Just because I am Deaf you won't take my calls?

I had tty before, using relay, my hearing friends immediately put phone down after they explain about relay. I really hate that.
 
jillio said:
Good for you. The only way they will stop hanging up on relay calls is if you let them know, in no uncertain terms, that it is unacceptable. I admire you for advocating for yourself in this way. If more people would follow your example, situations like this would occur less often. And I would also include a promise (not a threat:D) of reporting them to the Better Business Bureau.

You go girl!
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:ty:

I don't think the relay confusion for the hearing users will go away in a while but in the duration, it will get easier only if we all can put an emphasis on this. Of course, advocating it one way or another is in regard. To carry out a promise only will make them all bug-eyed but for what it's worth, it may be a vital lesson that they need to comply with.
 
ljjehl said:
Hi all,

I couldn't help seeing all the frustrations regarding using relay operators to call for you. I use a captioned telephone to relay my messages to the other party. Here's what I have:

CapTel - The Captioned Telephone

This phone is similar to the Relay, but one catch, the captionist is transparent, meaning both you and the person you're calling can hear each other. It really works great for me and I control what I say.....

On the other hand, this phone will not work if you have difficulties with speech and depend on TTY type texting.

There is also an Internet version of the Captel, called WebCaptel. It's a little slower, but you can still control the talking and also can ask the other party to be patient while you "read" their captioning. Here's the link:

https://www.sprintcaptel.com/index.asp

Hamilton CapTel

The beauty of this web enabled service is you can use any phone, including cell phones.

Hopefully this will help anybody that is interested...
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I also forgot to mention....the WEB version of Captel is F-R-E-E.............
 
jillio said:
Maybe the operators need to be trained to start off with a disclaimer:

"Please don't hang up. This is not a marketing call, and I am not trying to sell you any thing."
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Or maybe they should say "Iam interested in buying or doing business with your company." That would get the reps or managers to stay on the line!
 
I have had people hang up on me when I use the relay. I just keep calling them back for hours until I get someone to stay on the line. One time, I kept calling a Chinese restaurant over and over and over again and the woman yelled at the relay operator and I said something about a lawsuit cuz I am recording these calls. Hey, by calling them again and again, you are hogging their phone lines keeeping other customers away causing them to lose some business. After I tell them what they did wrong, they better not do it again cuz I will have several of my friends call and hog their lines. Yep, I am mean but I am sick of people treating me with disrespect just because I use the relay or VRS.
 
Shel, Same here. When I made a call on tty before I have vp. I called to Pizza Hut to order for pizza. The man picked up and said hello? The relay said "Explaining how to use relay" He hung on me. I was alike damn. I said please redial. The relay redialing. Other man picked up the phone. I told him please don't hang up on me because I am deaf. He said sorry.

I notice many hearing people do hate use the relay because sound weird and not understand that clear. When I made a call to phone bills question. The live person put me on hold for LONG LONG LONG LONG TIMES. It take me a forever to wait. I told relay to tell someone HURRY UP. It take me for 2 hours to hold. Finally, someone answered on phone and said how can I assist you today? I got yell at her for put me on hold for long times it take me 2 hours. She said apology to me. I don't like how hearing people treat me a crap! I don't like to use TTY to call relay anymore. I am very sick of it. It made me frustrate. I like use VRS over TTY relay!
 
Pinky678 said:
Shel, Same here. When I made a call on tty before I have vp. I called to Pizza Hut to order for pizza. The man picked up and said hello? The relay said "Explaining how to use relay" He hung on me. I was alike damn. I said please redial. The relay redialing. Other man picked up the phone. I told him please don't hang up on me because I am deaf. He said sorry.

I notice many hearing people do hate use the relay because sound weird and not understand that clear. When I made a call to phone bills question. The live person put me on hold for LONG LONG LONG LONG TIMES. It take me a forever to wait. I told relay to tell someone HURRY UP. It take me for 2 hours to hold. Finally, someone answered on phone and said how can I assist you today? I got yell at her for put me on hold for long times it take me 2 hours. She said apology to me. I don't like how hearing people treat me a crap! I don't like to use TTY to call relay anymore. I am very sick of it. It made me frustrate. I like use VRS over TTY relay!
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Girl, time to chuck the tty out of the window and hug the VP!
 
shel90 said:
Hey, by calling them again and again, you are hogging their phone lines keeeping other customers away causing them to lose some business.
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I never thought of it that way! Fabulous attitude and perspective to have!

Don't get mad, get even! :nana:
 
shel90 said:
I have had people hang up on me when I use the relay. I just keep calling them back for hours until I get someone to stay on the line. One time, I kept calling a Chinese restaurant over and over and over again and the woman yelled at the relay operator and I said something about a lawsuit cuz I am recording these calls. Hey, by calling them again and again, you are hogging their phone lines keeeping other customers away causing them to lose some business. After I tell them what they did wrong, they better not do it again cuz I will have several of my friends call and hog their lines. Yep, I am mean but I am sick of people treating me with disrespect just because I use the relay or VRS.
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You have the right to catch them on hold... and make a simple call, we can waste their time, like they wasted ours.
 
Wokamuka said:
I do a lot of comparison shopping and I do it with VRS. I've been "disconnected" many times and that does not stop me.

Education, education, education.

The problem is that VRS representatives are, usually, very professional and sound like telemarketers. Sometimes, I wish they'd let me do the talking in the first place - especially when it's urgent.
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The latest CSDVRS has VCO, a feature I'm sure you'd be tickled pink to have.
 
shel90 said:
Or maybe they should say "Iam interested in buying or doing business with your company." That would get the reps or managers to stay on the line!
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LOL! That's a really great idea!!
 
shel90 said:
I have had people hang up on me when I use the relay. I just keep calling them back for hours until I get someone to stay on the line. One time, I kept calling a Chinese restaurant over and over and over again and the woman yelled at the relay operator and I said something about a lawsuit cuz I am recording these calls. Hey, by calling them again and again, you are hogging their phone lines keeeping other customers away causing them to lose some business. After I tell them what they did wrong, they better not do it again cuz I will have several of my friends call and hog their lines. Yep, I am mean but I am sick of people treating me with disrespect just because I use the relay or VRS.
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I'd expect nothing less from you, girl!:giggle:
 
shel90 said:
Hey, by calling them again and again, you are hogging their phone lines keeeping other customers away causing them to lose some business.
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:lol: ... Hey! I'll remember that next time, Shel! ... :thumb:
 
They hang up because they don't understand relay. I've had that problem when I called the tire and battery service at Sam's Club last summer. Drove me out of my mind, ended up having my mom call them for me. And plenty of other people I call via relay are so uncomfortable with the relay calls, it's very apparent when the operator relays their messages to me. Who knows how many times I've called the audiologist's front office, and the receptionists there are STILL uncomfortable with relay calls. Oy.
 
i work in VRS, and drives me batty when people hang up. the only thing that makes me madder, is when i explain to them what VRS is and they say " um, is this a sales call" i want to tell them " um, what part of what i just said makes you think this is a sales call?" but of course i can't do that...

everytime someone calls a chinese restraunt....every VRS interpreter cringes...they are the worst.
 
Not sure how much of the deaf population has difficulties with speech......but you can use a "realtime" captioning service (voice recognition) to help solve some of the issues. This system is called webCaptel or Captel ( CapTel - The Captioned Telephone www.sprintcaptel.com ) this doesn't require the captionist to speak to the other party. If you have no choice but use VCO, TTY and VRS, then I guess you will have to try harder to educate the public.
 
As far as I know CapTel is not available in Canada. I do have a VCO compatible TTY but I don't like using it. I don't really know why but I don't.

CDMeggers, it is funny that you bring up calling the audi office again and having the receptionists not understand relay. I called my audiologists office via relay for the first time the other day. She has a new receptionist who at the time didn't know me too well and I was really worried because I know they don't take many (if any) relay calls. The first thing the receptionist did was ask for my email address! It was kind of funny, I don't mind but I could tell she wasn't that comfortable with it.
 
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