clueless doesn't quite describe them

[smileyeagle1021]

I had a deaf user last night, who, well... umm... I'm pretty sure GK's received a call from us from him before.
He was calling at 2:15AM local time (to where he was calling) to ask about a cat he saw advertised on a craigslist ad. Who in their right mind calls at 2:15 in the morning to respond to a craigslist ad.
I think the hearing user's response sums up my feelings quite well,
CA(xxxx)- (female voice)
CA(xxxx)- It's 2:15 in the morning, are you an idiot!
CA(xxxx)- (sounds angry)
CA(xxxx)- (hearing user has hung up)
CA(xxxx)- [Your call has been disconnected]
CA(xxxx)- [Thank you for choosing , would you like to place another call?]

apparently the answer was yes, because he asked me to redial
Some people truly don't get the hint. Next call I got this gem that was apparently blunt enough for our clueless user

CA(xxxx)- (male voice)
CA(xxxx)- Look asshole, it's 2:15 in the morning, if you call one more time I am going to go down there and fuck you in the ass. Now fuck off.
CA(xxxx)- (sounds angry)
CA(xxxx)- (hearing user has hung up)
CA(xxxx)- [Your call has been disconnected]
CA(xxxx)- [Thank you for choosing , would you like to place another call?]
Clueless deaf user- wow, that guy has an attitude problem... on second thought I don't want to do business with him, no more calls.

seriously dude, I think most people woken up at an ungodly hour have attitude problems. The reason we keep the center open 24 hours is in case someone has an emergency... you know like "hey, I'm not feeling well, do you mind taking me to the pharmacy" or "holy shit someone is breaking in"... not "oh, cute kitty"

On an unrelated note... way to prove your manliness to your girlfriend mr (male voice)... nothing proves your heterosexuality better than threatening to commit gay rape... and you don't even sound that cute so I'm going to pass.

[Gravekeeper]

I had a deaf user last night, who, well... umm... I'm pretty sure GK's received a call from us from him before.

Ugh, we have a similar service but its an actual keyboard sort of machine hooked up to a phone line that can type back and forth. It's only, only for emergencies and luckily doesn't get abused really.

Direct relay service like yours though? No thanks. Would feel too much like I was taking the flak for some moron's actions. Such as the above moron's actions.

and about a cat? ><

[Polenicus]

Back when I did phone tech support, I had some 'interesting' experiences with relay calls and TTY.

At first, deaf uses used to have to use relay to call us. We always hated getting them, because they killed our talk time, partially, but also because it was like a game of broken telephone. You were relaying technical directions through an operator who wasn't necessarily technically adept, to another person who wasn't technically adept.

I always used to think the operators were just mangling the instructions. Honestly, I had an incredibly low opinion of them. I figured they had to be mangling and editing what I was sending, because the replies I got back had NO CONNECTION to what I had sent.

Then we got TTY. Now the teletype users could text us DIRECTLY, and we could help them in a chat-like environment. Yay! That should be easy, right? I mean, it's impossible to mishear TEXT, right?

... Right?

I quickly learned that Relay Operators are friggin' HEROS.

I don't understand how text instructions could be misinterpreted so badly. I mean... it's TEXT. the words are RIGHT THERE.

I'd tell them to click 'Start' and they'd reply 'Okay, I've opened Word' (For reference, we did INTERNET tech support). Or I'd type 'Are you at your computer right now?' and they'd reply 'What?' like they didn't hear me (And just like with similar hearing customers, i'd have to repeat the same instructions three times. Yay for cut and paste!). It was exactly like with hearing customers, except without the excuse of mishearing.

Granted, some of them obviously had other problems aside from just being deaf, but some of them just flat out REFUSED to read the instructions.

In other words... it was no different that the Relay calls. Which meant I was a douche for hating on the Relay operators.

So, I am sorry Relay operators. I was a fool to think the problem existed anywhere but between the chair and keyboard.

[Hyndis]

I do tech support myself, and most of it is done through regular email.

I consider it a minor miracle if the customer reads the first complete sentence in the email reply they get.



For people who do that, I simply copy and paste the rest of the email that they failed to read, sans the first sentence or whichever part they did reply to and then send them the rest of that email. And I keep doing it until they eventually read the entire thing I wrote to them.

You have no idea how frustrating it is to have so many customers who apparently have ADD. They cannot read more than a few words in a row without hitting the reply button and replying, but only to those first few words.

They then become enraged the process is taking so long. Well...duh?

Those rare users who are able to read the entire email without flipping out are the ones who have their problems resolved almost instantly.

[smileyeagle1021]

Then we got TTY. Now the teletype users could text us DIRECTLY, and we could help them in a chat-like environment. Yay! That should be easy, right? I mean, it's impossible to mishear TEXT, right?

... Right?

I quickly learned that Relay Operators are friggin' HEROS.

And you also learned that we aren't just relay operators... we're translators... seriously, I have done miracles translating some of those garbled messages into something at least resembling English.