Relay call madness

[taurinejunkie]

Work was going pretty well today, other than my headset being damaged which meant I had to keep the wire in a certain position to hear my customers properly. And then I got the relay call. Normally it's just annoying, but it's part of the job. But this time... !

Relay operator was among the least helpful I'd faced, I specifically asked "Operator, please repeat the last message" (which would normally give the hint that I'M NOT TALKING TO THE CALLER, YOU'RE JUST NOT SPEAKING CLEARLY ENOUGH!)only to hear her typing my words out to the customer; and then I decided to not bother with the repeating and just go from what I could understand. Which wasn't much. Something about bees, and the customer needing to get back to some county service, I don't remember too well. And what a customer that was. I would, after 30 seconds without any sort of reply, state that I would wait 30 more seconds and then hang up. In the middle of that, the operator interrupted with "The customer is still typing" and completely refused to deliver my message about the fact I was going to hang up. And the customer's messages were LONG! Operator was reading on and off for maybe 3 minutes at a time and only then after 'go ahead' would she give a damn about what I was trying to say. Which, due to the length of time between me starting to speak (and getting interrupted by the operator) and the customer's "go ahead", was no longer relevant or completely forgotten. In the end I got the customer their number, but not without enduring a lot of rambling about how they had cancer and I was making this so difficult and whatever.

When I hung up from that call after something like 20 minutes (when I'm supposed to take 26 seconds per call), the sigh of relief probably resonated through the entire room. Which is a very huge room.

And then when I saw what the call had done to my average (+10 seconds) I only just managed to not roar in anger and put my fist through the monitor.

Pass the brain bleach, or I think I'll have nightmares tonight.

[freeatlast]

I used to hate relay calls - they were always long and in many cases it was very difficult to explain how a negative option music club worked through them. I remember one particular relay call where the operator must have been new. I always tried to speak very clearly and a little slower than normal, but this was not enough for this operator. She kept snapping at me to slow down. I became almost impossible to remember what I was trying to say, because I would have to say only three or four words at a time. I can't imagine how she ever was released from training, as an agent who handled calls that badly would never have been released to the phones where I worked.

[friendofjimmyk]

Yeah, I'm not really fond of those either. Although, I have some funny stories of talking to a relay operator while I was still using drugs. I think I've mentioned the story before.

I had an acquaintence who only had 30% of his hearing. He call through a relay service. One time, he called asking me about paying him for some painting he did on a jobsite that I worked on. Long story short, he started asking me to pay him with drugs (he called it "stuff" or something and I was supposed to get what he was implying) rather than money. He had this conversation through the relay operator. If you knew this guy, this was just hilarious...he was the MOST paranoid dope fiend I ever met while I was still using and here he is talking through a third party about getting drugs from me. I was fed up with the conversation and after the operator relayed his pleas for drugs and said "go ahead", I said "fucking junkie". I told the operator not to put that in the call and she said, "I have to type everything"

(On a side note, I've been clean over four years so I am truly grateful that I don't deal with those type of situations anymore!)

[taurinejunkie]

Guys where's my brain bleach?

[friendofjimmyk]

There you go...with some extra!

[taurinejunkie]

Thanks. I'll keep one dose for tonight. I'm sure I'll need it.

[Evil Queen]

I've only gotten the relay call once but the Operator was very nice and allowed me to chit-chat with her since, at the time, I had never received one before. She was very professional.

I'm sorry you guys keep getting Operators who suck at their jobs.

[working_class_hero]

I said "fucking junkie". I told the operator not to put that in the call and she said, "I have to type everything"

That is so true. When I was in call center hell the girl on the other side of the wall of my cube said "This f*ckin sucks" to the girl next to her while she was on a relay call and at the end of the week she was escorted out of the building by security, crying about how she wasn't talking to the customer and she couldn't believe the relay operator typed that in.

[taurinejunkie]

I was looking at my mute button whenever I was speaking. Gotta love the big red light that gives me some sort of freedom of speech.

[Alpha Strike]

And then when I saw what the call had done to my average (+10 seconds) I only just managed to not roar in anger and put my fist through the monitor.

I can feel your pain - I've had many relay calls and while most of them have been fine I've had a few of them that reminded me of nails on a chalkboard. In fact, my last one was like that: the operator seemed nice enough but was having difficulty typing more then just a couple words at a time. I've never had an operator ask me to repeat myself so many times and by the end, I was talking in this horrible monotone, speaking as absolutely slowly as I possibly could. It ended up making the call last much longer then necessary, leaving me frustrated and pissed off and killing my call time averages.

[hobbitt97]

TTY/TDD Operator

Years ago I was TTY operator. Escalation supervisor and customer service agent for a major telecommunication co (hint they put themselves out of business through huge corporate greed and dishonesty). We would receive calls from the deaf community that were for the most part strange and annoying. We had one guy that would call for directory assistance and want the phone numbers of female celebrities. The majority of the customers were to EWs. Now I have several disabilities and really wanted to help...but most times I end up . The worst calls we would receive were the relay calls, customers didn't realize that they could contact us directly through the TTY. The hardest calls were simple customer service calls when the customers would ask about available domestic calling plans that were available. We would type out the set information (Usually about 100 words). When were done typing the info the customer would say "what??? I wasn't paying attention. Could you repeat that?" I developed carpal tunnel as the result of this and my arms would be killing me by the end of the day. I was relieved when I finally transferred to internet helpdesk with the same company.

[tenzilkem]

Gah I hate relay calls. I especially hate when you get a operator that is reading off the customers info at the speed of light and when you ask them to repeat the say you didnt end it with go ahead. I try to explain that I am talking to them, not for the customer and they reiterate I didn't finish with a go ahead. Hello, brainless jellies, I ain't talking to the bloody customer, I have said I am talking to you, how about using that grey matter for something other than what you stab with a q-tip!
I love my job, hate the people!