Create New Support Contacts for Deaf Customers

Wyze App
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1

I’m Deaf. I don’t like sitting for over an hour or so staring at my TTY so I can “see” when the person I’m calling finally answers (for those of you who don’t know what a TTY is, it’s a small electronic device that looks like a small typewriter and it communicates with another TTY through the landline phone line via ASCII code. Deaf people use this when they need to make landline phone calls, but the problem is that Deaf people have to sit there and stare at the TTY because there is no external light or notification telling us when the other side picks up the phone or we finally make it through the long line/queue, so we spend many, many hours sitting, staring at the TTY. We can’t read books, we can’t watch the TV, we can’t do chores around the house, etc. We have to sit and watch the small screen for activity from the other party).

That means I cannot call Wyze. I’ve tried using the Support feature of the Wyze app on my iPhone, but it does not get me any help. It just keeps giving me a log ID. I’ve tried visiting the Forum, but I’ve gotten zero responses (23 views in a month) to my post requesting help with my problem. I’ve tried using Wyze’s AI chat on its website (I don’t like doing it on my smartphone because I feel like if I do it on my smartphone, it’s an invasion of my privacy, but maybe it’s me, I don’t know) twice in a month, and every time the AI bot on Wyze, whatever it’s called, does get me to the Zendesk, but then it keeps spinning, spinning, spinning, spinning, spinning, spinning…

I consider myself to be an above-average computer user, so I “run a tight ship” with my desktop PC (Windows 11) and Firefox browser. Maybe Zendesk doesn’t like Firefox, but there’s no information on the Wyze website to tell us what browser we use. I don’t use Chrome. I use Firefox most of the time and when websites balk at Firefox, I use Edge.

What does a Deaf Wyze user have to do to get support from Wyze?

It is my recommendation that Wyze improve its support access for Deaf customers. What will Wyze do to improve and boost its accessbility for Deaf customers?

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First of all, I really like seeing topics like this, because it makes me think of Wyze’s stated mission:

To make great technology accessible to everyone.

I suspect that they probably mean “accessible” in the “affordable” sense, but I’d really like to see them broaden their thinking and expand their definition of accessibility, as I’ve said elsewhere on the Forum, particularly regarding users with hearing or visual impairments (and even improving the use of in-app visual contrast for those without visual impairments). Because of that, I like seeing someone else raise these issues, so thank you for taking the time to do that.

I also appreciate the way you described your experience so that those of us without hearing impairments and not TTY users have a better understanding of what you have to deal with when navigating situations that so many of us take for granted. That perspective is helpful.

I’ve noticed that topic and even set it to  Watching because I wanted to see what the resolution might be, but I haven’t commented on it because I don’t use iOS (haven’t for >10 years, the last time I was required to use an iOS device), so what I suggest might have limited usefulness, and I expected other iOS users to offer assistance. I’ll take another look after posting this, though.

I don’t know about Zendesk, specifically (what I believe is the platform the Help Center runs on), and would expect current versions of Firefox to be just fine with that. The only real guidance I’ve seen from Wyze regarding browser compatibility is for Web View, where they say that Firefox is unsupported but Chromium-based browsers (e.g., Chrome, Edge, Brave) are supported. That shouldn’t be an issue with getting assistance from Support, though.

These are great questions, and I think they should be directed to this topic where Wyze specifically solicited feedback about Support:

I hope you’ll take the time to post some thoughts (even if you’re just copying certain parts of your post and expanding on what you’d like to see) in that topic, and I’m also tagging the @Mods because I wonder if there would be any utility in turning this topic into a Wishlist item and moving it into that category.

Thank you for posting this!

3

Hello Crease,

Thank you for your reply.

It is a challenge, I think, to explain in words what Deaf people experience when making phone calls. People do better with visual aids because it helps to explain what happens during phone calls. Often times when I make phone calls, people think that I’m physically in the room with the “operator”, but I’m not and I don’t know who the “operator” is. The “operator” is the Relay Service Operator who interprets the phone call between the Deaf TTY user and the hearing phone user. It’s like a game of tennis. But it’s not fun having to sit there staring at the TTY screen for an hour or so, not being able to do anything else in the meanwhile. Sure, I could play with my iPhone, but then you start forgetting why you’re on the phone in the first place. LOL

I finally reached out to Wyze Support via the Live Chat in the Wyze app on my iPhone. I hated that experience because my iPhone’s digital keyboard is too small for my gigantic opposable thumbs (the landscape orientation is too big, tho). I prefer typing using my desktop PC keyboard. BUT… I was able to finally get ahold of someone and we are currently trying to find out the source of the double notifications. YAY!!! Finally.

Here are the steps I’ve tried upon Wyze’s suggestions/guidance, with no success.

  1. Turning my iPhone off then back on. I typically do this after every update, although my iPhone restarts itself.

  2. Logging out and back into the Wyze app.

  3. Turning off then back on the notifications.

  4. Un-pairing then re-pairing one of the two cameras. This required me to access the owner’s iPhone since the un-pairing and re-pairing can only occur on the owner’s account (rightfully so). I do have to say that the un-pairing and re-pairing experiment was challenging because Wyze installed audible cues. I’m Deaf. I can’t hear audible cues. I had to recruit the owner (my dad) to hear for me and tell me what the devices were saying. My dad said that the audible cues were spoken too fast; he had a hard time hearing every single word. But we successfully un-paired and re-paired one of the cameras, but that didn’t stop the double notifications.

The investigation continues. It might have to come to the point where I’ll have to turn off the Wyze notifications. The puzzling thing for me, though, is that the double notifications only happened within the past few months. They weren’t always there, so what changed?

Thank you for letting me know that the Zendesk does not work well on Firefox. I will make note of that in the future. I do use Edge as backup because I know that several websites don’t like Firefox. I’ll make a note in my Wyze account to not use Firefox for Wyze support. Thank you!!!

Thank you for your comments.

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I generally hate trying to type anything extended on a phone (especially iPhone) for at least two reasons:

  1. I’m limited to two thumbs instead of 9 fingers (I generally use my right thumb for the space bar on a physical keyboard and don’t really use my left thumb at all while typing).
  2. Apple didn’t support the Dvorak keyboard layout (which I’ve used for a long time) in iOS until just within the past couple of years or so. Android has supported it (via Gboard and third-party keyboard apps) for well over a decade.

Same here every day of the week.

I’m still not sure, but I responded earlier in your other topic. I’ll be interested to learn what the solution is if you’re able to resolve this annoyance.

That’s not what I said at all, and I noted in your other topic that I was able to use the “AI-powered search”/chatbot facility in Firefox to get to the ticket submission form. Wyze advises that Firefox is incompatible with Web View, but I would absolutely expect using the Help Center (Zendesk) to work with Firefox as well as it does with any other modern browser, and that’s been my experience. Maybe you have some problematic extension(s) that you use in Firefox?

I would continue to use that if it’s your preferred browser, because—again—I haven’t encountered problems using it with the Support site. Figuring out why you had difficulty might be more trouble than it’s worth, though (and I’d probably be looking at extensions first), so maybe Edge is easier. :man_shrugging:

You’re welcome!