Suckiness via TDD

[Getoutofmylobby]

Disclaimer! Please do not think that by posting this that i have any prejudice against the deaf or the disabled. It was just an odd situation from a different source. Usually its the customer that is screaming at me. I know people might be sensitive about this and I certainly don't mean to offend. I just think the story is amusing.

On the rare occasion, i have dealt with deaf customers making reservations through the deaf relay service. I'm not sure what the term is. The deaf person types something and this person says it and i reply, and so on. I'm sure someone on here has some experience with them.

Anyway, today i had a run of the mill credit card dispute. lady was overcharged, was told a different rate and wanted a refund. There wasn't much i could do about it because to me it looked like she was charged the correct rate and so on. The details aren't important, basically there wasn't much i could do about it. It just was a bit funny because the deaf person typing must have been really pissed and the relay person is speaking in an even tone of voice. And there is a delay of like a minute as the person reads my reply and types back. Here was the funniest part.

Relay Person: "I do not see the justification for charging me this rate go ahead"
Me: "I'm sorry ma'am but your reservation was made for $XXX, i can pass this over to a manager and i can have him return your call., go ahead."
Relay Person: "That is unacceptable I wish to speak with a manager immediately go ahead."
Me: "unfortunately I am the only manager on duty, but our General Manager will be here tomorrow and i can have him call you go ahead."
Relay Person: "If i do not recieve a refund i will have to dispute the charges, I am very angry about this go ahead"

It was a bit refreshing to be able to speak and not be interrupted.

[Akasa]

Was there supposed to be more?

[Getoutofmylobby]

Yeah there was. clicked wrong button.

[calulu]

Ha! I've had a few of those funny nearly always sucky TDD convos. But it is funny to hear the operator speaking in a calm tone when the words get rude.

[JoitheArtist]

I've been lucky--in the org I work for, we have a fair number of deaf members who use the relays, but they've almost all been very postive. The one or two that weren't downright nice were at least reasonable.

But yeah, the relays can get kinda weird. Takes forever to get anything done, but at least you know who's supposed to talk and when.

[freeatlast]

When I worked in the Call Center from hell we used to receive quite a few of the TDD calls. (Of course I always found it amusing that deaf people purchased music, but have been told that they can feel the beat of the music from the speakers.) I had one customer who was apparently a combination of illiterate and furious. The operator tried several times to tell me what the customer had typed and finally gave up and told me she could not decipher what the caller was trying to say. A few times, the operator had a difficult time not laughing while reading the rant of profanity that the caller had typed.

[Evil Queen]

I've experianced a TDD call. The people I've spoke to were quite nice and professional.

[NotSoInnocent]

I actually have a friend that works in a TDD center... He once told me a story that had me rolling with laughter, tears in my eyes and everything.

Keep in mind that the people who work in those centers have to say -everything- that the customer is typing. They must faithfully speak on behalf of the person who is hearing impaired...

Now I want you to realize that they use this service all the time for everything...

Got it? Are you understanding? Ok... Now I will let you in on his pain....

One night he began a call session... the female was deaf... the male was hearing...

and...

They were using the service for...

...

Phone Sex.

With my very male friend speaking the part of the female.

[KhirasHY]

My favorite TDD ever at a hotel went something like this...much like yours, it was absolutely hilarious since the operator was only speaking in a calm voice, yet you could tell he was trying not to laugh.

O= Operater
Me=Yay!

O: This is bad word ridiculous service, you mean thing should be embarassed, I hope you die in a car accident go ahead.
Me: Did she really say "bad word" and "mean thing"?
O: I didn't feel like repeating those parts.
Me: Neat...ok, you can type this part. I apologize. Go ahead.
O: ............Did you have to make it that short? Now she's yelling at me for typing that so slowly. Or maybe she's still yelling at you, I can't tell...does "Clean your ears out so you can hear me" make any sense at all with this conversation?

I never got a call from him again, and that saddened me. I'm pretty sure whoever it was would've enjoyed this place. I hope he didn't get in trouble for that conversation...

[Coconut]

They were using the service for...

...

Phone Sex.

With my very male friend speaking the part of the female.

Ha! How awkward for your friend!

I've gotten a few of those calls and all were pretty good - I think I had one operator who seemed to be frustrated because I was talking sorta fast, but other than that, everyone has always been super nice.

[Ulrika]

Me: Did she really say "bad word" and "mean thing"?
O: I didn't feel like repeating those parts.
Me: Neat...ok, you can type this part. I apologize. Go ahead.

Up until 2 months ago I was a relay operator and I'll tell you I would have gotten fired on the spot for doing that. Operators are obligated to say EVERYTHING. Phone sex, curse words, absolute idiocy and all. It blows my mind that the operator got away with skipping over parts of the conversation. The TDD user has every right to have their words voiced as they typed them, even if they were abusive.

Trust me, I had to voice things that were abusive about myself "This operator is a bitch, I bet she's type slow on purpose, just hang up on the c***." And I voiced that exactly as written because, guess what, that was my job. It makes me so angry when operators changed things. Deaf people have a right to be SC s too!

*deep breath* /rant

[DeltaSierra]

Ulrika, that kind of story makes me cringe, because I'm deaf and I've made my share of phone calls via relay. Its just as frustrating for us being on the TDD end as it is for whomever we're calling, especially if they have no experience with deaf customers/clients. I've often had people simply hang up upon getting a relay call without any explanation beyond "I/we don't accept this kind of call," kind of frustrating when its something like trying to book a flight with an airline or deal with a banking discrepancy.

As to those who call phonesex lines, its not so much for the caller to get a thrill as to try to make the operator uncomfortable, believe it or not. I've been told so by other deaf friends and it annoys me that they do shit like this.

[depechemodefan]

I had to do TDD. It's not bad, but there was this one woman who called a lot. One day she said this long story, ugh. So I asked a question, and the woman repeated the whole story again. In the middle of the second telling of the story I asked if the woman can be interrupted and the operator said no. But this was a case where the deaf woman spoke, and I heard her, the operator only had to relay to the deaf woman.

[KhirasHY]

Up until 2 months ago I [I]was[I] a relay operator and I'll tell you I would have gotten fired on the spot for doing that. Operators are obligated to say EVERYTHING. Phone sex, curse words, absolute idiocy and all. It blows my mind that the operator got away with skipping over parts of the conversation. The TDD user has every right to have their words voiced as they typed them, even if they were abusive.

Trust me, I had to voice things that were abusive about myself "This operator is a bitch, I bet she's type slow on purpose, just hang up on the c***." And I voiced that exactly as written because, guess what, that was my job. It makes me so angry when operators changed things. Deaf people have a right to be SC s too!

*deep breath* /rant

I still hope he didn't get fired for that, he seemed like someone I'd get along with. What was funny though was that a lot of the TDD operators I dealt with would have side conversations with me while waiting for the next line to come in. When working as an operator in a hotel though, I HATED those calls...mainly because I only seemed to get them when I was the only person there, and it was a pain in the ass putting them on hold.

As a side-note, if I put them on hold, does the operator ever get to be a smartass and type out the on-hold recording?

[edible_hat]

They were using the service for...

...

Phone Sex.

Before we moved in together, my fiance and I just used MSN instead. No creeping out a third party.


As for the not repeating that bit thing, yes Deaf people do have the right to be idiots and the conversation should be repeated as typed (and/or transcribed as spoken). It's still funny though. Reminds me of a podcast I heard sometime last year when they found a service that would get a professional voiceover artist to record whatever message you wanted. It took them around 100 tries before getting something the artist refused to say, and that one involved multiple uses of the c-word (no not "customer", the other c-word).