Secretly recording phone conversations may seem just the purview of the NSA and disgruntled ex-girlfriends of racist sports team owners, but consumer advocates say it’s high time average Americans get in on the act.
By recording conversations with customer service representatives, frustrated consumers can acquire powerful ammunition to have their way, experts say. Such recordings are unlikely to lead to the lifetime ban and $2.5 million fine received by Donald Sterling, the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, but they could give customers the advantage in some disputes.
Americans may be resigned to having their phone calls recorded for “quality control” purposes. While some customer service departments and call centers do use the recordings to train employees, what consumers say on the phone could also come back to haunt them later, says Glenn Conley, president and CEO of Metropark Communications, Inc., a voice and data communications company in St. Louis. Most calls between consumers and customer service staff are not just recorded for quality control, he says, but archived and used at a later date in case there’s a legal or policy dispute. “It’s more in line with covering what legal issues might arise down the road,” Conley says
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http://www.marketwatch.com/story/what-consumers-can-learn-from-donald-sterlings-ex-2014-05-01