Interesting, completely unverified, tidbit from an anonymous Sprint employee: “We’re no longer allowed to quote the customer in our notes [on the account] because if they’re subpoenaed by a judge then they’ll be evidence proving they’re telling the truth regarding their situation.” Any Sprint insiders care to comment?
(Photo: Maulleigh)
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So Sprint is trying to protect their option to lie?
Really, Sprint? You’re going to do this now? Man, if true, this is absolutely ridiculous. I mean, not entirely surprising, but ridiculous, nonetheless.
I can tell you that in all of the call centers I’ve worked in, we have never been allowed to quote the customer in our notes. With some of the note taking program or ticketing program would not post anything inside of quotation marks to try to prevent it.
How do these crooks manage to stay afloat? Oh right… that huge pool of uninformed consumers.
It is now up to the customer to record their phone calls if they want to protect themselves from dishonest corporate crooks.
@Dobernala: Luckily, most calls begin with “This call may be recorded”. So you have their permission.
Wouldn’t quoting the customer be hearsay, and not valid as evidence anyways? Note, all I know about the Legal system I learned from Law and Order, so I have no idea what I’m talking about.
@WhirlyBird: That brings up an interesting question I’ve wondered, to which I’d love an answer backed by legal citations (if I can press my luck):
If I call a customer service center, or anywhere else that tells me they are monitoring and/or recording the call, does that give me the legal right to also record the call without telling the rep that I am.
@outsiderlookingn: Ahh, this explains why I always have to spend the first 15 minutes of every call re-explaining the history of an issue to bring their poor CSRs up to speed on the situation. What is Sprint so terrified about that they won’t let actual information that would resolve an issue be noted in a customer account? If they’re really worried about going to court about it then perhaps they have other internal issues bigger than this to address.
And yes, when I hear this@WhirlyBird: I hear exactly that. Guess I’ll have to be more proactive about recording those calls if Sprint is going to try denying in Court what their reps are saying every day.
They should just adapt what Comcast and most of the other companies do… not write a damn thing down. Then you enter the 6th level of hell, an endless spiral of call-ins, complains, and inaction…repeat.
If you don’t write anything down, then you have no trail to start with.
@heavylee-again: It’s usually stated in a clear voice “this phone call may be recorded” or something similar. No ambiguity about those words – I may record the phone call according to their own words and no further notification need be done. When you call a company collect, they occasionally have “we accept collect calls” or somesuch – the operator doesn’t hang on the line to re-ask if AT&T has permission to bill, and I bet ma bell gets their cash…
@heavylee-again: Check your state laws. Many states/counties/jurisdictions allow what is called “Single-party consent”, which means that only one of the people on the call has to know the call is being recorded. That person is you, so you can record the call without telling them (you can even do it even if they don’t say ‘this call is being recorded’).
My VOIP phone system is configured to record each call that I make, and also all incoming calls. It is very useful: I can go back and listen to calls I may have forgotten the details of, and here in Canada it is perfectly legal.
@Dobernala: On this topic. How do you guys record phone calls? 99% of my calls come from my cell phone and I sure as hell don’t know how to record from a cell.
Seems like they would just scrub the notes for quotes before handing them over to the court.
@AvWuff:
Here’s US law regarding recording calls:
[www.law.cornell.edu]
These states require consent from all parties:
California
Connecticut
Florida
Illinois
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Montana
Nevada
New Hampshire
Pennsylvania
Washington
@heavylee-again:
The laws are written by each of the states. Federal law states that you can record a call as long as ONE Party (typically you) consents. This prohibits you from recording conversations you are not a part of without one party’s consent.
Most states mirror federal law, meaning you can always record your conversation. The exceptions are: CA, MA, NH, CT, MD, PA, DE, MI, WA, FL, and MT. Until 2006 there was no case law for a call from a one party to a two party state. Consensus was that the federal law would apply, but most errored on the side of caution, advise that was apparently well followed. In 2006 The California Supreme court found that the stricter of the laws applies in “Kelly Kearney, et al v. Salomon Smith Barney, Inc.”
As for the answer to your question, I thought I could find a legal reference, but I have failed. My attorney has told me that as a consumer I can take that message as consent. I live in a One Party state, so I don’t need it for in state calls. If I call out of state I am going to fall back on Federal law, despite the ruling, since I am not operating a business in the other state.
For the best chance, make sure you have their recording message on your tape. I don’t think any lawyer is going to raise the issue if the recording is there.
If you are in a two party state, and they don’t have the message, I guess you’re out of luck.
@jimv2000: I’d think the obstruction of justice charges for doing that would be heftier than the original charge. It’s easier just not to take quotes at all. Not that I agree with that practice, either.
@Sasquatch: And the lack of a quality alternative.
You can be the most informed person in the world, but that won’t make a decent company pop into existence when you need to get cell phone service.
The usual dogma is “this call may be monitored or recorded”.
Of course they object when you say you are recording their call.
So I have started to tell such businesses that all of my calls are being monitored by Mildred, a court stenographer.
A third party to the conversation does inject a certan nice tone to the converstation and does wonders for pushing the CSR into properly handling the situation.
Guess its time to start recording phone calls.
@Diet-Orange-Soda: Well, you can get an account through [grandcentral.com], which allows you to record calls, or you can buy a recorder control from Radio Shack that plugs into the recording device, your phone, and an earpiece.
So in other words sprint is up to business as usual? Im glad to see the new CEO is really standing up for the better customer service there.
Okay, is there a good way to get out of a Sprint contract without paying an ETF?
Anyone know of a good way to get out of a Sprint contract without an ETF?
I have been experimenting with telling call center personnel that I’m recording the call. I’ve noticed two things (a) they do not hang up (the last time this issue came up, the comments were flooded with CSRs saying they would hang up if someone said this), but (b) it doesn’t seem to make any different to the quality of service.
The article didn’t mention anything about recordings, which is where this thread went to, however, while the employee is certainly required to testify as to what HE said, the legal rule would be that he can’t say what someone *else* said in a conversation.
IANAL, but I believe the legal term is “best evidence” whereupon notes pertaining to a conversation would be hearsay.
[en.wikipedia.org]
When a company tells me that “this call may be recorded”, I interpret that as them giving me permission to record the call. “Yes, you *may* record the call”.
Most companies outsource CUSTOMER Service to another country. So only federal law would apply right?
Former Sprint call center employee here – I’ve never heard of this policy, but it could be new.
@B: Under the Federal Rules of Evidence (after which many States’ rules are based) allows for the inclusion of statements by any parties to the action as an exception to the hearsay rule.
IANAL (for another year), YMMV, etc, etc
@ChuckECheese: Grandcentral appears to only record incoming calls, and I didn’t see anything at RadioShack for recording calls on a cell phone.
Do you know of a way that I can easily record calls made using my cell phone?
@B:
In the Federal Rules of Evidence (on which many states base their own rules), statements of parties to the action are not considered hearsay.
IANAL (IAALS), YMMV, etc, etc
I was quoted in my account notes just last week. A new rep I talked to read it right back to me word for word.
Does Consumerist have no qualms about posting items described as “completely unverified”?
And then have no qualms about labeling other companies as irresponsible?
@SJChip104: If the employee is APART of the conversation he is talking about, and not a 3rd party ease dropper, then no, it would not be hearsay to testify as to what he was directly told.
I generally tell the CSR in a nice tone that I am glad that the call is being recorded so if there are any discrepancies it can be reviewed for factual information.
I know that this subtley informs the CSR that I am serious about my call and the outcome I am seeking.
Additionally, I usually state at the end of the call ( if I was treated well ) that I indeed hope their QA department pulls the call so that they can see what excellent customer service I have recieved.
As a CSR in PA I have to tell every person I speak with on outbound calls that the call is being recorded.
Incoming callers are notified prior to being connected to me that the call is being recorded.
As to the quotes, I have never heard anything from our QA department that I may not quote a caller in my written records of the conversation.
@heavylee-again: I have always interpreted the recorded message “This call may be recorded” as them giving me explicit permission to record the call. It’s up to a court to decide whther that interpretation is correct, but it seems pretty clear to me (and hopefully, to a jury as well).
I suspect, if anyone were to use such a recording against a company, that we’d see a move to change the recorded message to be something like “We reserve the right to record this call blah blah blah”, instead of the vague “this call may be…”.
@noquarter: What about those suctioncup microphone things sold for attaching to handsets of corded phones? I can’t see why that wouldn’t work.
@rjhiggins: You must be new here. Welcome aboard.
@rjhiggins: Uh, you did notice that they’re asking for that verification? Or do people just like to come in and complain about this in every story?
Thanks for all the great responses to my question.
Lifehacker did a piece on recording phone calls. I’m gonna reread it and play around.
When I worked in the call center we were told 2 things.
1. Every call is recorded digitally.
2. Your call records can, and will be, be called as evidence.
I had to testify twice, and both times, my call records were admitted as evidence.
@WhirlyBird: Admission of evidence is a ruling made by a judge, not a jury. The point is to control what the jury hears that might be prejudicial. Juries do not interpret law, they determine guilt or innocence, or in the case of lawsuits, fault.
@noquarter: I swear i’ve recorded calls I’ve made…
@Asvetic: They have already begun not writing things down. The key to that strategy is to make recording of the phone calls as well as keep calling back and asking them to over the bill with you.
If you can get them confused enough they will eventually end up giving you more than they should have.
Yes , yes, I know some of you might not think its ethical but you know for all the aggravation they have put me through it should.
I am a long time Sprint customer (10+ years) and a true-blue Sprint hater. My contract prison term is up on 4/29 and I’m having an I HATE SPRINT party.
One thing I learned, whenever you call
their customer hatred center, immediately ask for the cancellation department. They’ll put you through to someone who can actually help.
Also, if your contact is up, ask for the cancellation dept and they’ll give you the new customer pricing on phones.
@heavylee-again: “If I call a customer service center, or anywhere else that tells me they are monitoring and/or recording the call, does that give me the legal right to also record the call without telling the rep that I am.”
Uhh, in some states, you can do this to anyone…
I always I might need to have evidence of later. If I feel I need to use it, I obtain explicit permission at some point in the call (usually around the end). If they refuse, that’s okay since I can transcribe/take notes of the recording if I can’t use the recording itself.
*I always make a recording calls I might need to have evidence of later.
Oh how I wish for an edit button sometimes.
@DaoKaioshin:
Hey buddy, slow down a little. Even your correction was missing a word.
I always make a recording *of* calls I might need to have evidence of later