Thursday, April 23, 2015

Don't Ya Just Hate it When...

      Don't ya just hate it when you can't hear people on the phone?  I'll admit right away that I have a hearing problem , but it's not that severe. I do have the volume turned up on my phone.

     So what are the problems I have. People talk too quickly. I would like  people to talk slower and then they have more precise  diction. I get upset when somebody answers the phone with rapid fire speech and I'm not too sure if I even  have the right number. I have to ask the person to repeat. You can ask some people to slow down and they get it and keep their speech at a slower rate. Some just can't adjust the rate of speech. Some people are probably a little nervous on the phone and become tense and the rate keeps up.

    Some people will not talk into the receiver so they are not loud enough to be heard. Their volume goes up and down. 

     Some people use a speakerphone and you get too much echo for consistent sound. My daughter tends to use the speakerphone when she calls so they can both get in on the conversation.

     Many call centers use headsets and they are very poor as the mike gets too far away from their mouth.

    Sometimes there's too much background noise to hear the caller very well. I had a friend who lived very close to a railway track. Sometimes the train was going by when I would try to speak to Lloyd. It was impossible.

     Some of the little cell phones are extremely cheap so the voice reproduction is poor. Last night I had a call from somebody who sounded as if they were at the bottom of a well.

    Sometimes there's too much noise in my house. That's one I can handle myself. SHUT UP! I sometimes say give me a second to turn the radio off. 

    Sometimes you find a very long recording of options  to choose from. By the time I get to the end I forget the number I should have chosen. Large stores are bad for this one. Home Depot or Walmart are bad. In fact, Walmart's phone system is just all bad.
  
     The recording that bugs me the most is to my doctor's office. There's a long recording. Half of it I cannot hear. The voice is weak and I'm sure gum is being chewed as she's making the recording. Why do they always choose the poorest voice to make the tape.

    So there's my rant. I hope that some call system might see my rant and have a session with their employees. Fat chance though! Call centers are just happy to find people to answer phones.

    How about you? Do you find it difficult to follow things on the phone?