Ok. I am sufficiently fed up enough with relay services to write Yet Another Deaf Rant About the Relay.
Let me paint a picture for you.
MacWorld, San Francisco (a conference I’m currently attending). Hunger. Dinner time. The buzzing city all around me.
Ah! Round Table Pizza (The Last Honest Pizza)– a delectable treat for one long used to the floppy New York style pizza commonly found in the East. Let’s order that!
I pull out my trusty Mac laptop, fire up iChat, and try to connect to Hands On VRS’s VRS service via iChat. Darn, it doesn’t work. Apparently there is an issue with either my laptop or the hotel’s internet firewall. No problem! I’ll just use text-based AIM relay.
If my life were a movie, that’s when the horror music would have started. Nnn-nnnn….Nnnn-nnnn…. I double-click on My IP Relay, and tell them the phone number for Round Table Pizza. Here’s a sample conversation:
myiprelay: IP RELAY RO XXXXF DIALING 415 474 2500 PLS HD
myiprelay: RING 1, 2 (M)
myiprelay: (opr here fast greeting) excuse me qq (sounds confused) (HUNG UP ANOTHER CALL QQ) GA
Ok. FINE. One of those. I call these species fast-hanguppers or relay-afraidus. So let’s try, try again.
bobbycox: Don’t announce relay and pls call back, thanks, ga
myiprelay: (M) (opr here fast greeting) (opr here relaying ur msg)
myiprelay: whats ur phone number qq (sounds hurried) person said hello qq hello qq (HUNG UP)
Ok. That last line was all at once, so naturally I had NO TIME TO RESPOND. By now in the horror movie there would be a ghostly hand reaching up to grab me from behind.
So maybe it’s My IP Relay? Sometimes I have trouble with hangups on their service. Let’s try another relay service! My appetite for pizza must be fed!
thatshamilton: You have been blocked from using the service. Please contact customer service (info@hamiltonrelay.com). If you feel this is in error.
What? What now? What did I do? Blocked? Me? Jeez. Ok. Let’s try this from another another screen name. Aha!
thatshamilton: HRS CAXXXXF DIALING
thatshamilton: RING 1
thatshamilton: RING 2
thatshamilton: Round Table Pizza…hello ga
…and I finally order the pizza. But not without TWO more hangups. However, the Hamilton Relay operator typed back to me faster, enabling me to keep the conversation moving fast enough for the hearing person not to become a fast-hangupper.
As an aside, I know that suspicious types overseas often use the relay service to conduct fraud on businesses in the USA, so often I will get the hangup treatment. One place I called in D.C. for computer and office supplies even refused to talk to my hearing coworker after I had tried calling them several times, suspecting that she was in on the scam. Crazy.
Moral of the story? When ordering pizza in a strange city, make sure you eat a snack beforehand. You may be in for a long phone call. And use a text-based relay service that you are comfortable with.
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Round Table Pizza?? You’re one sick puppy. Go down to Powell and Market (where the cable car turntable is)– walk north on Powell on the left side– you’ll see Blondie’s. It’s a hole-in-the-wall, but the pizza is to die for.
Off the point…but what do you think of the iPhone? Bibliomarket says it’s THE device for Deaf. Your thoughts?
Hmm, while I think the iphone looks AMAZING, I personally don’t think it’s THE device for the deaf. No qwerty keyboard, and a heavy emphasis on the ipod (which, yes, some Deaf will love). I just don’t see how it will ever be a good texting phone without a qwerty keyboard. If you watch macworld you’ll see he does very little “emailing” on it during the demo. As a mac gal, I hope I’m wrong of course!
it does have a qwerty keyboard. it’s on the screen. it’s all touch sensitive.
I for one.. I like it…but it’s definitely not something NEW, new… but it holds so much potential. now if only it were affordable.
But you have to use a stylus, right? After years of using the Sidekick keyboard, I don’t think I could go back to a stylus!
no, no stylus. it’s touch/skin sensitive like the round control button thingie on ipods. something to do with the electrostatic current that comes from your fingers.
at least, that’s what i gather from
http://www.neatorama.com/2007/.....ur-gloves/
and other online descriptions of iphone as being stylus-free.
Touchscreens have been around for a long time and never became popular. Hmmmmm….
It has letters, yes, but no keyboard. No tactile feedback when you type. I think it was no coincidence that during the keynote Jobs did very little typing on it.
Can you give the link to Bibliomarket’s comment about it being the device for the Deaf? I’m thinking about getting it eventually but I’d have to justify spending that much money. Yes, I’m a Machead; it’s just that I’m wary , having been stuck with a Sidekick 2 and lack of innovation by Danger when it comes to Sidekick.
http://bibliomarket.wordpress......us-orgasm/
Pizza is one thing, though it irks me as much as it does you. Fast-hangerups at my daughter’s daycare, though, really drive me crazy.
“What? Sorry, I have children here. I can’t talk to you. Bye.”
I’m trying to talk to you about my kid, who IS there, for heaven’s sake.
Good post.
That’s really a pain… but not as bad as the audiologist offices that hang up on you. Of course, sometimes they will claim to have a TTY and not want to deal with relay for that reason…
A pain for people who use VRS or don’t have a TTY and still need to make relay calls.
Thank god email is getting so much better.
Oh, yeah– or the offices that have a TTY number listed, so you call that number, only to find no one’s bothering to answer. You then call their voice line, only to be told to call back using the TTY number.
In this age of VP, Web-based relay, and the like, I know a lot of people don’t use TTYs anymore, but a good number of people still do, and it’d be nice if companies/agencies that have published TTY numbers would respond to TTY calls, rather than paying lip service to “equal access.”
Allison:
You aren’t kidding. I’m so used to fast-hangerups when it comes to daycare centers. It had gotten to the point where I complained to the management, and they grudgingly accepted my calls from that point. Now my other son is with a private provider, who is 100% understanding and always willing to accept my phone calls, even though she has her hands full with kids! Luck of the draw, I say.
When I order pizza I usually have my order typed out ahead of time… I would definitely do this if I was at a hotel. Then it’s their fault if they ask weird questions I hadn’t expected.
iPhone looks awesome… too bad I’m stuck with another year and a half on my T-Mobile contract. I might try to get out.
Nothing news.
One time I called Thai restaurant to order the Thai food. The manager does not accept the calls via the relay service several times. I was very pissed off and drove on the way from work at late evening. I enter into the Thai restaurant very calmly and there is none of any customer sitting at any table. The manager with his big smile inquired for the order. I ordered and paid. Finally, I wrote the notes why you refused to accept my calls since I am deaf. I warned him if he does that again then I would simply report to the Better Business Bureau and the local government with Consumer Affairs Dept. He dropped his jaws and he knew why he hanged up on me fifteen minutes ago. He could not throw me out since I already paid for the Thai meals.
In a month later, he finally accepted my call via the relay service…
While working for the federal agency, I simply emailed directly to the government vendors whose companies refuse to accept the calls via the relay service and CC to GSA (U.S. General Services Administration) contractor officers.
Here is a sample of my letter to GSA contractor officers and CC to vendors:
On April 13, 2005 at approx. 4:30PM, I once contacted the customer service of Vendor’s business at 800-xxx-xxxx via the relay service which has your GSA contract. The representative at customer service refused to speak to me via the relay service since I am a deaf federal employee at federal agency. I was told that they cannot accept… they had a lot of fraud orders. I already warned that I will file a formal report to GSA if they hang up on me. Of course, they hanged.
I strongly request you to resolve swiftly the serious matters with your vendor to accept the federal employees with hearing impaired via the relay service. I would like to have my demands to be met following:
• Vendor’s business must accept any calls via the relay service
• Vendor’s small business owner (or new owners) must write a formal apology letter for discriminating against me as a deaf federal employee as well as a customer. The Vendor violated the federal laws of U.S. Section 508, American Disability Act, and Telecommunication Act.
• Vendor must teach whole sales dept and customer service to accept the calls via the relay service for sensitive deaf culture.
The deaf society does not work for Nigeria Scams.
All I did was to request the Vendor’s customer service to provide me a copy of paid invoice for government records. The Invoice number for the amount of $xxx.xx.
If Vendor does not meet three demands, I will have to contact legal representatives.
Know what happened? They are too feared to lose their great business with big customer, U.S. Government. In a day or two, I have collected the vendors’ apologetic letters and they have updated their company policies to accept the relay calls for deaf federal government employees and you as the civilians.
However, I still have to struggle to contract any business via the relay while I am off the clock…
Mookie
and, you call (using internet relay service) a financial company, only to find out that they require you to use a TTY number which is non-existent! Who knows where the heck is my TTY and it’s probably non-functional by the time I reach it in the midst of dust balls. :)
I was able to call back on the relay and asked for a manager where I explained the situation. However, he grudgily accepted my call via the relay but I was not lucky the 2nd time around.
Thanks for the tidbit, Mookie.
I wonder if it may work on Vonage (VOIP) phone or Digital phone via the high speed Internet cable. I may be wrong. Yet, IP relay does not provide the phone number because of using IP. Would any business screen your private phone number via the tradional relay service? Yes. via VRS…probably.
mookie-
that’s an awesome strategy! thanks for sharing it with us.
Macheads, unite! **hugging my Mac**
I love the relay calls where the wife calls up the doctors office for results from her OB-GYN,
relay: all tests are fine, the baby will be okay, except………………..
(you know how the relay loves to pause)
relay: you just need to update your address information.
gotta love it when the heart jumps at “except……”
notification submitted, (i’m stupid)
In the case of the pizza shop, it had to be pure ignorance that made them hang up. The Nigerian relay scammers wouldn’t order pizza, it would be cold when it got there! It’s appropriate for normal stores that sell products by mail to be cautious, but when somebody takes a relay call at a pizza shop, of course it is only going to be legitimate.
This happened in San Franicsco, right? You didn’t say how far it was from your hotel. Why not just walk to the place and order for carry out? That would have saved yourself alot of stress and time haggling with the relay service. You have legs, right? Get the address, yahoo it for directions and walk there to satisfy your craving. Doesn’t make sense to me. Anyway, whatever your reasons were…I wouldn’t have spent that much time with the relay. Too bad they don’t have a website to order online for delivery.
C’mon, this was a geek convention! He would have been laughed at if he hadn’t ordered his pizza with his computer in some way or another!
(just kidding…being silly.)
Could be. But he tried to take the easy way out of it and that was to do technology do the work for him. No sweat for him (no pun intended). Sometimes, the old-fashioned way is the best way…the old-fashioned way would have kicked the relay’s ass anytime in this situation. 21st century technology couldn’t meet his needs which his legs would have.
Isn’t AIM ip-relay stupid? Whose idea was that? I’ve tried it a few times and I really dislike it. Each time, I got hung up on because the relay operator doesn’t have patience for me to type out what I wanted to convery on the phone. I felt like I had to make my sentences shorter and type faster. I guess I wasn’t up to their standard (again, conforming to someone else’s standards which I refuse to do) and I haven’t used it since then.
But technology wasn’t the easy way out of it this time. I’m sure he knew walking down the street would be easier. Like I said, it’s a matter of geek points.
I enjoyed ur post. Try this and most of the time it works for me ;-]. Even before u announce to the called party, instruct relay agent not to announce and use this instead “hi this is ed calling thru relay service. I’ll like to place an order for a pizza please” Usually does the trick. I say usually cuz some merchants are really dumb..but usually works. Cheers…Ed
first let me admit…
I am not deaf
last night I met some bloggers from this site so I thought I would check it out
as I know very little about the deaf culture…
in short…
the hang ups and the bad service
it is pretty much across the board
there are idiots and ******** all over
I am sure it is frustrating
but I get frustrated when trying to place a simple order myself
my brother uses a service and orders online COLLEGECAMPUS something
maybe you could get around some of the barriers by just ordering over the web
just a thought
again
I am just visiting
so excuse my outspoken-ness on something I know nothing about
learning about the culture through the culture of blogs
I don’t know much about the culture of blogs either. I don’t normally surf on blog websites. But I check this one out once in a while. I think it’s more like a diary except it’s open to the public for everyone to read. It’s also probably to get other people’s opinions as well. That’s on a level too personal for me. I notice it also cause some sort of annoyance/friction among the bloggers and the public. I’m not sure what it is. The public wants something and the bloggers are entitled to write what they want to share (or not) and the public is entitled to share theirs as well. But I think this is kinda different because it’s a deaf blog and only maybe 10 percent of the popluation has some sort of type of deafness. I don’t think 100 million people would read this,lol. But now I know I’m not the only one who can’t quite get a handle on it…
“I’m not the only one who can’t quite get a handle on it…”
What is there for you to get a handle on? How is it different just because it’s a deaf blog? If it’s too personal for you, all you have to do is exit the website. Last time I checked, no one is being forced to type “deafdc.com” in the URL field.
what the hell does any of this have to do with the relay and ordering pizza?
I think the referenced “it” was probably “the Internet.” Or maybe “computers.” That’s the best I can come up with.
Funny, Bobby, I just read your post this morning before heading out to the airport. After waiting for four hours, I found out my flight was cancelled. If you think trying to order a pizza through relay is bad, how about trying to rebook your flight through one of those automated phone systems that hang up on you when the operator is trying to relay the different options (press 1 for…)?!?! SCREAM.
Kind of off the point, but has anyone besides me had bad experiences with United? The last two times I’ve had flights canceled, United ticket agents have refused (yes, outright refused!) to write down what they are saying. Even after I repeatedly said, I’m deaf, I cannot understnad what you are saying, please write it down.!!!!%$*@#!!