In a perfect world...

[Ironclad Alibi]

Thanks to Smiley's posts, I had enough preparation to get through without fluffing it.

Hmmm... over here in the US, the term 'fluffing' has a much different meaning.

The American version is "flubbing."

[roguesqd]

Trying to explain a phone bill over a relay call was very interesting when I worked for the phone company, especially when you then needed to try and sell them additional services

[EricKei]

5. Automated menus are not a conspiracy to keep you from talking to a live representative,

Mostly There is a certain government office here -- that shall remain unnamed -- Where it takes you no less than 5 menu choices to even be presented with the option to talk to a human being (some of them refer you to the website where you most likely found their number to begin with). Once you plow through, one of two things happens: You get the option to wait on Hold (typical Hold time, even 5 minutes after they open, is 80 minutes), or to go to voicemail. Choosing the latter sends to to a nonexistent extension and then cuts you off x.x The recorded voice in the menu's actually comes pretty close to saying that they don't want to talk to you. ~_~ It could be worse. When I used to pay the water bill in person rather than online, I've seen the tellers (with no people at the window) pick up an incoming call, say Please Hold, and then call up a few people, and THEN talk to the caller to see who they need to be forwarded to, 10-15 minutes later.

I took a couple of those calls when I was at the call center for Death Star/Borg Sphere cell phones, and was impressed by the professionalism of the TTY ops.

Same when I took of the very few TTY calls we received back at DaddyJim's pizza. The relay ops always rocked ^_^

Hmmm... over here in the US, the term 'fluffing' has a much different meaning.

Sheldon or Dale, call for you on Line One...

[smileyeagle1021]

Trying to explain a phone bill over a relay call was very interesting when I worked for the phone company, especially when you then needed to try and sell them additional services

Or cable bills... which reminds me, I really should include that story when I do my epic last week of relay post later today.
Yeah, it's technically not my story, it's the combined story of 4 different reps, but I spent 3 hours of my life on it, and the DU was sucky to me too, so I can at least vaguely cover it (of course within the limitations of confidentiality rules, so when I say vague, I mean really vague).

ETA- EricKei, I love long holds, 80 minutes would make my day... that's an hour and 20 minutes that I can sit there and not have to actually do work, just once every 60 seconds or so send a message to the DU saying, yup, you're still on hold.

[EricKei]

ETA- EricKei, I love long holds, 80 minutes would make my day... that's an hour and 20 minutes that I can sit there and not have to actually do work, just once every 60 seconds or so send a message to the DU saying, yup, you're still on hold.

Aye, but you get PAID to do it. I have actually had to call them from a relative's landline when I REALLY needed to talk to them -- 80 minutes is a fairly large chunk of my monthly cell plan time, and I dropped my landline ages ago

[smileyeagle1021]

Aye, but you get PAID to do it. I have actually had to call them from a relative's landline when I REALLY needed to talk to them -- 80 minutes is a fairly large chunk of my monthly cell plan time, and I dropped my landline ages ago

Psst, this actually does work

I use that at home because my cell reception is shit in my apartment and it works wonders, you might look into it also to avoid overages on your minutes.
And, yes, I am paid for it, and even better, I know that if it goes too far over my scheduled breaks or end of shift I can get someone else to take over the call, so I don't even have to worry about that...
Yeah, we love extended holds (and so does the company, it is guaranteed revenue for them... once they get an extended hold they know they are getting a big payout. Having to dial individual numbers you risk no one answering and the company not getting reimbursed for the call).

[dragon_wings]

Psst, this actually does work

My third cousin (? My mom's cousin's son) is in the Navy and can use it to call his parents in Texas with a local number.

[Teskeria]

I really appreciate the operators that tell me I don't have to use go ahead. Esp since I have trouble remembering it and the other poor operators have to ask 'was that a go ahead'? Had a relay the other night that I had to end (cc company) because the caller failed id. So we have to basically say something like 'I am unable to verify ID and cannot continue this call' than we have to hang up without saying anything else. (so if you ever get that, it's not you! for real)

[EricKei]

Never used MJ before -- Good to know that people have had good experiences with it. I take it it essentially sets up a mini-VOIP? I have the bandwidth for it, so I might check it out. Thanks!

As for my minutes -- Lemme put it this way. The closest I have EVER come to exceeding my minutes was when I had 30 mins left in a month...and that was on a 300-minute plan. I'm now on a 450/month plan (different company), but yes, I am the reason cell phone companies offer those anemic little plans like that

I am a rather efficient, yet polite, caller when I'm not getting paid to talk to people. I just don't wanna use up a quarter of my monthly allotment on a call that may never even get through to a real live person ^_^

[DGoddessChardonnay]

The American version is "flubbing."

Why did I have to google that just now . . . .

[EricKei]

Why did I have to google that just now . . . .

...? I can certainly understand being sorry you googled 'fluffing'...

Then again, it's getting close to Noon darktime of the PM here. My head...grey...thing tends to shut down around then, craving Morpheus' sweet, sweet embrace.

[BeenThereDoneThat]

My third cousin (? My mom's cousin's son) is in the Navy and can use it to call his parents in Texas with a local number.

He would be your second cousin. If each of you had a child, they would be third cousins to each other. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming...

[Kogarashi]

He would be your second cousin. If each of you had a child, they would be third cousins to each other. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming...

And his parent would be your first cousin once removed. My dad had to explain this all so I would understand the relationships in my mom's multi-generation-spanning huge extended family.

[BeenThereDoneThat]

And his parent would be your first cousin once removed. My dad had to explain this all so I would understand the relationships in my mom's multi-generation-spanning huge extended family.

Yup! I never understood it until I saw a chart at my local library (back in my hometown) which showed kind of a pyramid and drew lines between each person with an explanation of how they were related. It was really easy to remember it that way.