when they asked if i'd accept it i said "no, they are usually scammers from nigeria trying to get my hard earned $$$$$.

anyhoo...i haven't had one in awhile, i just wanted to give ya'll the heads up that they are calling again.

Hmmm, when I worked in a store-years ago, the only time I got those calls, it was actually a service calling for a hearing impaired person with a question. Maybe someone wants a cake?

Watch out tho! I get those calls too and one day I was feeling ornery and said "this is a hoax" and the other person was so confused.... turns out it was a real customer! And it's not like I could explain myself very well with that relay junk. I ended up smoothing it over and they did come in and order a real cake..... so just make sure not to be too rude! I just go along with it until I am 100% sure.

well the last time i was on the phone with them for at least 20 minutes....you can't tell that's what it is until they start emailing you.

it's sad if it was really a hearing impaired person....but why wouldn't they just come by the shop?...i've had many hearing impaired people come by....it was easy to take their order, they can still write, and they could always read my lips....it just seems fishy to me.....

great...now i'm mean to the hearing impaired.

If they really want a cake, they will call or stop by. Don't worry about it. That's the last thing you need to worry about!

cylstrial: Customer service is huge. If I was deaf and someone hung up on me I would absolutely take my business somewhere else. And tell my friends. Every customer needs to feel important. You can't afford to take that chance and hope they are not for real (scammer, just a price shopper, whatever).

The scam phone calls I got took a bit too but as soon as they mention money order, send the cake, i want it to say happy married life then I just hang up. I just keep working while I'm talking.

I do of course wonder why use that PIA relay system when there's at least email....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/ID/4781806/

in case anyone is wondering what this is about, here's an article about it on msnbc, there is someone who was a relay operator on this board who said once the lions share of calls are made by scammers.

the "happy marriage life" scam people got my email address this way last year, as far as i know i was the first one they contacted, it took me a while to figure it out, since i hadn't heard of it happening before.

if they call and want to know your email address right off the bat, and are wanting things to be delivered far away, that is them.

it's sad thet this is not regulated more closely, you 2 are the only ones i've ever heard of, of getting a legit call this way.....guess i jumped the gun.

Hey Kory -- I didn't mean to imply that customer service isn't a big deal. It is! I worked as District Manager for years and it was all about making people happy. All I meant is that she shouldn't worry about a phone call that she's not even sure is legitimate. Hopefully, (if the call is legitimate) the people on the end of the line will be understanding and call back.

Unfortunately, there are some people out there who just want to steal your money. And it's hard to know whether it's real or not. Personally, I would have taken the call and made sure. But she already made the decision not to take the call...so I was just saying, just let it fall off your back.

Anyway, I'm rambling. Hopefully, you understand what I meant now. =o) (I don't know how to get those little smiley icons in if I'm not quoting). Sorry.

I have worked with many hearing impaired people this way, and have had no problems. Being mildly hearing impaired myself, this is a touchy subject for me - I am not even close to needing one of these machines, but I don't look forward to it if I do.

The point is, scammers will use any means necessary to get your money. Be careful as you would with email scammers or phone scammers (or door-to-door scammers for that matter!).

when the scamers first called me using this last year....i bent over backwards trying to help them.....thinking they had some kind of disability....before i figured it out i was out 100.00 bucks buying special boxes to ship the cakes in.

i was the first one on this board that the "happy marriage life" scammers got ahold of...so it was new then, and i took ALOT of heat for telling about it on here....now that everyone knows about it, it's become a joke(and saved people money and trouble) so it was worth it...it was worth taking the heat this time too, because some other people PMed me that got the fake relay calls ...and were getting ready to maybe do the orders....now these people are not, so i'd tell about it again.

BTW...i'm known around here for excellent customer service, you can't be open as many years as i have and suck at it.

you are always so supportive cylstrial, thank you for that....i knew what you were saying.

and BTW, i never hung up on anyone, i just told the operator i wouldn't accept the call because of the nigerian scammers.

if i choose to protect myself by not accepting business this way, what is so different than someone who say, doesn't accept checks because they have been burned in the past?

i worked at a food delivery place for a couple years and 4 times out of 5 the relay calls would end up being fake orders or someone would try to rob the drivers. We always sent 2 drivers out on relay calls because of this.

I work for a non-profit organization and we get calls from people who are deaf/hearing impaired. So far, we have not received any that were 'scammers'.

The person calling will identify themselves and says something along the lines of: Hello, this is Texas Relay operator #1234 calling. Have you ever received a relay call before?"

They always ask if you have received a relay call before. I am not sure what is done in other states.

Also, some people may not want to drive around, going to different cake shops if they are shopping. So they call around instead.