Yesterday I had an experience I and every other Deaf person have way too often and every time it happens, it makes me really irritable and makes me cry in anger and frustration. What is going on? Let me explain.A desire to "pick my own"Every year around this time I get an itch to "pick your own" strawberries and sour cherries and make batches of freezer jam for the family. I rarely do any cooking now-a-days but this is the one thing I have kept up over the years as we all love the homemade jam.
A experience with 711 Relay and Spicer Orchards
We always go to an Orchard in Hartland called Spicers. I checked their website and it says to call for picking information so that is exactly what I did. Since I'm deaf, I use Relay service. Let me briefly explain Relay. I call, in this case, 711 Relay on the computer... I give them the number I want them to call and any instructions if necessary. A hearing person from 711 Relay then calls the number I gave them. When that person answers, they explain they are calling from 711 Relay for a deaf person and all they have to do is say GA which means "Go Ahead" when they are finished with their sentence so Relay knows they are done and its the Deaf person's turn to talk. This is not difficult at all and it really adds little extra time to the conversation but.... some people just will not take the time to go through this process... as I experienced yesterday.
Hung up phone calls... how rude!
Back to my story... a person at Spicers answers the phone and said they didn't know "how to do relay" and passed the phone to another person. That person said she was on the register and didn't have time for this... and hung up. Now.. nothing is more rude to a Deaf person than a hearing person hanging up on them. I wasn't given a chance to explain or say a word. They decided I simply was not worth their attention or time.
Oh... I was not happy so I immediately called back and either the first or second girl answered and said, "Honey, we can't help you" and hung up again.
Now I was really upset but took time to calm down and called back for the 3rd time. This time I instructed the Relay operator NOT to mention Relay and ask immediately for the manager.. and that is what she did. I explained to the manager what happened. She was all apologetic and said several times she would "address the situation" with her employees. She answered my question (are the strawberries still available to pick?) and that conversation took all of 3 minutes. I did consider forgetting about this place and find another orchard to spend my money but we were familiar with this place and they really just needed to be educated.
Picking strawberries
Later that afternoon, my husband, daughter and I did drive to this orchard and we did pick 2 full containers of strawberries. I thought about it but didn't mention that I was the girl they hung up this morning as I had no idea who I had spoken to and they were busy. They were all very nice to me in person and they saw me signing with my husband so maybe they put two and two together.
I made two batches of strawberry jam last night and need to buy about 3 more boxes of pectin before I can finish the second container we filled. We will return next week to pick sour cherries!
DON"T hang up on a Relay call...
give a Deaf person same respect as you want!
I just want to end that if you work in a service business that deals with phone calls from the public, now and then you might experience a call from a Relay company speaking for a Deaf person. I just ask that you give them the same consideration and respect that you would give a hearing person who called. That's all we ask.
Maybe I'll test Spicers again next week and ask them if sour cherries are still available to pick....
