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I'm not exactly sure I'd like to have my account #s and social security #s and other PII recorded on a server that doesn't belong to me. They claim privacy and security, but so did all the companies that had their security breached and information stolen.
//krunk (^_^x)
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I'm pretty sure mentioning to a rep that they're being recorded for any reason is grounds for them to hang up immediately.
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I agree with what krunk4ever and Scuba Steve have to say, and I'm somewhat skeptical about the company for one reason: How are they going to make money?
Is this a service people would be willing to pay for? If not, is the business plan here to aggregate and sell information and/or services to companies, call center operators, etc.?
You need money for servers, phone lines, data storage, etc. Where's the cash flow going to come from?
As it stands, you can go to RadioShack and pick up the equipment you need to tape calls for under $30.
I routinely taped calls when I was a journalist (always getting permission from the person on the other end of the call) using an in-line recorder hooked up to a digital recorder. I then dumped the digital files onto my computer and logged them. Came in handy once when someone threatened to sue me.
I like the idea here and building a database could certainly have some interesting implications. I'm just a bit skeptical about this until I learn more about the actual business behind it.
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Bleh, I used to work CS for MCI and, later, a monstrous, global-dominating bank... in both cases we were instructed to inform the customer of immediate call-termination once they said \"haha, I'm recording you\". Lots of idiots said it, I'm sure very few were actually doing it... either way, I'm positive it wouldn't hold up in any court.
That's why you, the customer, are notified at the beginning of a CS call that the call could be monitored and recorded... because you, as the customer, then have the right to hang up and not be recorded. If the customer doesn't give the same opportunity to the CS agent at the beginning of the call, I'm pretty sure everything recorded will be worthless (in court).
Sure, it's good for the public to hear, but it's not going to change corporate policy... it'll only get the CS agent fired (when they were only upholding corporate policy, in most cases).
Corporations are militarized in functionality... probably, in analogy, more-so than the US is. You can win small battles, but the big ones are futile. Unless you allow yourself a detachment from the Corpocracy itself. And I understand that, in part, that's what you are trying to do with this site... which is good, but don't think for a second they aren't reading this everyday as well.
I hope that you remain doing it... but in a way it's really free troubleshooting for them.
An analogy would be warez... if Adobe and Microsoft *really* wanted their products secure, they could do so. I believe they purposely leave holes, and such, because it provides both free-advertising of their product-features while also getting the public to troubleshoot their products for them. For free. Pirates end up, whether they want to believe it or not, unpaid employees of said companies.
I'm sure I'm not saying anything you don't already know though. I'm just saying, maybe you should start asking for employee benefits. :D That was sarcasm, but it would make for a damn good post entitled:
An Open Letter to Cingular/SBC/New AT&T: Where's My Damn Check?
This is one think I don't get with the recording consent laws: You often get a message informing you that you are recorded by the company you call anyway. So if they record it, why do I have to bother telling them I'm doing it too since obviously they consent and I consent to being recorded?
Not effective as Relay Service since I have chat transcripts.
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They say you dont need to give your actual SSN, just any four digits you can remember.
They're servers are probably located in a state that supports single-party consent. So, here is what may happen:
1) You call 321-CALL-LOG
2) Call is routed to Virgina datacenter (single party consent)
3) You initiate an outbound call to the customer service rep
Now, you are \"calling\" from a state with single-party consent. It's a gray line, and I'm interested in seeing how the court deals with it. But nonetheless, I suspect this is how it works.
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While their recording is telling me that they're recording, I tell them that I'm recording... Seems fair.
At least, more fair than their, \"either we record you or your problem will never be resolved (oh, but you can't do the same to us)\" offer.
If you'd like a quick rundown of the legality of recording (with all-party or single-party consent) you can check out The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which has state-by-state, as well as general, information and legal statutes.
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If your on the call, then you do not have to tell the other party you are recording the call. As long as one side of the conversation knows its being recorded, thats all that matters. At least that is what I thought you could do.
For GEORGIA::
Ga. Code Ann. § 16-11-62: Secretly recording or overhearing a conversation held in a private place, whether carried out orally or by wire or electronic means, is criminally punishable as a felony under statutory provisions regarding invasions of privacy. However, the law expressly provides that it does not prohibit a person who is a party to a conversation from recording and does not prohibit recording if one party to the conversation has given prior consent. Ga. Code Ann. § 16-11-66.
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I wish you could turn off the notification of recording the call.
I do think that most CSR's will hang up on you when they hear that message.
Given that the service recommends that you use it every time you call a call-center, this may not end up being that useful.
By the way, it seems that they only allow you to call call-centers that have a toll-free number. While most large companies would have toll-free customer service numbers, local shops probably wouldn't.
Local shops are just as likely to try to screw you as the big guys, if not more so. Additionally, you might have a better chance of successful legal action against a local shop than a huge corporation, so this service would have been even more useful then.
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Has anybody tried it yet? I just signed up yesterday and was going to deal with a Verizon problem using them.
\"If the customer doesn't give the same opportunity to the CS agent at the beginning of the call, I'm pretty sure everything recorded will be worthless (in court).\"
Not necessarily. In some states, it's perfectly legal to record any call to which you are a party. Check the front pages of your local phone book for information about whether this is legal in YOUR state or not. You'd be surprised what you can learn by reading the first several pages of a phone book.
It is actually illegal to record conversations in California without the other person's knowledge. I don't think this applies if the call is to a person in another state, but it sure is something to think about.
If there is an audible voice prompt every 60 seconds notifying both parties that the call is being recorded, I doubt this service will yield any juicy crap-CSR/poor customer service recordings. That remind should pretty much keep a large majority of reps in line...