Whenever I write about not using the phone people invariably ask me “can’t you hear on the phone with your CI?” or “Why not use VRS?” Honestly, it’s a habit I fell into years ago and haven’t gotten around to breaking yet because I prefer to be phone-less. That’s just me. Moving on…
The curb in a parking lot decided to play tug-of-war with my car’s bumper today and pulled it right off. I figured I should try to get it put back on ASAP since it looks crazy and feels noisy and exposed without it.
I was looking up the phone number for Don to call the car place and noticed a ‘live chat’ button on their site. That’s new. I was skeptical though, as in the past whenever I used their ‘make an appointment form’ someone would email me back requesting that I call (don’t you think I would have called in the first place if I wanted to communicate that way?).
The chat auto-answered but no one was there… fair enough, I wander away from my own chat sometimes. So I left it open until someone came back. He first asked for my phone to have someone call me. Figures. I told him I’m deaf and don’t use the phone. He said, “Okay. Well, in that case, let’s avoid the phone. I’ll call up our service department and relay the info to you.” That’s definitely a first! I figured he’d be easier to work with than a relay operator who has to follow strict standards and wouldn’t even explain why I had to have things relayed through them.
Things went smoothly, as any chat / IM conversation can when one person isn’t trapped inside a script.
At one point he said “They seem to be having trouble wrapping their heads around the difficulty in speaking to you by phone… Okay, found someone with some sense.” Boy do I know that feeling.
Long story short – my appointment is set up for tomorrow morning and I even got directions to the collision center since I hadn’t been there before, and he gave me his email in case I needed anything.
How very helpful of that person. Its things like that, that make your life that little bit easier. Hope everything goes well.
That’s fantastic, Sara! I’m exactly the same way — even though I can get by with a short conversation on my CapTel phone, I really hate the phone in general and just avoid it. I have my husband make any necessary phone calls, but if I can take the burden off him and deal with a company via email or chat, like you did, even better!
I especially love your comment, “whenever I used their ‘make an appointment form’ someone would email me back requesting that I call (don’t you think I would have called in the first place if I wanted to communicate that way?)” EXACTLY! lol
I’m so glad they were able to help you out — that guy sounds extra helpful.
I’m glad I’m not the only one like that about the phone.
Actually my boyfriend (hearing) isn’t a phone person either, the two of us are quite a pair.
Interesting! Although I can use the phone since getting a CI, I too find that I avoid it. For one thing, I find it very difficult to remember what was said on the phone and I have to write down everything in the conversation. Not chit chat but anything of consequence. So I prefer e-mail, IM, face-to-face … anything but phone.
Oddly, the younger generation (meaning 20 somethings) seems to prefer texting and they have grown up with it. Asked about this, my nephew says its because it’s more private – phone calls can be overheard by everyone else, especially his parents.
So things may gradually change to a society that prefers text over talk.