wherein I go justifiably SC on behalf of a caller

[smileyeagle1021]

OK, never before have I relayed a call that not only have I not minded being asked to go sucky customer, but I've been HAPPY to be asked to go SC.

So, background, this guy ordered a pizza online. He realized that he made a mistake on the order and was attempting to call to have the order changed.

Me- duh
DU- deaf user (
HU- hearing user

Call one:
Me: explain relay
HU: all orders have to be made online at (website)
hearing user hung up

Call two:
DU: before dialing let me tell you what I need so you can get them to stay on the phone, I already ordered and need to correct my order.
Me: dialing...
Me: explain relay to hearing user and relay the deaf user's message.
HU: I told you already, all orders need to be done online.
Hearing user hung up.

Call Three:
DU: try to get a manager.
Me: dialing...
Me: explaining relay, asking for manager
manager comes on the line
HU: the other agents already told you to go online, why do you keep calling back.
Me: we need to correct the order that was already placed online.
HU: yes, order online, we're busy and can't take relay calls.
Hearing user hung up

Call four:
DU: Relay, please yell, swear, be rude, and make sure they know that I'm telling you to do that. You know what I need, please relay as you see fit
Me: relaying as instructed (because at this point, I am more than happy to be a jackass against an entire restaurant staff so incompetent they can't understand the concept behind "I need to fix my order, that can't be done online")
Me; explaining relay
HU: Look we already told you that you have to order online, stop calling hear.
Me: Would you stop fucking hanging up on us. You people are the most unprofessional group I have ever had the misfortune to work with. Your dumbass website won't allow us to correct an order and you all are too fucking stupid to know that. The caller has instructed me to inform you that I am yelling and cursing at their request because they feel you are the worst employees on the planet. So don't you dare fucking hang up on us again.
HU: Fuck you Mother Fucker.
Hearing User hung up.

OK, if I ever said that, and he yelled it so there is no way that the rest of the staff/restaurant didn't hear him, I would be fired on the spot. Not this guy, his manager is obviously as incompetent and unprofessional as the rest of the staff.

Call five:
I'll save the dialog, just know that Mr. I have too foul of a mouth to work with the public answered... I'm sorry, at this point, I would feel justified in doing a foul mouthed tirade against the manager for not firing him on the spot... but I suspect the manager would give me a foul mouthed tirade back.

And that ladies and gentleman, is one of the 5 reasons a day I no longer feel bad seeing a CSR getting reamed by a customer, because that sadly is only the most recent and most blatant example of CSR's who... well let's face it, deserve so much worse than what is posted on this sight.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

It's shame there's so many decent people looking for work out there and douchebags like that still have jobs...

[Racket_Man]

at my pizza place we, on rare occasions, do get relay calls, yes they are long and sometimes frustrating, BUT we will NEVER EVER tell a "customer" to "JUSt ORDER ONLINE and to Fuck off and die. very very poor service/training/attitude combined into one situation

[Food Lady]

Yeah, it's awful. I'd be seriously disciplined if I acted like that.

[joe hx]

Where I work, we have one guy who calls in using the relay call. While tedious, it only takes two and a half minutes. I've had idiots looking for their credit cards take a longer time.

[Akasa]

Call to corporate would be in order imo.

[Zoom]

Call to corporate would be in order imo.

Who wants to bet on the unreliability of corporate to take a relay call?

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Me, I'm wondering if this isn't some kind of discrimination. At the very least it would be something good to go to the media with. What are you supposed to do if you're a deaf person who has no computer or internet access, since they're going to such lengths to avoid dealing with a relay call?

[lobo94]

I'd say the pizza place in question did an epic fail.

Yes, relay calls take longer, and are more challenging than the normal call. But the person on the other end is still a customer.

When I was working at one of the shopping channels, one of our regular customers was visually impaired, and would call in and asks for descriptions and such. Most of the crew hated to get her calls, because they'd take longer. In my case, I had no problems with it, and this lady even gave me kudos because I was nice to deal with. When my then supervisor told me of the conversation the customer had had with her, I said that there were two reasons I handled things the way I did. One, I was a professional. The other, that my mother was blind, and I understood.

[AnaKhouri]

Did you do all that swearing in the monotone most relay operators use? Because that would be hysterical!

[Jamesroe]

Before going to customer services, I worked with tracking and chases and relay opps were the biggest headache. We were not a customer service department, we did not take call from customers because we would NOT have the information to hand and would NOT be able to assist them them then and there. There was a message confirming this that they had to listen to before they were connected. But still they called

We did not accept ANY external call, especially relays as we'd lose so much time that we'd get even further behind. It was similar to the story originall posted. We only opened tracking and chase enquirys online and we could only add to them online. They didn't seem to get that into their thick skulls.

[sevendaysky]

First off, I want to say thank you to the OP for being a relay operator. It can be very stressful and thankless.

That said, I can't even begin to count the times that I have been hung up on as soon as the operator identified the call as relay. Most notable was last June, when I paid a visit to my local McDonalds. I get home, and discover that my fries are cold, and one of my hamburgers is actually missing a patty entirely. I debate with driving back over there or calling. At this point, I don't care enough to demand a refund, and I'm tired. So I figure I'll just call, have them note it for later, and collect a replacement another day. (This has been done before at this McDonalds.)

First call, as soon as the lady picks up, operator IDs, and she simply hangs up. I ask the op to redial. This time, she listens to the op's introduction, and says "what do you want?" I say to her "My order was messed up, I had cold fries." Expecting her to say something like "sorry," and offer to have me get a credit, I begin typing to explain exactly what was wrong. What I see next on her side is "I don't have time for this stupid stuff" and "hung up." At this point I am now seeing red. I redial a third time. Once again, ID and hang up.

I redress (I had put my PJs on before discovering the problem with the food) and stalk back into the restaurant. One of the female managers sees me coming and immediately walks away. I wait politely off to the side of the line, and as soon as there's a break, I ask the cashier to please get the manager for me. I stand back, arms folded and with a thousand-yard stare as I wait. Lo and behold, the same manager walks up to the front. She identifies herself as the one who had been on the phone, and starts giving me a sob story about how relay calls take SO LONG and she doesn't HAVE TIME for that kind of thing.

I promptly inform her that the instant she picked up the phone, I should have been considered a customer, and treated with the same respect and quality of service as anyone standing in front of her face. If she truly did not have time to answer the phone, then she needs to look into staffing the place better so that she DOES have time to answer customer calls. Then I said, "why did you not say something like 'can I take your number and call you back when it's not so busy' or 'can I take your name and we can talk about it at a later time'?" She kind of blinked, looked nervous, and then said "I didn't know I could do that. I mean, with relay and all." I told her that it never hurts to ASK, and that yes, I do have a phone number to give out.

She asked if I wanted my order replaced. I told her I was too upset to have an appetite at this point. She did offer me a couple of "dollar off" coupons and I took them and left. When I got home, I wrote a long letter to corporate about it. Later, I discovered that the coupons she gave me were invalid without her signature. No wonder she was so happy to get me out of there with them!

I got a letter from corporate a couple weeks later with pretty formulaic stuff, without addressing my request to have all persons answering phone calls be retrained in exactly how to handle relay calls properly. On a funnier note, every time I go to that McDonalds now and order fries, they always ask me to wait an extra minute or so -- so that they can have fresh, just-out-of-the-oil fries for me! I once told a cashier that it really wasn't necessary. She kind of winked at me and said "it's the least we can do for what happened."