Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Upset!

I feel upset and humiliated.  I'm not sure why I'm so upset; this sort of thing has happened to me thousands of times ... but, maybe that's the point!

I had to call the RDSP (Registered Disability Savings Plan) department of the CRA this afternoon to get some important information, because my financial advisor had told me that there was a problem with setting up a new RDSP account because my old RDSP account (which I thought I'd closed down two years ago) was still active.

However, the woman I spoke to at the CRA wouldn't give the information to me. She kept saying, "I need to speak to Anne Abbott." And I kept saying, "But you ARE speaking to Anne Abbott, just with my communication assistant acting as my voice." And she kept insisting that she speak directly to me. 

Yuula was my communication assistant, and even she was getting angry because the woman kept talking about me in the third person. Not only was the CRA woman talking about me as if I wasn't there, she kept insisting that I call the TTY line, and I kept saying "But I'm not deaf and I don't have a TTY machine." I told her another thing too, that even if I did have a TTY machine what could stop somebody from stealing my information and using the tty machine without my knowledge? The whole "security" issue is a load of bullshit! Anybody could log in or call with another person's information and they'd never know. So why must people with communication disabilities be treated any differently than any other shmuck? 

(Sure, sure, I can hear some of you saying, "But do you trust your employees with your information?" To you I say, " I sure do, I trust them with my life! And, what exactly is the difference between my communication assistants and the people who do the relay service for the TTY? None whatsoever!")

Finally, when the CRA woman said to stop spelling out the words to her because she said it was "annoying" her, I lost my cool and said fuck you! and then hung up.

If you were in my place, I'm sure you would have done the same thing ....

1 comment:

Unknown said...

what a frustrating and disrespectful. situation. I hope this can be resolved for you and that others do not have to go though this.