Sorenson's closing for good.

[posts from hell]

Wirelessly posted (Samsung Epix (i907))

Says who? Sorenson on Facebook said that they will continue running but only laid off some employees.

Did you read my first post? You have the power to close them.

I'm electing to use that power. That is all.

 

[posts from hell]

What such thing? What happens with their 84% investments? What a shame.

Its not "investments". Its a 84% monopoly over the VRS industry. That number is going down, and will be going down fast.

 

[posts from hell]

If someboy gave you something of a value, and services; for free, what are you going to do to return them back? Give thanks to them or smashing into their face?

Think about this,
Deaf and damn proud!
DHB

I give my thanks to companies who contribute to the deaf community. Sorenson's hardly one of them. After messing up 400+ interpreter jobs, think about the aftermath? Where are they going to go? What are they going to do?

I consider interpreters a big part of the deaf community.

 

[posts from hell]

LOL! You are so funny and misinformation about Sorenson is closing for good, it is not TRUE! You lead them to misinformation. Sorenson still running as like always but just adjust of their operations. next time, if they're actually CLOSE and you may POST it!

Where is the misinformation? Show me?

 

[deaf4ever]

using say-hey.tv now...

That is why I start using Say Hey: "say-hey.tv". They also started web site at www.say-hey.com. good interpreters, friendly company. i have try a few others but like them best for now.

 

[radioman]

Sorenson have to re-think on how to make money without use FCC.

Don't worry. History will repeat itself! Take a look at the TTY that became TDD's that was national FCC funded. now its state funded. I am pretty sure Sorenson is aware of the "big picture" 5-15 years down the road. I am pretty sure they are just milking the FCC funds as long they can before they must put in bids at state level like TDD's did. Only problem is that ip addresses that VP's uses are not owned statewide..


Don't say I didnt warn you.

 

[Jeff Harris]

Don't worry. History will repeat itself! Take a look at the TTY that became TDD's that was national FCC funded. now its state funded. I am pretty sure Sorenson is aware of the "big picture" 5-15 years down the road. I am pretty sure they are just milking the FCC funds as long they can before they must put in bids at state level like TDD's did. Only problem is that ip addresses that VP's uses are not owned statewide..


Don't say I didnt warn you.

Only problem is that ip addresses that VP's uses are not owned statewide..

What in the world are you talking about with this nonsensical statement?

 

[Jeff Harris]

Better change providers and quick.

It's amazing, though. Looking two-three months ago, they were the strong hold, the richest, the biggest... Today they have shown that they are very fragile on the inside.
I guess we can say that they showed a bluff, strong when weak.

Now we know why they didn't contribute to the development of ASL users to provide security for their business future. They didn't have the cash for it.

Now we as a consumer can either accept their behavior in the last few months and continue using their services or decide that they should close for good.

I choose to close them for good.

No interpreters should have suffered like they have in the last few days.

What strong company can withstand a cut to revenue and on this magnitude and not nosedive in 2-3 months?

Sorenson gets paid less than their competition. And apparently some of their competition had to fudge their numbers to be profitable. What does that say?

If Sorenson's owners paid to much for the company the last time it changed hands, then this rate cut could mean the end of Sorenson. Does that mean they are greedy? No, it means that they overpaid and now have to face the fact that their forecasts of what the FCC would do were way optimistic and now they can't pay their creditors.

Businessmen sometimes make bad judgement calls.

If Sorenson goes away, who is going to provide you service? Do you really think Sorenson's competitors will just sign you up all at once? Do you think they have that type of idle capacity? If so, you aren't thinking it through. You don't just snap your finger and take on Sorenson's user base.

 

[Sargeras]

It is most unfortunate that Sorenson was forced by the FCC to lay off employees. I do not blame Sorenson as they have consistently and on daily basis, fought with FCC. They've opened up their fiancial data to FCC to help them understand what are the necessary rate to help Sorenson survive and continue to provide superb services to the deaf community, much like the other VRS Providers as well.

The one thing you need to understand is that Sorenson is such a large company and well run, making Sorenson the most efficient VRS company. Therefore, logic dictates that it is in the FCC's best interest to work with Sorenson to save ratepayer money, which translates to Tier III rate. HOWEVER, at this present time, the course of action adopted by FCC has forced Sorenson to lay off employees and restructure their operations, which means that Sorenson could lose some customers to other VRS Provider. This is okay but here lies the problem...

The problem is that FCC most likely made a horrible mistake by paying more as there are no other VRS Providers that are Tier III, meaning they're either Tier I or II. Therefore, these Tier I and II VRS Providers are billing FCC for more money that forces FCC to pay MORE for these services, which they could have pay LESS if Sorenson didn't suffer a drastic cut in Tier III rate. If FCC goal was to save ratepayer money and be an efficient steward of the TRS funds, they are FAILING in this role.

Moreover, FCC still has FAILED to explain why Tier I and II didn't suffer more than a dollar cut in their rate while Tier III suffered an dollar and 10 cent rate cut. This appears as a intentional attack on Sorenson by FCC as Sorenson is the only known Tier III provider.

Therefore, think about how FCC is "saving money" and being efficient with the TRS funds. Additionally, why is only Sorenson suffering the drastic cut in rate, when others VRS Providers don't have to suffer that drastic cut in their respective tier? Admittedly, FCC has some valid points but in this case, the points they make are far too few to the points that Sorenson makes.

Lastly, do not cite the debt that Sorenson has accumulated or how much they paid their investors and such. This is a business for profit and Sorenson became the leading VRS Provider because of these business decision they made. Hence, none of you have the knowledge nor the understanding about Sorenson's finacial structure or debt load. Even FCC doesn't state that they have the full knowledge of their finacial structure as they cited Debtwire as their source about Sorenson's debt.

Just think about what FCC should be doing and what their role are supposed to be. They are failing in every aspect of their role to protect the VRS Industry.

 

[dark]

P

It is most unfortunate that Sorenson was forced by the FCC to lay off employees. I do not blame Sorenson as they have consistently and on daily basis, fought with FCC. They've opened up their fiancial data to FCC to help them understand what are the necessary rate to help Sorenson survive and continue to provide superb services to the deaf community, much like the other VRS Providers as well.

The one thing you need to understand is that Sorenson is such a large company and well run, making Sorenson the most efficient VRS company. Therefore, logic dictates that it is in the FCC's best interest to work with Sorenson to save ratepayer money, which translates to Tier III rate. HOWEVER, at this present time, the course of action adopted by FCC has forced Sorenson to lay off employees and restructure their operations, which means that Sorenson could lose some customers to other VRS Provider. This is okay but here lies the problem...

The problem is that FCC most likely made a horrible mistake by paying more as there are no other VRS Providers that are Tier III, meaning they're either Tier I or II. Therefore, these Tier I and II VRS Providers are billing FCC for more money that forces FCC to pay MORE for these services, which they could have pay LESS if Sorenson didn't suffer a drastic cut in Tier III rate. If FCC goal was to save ratepayer money and be an efficient steward of the TRS funds, they are FAILING in this role.

Moreover, FCC still has FAILED to explain why Tier I and II didn't suffer more than a dollar cut in their rate while Tier III suffered an dollar and 10 cent rate cut. This appears as a intentional attack on Sorenson by FCC as Sorenson is the only known Tier III provider.

Therefore, think about how FCC is "saving money" and being efficient with the TRS funds. Additionally, why is only Sorenson suffering the drastic cut in rate, when others VRS Providers don't have to suffer that drastic cut in their respective tier? Admittedly, FCC has some valid points but in this case, the points they make are far too few to the points that Sorenson makes.

Lastly, do not cite the debt that Sorenson has accumulated or how much they paid their investors and such. This is a business for profit and Sorenson became the leading VRS Provider because of these business decision they made. Hence, none of you have the knowledge nor the understanding about Sorenson's finacial structure or debt load. Even FCC doesn't state that they have the full knowledge of their finacial structure as they cited Debtwire as their source about Sorenson's debt.

Just think about what FCC should be doing and what their role are supposed to be. They are failing in every aspect of their role to protect the VRS Industry.

Apparently, u didnt gathering enough information before jump onto it. For your information, sorenoon arent only facing the impacts but purple, hawk, some other has to face it in different situations too.

Secondly, sorenson is failing at manage the business due to their overspending on thousand of centers and leeched so much interpreters out of the deaf community. That's flawed they made is THEIRS fault for greedy and attempted to generate so much minutes by planting more centers then more minutes they makes. Unfortunate....

 

[Sargeras]

P

Apparently, u didnt gathering enough information before jump onto it. For your information, sorenoon arent only facing the impacts but purple, hawk, some other has to face it in different situations too.

Secondly, sorenson is failing at manage the business due to their overspending on thousand of centers and leeched so much interpreters out of the deaf community. That's flawed they made is THEIRS fault for greedy and attempted to generate so much minutes by planting more centers then more minutes they makes. Unfortunate....

With due respect, you have made assumptions that Sorenson opened too many centers, especially assuming they opened thousands of them. This is quite literally impossible and I would like to challenge you to produce evidence of this. Additionally, even if they are guilty of this, I'm certain they did it for the reason to garner more minutes to bill to FCC but as a direct result of this, it has effectively lowered the wait time so drastically that it's almost instanteous that you get ahold of an interpreter to make calls. This is the goal that was strived by Sorenson to bring functionally equalivent services to you.

Therefore, it is beyond my understanding of why you would be so angry at Sorenson for opening up centers to provide an direct need to the deaf community while they make some profit. Which brings me to my next point that I made in my first post, this is a business for profit. It seems to be of the greatest offense to you that a company is making a profit while providing functionally equalivent services to you. It is a mutual relationship and I, for one, do not mind this relationship. Additionally, it brings other side benefits to the deaf community, such as promoting innovation, creativity, and bringing additional services and features that aren't required of Sorenson or other VRS providers to provide since it is not part of the "Allowable cost" that FCC uses as a baseline to provide reimbursement for certain aspects required of the VRS Providers.

Allow me to expand on the "Allowable Cost" that FCC only accept and ignores the rest. FCC will only see and accept certain cost of the VRS Providers. For example, leases of centers, hiring and training interpreters, and few more. However, FCC does not consider the videophones devices, Research & Development, Service calls to install and/or repair VP, and much more as part of the "Allowable Cost." Therefore, when these new rates were proposed, it was not considering the ACTUAL cost of running a VRS company. These features, additional services, and such are coming out of the company's own pocket, meaning every single VRS Providers. Sorenson is one, if not only, of the very few VRS companies that actually developed a product and give it out for FREE, even free service calls.

With that said, I'm fairly certain that you can start understanding the distance that Sorenson and several other VRS Providers goes for the deaf community. Unfortunately, this doesn't matter to the FCC as they only require the bare minimum to adquately service the deaf community but Sorenson obviously wants to go that extra mile for the deaf community and on the side, be competitive with other VRS Providers, which does, again, promote innovation and creativity in the VRS field. This is the essence of Captalism and has lead to great inventions and improvements of our lives. If it wasn't for this, we would still be stuck with TTY.

If you want to start looking for negativity and feel the need to cast blames somewhere, Sorenson would be the wrong target as it has been consistently proven over and over that Sorenson has never defrauded FCC and when such rare occasion happened within Sorenson, it was dealt with swift action. This is supported by the documentation found on the fcc.gov website where you can actually count the documents of how many times each VRS companies have received complaints and penalties by FCC for various of violations. Additionally, I do not need to remind you of the fraudlent activity that were perpetuated by certain VRS Providers, which caused negative opinions and unwarranted backlash to be felt by all VRS Providers and by extension, the deaf community.

I implore you not to jump on the popular bandwagon and the cascading opinions of the masses but to actually step back and review the documents that are readily available to you. It will become clear to you that the popular opinions, which tends to be negative, aren't correct but far from the truth. It is the tendency of the people to find the negative data and run with it.

I hope you understand what I'm trying to convey. Although, allow me to say this, Sorenson isn't without fault and is not a saint but they have the best and cleanest record out of every single VRS Provider that have existed to this day. This speaks volumes, in my opinion.

 

[posts from hell]

What strong company can withstand a cut to revenue and on this magnitude and not nosedive in 2-3 months?

Many of them.

Sorenson gets paid less than their competition. And apparently some of their competition had to fudge their numbers to be profitable. What does that say?

Apparently you don't know about Sorenson's adding some frosting to their numbers as well.

If Sorenson's owners paid to much for the company the last time it changed hands, then this rate cut could mean the end of Sorenson. Does that mean they are greedy? No, it means that they overpaid and now have to face the fact that their forecasts of what the FCC would do were way optimistic and now they can't pay their creditors.

Businessmen sometimes make bad judgement calls.

Exactly - Check out my reply to your next statement.

If Sorenson goes away, who is going to provide you service? Do you really think Sorenson's competitors will just sign you up all at once? Do you think they have that type of idle capacity? If so, you aren't thinking it through. You don't just snap your finger and take on Sorenson's user base.

I already knew that, check out this post I made yesterday afternoon.

http://www.alldeaf.com/relay-servic...-getting-rates-they-wanted-2.html#post1631608

 

[posts from hell]

That is why I start using Say Hey: "say-hey.tv". They also started web site at www.say-hey.com. good interpreters, friendly company. i have try a few others but like them best for now.

Yup, that's also the reason I use Convo

 

[posts from hell]

One question, Sargeras - Who are you?

Now, lemme read your long winded posts and get back to you.

 

[yagazn]

Closing for real? Does that mean no more sorenson VP?. It's impossible. Why "Sorenson's closing for good" thread?. That's absurd!.

 

[posts from hell]

It is most unfortunate that Sorenson was forced by the FCC to lay off employees. I do not blame Sorenson as they have consistently and on daily basis, fought with FCC. They've opened up their fiancial data to FCC to help them understand what are the necessary rate to help Sorenson survive and continue to provide superb services to the deaf community, much like the other VRS Providers as well.

Please show me that Sorenson ACTUALLY opened up their financial data to the FCC. Last I know, they were in court with their fancy lawyers trying not to show the FCC their data.

The one thing you need to understand is that Sorenson is such a large company and well run, making Sorenson the most efficient VRS company. Therefore, logic dictates that it is in the FCC's best interest to work with Sorenson to save ratepayer money, which translates to Tier III rate. HOWEVER, at this present time, the course of action adopted by FCC has forced Sorenson to lay off employees and restructure their operations, which means that Sorenson could lose some customers to other VRS Provider. This is okay but here lies the problem...

The problem is that FCC most likely made a horrible mistake by paying more as there are no other VRS Providers that are Tier III, meaning they're either Tier I or II. Therefore, these Tier I and II VRS Providers are billing FCC for more money that forces FCC to pay MORE for these services, which they could have pay LESS if Sorenson didn't suffer a drastic cut in Tier III rate. If FCC goal was to save ratepayer money and be an efficient steward of the TRS funds, they are FAILING in this role.

Obviously you don't know how the tier system works.. It pays out by the amount of minutes that were billed for.

For example: If a certain VRS company did 1.2 million minutes in a month - They will be reimbursed for the tier I rate for the first 100k minutes, then the tier II rate for the next 900k minutes, then lastly Tier III rate for 1m on ward.

With this savings on the tierIII system, its pretty significant in the long term. 8million minutes by Sorenson in the Tier III rate monthly and cut by a dollar... That's $80-95 million dollars of savings per year for the tax payers.

Moreover, FCC still has FAILED to explain why Tier I and II didn't suffer more than a dollar cut in their rate while Tier III suffered an dollar and 10 cent rate cut. This appears as a intentional attack on Sorenson by FCC as Sorenson is the only known Tier III provider.

See above. Not an attack. Sorenson has shown that it is very efficient running a big service. That is the reason the FCC wanted to cut the prices down to 3.90 or so at first.

Therefore, think about how FCC is "saving money" and being efficient with the TRS funds. Additionally, why is only Sorenson suffering the drastic cut in rate, when others VRS Providers don't have to suffer that drastic cut in their respective tier? Admittedly, FCC has some valid points but in this case, the points they make are far too few to the points that Sorenson makes.

See above. Why are you repeating?

Lastly, do not cite the debt that Sorenson has accumulated or how much they paid their investors and such. This is a business for profit and Sorenson became the leading VRS Provider because of these business decision they made. Hence, none of you have the knowledge nor the understanding about Sorenson's finacial structure or debt load. Even FCC doesn't state that they have the full knowledge of their finacial structure as they cited Debtwire as their source about Sorenson's debt.

I cite how much they owed in the other thread because it called for it. In this thread do you see me saying they owe money? no. it's called business, you're right.
My stance is as a DEAF CONSUMER, in a DEAF COMMUNITY. It hurts me to see all these interpreters being let go so fast. Think about the impact on the deaf community that causes.

Just think about what FCC should be doing and what their role are supposed to be. They are failing in every aspect of their role to protect the VRS Industry.

I have thought long and hard, they are not failing. The chairman has told everyone that he wants the VRS to stay, hence the budgeting cuts.

Now onto your next post.

 

[posts from hell]

With due respect, you have made assumptions that Sorenson opened too many centers, especially assuming they opened thousands of them. This is quite literally impossible and I would like to challenge you to produce evidence of this. Additionally, even if they are guilty of this, I'm certain they did it for the reason to garner more minutes to bill to FCC but as a direct result of this, it has effectively lowered the wait time so drastically that it's almost instanteous that you get ahold of an interpreter to make calls. This is the goal that was strived by Sorenson to bring functionally equalivent services to you.

Smaller relay companies have a low waiting time as well.

Therefore, it is beyond my understanding of why you would be so angry at Sorenson for opening up centers to provide an direct need to the deaf community while they make some profit. Which brings me to my next point that I made in my first post, this is a business for profit. It seems to be of the greatest offense to you that a company is making a profit while providing functionally equalivent services to you. It is a mutual relationship and I, for one, do not mind this relationship. Additionally, it brings other side benefits to the deaf community, such as promoting innovation, creativity, and bringing additional services and features that aren't required of Sorenson or other VRS providers to provide since it is not part of the "Allowable cost" that FCC uses as a baseline to provide reimbursement for certain aspects required of the VRS Providers.

Their treatment to their interpreters, their treatment to the deaf community is what I am angry about. Read again.

Allow me to expand on the "Allowable Cost" that FCC only accept and ignores the rest. FCC will only see and accept certain cost of the VRS Providers. For example, leases of centers, hiring and training interpreters, and few more. However, FCC does not consider the videophones devices, Research & Development, Service calls to install and/or repair VP, and much more as part of the "Allowable Cost." Therefore, when these new rates were proposed, it was not considering the ACTUAL cost of running a VRS company. These features, additional services, and such are coming out of the company's own pocket, meaning every single VRS Providers. Sorenson is one, if not only, of the very few VRS companies that actually developed a product and give it out for FREE, even free service calls.

Do you expect Sprint, AT&T, QWest to pay for your cell phone? Your land line phone itself? No. FCC doesnt pay for that stuff.

(CSDVrs developed the vp100) and Sorenson bought the idea, with investors and such (think about this.) Here we are, a few years later, They're engulfed in debt because of this thing they did for free (with investor's money) and now screwing over the community and tax payers.

With that said, I'm fairly certain that you can start understanding the distance that Sorenson and several other VRS Providers goes for the deaf community. Unfortunately, this doesn't matter to the FCC as they only require the bare minimum to adquately service the deaf community but Sorenson obviously wants to go that extra mile for the deaf community and on the side, be competitive with other VRS Providers, which does, again, promote innovation and creativity in the VRS field. This is the essence of Captalism and has lead to great inventions and improvements of our lives. If it wasn't for this, we would still be stuck with TTY.

What is the extra mile?

If it wasnt for sorenson - We still would have CSDVrs as the big dog in the house.

Many other VRS companies goes beyond the FCC requirements, not only Sorenson. (Although i don't see it..)

If you want to start looking for negativity and feel the need to cast blames somewhere, Sorenson would be the wrong target as it has been consistently proven over and over that Sorenson has never defrauded FCC and when such rare occasion happened within Sorenson, it was dealt with swift action. This is supported by the documentation found on the fcc.gov website where you can actually count the documents of how many times each VRS companies have received complaints and penalties by FCC for various of violations. Additionally, I do not need to remind you of the fraudlent activity that were perpetuated by certain VRS Providers, which caused negative opinions and unwarranted backlash to be felt by all VRS Providers and by extension, the deaf community.

I'd love for you to produce evidence of them PROVING that they have not defrauding the FCC.

I implore you not to jump on the popular bandwagon and the cascading opinions of the masses but to actually step back and review the documents that are readily available to you. It will become clear to you that the popular opinions, which tends to be negative, aren't correct but far from the truth. It is the tendency of the people to find the negative data and run with it.

Your thinking aren't correct either. You also have not addressed what I have been trying to say here. Which leads me to my previous question to you, who are you?

I hope you understand what I'm trying to convey. Although, allow me to say this, Sorenson isn't without fault and is not a saint but they have the best and cleanest record out of every single VRS Provider that have existed to this day. This speaks volumes, in my opinion.

Interesting conflict of statement: "Sorenson isn't without fault and is not a saint but they have the best and cleanest record out of every single VRS Provider that have existed to this day."

Which is it, "Best and cleanest record" or "Sorenson isn't without fault and is not a saint"....

NOW that speaks volumes in my opinion.

Oh, and I'll give you one VRS company off my head that has a much cleaner track record: Convo Relay. (there are others as well.... but I don't know much about their business side yet.)

Whew.

 

[Sargeras]

Well, at this point, it is moot to argue with you as your history about the development of VP-100 and video compression is incorrect. Additionally, it has become very clear that you are advocating for Convo and you are doing your best to put lots of negativity toward to any VRS Providers.

I am clearly interested in seeing Sorenson to survive because unlike Convo, Sorenson developed their own products and have repaid to FCC the defraudment that was caught by Sorenson. Additionally, they've spent far more than any other VRS Providers to provide services, free videophone, and such to the deaf community.

At any rate, it doesn't matter who I am as I'm clearly trying to be objective and at the same time, state that I do not think Sorenson is without fault as none of them are but I do look at their record and how often the mistakes are for each VRS Provider. Fortunately for Sorenson, this is minimal. As well, I am not nitpicking people's word apart and trying to find contradictions so that it can be quickly discredited. Unlike most posters here, my statements are actually backed up by public records and testimonies of actual VRS workers.

Best of luck to your company, Convo and Sorenson even stated that they welcome the competition as it promotes the innovation and creativity for all of VRS Providers.

Just one last thing, I clearly understand how the tier system works but what you seem to miss is that Purple or other VRS Providers do not have the capacity to handle the estimated 8 million minutes that is handled by Sorenson. Therefore, to handle these estimated 8 million minutes, we need far more staff, more equipments, and centers to handle that, which increases the cost of operation. Therefore, to cut the Tier III rate so drastically, it affects Sorenson's ability to operate all centers and retain the staff necessary as the 8 million minutes were generated from the rates given to the Tier III Providers. This is common sense as a Tier I or II company couldn't even begin to absorb the minutes that Sorenson handles if Sorenson were to unexpectedly shut down without notice. In fact, it would cause an domino effect on all VRS companies as they would have to compensate for the loss of Sorenson by growing as big as them then have problems handling the low rate for Tier III as the necessary manpower and equipment needed to handle that much. Plus, if Sorenson shuts down, then every single VP-200 would die with Sorenson as it will not work anymore and it will be permanently disabled, which means that Convo and other VRS Providers that have no product will suddenly be without any VP-200 products to use for the interpreters that these Providers have. Chew on that for a little bit.

 

[Jiro]

hmm... you know all these inside information that's not available to public. you know this... how?

 

[posts from hell]

Well, at this point, it is moot to argue with you as your history about the development of VP-100 and video compression is incorrect. Additionally, it has become very clear that you are advocating for Convo and you are doing your best to put lots of negativity toward to any VRS Providers.

Not "ANY vrs providers" You dont see me putting people down until they call for it.
I think we can have a discussion on the development of the VP-100. I most likely can prove that I am correct.

I am clearly interested in seeing Sorenson to survive because unlike Convo, Sorenson developed their own products and have repaid to FCC the defraudment that was caught by Sorenson. Additionally, they've spent far more than any other VRS Providers to provide services, free videophone, and such to the deaf community.

What "such to the deaf community."??? They don't invest into ASL, They dont protect their interpreters... They decide that fancy eats are the way of life. (i've been to a few of them..)

At any rate, it doesn't matter who I am as I'm clearly trying to be objective and at the same time, state that I do not think Sorenson is without fault as none of them are but I do look at their record and how often the mistakes are for each VRS Provider. Fortunately for Sorenson, this is minimal. As well, I am not nitpicking people's word apart and trying to find contradictions so that it can be quickly discredited. Unlike most posters here, my statements are actually backed up by public records and testimonies of actual VRS workers.

You said "best and cleanest record".... I find it comical that Sorenson "Caught" their defraudment. They most likely knew it all along. Again, They aren't showing their books to the FCC for a reason.

Best of luck to your company, Convo and Sorenson even stated that they welcome the competition as it promotes the innovation and creativity for all of VRS Providers.

First: It's not my company. It is the service I use currently. I know they all welcome competition.

Just one last thing, I clearly understand how the tier system works but what you seem to miss is that Purple or other VRS Providers do not have the capacity to handle the estimated 8 million minutes that is handled by Sorenson. Therefore, to handle these estimated 8 million minutes, we need far more staff, more equipments, and centers to handle that, which increases the cost of operation. Therefore, to cut the Tier III rate so drastically, it affects Sorenson's ability to operate all centers and retain the staff necessary as the 8 million minutes were generated from the rates given to the Tier III Providers. This is common sense as a Tier I or II company couldn't even begin to absorb the minutes that Sorenson handles if Sorenson were to unexpectedly shut down without notice. In fact, it would cause an domino effect on all VRS companies as they would have to compensate for the loss of Sorenson by growing as big as them then have problems handling the low rate for Tier III as the necessary manpower and equipment needed to handle that much. Plus, if Sorenson shuts down, then every single VP-200 would die with Sorenson as it will not work anymore and it will be permanently disabled, which means that Convo and other VRS Providers that have no product will suddenly be without any VP-200 products to use for the interpreters that these Providers have. Chew on that for a little bit.

If you knew, why even bother trying to blur it and saying that the tier system is FAILING with caps.... In the long term it will save taxpayers money.

And for that "chewing" read this, a post I made yesterday...
http://www.alldeaf.com/relay-servic...-getting-rates-they-wanted-2.html#post1631608

More reasons for my beef that I am chewing on.