I'm excited that they got investment to build an Android version - I plan to be an early customer. A couple of things, though:
>> write legal letters to scare businesses out of overcharging you
This one actually concerns me a little. A lot of businesses use legalese to scare and overwhelm you, so it's great to have something to fight back. But there are also a lot of people out there who just game the system as consumers too - I'm a little concerned for Mom & Pop shops who will just end up being the victims here instead. Ultimately I don't think there's a perfect solution to the fact that dishonest, selfish people exist.
>> they’ll think ‘this could be made public and go viral and hurt our business
This might play out in a more complicated way. I have an app that records all my calls. I stop the recording immediately if it's a personal call. If it's a business I inform them I'm recording the phone call. Much of the time, that ends the call. The business was going to record it too, but now that they know I'm going to record it, they tell me they'll have to end the call and schedule a time to call back when neither of us records it, which I refuse to do, so I take care of business in writing, often in-person instead. Instead of making my over-the-phone business more confident, it just eliminates the phone as an option.
Curious, what call recording app do you use now please, and does it properly record full duplex audio from the line (so not using speaker/headset/other workarounds)?
The last time I had this working perfectly was with a Nexus 4 and I find that call recording apps do not work on newer phones I've bought since. Any suggestions? Android or iOS, I don't care which platform as long as it works well.
I used to set the app to only record incoming calls from callers not in my address book, and on several occasions it was a huge benefit to have these to refer to later.
Companies really do not like it when you email them recordings of their employee lying to you, and will go out of their way to make things right immediately when that happens.
I use ACR and it worked wonderfully for a long time. I had some big problems with it on Android 9 when I upgraded to a Pixel 3 - there was a note about Android removing the required APIs for privacy reasons, and the ticket didn't look very hopeful. But now on 10 it seems to work pretty well. Don't know what changed - haven't look into it much because I haven't been having problems with big companies lately.
I did this once with Chase and didn't get anywhere. Had a CFPB case opened and they refused to budge.
I had called multiple times and was told that their QuickPay was irreversible and that it was fine to use it for commercial transactions. I accepted it for a transaction, the transaction got reversed and money taken out of my account and I was charged overdraft fees. Submitting the audio recording did not make a difference.
That's a shame, what was their explanation? Did they say it's OK for Chase employees to lie to customers, or did they dispute the authenticity of your recording?
There's probably something in the fine print of your contract with them that lets them get away with whatever happened, but always escalate matters as it's pretty effective. Press them on social media, if there's arbitration try it or small claims court, and involve any local media or politicians that you can get on your side.
Basically, just be a huge pain in the ass and do not give up or go away until they back down. This can take a while and you must document everything, every interaction.
Not intending to advertise but this is relevant because of the difficulty in capturing calls automatically on mobile phones, even for personal productivity purposes.
We'll be rolling out https://productive.app for cell phoe calls shortly, which has call recording and transcription built in.
Other than the ownership and convenience of searching through your own conversations, accountability is another focus (phone calls shouldn't be an enabling medium for shady businesses practices compared to non-ephemeral channels like texts and emails).
I tried to subscribe for updates but it required me to "prove that I am a human". I could not see any captcha or any other similar thing and it would not allow me to submit the form. I'm using Firefox focus on Android
BTW, there is nothing wrong with intending to advertise. Op (and I) are looking for a call recording app, and you know if one that you can (hopefully) recommend. The fact that you profit if we use it doesn't make your suggestion that much worse
What app works well for recording without hurting audio quality or lag? I'm happy to pay for something that just works; the free ones I've tried suffer from quality/lag/glitchy issues.
https://productive.app will work with no need to dial a separate recording number or "merge calls", which is especially hard to do for unplanned incoming calls.
> If it's a business I inform them I'm recording the phone call. Much of the time, that ends the call. The business was going to record it too, but now that they know I'm going to record it, they tell me they'll have to end the call and schedule a time to call back when neither of us records it
Why go out of the way to inform them? Whenever I hear “this call may be monitored or recorded,” I figure I’m being given clear consent to record the call in a two-party consent State.
I have wondered about this also. The employee has given consent for their employer to record them, but does that automatically mean they've consented to being recorded by the caller? I don't know that this is true, and it could depend by state.
Regardless, I can't imagine a jury ever finding anyone guilty of breaking the law for doing this (if a company had the nerve to press charges). More relevantly, I would think that judges would be generous in allowing the recording as evidence in a civil suit, where there is discretion. And I'd imagine that in most states there would be room for judicial interpretation, since it's unlikely that a state has a specific law or appellate case that addresses this issue.
My take on it is actually that the phrasing they all use, "this call may be recorded" never specifies ONLY BY THEM. It's very reasonable to interpret that as "you may (also) record this". Like them, I'm also recording it for "quality assurance purposes" - to assure that they provide me quality, honest service. But see my other comment for why I bother telling them sometimes anyway...
> The employee has given consent for their employer to record them, but does that automatically mean they've consented to being recorded by the caller?
The message played at you doesn’t say anything about employer or employee. It simply says “this call may be recorded” so, great, then I can record it!
Well I don't always, actually - I actually had an argument with someone on HN one time who was suggesting that if I didn't tell them I was violating two-party consent even if they said the words "this call may be recorded". But I digress...
When I do tell them, it's because I'm trying to achieve what is said in the article: I'm trying to disincentivize the bad behavior from happening in the first place. I want to cut the bullshit out immediately, not just be well-armed to shame them or take them to court later.
>> write legal letters to scare businesses out of overcharging you
This one actually concerns me a little. A lot of businesses use legalese to scare and overwhelm you, so it's great to have something to fight back. But there are also a lot of people out there who just game the system as consumers too - I'm a little concerned for Mom & Pop shops who will just end up being the victims here instead. Ultimately I don't think there's a perfect solution to the fact that dishonest, selfish people exist.
>> they’ll think ‘this could be made public and go viral and hurt our business
This might play out in a more complicated way. I have an app that records all my calls. I stop the recording immediately if it's a personal call. If it's a business I inform them I'm recording the phone call. Much of the time, that ends the call. The business was going to record it too, but now that they know I'm going to record it, they tell me they'll have to end the call and schedule a time to call back when neither of us records it, which I refuse to do, so I take care of business in writing, often in-person instead. Instead of making my over-the-phone business more confident, it just eliminates the phone as an option.