We dont take relay calls, piss off

[Mrs Bucket]

I always thought blind people had more access to their community than deaf people do because of the lack of communication barriers?

Oh goodness no, Shel!

Even as a DeafBlind person, I struggle with communication.

Remember I am human first. Deaf second, Blind third.

In Canada, the Deaf community uses the Canadian Hearing Society for interpreting services.

The Blind community uses The Canadian National Institute for the Blind for braille and intervening services.

The DeafBlind community uses the DeafBlind Services within CNIB for intervening services. Intervening is both tactiling and ASL. Intervenors must be proficient in everything from tactile, ASL, braille, finger-braille and so on.

Right now within the Southwestern Ontario DeafBlind community, we, the DeafBlind community, want to change the "intervenor" title to "DeafBlind interpreter" because there are agencies that's not licensed to intervene for the DeafBlind yet still intervene whereas the DBS agency has gone through university, strict ASL screening and use professionalism during intervening.

When some people say "You're lucky you get benefits much more than Deaf people do!", I must admit it unnerves me.

It's hardly true at all. Sure we get free transportation but that hardly helps us at all because we have to pay for our intervenors as they are not free.

If we were to go to the AADB conference in 2011, we would have to pay for the intervenors' lodgings but not their flight as it is covered by Air Canada. Thank heavens as Air Canada has been fighting that for quite a while.

We've barely scratched the surface as DeafBlind Canadians whereas the DeafBlind Americans have a lot covered.

It is so easy to show anger with ignorance but I choose not to because I would prefer to explain the frustration. Educate the community and encourage them to go a whole day as a blind person.

Walk around with no vision & weights around their ankles and wrists and try to guide around with only the white cane. It is very overwhelming on the sensory processing.

HearAgain and I go through similar frustrations.

Winter is horrible for any blind person. Snowbanks are not easy to deal with if we cross the road. Sometimes it helps if people shovel their driveways and leave a small pathway for anyone to cross.

Hubby and I live in an apartment building and our landlord is hardly there. Their contractor just shovels and leaves without shovelling a small pathway for anyone to cross the steps leading to the road so I would have to use my white cane to dig inside the snowbank to figure how deep to cross the snowbank. It's either that or I walk all the way to the end of the street to cross.

The last time I miscalculated a snowbank's depth, I slipped and broke my tailbone. I swore I would never allow that to happen to myself again.

Winter is the hardest on me. The time change is hard as well because I get less daylight time.

I also use more cabs in the winter and pay much more money for grocery shopping. For 20 dollars, I get 40 dollars coupon worth of cab service but that doesn't make things easier as a book (40 dollars) goes fast in two days.

In the spring, summer and fall, I use the buses. Cabs are the winter.

The signs are misplaced sometimes, when people point to the sign "Right there", *points*.. I'm like where?! Sometimes it helps to give landmarks like "The sign is right besides the yellow light. The yellow light is besides the blinking green sign."

Those landmarks do help and it does help to set the picture out for the DeafBlind and Blind people.

Hope it helps and sorry for OT!!

Tactile smile and 90 love!!!

 

[sequoias]

Yep, that happened to me before several times. They're cowards.

 

[jasin]

really makes me mad, this company just hangs up on me saying how they dont take relay calls, they gave a reason too "they just take too long" wtf is that?

THK U DIALING
8008456471RINGING 1...
2...
(F)
(INTRO CALL PLS HLD)
were unable to do them due to time restraints so im the operator i cant wait for a responce we re just unable to take em
(CALLED PARTY HAS HUNG UP)

i complained to them about it last week and they said "oh the girl is new she thought it was an international collect call.."

liars, i filed a BBB complaint for cust service issue, is there anything else i can do here?

maybe we should ALL call them and just drive them crazy with relay calls

Ever thought about just taking your business elsewhere instead of getting angry?

 

[GraysonPeddie]

Other businesses may not take relay calls either and still can get angry. It may or may not matter which business you take elsewhere.

Businesses can follow suit with other businesses. Sorry, but that's the way it is.

To speed up the call, just give the relay information before they dial the phone number. For example, if you want to order pizza over the phone, just give your name, address, phone number, what you want to order, your credit card info, your zip code, and that's it! That should just take about ~28 seconds to complete a call!

 

[jasin]

Other businesses may not take relay calls either and still can get angry. It may or may not matter which business you take elsewhere.

Businesses can follow suit with other businesses. Sorry, but that's the way it is.

To speed up the call, just give the relay information before they dial the phone number. For example, if you want to order pizza over the phone, just give your name, address, phone number, what you want to order, your credit card info, your zip code, and that's it! That should just take about ~28 seconds to complete a call!

I understand your frustrations but we should not categorize all businesses as being the same because of one that refused to accept our business.

We have to remember also that we live in the hearing world. Hearing people are all around us. We should try to work with hearing people the best we can regardless of their inability to work with us.

 

[GraysonPeddie]

I understand, but sometimes we just have to work around the problem, like telling the relay operator to not explain relay, giving information ahead of time, etc.

I know we live in the hearing world and I'm hearing impaired. Plus, I'm not frustrated at all.

 

[DURAY]

there is a deaf comedienne, Deaf Pink, who performed nationwide and make fun of TRS operators. I saw her performed as Deaf EXPO (not the other expo under CSD) the one at DeafNation She invited audiences to tell the worst relay services. I think she has a video at YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

 

[LuciaDisturbed]

Walk around with no vision & weights around their ankles and wrists and try to guide around with only the white cane. It is very overwhelming on the sensory processing.

I am not blind, but why would weights around ankles and wrists be necessary to experience what blindness is like? I am a bit confused and I want to understand. How would weights make us feel what it is like to be blind?

The last time I miscalculated a snowbank's depth, I slipped and broke my tailbone. I swore I would never allow that to happen to myself again.

Ouch. Do you have any ongoing back problems from breaking your tailbone? I fell and hit my tailbone on the steps when I slipped on black ice when I was living in Wisconsin many years ago.

Winter is the hardest on me. The time change is hard as well because I get less daylight time.

I am not blind, but I don't like having less day light either...I really like having a lot of light. Dim light bother me a LOT. My bedroom lights suck, the bulbs are too dim, and I cannot do anything about it because they are on the ceiling fan, and I rent. They are the only bulbs that would fit in the ceiling fan fixtures. I just tend to like everything bright.

I also use more cabs in the winter and pay much more money for grocery shopping. For 20 dollars, I get 40 dollars coupon worth of cab service but that doesn't make things easier as a book (40 dollars) goes fast in two days.

In the spring, summer and fall, I use the buses. Cabs are the winter.

Wow. Is it because it is easier to use the cabs than it is to use the bus because of the snow?

The signs are misplaced sometimes, when people point to the sign "Right there", *points*.. I'm like where?! Sometimes it helps to give landmarks like "The sign is right besides the yellow light. The yellow light is besides the blinking green sign."

That I can really relate to, even though I am not blind. I just REALLY hate it when people points to something and says "LOOK AT THAT!" but they don't tell me WHAT to look at. I am like "what do you want me to see?" Geez. There's a lot of things out there, not just one thing, so I really wish people would say something like, "look at that awesome yellow car" or describe what they want me to see, or use landmarks like you just said. I am not blind, just very confused.

Tactile smile and 90 love!!!

What does 90 love mean?

 

[Mrs Bucket]

I am not blind, but why would weights around ankles and wrists be necessary to experience what blindness is like? I am a bit confused and I want to understand. How would weights make us feel what it is like to be blind?

You would get the sensation of being overwhelmed, confused, angry, frustrated and your ESP overworked all at once. ESP is Extra Sensory Processing. The DeafBlind or those with dual disabilities have ESP, take the autistic person. Some people will never understand why the autistic person has an outburst. It is because of the ESP. I can understand because too many things are going on at once.

ESP- your sense of smell is heightened at the same time your taste of smell is heightened AND at the same time your sense of touch is heightened. Put all of that at once, can you relax? Noooo!

Ouch. Do you have any ongoing back problems from breaking your tailbone? I fell and hit my tailbone on the steps when I slipped on black ice when I was living in Wisconsin many years ago.

Ever since the tailbone break, I've had chronic back pain and it's really bad.

I am not blind, but I don't like having less day light either...I really like having a lot of light. Dim light bother me a LOT. My bedroom lights suck, the bulbs are too dim, and I cannot do anything about it because they are on the ceiling fan, and I rent. They are the only bulbs that would fit in the ceiling fan fixtures. I just tend to like everything bright.

The environmentally friendly light bulb, the halogen, is my friend and foe. My friend because it saves me money and my foe because it hurts my eye so much.

The halogen is not natural light and I use very low wattage light like 10-20-30W light. If I can find those low W light bulbs it would be great to find those ultra low W lights. The halogen light bulbs, ugh!

Wow. Is it because it is easier to use the cabs than it is to use the bus because of the snow?

I use one specific cab service and the company knows my TaxiScript ID #. My info is in the system so they know where to send the cab to my place and the drivers know my hubby and I. We carry our own text phone and ask people to call for us, we press a button and they phone for us. Everything's done for us but we had to do the hard work in the first place and then it started to pay off.

That I can really relate to, even though I am not blind. I just REALLY hate it when people points to something and says "LOOK AT THAT!" but they don't tell me WHAT to look at. I am like "what do you want me to see?" Geez. There's a lot of things out there, not just one thing, so I really wish people would say something like, "look at that awesome yellow car" or describe what they want me to see, or use landmarks like you just said. I am not blind, just very confused.

I do this for everyone and it helps them, tourists appreciates I give them landmarks and they get puzzled when they see a blind person asking them if they need directions. They see the white cane first unfortunately then me second.

What does 90 love mean?

Picture this..

Right hand to right eye sign this 9- 0

Left hand to left eye sign this 0 - 5

90 means DeafBlind 05 means Sighted

Hubby and I have a non-profit organisation called 90 Love and we sign with the 9-0 using right eye and "hug" sign to represent "90 Love".

90 Love Lucia!

 

[kdub2006]

NAD Files Complaint against Online Retailer that Refused a Relay Call - National Association of the Deaf

Look what happens when people refuse to accept relay calls....

I know you probably just wanted to complain, but if you really want to stick it to them, first complain to the relay service and ask to be directed to resources to file official complaints with the government.

I understand that some people have been denied access to communicating with banks through the relay call system. Some banks refuse to communicate about confidential financial matters, such as account status and loan terms, through the relay system. If you have had a similar experience, or would like to participate in a legal case challenging this practice, please contact me.

 

[kmaoboe]

Seriously???

Boy, this is wrong forum for discuss abt this but here's what I do whenever I make any relay calls and company/pp hang up on me.

I always tell relay operator DO NOT ANNOUNCE YOURSELF AS RELAY OPERATOR but rather say "this is (your name) and proceed with what you want to say". Sometime I would say, " I am speaking for other deaf person who need help. blah.. etc.." So that way it is still third party conversation.

The reason why hearing people hang up on you is because they might thought relay service is spammer or adversiting service.

REALLY??? I cannot believe that people would actually think that!! but then again maybe it's because even before I became disabled, that I had always grown up around the special needs music students that my mom has taught for the last 48 yrs (She started LONG BEFORE I WAS EVER EVEN THOUGHT OF!!) Before my health got really complicated, I used to work @ West Teleservices which handles most of the products that you see on TV infomercials and I always told my co-workers that if they ever got a Relay call when they were almost off, that I would be more than happy to switch kiosks w/them and take the call instead b/c I knew how important it was to make sure that people who were using a Relay operator to call needed to have an operator on our end that was at least familiar w/ the relay system and able to talk slow enough for the relay operator to be able to type! Then I was transferred to the FSV group which instead of having to deal w/ all of the incredibly annoying infomercial products (some were worse than others) when I switched to my new position, I was now taking almost exclusively Credit Card Applications. We would occasionally sign on to "Direct" (the infomercial calls) but for the most part was taking Credit Card Apps & Inquiries about Financial services.

In this new position, I had to be especially careful when I got a relay call to make sure that I read all of the legal disclaimers slow enough for the operator to be able to type it VERBATIM since it was a legal contract. I still didn't mind it. I think the longest relay call that I ever had while I was @ that job was probably close to 2 HOURS!! When I took a regular call from a hearing customer, it usually only took about 20-30 mins.

But however long a relay call takes, that doesn't give ANY OPERATOR the right to hang up on a Relay call!!

oh well ... that's just my 2cents!!

 

[Mark Rejhon]

I use a very standard intro message:
"Hello! This is Mark calling through a relay interpretor because I am deaf."

This helps some, not perfect, but this helps. It's short, it's clear to people who's never used relay because they know what an "interpretor" is!

 

[DeafCaroline]

I do not like the relay service at all! least favourite kind of relay calls are when I had to check my answering machine. I could be waiting up to half an hour just for them to relay 2 or 3 messages. I always ask them to just give me the gist if the message is very long but they are not allowed to do that so they would check the message several times before they got it all typed out. It drove me up the wall.

And there was a woman from the relay service who called me for a survey but she was typing soooooooo slowly and it took her like 5 minutes to type out each question and redo her typos and spelling mistakes and after half an hour, I had other things to do so I told her that i had to go but she ignored me and kept asking more questions even though by then I told 3 times that I had to go so I hung up. She called me back, swore at me then hung up on me.

What bugs me the most is that in Canada, being a relay operator is a very good paying job and yet they hire people who can't spell or type! I don't understand that.

It was such a relief to get rid of my landline.


I am so glad there is such a thing as cell phones and emails!

 

[Jiro]

I do not like the relay service at all! least favourite kind of relay calls are when I had to check my answering machine. I could be waiting up to half an hour just for them to relay 2 or 3 messages. I always ask them to just give me the gist if the message is very long but they are not allowed to do that so they would check the message several times before they got it all typed out. It drove me up the wall.

And there was a woman from the relay service who called me for a survey but she was typing soooooooo slowly and it took her like 5 minutes to type out each question and redo her typos and spelling mistakes and after half an hour, I had other things to do so I told her that i had to go but she ignored me and kept asking more questions even though by then I told 3 times that I had to go so I hung up. She called me back, swore at me then hung up on me.

What bugs me the most is that in Canada, being a relay operator is a very good paying job and yet they hire people who can't spell or type! I don't understand that.

It was such a relief to get rid of my landline.


I am so glad there is such a thing as cell phones and emails!

use google voice. or CapTel..... assuming that these services are available in Canada.

 

[DeafCaroline]

Nah. I did install google voice but it reverted the clock on my mac to year 2000! man, did that ever send my email inbox into complete chaos - got literally hundreds of "new" emails in my inbox and it was baaaaaad. got rid of it then my computer went back to normal. I don't think Captel is available here.

 

[Jiro]

Nah. I did install google voice but it reverted the clock on my mac to year 2000! man, did that ever send my email inbox into complete chaos - got literally hundreds of "new" emails in my inbox and it was baaaaaad. got rid of it then my computer went back to normal. I don't think Captel is available here.

O_O

You don't need to install Google Voice.... you just get an account and then that's it. Any call you receive from there.... it will email you. I wasn't even aware of google voice program for mac

 

[DeafCaroline]

oh, maybe i'm thinking of google chat...eh. so far i've been able to get away with not using relay since i cancelled my landline. except for ironically enough Bell phone company. they only answer calls and only if it's directly from you which is impossible since i cancelled my landline and i can't hear on phones. stooopid bell.