Recorded phone conversations

[Carol Anne]

Are companies legally obliged to tell you at the begining of a conversation to a call centre that you are being recorded? I rang my electricity supplier today, no mention was made of the fact that I would be recorded. It was a complicated matter and when I asked her to make sure she had a proper notr of all we had discussed, I was yold not to worry as it was all recorded by voice. Are they in the right to do this ?

[woofgang]

well you are normally told by that conversations may be recorded by recording at the "if you wnat to speak to a real person press one, if you have just phoned us to listen to the music, press two" bit, but it might also be on your bill in the small print

[stoo_pid]

It's also quite possible that the person you spoke to wasn't telling the truth or was perhaps mistaken in believing it would be recorded.  I would have thought it was unlikely that a company would record & file every single conversation held on their phone lines.  Call centres - sorry, contact centres - take hundreds, often thousands, of calls every single day.  Imagine how difficult it would be to store & accurately log every phone conversation so it can be easily retrieved if there's a query.

Might be worth a quick call back to check exactly what details were recorded....

[rach1612]

hello It should be announced in some way that calls are being recorded.. this would be on the IVR automated phone system or in your contract. it is standard practice to add this to the IVR (press one here and 2 there).. you may have missed in the droning voices.. may be best to redial and double check.

[MargeB]

There's every chance that it was recorded and they did not forewarn you of this. To do so is a very serious offence.

[stevie21]

stoo_pid, it's very easy to automate the recording of calls. Lots and lots of companies do it. Some companies specialise in selling the hardware and software to call centres which does this for them.
Also, the company needs a licence to record calls and there's at least 2 different types. One to record a sample of calls for training purposes etc. and one to record every single call received.

Even if the announcement isn't on the telephone as you're getting through "This call may be recorded", it might be that the company is only required to notify you in any way at all (in print?). This is a guess though.

[Grunty]

The emergency services record 999 calls.  They do not file them as stoo_pid suggests.  They just keep the continuous tape, and look something up if there is a query.  That would be time-consuming in the case of the electricity supplier which may not have the time of the call to refer to. 

[stevie21]

I dunno if this answer's Grunty's concerns but it is very easy to record every call as an mp3 (save in a low bitrate, in mono rather than stereo, the files are quite small), to computerise and automate it and to keep a log of EVERY call/mp3 that is searchable by any number of factors :
> employee taking the call
> date and time of call
> electricity account number being queried or other customer details.

All of this is automated. And easy.
Also, the electricity folks may be able to search centrally on their database to find out when a particular account was last queried. The customer wouldn't even need to remember when they called.
Easy. Automated...

[gerry]

They should tell you before you actually tell them why you have phoned them.I've had this before & am told my call May be recorder for training purposes.

However even if they don't tell you at the start of the call but they have this info  printed on their leaflets or ads "That some calls may be recorded" then this still covers their back.As is it giving you due warning.

[Gandy]

It'll be in the small print in your terms and conditions of supply. You agree to have your call recorded because you let them supply you with electricity. If you disagreed with them doing so then you should of changed supplier.