Somewhat Silent

You know the guys collecting for something or other that seem to jump out of the clouds from nowhere, and invade ur day unexpectedly when your absentmindedly strolling through town thinking about aft things that may or may not need to be done!!
Being severely deaf, I have a thing I do if anyone like this jumps at me and goes to give me a hug or shake my hand and once they got you, thats it your there for an hour and eventually ur talked into handing over your account number!!, well Im going straight to hell for this but it works, and Im not entirely lying either!!, I usually sign to them and mouth that Im deaf!, well Im not lying am I, its just a quick and polite way of saying leave me alone!, well I did it today, but the guy didnt let up, he followed me! and said, are you really?? really are you deaf??? and mumbled on about people doing it often to get him off his back, He had a beard and town was busy and not a great environment for lipreading, so the truth was, I couldnt hear him properly so I signed it again and pointed to my hearing aids, and walked off, and he yelled something after me!! I was pretty pissed off over that, that was kind ignorant on his part, who yells at the back of a deaf person?? Im not completely deaf no, but still that was uncalled for! This was the same guy that did it to me again about a week ago, my little sister was with me and he did the same thing so its not the first time it happened with him!
yet I felt a little guilty as he is just doing his job as invasive and all as it is, so I stopped around the corner and wrote a note, I have no Idea why, Im well able to talk I just didnt want to, so I wrote a quick note with the entention of handing it to him quickly and be off on my merry way, my note said,
‘Im sorry I walked away I know ur just doing ur job, but I am deaf, and I cant hear you properly and if I had more time id try to listen, good luck’
I turned around to walk back to where he was, and there he was running towards me, and he said, ‘Im so sorry for being so rude,’ I handed him the note, he continued, ‘ Its just so many people do that just to be left alone, I thought u were the same, Im so sorry for behaving that way’, he read the note, and I said, ‘ur fine but I do have a hearing problem and didnt have the time to lipread you I know ur only doing ur job but be carefull, there are some of us who dont lie’!
He said im so sorry, again and shook my hand and smiled, and I went to work! I was pissed at first with the way he reacted to me on the street, but I admired him for swallowing his pride and following me up to say sorry, that was genuinly nice But in all fairness he should be more carefull and learn from what happened, these people walk the street and have no training first, I hope he knows better now!

Lette

Hello, I contacted you today (Friday, May 19 2006) about a negative/debit transaction showing up on my account’s online banking for over $1300 on May 19. The largest withdrawal that I have made recently was for $100 at an ATM in Brooklyn. I simply wanted to confirm that the information shown on your online banking website was correct, and if it was- I wanted to find out what I could do to prevent this money from being stolen from my account, or at least find out what the transaction was for so that I would know what had happened to my account.

I am profoundly deaf and cannot hear over the phone. Multiple representatives of Commerce Bank illegally refused to speak to me through my interpreter. This went on for over a half an hour as we were asked to hold time and time again. Had any random female called up with the information that we provided, the information would have been given to us long ago, and your representative confirmed this to be true. Because my interpreter was a male, your represenatives refused to accomodate my disability in any reasonable way. I offered to verify my information in multiple ways–the number that we called from is the number on the account, we asked them to call back at that number. I spoke into the phone and identified myself as Sara *** (name deleted), and stated that I am deaf. I offered to verify my information in any way that the represenatives saw fit. And they continued to refuse to accomodate me.

Had any random female from any random payphone called up with half of the information that we were willing to provide, she would not have had to jump through these hoops. But I- the legitimate account owner- called up and was illegally denied assistance because of my disability and because my trusted interpreter of choice was a male. This was not an issue of identity verification–we offered to have me speak into the phone multiple times, and when I was finally permitted the chance to do so- it made no difference at all.

At one point I was told to fill out a customer service request on your website- as if an anonymous internet transaction from an unknown IP address was somehow more verification of my identity than providing any wide variety of confidential and personally identifying information over the phone FROM THE PHONE NUMBER OF RECORD, or better yet- having them call us back AT THE NUMBER THAT YOU HAVE ON YOUR RECORDS. However, when I tried to access your online banking site to fill out this form, I was greeted with an error message stating that I should call commerce bank at (number deleted).

Finally, we requested that your representative call us back at the number on the account. We have been waiting for this call for over a half an hour. As I write this email, I am preparing to walk three blocks in the rain to the bank to request information that I should have had over an hour ago without the illegal discrimination and aggravation “America’s Most Convenient Bank” has put me through today.

Regards,

Sara **name deleted

Update: I went to the bank, and spoke to a representative and was informed that the “debit” is actually a pending DEPOSIT. (The online banking interface clearly identifies it as a DEBIT. A negative transaction against my account.) I was forced to walk three blocks in the rain because of an inaccurate and poorly designed website, and blatant discrimination against deaf patrons.

We called at approximately 11AM. It is now 2:47PM and the “we will call you back in 10 minutes” phonecall never materialized. I bet they’re patting themselves on the back now for successfully foiling a social engineering attempt. I mean. Honestly. Who would believe that a deaf person would ever want to call a bank, or that the deaf person wouldn’t be able to hear on the phone to talk to them?? It *must* be some random attempt by some random person to illegally gain access about whether a $1300 debit against an account is fraudulent or not. And the fact that it’s from the number on record? Pshaw. Us social engineers must have broken in. Deafness is an urban-freaking-legand anyway.

Suffice to say, as soon as that $1300 clears, I’m moving all my business to a new bank. Commerce Bank sure is convenient. Until you have to interact with them as a deaf customer.