Mike WA and others question on recorded phone calls

When dealing with insurance, gov agencys etc they come up with this "we are going to record this phone call do we have your permission" WHAT RIGHTS DO YOU HAVE HERE??? A while back i said no and the lady hung up!!!!! What is the reason behind it, the recording?

a number shows up on my id'er, i don't answer it, if i don't know it, so they can't ask/record me,, funny thing is when [after] they send a recorded message, i listen to it, only to hear half of it by the time my answer machine clicks on,,jokes on them,,lol
p/s, how do you even know for sure that they are who they say their are?

Many states require that both parties to a conversation give consent to having it recorded. And if you don't give consent, often they will hang up. Then contact you by letter, if its important.

Generally speaking, I wouldn't give consent unless its something you really want to get moving forward, and then be VERY careful what you say. What they may be looking for is an admission of liability for an accident. Don't be lulled into making one, and it needn't be an obvious admission:
"Was it snowy that day?"

"Yeah, probably about 3 inches".

"Yep, it sure is easy to get caught in a slippery situation under those conditions."

If you say ANYTHING that would tend to agree with that last statement, it can be construed as an admission that you were negligent.

This is another good reason for having liability insurance- turn it over to your insurer, and let him worry about it.

If its a govt. agency, I'd ask them what its about before giving permission to record.

Believe it or not, there are some states that only require "permission" (and notice to) ONE party to the conversation. Well, Duh- of course the recording party is giving "permission". You wonder how grown-ups could be so clueless as to pass something like that.

When I call to report a power outage our utility says "your call may be recorded for quality assurance purposes" or something like that. I haven't ever worried about it though.
Zach

The recording can protect both sides, like if the caller gets nasty or obscene. I once had someone call who when I refused what they were selling they got smart-alek and I hung ut, they called back and tried to continue their nasty remarks, hung up again, they called again and my wife wanted to tell them to stop and whatever they said to her she started crying. I called the police on that one.

Here in Wisconsin, You have the right to record a call without telling the other party, but only if they called you. You cannot do it if you initiate the call.

WHO uses the phone anymore??????

Some of my company's customer service areas record calls but they are only used by supervisors and managers to monitor how the service reps are handling calls, otherwise the could care less about the content of the call or who is calling and the don't keep the recordings.