The Secret Deafie: The rude Text Relay operator

Posted on April 23, 2012 by



The Secret Deafie is a series of anonymous columns written by different writers. Today’s Deafie has sent us a transcript of an actual call made on Text Relay.

Recently I made a call via Text Relay, to our local Indian restaurant for a home delivery. I am a rare user, preferring to use emails or SMS, like most deaf people I know.

I expected this to be a fairly straightforward call. However, this call left me astounded at the Text Relay Assistant’s unprofessional attitude.

Note: The operator’s side of the conversation is in bold. ‘ga’ means ‘go ahead.’

Read on…

[operator].. Hello how can I help? ga

[caller] Hello my name is ******** and i would like to place an order please. ga

Note from operator… its too noisy. he cant hear me. ga

Try again please. ga

You are going to have to give me the order etc first. ga

Ok that’s fine, are you ready… one chicken rezzela, one chicken tikka masala, bindi and brinjai bhaji, bindi and chana…just to check that you are following this ok?? ga

Yes keep going. ga

Bangladesh tarka dhall, fresh spinach and indian cottage cheese, sag aloo, cucumber ratia, one pilau rice, one mushroom rice, one garlic naan. I believe that we are entitled to one free dish too? Ga

Look I’m just the text relay op. He cant barely hear me so there’s no point asking me if you get a free dish. Just say what it is you want. ga

Sorry, it is your job to relay my questions, so please just ask that. ga

Do you understand what I’m trying to explain to you? it is very noisy. He cannot hear me that is why he hung up. You need to make this as simple as possible. I’m not going to be mentioning text relay or he will hang up again so if you get a free dish what dish do you want? ga

Well the menu mentions that so that’s why. Can you try one more time please and we will try and be patient this end! ga

You are going to have to answer some questions first. Firstly, your address and how are you going to be paying. ga

Ok ****** I live at ******** ***********, and I have my mastercard ready. ga

And the question I’ve already asked you to answer is what free dish do you want? If you don’t tell me now this man will not hold on the line whilst I relay everything to you, he will just hang up. ga

Mushroom and sag is the free dish we would like please. ga

hold txd re-dialing … txd pls wait … txd dialing txd engaged sksk txd re-dialing … txd pls wait … txd dialing txd engaged sksk txd re-dialing … txd pls wait … txd dialing txd engaged sksk txd re-dialing … txd pls wait … txd dialing txd engaged sksk note from operator… as you can see the line is busy ga

Ok, can i just check, did you get through once or twice? ga

You know I only got through once. The first time when he hung up. ga

Ok thanks, can I take your op number please? ga

Yes you’re welcome to it, firstly why do you require it? I’m trying to help you here. ga

Previously, the op number would come up on a call, but not on this screen, so it is helpful for me to know your op number. I would also suggest that try one more time, I get the impression that you are finding this call hard to deal with, but perhaps we can see if we can try one more time? ga

A take away order is usually the most simple call to do. So your impression is wrong. hold txd re-dialing … txd pls wait … txd dialing txd engaged sksk note from operator… again as you see line is still busy. ga

Ok, so can i take your number please ga

**** ** ga

Thank you very much for your patience, bibi for now – off to find another takeaway by foot! ga

Thank you for using text relay. sk

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