bring down the rest of the younger crowd.

In case you haven't figured it out, that's just a bit of sarcasm and now a friendly reminder that we will all be elderly someday, and, while I realize it's frustrating, a little patience and understanding can go a long way.

My husband is only in his early 40's and deaf as a post. He's had recurrent ear infections since he was a small child, and finally had tubes put in his ears about 6 years ago, but they either need to be replaced, or they have fallen out. It is so annoying to constantly have to repeat and shout things. For some reason, he won't get a hearing aid.

What stops me from going absolutely berserk on him is the knowledge that my own hearing isn't as great as it once was, and I often find myself straining to hear bits of conversation or to understand what the waiter or clerk has just said to me, especially if there is background music. (I'm not even 50 yet, either.)

Karma is a bitch, so, if I want to be treated with a bit of patience and respect in my golden years, I figure it's worth it to treat those annoying elderly customers in the manner that I hope to be treated when it's my turn.

Then I'll come on here and vent about it, but I would hope I would do it in a way that doesn't appear like I am "age" bashing.

[Seshat]

I'm with Ree on this. I'm not yet forty, but I've been and had my hearing tested.

Yup. They could explain exactly why I've been having trouble understanding people sometimes, and why I have difficulty picking significant noises (phones etc) out of background hum.

And they can't do a damn thing about it. My type of hearing loss is one they can't give me hearing aids for.

So please be a bit patient. When I ask you to face me, and to keep your lips clear, and to enunciate clearly; it's not because I'm too lazy or too proud to get my hearing tested and get a hearing aid.

Apparently it's quite common. There are only some hearing problems that respond properly to hearing aids.

[draftermatt]

But on the flipside of Ree & Seshat. My mother too is deaf as a post. You can talk to her and say "What time is dinner" and get "I don't know what your grandmother is doing" What?

Finally after my sister, my father, my wife, and myself begged her she got her hearing tested. She can hear fine. AHHHHHH!!!!!!!

And hoping that a lady who can hear some things but not others but won't get her hearing checked for whatever reason gets help shouldn't release the karmic gods at you, it should be seen as hoping someone gets help for themselves and others.

I'd be scared to death if I thought my hearing was leaving me, and I'd be in the doctor's office ASAP to get it checked, and getting hearing aids if necessary. I'd rather be able to hear (or see) than worry about how I'll be percieved as old.

[Boozy]

The cell phone store staff should have recommended a belt clip and had her set the phone to vibrate.

I'll admit, cell phones on the hips of elderly ladies aren't a usual sight, but why not? If you have hearing problems, it makes sense to do something like that.

[Difdi]

Me: (inside my head) Holy S**t. This woman is stone deaf.

This is not terribly unusual. Kids can hear a wider frequency range than adults. Young adults can hear a wider range than the elderly. While there are exceptions to the rule, it's so common you can pretty well rely on it.

It's possible that the ringer was just too high pitched for the woman to hear it.

There was a news article I read a while back, about how some kids had been caught cheating on tests at school, by using digital recorders with test answers recorded on them. They'd had the recordings altered to be very high pitched, and their regular teacher simply could not hear a thing. They got caught when they had a substitute teacher one day who was young enough to hear it.

[Becks]

Maybe it was at a frequency that she couldn't hear?

Anyhoo, I second the vibrate option.

[Rine]

Yeah, there are certain frequencies that I can't hear. It's very weird. I can hear the very high pitched squito ones and the low ones, but ones inbetween...er, some of them are a no go. I've been told by my doctor that I need hearing aids and I'm only 22.

So I try to be very understanding with my elder customers, who may be in the same boat as me and can't afford hearing aids. Sometimes I do get a little frustrated, but I try my best and I hope that everyone else does too.

[PaRaGaS]

Yeah, there are certain frequencies that I can't hear. It's very weird. I can hear the very high pitched squito ones and the low ones, but ones inbetween...er, some of them are a no go. I've been told by my doctor that I need hearing aids and I'm only 22.

So I try to be very understanding with my elder customers, who may be in the same boat as me and can't afford hearing aids. Sometimes I do get a little frustrated, but I try my best and I hope that everyone else does too.

I'm 18 and in my left ear I can't hear anything over 11kHz, and there's a big hole at 4kHz too. Which basically makes it very hard for me to hear human voice when the person is by my left side. My right ear cuts off somewhere over 15kHz.

I guess I'll be deaf by 30.
And music is my passion. *sigh*

[Seshat]

Finally after my sister, my father, my wife, and myself begged her she got her hearing tested. She can hear fine.

In the silence of a hearing test lab, I can easily hear things I can't make out in a shopping mall or at home with the TV on.

But I do know that it's my problem, not anyone else's. And my family will say my name, wait till I notice it and look at them, and then speak. Which is what works for me.

And hoping that a lady who can hear some things but not others but won't get her hearing checked for whatever reason gets help shouldn't release the karmic gods at you, it should be seen as hoping someone gets help for themselves and others.

That's not the impression I got from the OP. I read the post more as 'aaargh! This person is really annoying and a major nuisance!'

[Pagan]

Then there's the ones that are like my dad's step-mom's mother. Grandma Shaw was "selectively deaf"! Hmmmm, maybe that's not such a bad idea, come to think of it.

[Becks]

Grandma Shaw was "selectively deaf"!

That's a mother skill, my mommy informs me.

[ArcticChicken]

Kids can hear a wider frequency range than adults. Young adults can hear a wider range than the elderly. While there are exceptions to the rule, it's so common you can pretty well rely on it.

There's a shopping cart at my store with a wheel that squeaks in that frequency. It's the most annoying sound I've ever heard.

[Anriana]

There was a news article I read a while back, about how some kids had been caught cheating on tests at school, by using digital recorders with test answers recorded on them. They'd had the recordings altered to be very high pitched, and their regular teacher simply could not hear a thing. They got caught when they had a substitute teacher one day who was young enough to hear it.

That is quite clever.



I get frustrated with customers who can't hear well because A) They seem to hold most of the conversation on their own by changing what I said to what they wanted to hear and B) They could just use a relay service. They are slower, but it's so much less frustrating than having to repeat every single sentence multiple times, and I image it would be less frustrating for the customer than hearing "mumble mumble mumble" for 90% of the conversation.

I still remember one of my first calls involved having to do an ipconfig(meaning I had to spell that out to the cust) and he simply refused to listen to the words I was saying. It was about five minutes of:

Me: C as in charlie.
Cust: M as in motorcycle?
Me: Umm... no.. c as in... california.
Cust: F as in fish?