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I didn't get my first job until I was 18. I didn't come out of my room for about six years, was subjected to verbal abuse daily, had no social contacts or any idea of how to handle stress other than self destructive means. Thats a whole other story but it relates as i was COMPLETELY unprepared for this jobs crap. I applied and was hired as a Relay Operator. My thoughts? 10$ an hour? Helping out the deaf? Sit on phones all day? Hell yeah!
Hell no.
Mistake 1: I've been a night owl since I was six months old. It drove my mother nuts. I worked swing/nights, anywhere from 3PM-3AM
Mistake 2: I was unaware of the Rules of Working. If it can be abused, it will.
Mistake 3: FIRST job. NO. NONONONONO. *huddles in a corner and cries*
It seemed ideal. I'm taking calls to/from the deaf. How could this be bad? Yeah, maybe a couple would want to have phone sex, or i'd be "in" an argument or something, but whatever, its their phone call and they can do what they want.
Then they implemented IP Relay, one of the most retarded ideas EVER. The only reason I (I = me and EVERYONE who answered the phones after 8pm) thought it was ridiculous was because there was NO security. ANYONE can log on and make a call. And anyone did. All. Night. Long. Its also relevant that there is a "no termination" policy. You cannot hang up the phone for ANY reason, EVER. AT ALL.
My most memorable call was when I scared the living crap out of some poor, random lady for no reason than some jackasses amusement.
I'm so... so... sorry
Call pops up on my screen. I ring the number and give my speil (this is operator 3267 with IP relay) when they pick up. I'm obviously calling a residence and this person has NO IDEA who the hell I am, why Im calling, or what IP relay is. Oh, great, a prank call. I proceed to FREAK this woman out over the course of (if i recall correctly) 20 minutes. The "client" has me tell her that i'm going to come to her house, kill her family in front of her, then her animals, then her and put their heads on sticks in their front lawn and light their house on fire. That wasn't even all of it, thats just what i remember from FOUR years ago. This lady is FREAKING THE HELL OUT, telling me shes calling the police on me, that relay is not a real thing, etc. I understand her completely, tell her that we are, infact a real company, but feel free to call the police. She hangs up (thank you lady.) but they proceed to try and call her back, but she won't pick up.
LOL, wut?
In relay, you can request male/female operators. Its a little awkward to 'talk' to grandma through a man who sounds like the narrator in any hollywood trailer.
Naturally, the boys have been drinking and since their first cousin isn't around to play spin the bottle with, they hop on IP Relay! I don't see why these charmers didn't have anything better to do.
IP: Typing "deaf" customer
H: Verbal customer (on the phone)
Me: WOO! APPARENTLY IM SEXAY
Call is placed. 9 out of 10 times, you can hear them typing in the background of the phone call. Or telling each other what to say. Yes, thats right. These morons can't be bothered to go into a room for their covert cloak and dagger sex game with the operator.
TTY: I bet the operator is hot, what do you think?
Me: (monotone) I bet the operator is hot, what do you think.
H: Yeah I bet the operator is a slut. OP are you a slut?
Theres a rule, youre not allowed to talk to the operator. Ever not feel like a person on your job? My job was to NOT BE A PERSON. I am, in fact, a basic robot.
Me: Operator here, please do not speak to the operator.
Thats right. DONT TALK TO ME. Its better when they're too drunk to type properly, they get real pissed off real fast. The following is TYPED format, no spoken word. Sometimes TTY machines screw up and garble text, so we have to tell the user that it garbled and to repeat. These losers were on IP and drunk. Not the same, but you get the same treatment
IP: dude this oprater is a bish
Me: OP Here, message seems to be garbled, please repeat.
IP: THE MSG IS NOT GARBLED UR A BITCH
Me: OP here, please do not speak to the operator.
IP: JUST TELL THEM UR A BITCH
Me: OP here, please do not speak to the operator.
IP: OMG WTF?
Me: OP here, message seems to be garbled, please repeat.
IP: This girl is stupid she doesnt even know what omg means *hangs up*
Naturally, I get QA'd and fail the call for no tone of voice.
Legit call, so sad
I was on this call for about three hours. When I said we couldn't hang up for ANY reason, I meant ANY GODDAMN REASON. This lady went through someone before me, I took over the call but, three hours later my shift was over and it had to go to someone else. The TTY user is NOT the sucky customer in my eyes.
Me: OP 3262, number please.
TTY: 567-3509
The line is picked up. The phone is set down. I hear both of these things. If you've never used/heard of relay you have to document noise and tone of voice to the client like they would hear in a normal call. I will note, while i stated above that you are NOT allowed to talk to the operator, you are. On legitimate calls only if absolutely necessary.
Me:Greeting caller (i cant remember exactly, but i think we typed up when we greeted whoever picked up)
TTY: hello? (not talking to me)
Me-Relaying: hello? (waits for a response) sounds like phone being set down, shuffling in a bed.
TTY: Operator whats going on?
Me-toclient: OP here, no response, shuffling noise.
Thats the jist of the ENTIRE call. She kept asking me what was going on and I told her i heard nothing. She kept asking me questions and my sup told me not to answer her with anything other than "receiving no response" after a while because i was "talking to her too much". I kept giving her periodic (every few minutes) of "no response, sounds like silence." They never hung up. They just sat there.. and waited for a response. It made me so sad, the other person could have had the decency to hang up the phone.
You do know we put Tone of Voice, right?
Typical legit call. Elderly woman calls younger woman, i believe there was familial relation. In a call, no matter how short you HAVE to put tone of voice. This one happened to sound bored so i put "sounds bored." The call didn't last long enough for an updated ToV (There wasnt one anyways) so that was that. After the call ended the lady thanked me for my honesty and said her [insert relation] seemed to hate it when she called and was always bored with her
:[ :[
And then theres fraud!
You know how you get emails from the Cheif Commisiary Prince of [African Country] wanting you to send them a measly 500$ to get your 10,000,000 lottery winnings? Imagine taking PHONE CALLS from them. Naturally, this happened on IP relay. These calls were HALF our call volume. I dont remember verbatim, obviously, but they gave their call purpose away IMMEDIATELY.
ME: IP Relay, OP3289, Number please?
IP: Please to be calling 567-3509 thank u op
H: Sally's bowling, Sara speaking, how can I help you?
Me: This is IP Relay Operator 2746 with a phone call, have you used Relay before?
H: (option 1) *hangs up* (option 2) Whats Relay?
Now this isn't my first fraud call. The operators are allowed to do NOTHING. NOT A DAMN THING. So, we started to try to sneak some help in. Going option 2's route..
Me: (explains standard relay) Also, this MAY OR MAY NOT BE A FRAUDULENT CALL IN ORDER TO SCAM MONEY.
If youre reading this like i'm typing this you're probably going something like, 'but whiskey! youre not a psychic! how could you know its fraud already!' or if you know someone who's deaf 'Whiskey! Thats ASL-talk! Thats how they sign!'
No, no its not. You become familiar with ASL speak and this was not it. Also theres the following..
The IP User proceeds to order 500 pairs of bowling shoes, size doesnt matter, to be sent to [African country]. Some unfortunate souls saw the huge revenue they were [not] about to make and put in the order. Some thought relay as a whole was a scam and yelled at me (PLZ TO BE NOT SPEAKING TO OP), and others knew of the scams and wished me a good day and hung up. Then we'd call another business, order 700 boxes of shoe laces, so on and so forth. They were polite at least.
Thats the only job I've ever been fired from and it was after a particular lengthy, distressing prank call. I said "bastard" on the floor. You would have thought it would have been for punching a wall.
Hell no.
Mistake 1: I've been a night owl since I was six months old. It drove my mother nuts. I worked swing/nights, anywhere from 3PM-3AM
Mistake 2: I was unaware of the Rules of Working. If it can be abused, it will.
Mistake 3: FIRST job. NO. NONONONONO. *huddles in a corner and cries*
It seemed ideal. I'm taking calls to/from the deaf. How could this be bad? Yeah, maybe a couple would want to have phone sex, or i'd be "in" an argument or something, but whatever, its their phone call and they can do what they want.
Then they implemented IP Relay, one of the most retarded ideas EVER. The only reason I (I = me and EVERYONE who answered the phones after 8pm) thought it was ridiculous was because there was NO security. ANYONE can log on and make a call. And anyone did. All. Night. Long. Its also relevant that there is a "no termination" policy. You cannot hang up the phone for ANY reason, EVER. AT ALL.
My most memorable call was when I scared the living crap out of some poor, random lady for no reason than some jackasses amusement.
I'm so... so... sorry
Call pops up on my screen. I ring the number and give my speil (this is operator 3267 with IP relay) when they pick up. I'm obviously calling a residence and this person has NO IDEA who the hell I am, why Im calling, or what IP relay is. Oh, great, a prank call. I proceed to FREAK this woman out over the course of (if i recall correctly) 20 minutes. The "client" has me tell her that i'm going to come to her house, kill her family in front of her, then her animals, then her and put their heads on sticks in their front lawn and light their house on fire. That wasn't even all of it, thats just what i remember from FOUR years ago. This lady is FREAKING THE HELL OUT, telling me shes calling the police on me, that relay is not a real thing, etc. I understand her completely, tell her that we are, infact a real company, but feel free to call the police. She hangs up (thank you lady.) but they proceed to try and call her back, but she won't pick up.
LOL, wut?
In relay, you can request male/female operators. Its a little awkward to 'talk' to grandma through a man who sounds like the narrator in any hollywood trailer.
Naturally, the boys have been drinking and since their first cousin isn't around to play spin the bottle with, they hop on IP Relay! I don't see why these charmers didn't have anything better to do.
IP: Typing "deaf" customer
H: Verbal customer (on the phone)
Me: WOO! APPARENTLY IM SEXAY
Call is placed. 9 out of 10 times, you can hear them typing in the background of the phone call. Or telling each other what to say. Yes, thats right. These morons can't be bothered to go into a room for their covert cloak and dagger sex game with the operator.
TTY: I bet the operator is hot, what do you think?
Me: (monotone) I bet the operator is hot, what do you think.
H: Yeah I bet the operator is a slut. OP are you a slut?
Theres a rule, youre not allowed to talk to the operator. Ever not feel like a person on your job? My job was to NOT BE A PERSON. I am, in fact, a basic robot.
Me: Operator here, please do not speak to the operator.
Thats right. DONT TALK TO ME. Its better when they're too drunk to type properly, they get real pissed off real fast. The following is TYPED format, no spoken word. Sometimes TTY machines screw up and garble text, so we have to tell the user that it garbled and to repeat. These losers were on IP and drunk. Not the same, but you get the same treatment
IP: dude this oprater is a bish
Me: OP Here, message seems to be garbled, please repeat.
IP: THE MSG IS NOT GARBLED UR A BITCH
Me: OP here, please do not speak to the operator.
IP: JUST TELL THEM UR A BITCH
Me: OP here, please do not speak to the operator.
IP: OMG WTF?
Me: OP here, message seems to be garbled, please repeat.
IP: This girl is stupid she doesnt even know what omg means *hangs up*
Naturally, I get QA'd and fail the call for no tone of voice.
Legit call, so sad
I was on this call for about three hours. When I said we couldn't hang up for ANY reason, I meant ANY GODDAMN REASON. This lady went through someone before me, I took over the call but, three hours later my shift was over and it had to go to someone else. The TTY user is NOT the sucky customer in my eyes.
Me: OP 3262, number please.
TTY: 567-3509
The line is picked up. The phone is set down. I hear both of these things. If you've never used/heard of relay you have to document noise and tone of voice to the client like they would hear in a normal call. I will note, while i stated above that you are NOT allowed to talk to the operator, you are. On legitimate calls only if absolutely necessary.
Me:Greeting caller (i cant remember exactly, but i think we typed up when we greeted whoever picked up)
TTY: hello? (not talking to me)
Me-Relaying: hello? (waits for a response) sounds like phone being set down, shuffling in a bed.
TTY: Operator whats going on?
Me-toclient: OP here, no response, shuffling noise.
Thats the jist of the ENTIRE call. She kept asking me what was going on and I told her i heard nothing. She kept asking me questions and my sup told me not to answer her with anything other than "receiving no response" after a while because i was "talking to her too much". I kept giving her periodic (every few minutes) of "no response, sounds like silence." They never hung up. They just sat there.. and waited for a response. It made me so sad, the other person could have had the decency to hang up the phone.
You do know we put Tone of Voice, right?
Typical legit call. Elderly woman calls younger woman, i believe there was familial relation. In a call, no matter how short you HAVE to put tone of voice. This one happened to sound bored so i put "sounds bored." The call didn't last long enough for an updated ToV (There wasnt one anyways) so that was that. After the call ended the lady thanked me for my honesty and said her [insert relation] seemed to hate it when she called and was always bored with her
:[ :[
And then theres fraud!
You know how you get emails from the Cheif Commisiary Prince of [African Country] wanting you to send them a measly 500$ to get your 10,000,000 lottery winnings? Imagine taking PHONE CALLS from them. Naturally, this happened on IP relay. These calls were HALF our call volume. I dont remember verbatim, obviously, but they gave their call purpose away IMMEDIATELY.
ME: IP Relay, OP3289, Number please?
IP: Please to be calling 567-3509 thank u op
H: Sally's bowling, Sara speaking, how can I help you?
Me: This is IP Relay Operator 2746 with a phone call, have you used Relay before?
H: (option 1) *hangs up* (option 2) Whats Relay?
Now this isn't my first fraud call. The operators are allowed to do NOTHING. NOT A DAMN THING. So, we started to try to sneak some help in. Going option 2's route..
Me: (explains standard relay) Also, this MAY OR MAY NOT BE A FRAUDULENT CALL IN ORDER TO SCAM MONEY.
If youre reading this like i'm typing this you're probably going something like, 'but whiskey! youre not a psychic! how could you know its fraud already!' or if you know someone who's deaf 'Whiskey! Thats ASL-talk! Thats how they sign!'
No, no its not. You become familiar with ASL speak and this was not it. Also theres the following..
The IP User proceeds to order 500 pairs of bowling shoes, size doesnt matter, to be sent to [African country]. Some unfortunate souls saw the huge revenue they were [not] about to make and put in the order. Some thought relay as a whole was a scam and yelled at me (PLZ TO BE NOT SPEAKING TO OP), and others knew of the scams and wished me a good day and hung up. Then we'd call another business, order 700 boxes of shoe laces, so on and so forth. They were polite at least.
Thats the only job I've ever been fired from and it was after a particular lengthy, distressing prank call. I said "bastard" on the floor. You would have thought it would have been for punching a wall.
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