February 5, 1997

Mr. Wesley M. Franklin

I want to file a complaint of poor quality relay service against California 
Relay Service.   Since they changed, I have had many problems with the relay.  
What I experience are :

         1) Garbled conversations and mysterious characters when CRS answers.
         2) They don't follow directions from the caller (me) especially calls
            to automated answering service.
         3) They tell them something else other than what I say.
         4) Too many rings until they answer and a long hold afterwards                           sometimes.
         5) CRS's "explaining relay" sometimes makes the hearing person think 
            I am trying to sell them something.  Whatever they're saying 
            sometimes make the hearing person lose interest in communicating 
            with hearing impaired callers.  I have had many unnecessary hang 
            ups due to this.

Being a deaf activist, I feel that maybe other deaf people are experiencing 
this as well and I fear this will cause the relationship between deaf and 
hearing community to become strained.   This must be looked into right away.  
I can give you some details of the calls I experience.  Prior to the changeover 
I have had no problems with CRS. 

I kindly ask you to investigate this and correct it.  Thank you very much for 
your attention and I hope that this can be corrected soon.

Richard Roehm


Contact:
    
    nesmuth@edenbbs.com