Trying to conduct business over the phone, and dealing with automated call systems, one usually hears that statement on a regular basis. (I am not singling them out,) but it s guaranteed you will hear that if you call Amazon customer service…I ordered a rear brake drum/pad set some time back from Amazon. When the order came, I noticed it was missing the brake pads. It was just the drums, and brake hardware. I called Amazon customer service, (some dude in India,) and told them, and they said wait 2 days for the seller to contact me. The seller never did. I called back a week later, and told amazon, (another dude in India,) I was never contacted by the seller. He told me they have no documentation that I called a week ago, and the seller was just contacted of my problem. OK. WTF is going on here. I suppose this crap can go on forever. My first thought was, what if I recorded the conversation. I asked the customer service rep if I could record this conversation. He definitely wasn t prepared for that question. He started repeating stuff he had already told me, and talked over me when I tried to talk. Rather than a back and forth with him I asked to speak with his supervisor. He put me on hold, and after 10 min or so the call just disconnected. So much for that call.
All this brings me to my thought. Businesses can record conversations over the phone, which we all know, is done, to cover their ass. That has been going on for ever, but what about customers. After this transaction I want to record all calls like this; have my own copy, so if someone tells me there is no record/documentation of a call, I can say, hold on there partner, I have record of it. Let me send it to you…
My guess is with the mega corporations this would not go over well, although there may be an avenue to move forward with an issue like this. On the other hand, mom and pop businesses would probably honor a recorded call from a customer although some may try to determine if it was acquired in a legal manor. I guess how smart the business owner is the determining factor.
If you would find personal value in having that recording, then maybe it’s worth your effort to do that.
But if it’s to have any weight to it when dealing with customer service, I suspect you’d need to address these two questions:
- Are you prepared to pursue a dispute through litigation?
- Are your recordings going to be admissible as evidence?
Otherwise, having a recording might serve no benefit beyond your own personal interest and ability to accurately replay conversations.
Or how smart their legal department is.
If you’re going to do this, check the laws for your [US] state, province, etc …
Laws vary by state in the US. There are two-party/all-party consent, single party consent, and mixed party consent states/laws. I’m not sure what the hierarchy is if, for example, one person is in a single party consent state and calling someone in an all-party consent state.
There are also defined procedures for notifying the other party the call is being recorded.
We had to periodically record calls at this one consulting firm I worked at. You can cause yourself a lot of grief if you screw it up.
this is the mind-numbing, degrading, low-IQ way we do corporate business anymore. Anytime you have to reach out to any company for any reason get used to several wasted hours, bounced around every telephone around the planet, until anything is rectified.
Pooping on the customer is the new business model.
I am not sure which region you are from but in Europe (EU) that was possible several years ago. Ever since the GDPR directive the phone recoring was removed (at least from android phones) under the pretense that the plebs cannot be trusted with the recordings (and potential leak of private information). Only the companies can record the calls but only after the explicitely say that the call is being recorded.
Although there may be a good technical solution to the problem the phone manufacturers take the easy way and simply ban the call recording applications/function from the OS.
Fun thing is that you are still allowed to “sign” a contract over the phone. You just do not have any proof that happened - only the company has the recording. There was a con (true or not I cannot say) that someone altered a public survey call into a contract negotiation recording and the other party was then obliged to pay for a service they did not order.
In Europe everybody is allowed to record a phone call if all participants give their explicit consent beforehand. It is not sufficient to just inform the other party about the recording. Consent must be actively obtained before the start of the recording, for example by an explicit “yes” from the conversation partner.
I will double check to verify the validity of this site, but it says my state, (Oregon,) is a one party consent state.
This is why commercial buildings in the US have signs about security cameras at building entrances, or homes with video security systems will (should) have a similar notice. Recordings can still be provided to LEO or to civil attorneys showing that something wrong happened; the recordings just can’t be used as evidence in criminal charges or civil litigation.
Broadly speaking the factors include a) where the recording is being made, as it is the situs of the action, b) that jurisdiction’s laws, and c) any contractual agreements about same.
Jurisdiction and choice-of-law provisions get sticky very, very fast, so if you are wronged and think you are owed redress, chat with an attorney.