British Gas - sorted!

Look out for a story on my case with British Gas.... coming soon

British Gas

Had a few problems with British Gas. I brought a new property and being all electric no gas I needed to sort out the electric supplier so I can start paying the bills at cheaper rates than their standard.

Obviously calling them was a nightmare as they didn't know who owns the current account and get it opened in my name.

However, once I emailed and complained to then and said that I'm deaf and its very difficult to get someone who got no idea what's going on to call for me they were brilliant.

It took a few months but they kept in touch by email regularly.

I recommend any hard of hearing who have problems using their typetalk number, just email instead and explain that you need to use email. They will put someone on the case (even get a letter through the post confirming) and they will try and sort it out for you.

Thumbs up for British Gas!

Still here!

Sorry all, I'm still here!

Just thought I post something!

PC World

I ordered a store pick up from PC World earlier today. Trouble is, you have to leave a phone number for them to ring when the order is ready. Obviously I had to level them a number, somi left them the land line. But they ring you to let you know the order is ready, which I cannot hear and have trouble deleting the flashing answer machine alert off the phone. Grr.....

Talkmobile

Talk mobile doesn't have a single email support I can find on their site. So how am I supposed to contact them to remove content restriction off my 3g Xoom?

Oh yeah, you are supposed to call them. Guess I will have to pay another trip to Carphone Warehouse to get them to do it for me, since I brought it from there.

Talk mobile will be getting a complaint that there is no way for a deaf person to contact them unless its by letter.

Oh dear....

Applying for Jobs - Sainsburys

Hi all,

I just wondered if other hard of hearing / deaf people out there applied recently to Sainsburys? I got a friend who recently applied and had a horrible experience mainly around deaf awareness.

Now I work for the company, I'm not allowed to go mouthing off about Sainsburys. But if there is a general concern with people trying to get a job and didn't have the experience expected then get in touch with me.

What I plan to do,  if there is a problem, is write a letter to Justin King, the CEO of Sainsburys and explain to him that there is an issue and something should be done before it becomes a problem.

Some of the issues so far are

1. Too much "phone calls" - you are contacted by phone or requested to phone up to arrange interviews etc. Even after stating you are deaf on your application form.

2. No-one to sign for you during the interview process at the store.

3. Total lack of feedback in why you failed the interview.

4. The 6 months wait to reapply again.

Please get in touch. Hearing people, sorry you don't apply. I only want people with hearing problems which been affected by this process.

Rubbish weather!

After all the hot weather looks like rain had to come. Well it did so I didn't leave the house today! Nothing much to report on deaf issues today, maybe over the weekend?

Take care all

Iron Man 2

Watched Iron Man 2 on Sky Movies. Did you know not all films across Sky's movie channels are subtilted? So even I pay for Sky, I never at any time able to watch all of the stuff I pay for, because it not 100% subtilted,.

Sky doesnt offer discount for deaf people, maybe they should.

Annoyed - carephone warehouse

I got a Motorola Xoom. Its pretty good, allowing my to use internet everywhere as its a wi-fi and 3G version. I got it from Carphone Warehouse in a great deal that got me a free keyboard and mouse with it.

See picture guys. In the small print it actually states,

"Free keyboard and mouse offer runs from 1st July, while stocks last. Android 3.1 over the air software upgrade available in July will enable up to 64gb of storage with 32gb SD card."

Now I got the keyboard and mouse, but the mouse doesn't work. Why? Because without the Xoom being upgraded to 3.1 (instead of 3.0.1) it doesn't support the mouse. Also my SD card slot doesn't work either, so I can't put a memory card in it from my camera for example.

So the best thing is to phone customer support. Well wait, I'm deaf so that won't work. I may be able to talk to people face to face, but the huge problem of just listening its too much for me to handle. There is too much guessing of the words and many people doesn't understand the problem. Also on top of that, you usually talk to some international call centre so english isn't their first language.

So I email right? Well, lets see what response I get!

Night

Well, first time I setup this blog. Here some content already.

Dont worry more to come, I got years of my life yet :-)

Night all, sweet dreams

Listening to music

Right,

I want to listen to music. Problem is to listen to music loud enough means having the neighbours now that I'm listening to Bruno Mars. Second problem, its 11pm and that might annoy them. So last year I got a Phonak iCom (no.... its not a Apple device or something to do with iPhones just because of the i in front of it). Its a special bluetooth device that connects via a weak FM signal directly into my hearing aids. Its an amazing device allowing the hearing aid and icom to work together to make sure that whatever the aduio source running through it uses the correct program to get the most out of my listening experience.

For exmaple, phones.
The icom got a mic onboard so it functions just like a bluetooth device you put in your ear and connect to the phone. But it switches the hearing aid into a phone program which adjusts the sound to allow it to be clearer for you.

Music,
This puts the phone into music mode, giving a better range of sound instead of focuing on just speech which it does in normal mode.

Its a great piece of kit, but its NOT LOUD ENOUGH........... so guess its back to the hospital again to get the settings changed!

Welcome to Life of a Deaf Guy

Welcome all,

This blog is a special blog close to my heart as it focus on my life as a profoundly deaf person. I live in the UK which as a country has many support for deaf people but sometimes not enough.

Often people assume too much, that is fact of life. Sometimes people need explaining why things are the way they are. A lot of people assume since deaf people can wear hearing aids, shouting at them will work. Nope, makes it worse, a lot worse.

There are times where deaf people use sign language as their main communciation. I'm not one of them. I was brought up to be in both worlds. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I mainly talk, which makes its less obviously when in fact I have little hearing at all. I rely on the latest and most powerful hearing aids in order to hear what I can. Even then, I cannot get everything hearing people can.

So want a feeling on how a deaf person brought up in the hearing world copes with adult life today in the UK? Well save this website to your bookmarks, you are about to find out!