A Changing Relay Service Industry Reviews a Year of Complaints
Bring on the relay provider complaints. Monday marked the deadline for states and providers of interstate telecom relay services (TRS) to file a year’s worth of consumer gripes with the FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau from June 1, 2011, to May 31, 2012. TRS allows people with hearing or speech disabilities to make calls via a text telephone or other device. The FCC describes a two-fold reason for the demand. The complaint logs “are intended to provide an early warning to the Commission of possible service quality issues,” and the process “also allows the Commission to determine whether a state or interstate TRS provider has appropriately addressed consumer complaints, and to spot national trends that may lend themselves to coordinated solutions,” the commission said in a recent reminder about the deadline. The complaints, which address a variety of technical and customer service problems, come in just as the FCC has shifted the rules for IP relay due to allegations of fraud from earlier this year.
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"A prohibition against temporary authorization of IP Relay users is now necessary,” the FCC said Friday (http://xrl.us/bndbq7), “in order to curb the fraud and abuse that has resulted from provider misuse of this procedure.” The new order is effective immediately with “good cause,” the FCC said: Despite “some value in allowing unverified users to make calls for a short period of time during the Commission’s transition to the IP Relay registration system, we are concerned that reliance on the guest user procedure has resulted in abuse of the IP Relay program by unauthorized IP Relay users.” The order “curbs the misuse of IP Relay by prohibiting providers of IP Relay from handling non-emergency IP Relay calls for new registrants until their registration information is verified,” the commission said. The Department of Justice has alleged AT&T had millions of dollars of IP relay fraud (CD March 23 p6). AT&T provides relay service in California, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Virginia and, as of July 1, Colorado. The company has denied the DOJ’s allegations.
The number of complaints varies significantly depending on the company and state in which it’s operating. The Louisiana Relay Administration Board received 91 complaints in the last year, but said “88 of them are from the same relay user who has had difficulty understanding what relay is and how to best use the relay” (http://xrl.us/bnda97). Nebraska-based contractor Hamilton Relay “continues to work with the customer every couple of weeks,” the log noted. Hamilton encountered a similar situation in New Mexico, where it provides service and filed 22 complaints this year, 10 from the same person (http://xrl.us/bndo5j).
The various complaint logs typically categorized the different concerns and detailed the given incidents and how the company dealt with them. The categories include a communications assistant’s (CA) spelling accuracy, fraudulent/harassment calls, 711 problems and technical or service problems. The Iowa Utilities Board, which also relied on Hamilton for service, reported 17 problems (http://xrl.us/bndbgo). The Oregon Telecommunications Relay Service reported eight customer contacts in the past year (http://xrl.us/bndo3b). Spring Relay reported 11 contacts with its customers in Indiana (http://xrl.us/bndbgj), 17 in South Carolina (http://xrl.us/bndo4z), three in North Dakota (http://xrl.us/bndbgy), 35 in Florida (http://xrl.us/bndbgf), six in Missouri, 22 in Ohio (http://xrl.us/bndopm), zero in Alaska (http://xrl.us/bndo27), four in Nebraska (http://xrl.us/bndnu6) and 42 in New York (http://xrl.us/bndbi6). In Florida, the 35 complaints were a significant drop from 121 Sprint Relay complaints last year. The number was around 50 in 2010 and as high as 140 in 2008. Sprint said it’s the largest TRS provider in the U.S. The Minnesota Relay Service broke down the total number of TRS calls by type and reported 255,898 total calls, 12,381 speech-to-speech calls and 406,034 CapTel calls.
Most problems appear to be routine, resulting from technical problems or a minor offense, and the resolutions often involved a supervisor reviewing procedures with the CA and clarifying what happened. Often the complaints boiled down to customer service. In the Florida log, which comprised 36 complaints to Sprint Relay and the Public Service Commission, one customer was unhappy that staff did not type “you're welcome” or “have a nice day” after the customer wrote “thank you.” Not all incidents were negative. The Virginia Relay Service, which relies on Hamilton, reports one complaint and 69 commendations from the past year, plus 297 general inquiries (http://xrl.us/bndo3o). The complaint logs showed a violation of privacy in New York from a Sprint Relay staffer on July 20, 2011: “A voice caller called to report that a Relay Operator posted a transcript of a relay call on Facebook. The caller said she was very embarrassed.” The log said Sprint determined the employee “did break confidentiality” and fired the worker.
The past year featured some changes. The California Public Utilities Commission said it adopted two “substantive” changes to TRS service. The state said it now offers speech-to-speech user training line for Californians with difficulty speaking, who can “get detailed information about STS relay, get help with filling out a Customer Preference or make a practice call.” The PUC also has a visually assisted speech-to-speech program, which received a soft launch in May. This change “enables the CA to see the caller’s mouth movements, facial expressions and gestures,” the state commission said. As one of the largest states, California also was home to some of the highest levels of complaints. The California logs, with service rendered by Hamilton and AT&T, totaled around 150 incidents. Another new trend is the rise of caption telephoning services (CapTel) for people with hearing loss. Sprint, AT&T and Hamilton all offer CapTel now, and many complaint logs reserve sections now for any customer concerns with CapTel. Sprint Relay debuted its latest CapTel expansion in Lubbock, Texas, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony June 25.