Current Events in January 2010

This story has been updated to include information about recording calls using iPhone and Android devices.

When you call a company's customer service line, you often hear the words "this call may be monitored or recorded for quality assurance purposes," at the beginning of the conversation.

Large companies routinely record customer service calls to both train their staff and to protect themselves should disputes arise. However, if the company is the only party with access to the tape, a consumer has less leverage in a dispute. For example, if the tape shows the consumer is right, the company could say that particular call didn't get recorded.

Can you, as a consumer, legally record a conversation with a customer service or sales representative, and if so, how do you do it?

The answer to the first question is yes. In fact, 38 states allow what is known as "one party consent" recording. That means if one party to the call -- such as yourself -- consents to it being recorded, then it's okay.

However, since you don't know what state the customer service representative happens to be in, it's never a good idea to covertly tape a call. California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Washington require all parties to the conversation to give their consent. Covertly taping a conversation when one of the parties is in one of those states is illegal.

To keep yourself within the law, begin your call exactly the way the company does, by informing the party to whom you are speaking that they are being recorded. In fact, here are some familiar phrases that have been modified for your use:

• "To create an accurate record of our conversation, our call may be monitored and recorded."

• "In order to ensure excellent customer service, this call may be monitored or recorded."

• "To insure the highest level of customer service, this call may be monitored and recorded."

• "Our call may be monitored and recorded to insure quality of service."

Lawyers at some of America's largest corporations have approved these phrases. If they're legal for them, then they are legal for you.

Recording the call

To record both sides of a telephone conversation, you are going to have to make a small investment. While software can turn your computer into a recording device, you will need some way to connect your telephone line to your computer, and this interface is not standard equipment on most PCs.

If you want a digital system, expect to pay $200 or more. For example, the USB Phone 2 PC Basic system costs $195.95 and is fairly easy to install and use, but is a Windows-only system. You plug your telephone into the interface, which connects to one of your computer's USB ports.

For those who want to spend less, the P5945 Micro Phone recorder is an analog system that accomplishes the same objective for about $80. The device looks much like a micro-cassette dictating recorder and uses micro-cassettes to record and store the audio. It has a telephone line input and does not connect to a computer.

iPhone recording

To record a call using an iPhone you will need to download a third-party recording app, such as Call Recorder Lite. This software allows you to merge phone calls with its servers and record them. Some versions require a payment.

Step 1: Download, install and launch Call Recorder Lite on your iPhone.

Step 2: Open the Record screen and tap on the Record button. Now, your call will be transferred to the Call Recorder Lite servers.

Step 3: Once connected, tap the Merge Call button to record it.

Android recording

To record a call using an Android device, your device must run Android 9 or higher. Google has a complete set of instructions here. 

The first time you record a call, you’ll be advised you must comply with local laws related to recording calls. Many jurisdictions require consent by all parties to record the call.

To protect the privacy of all users, when you start recording, both parties are notified with a disclosure that the call is being recorded. When you stop recording, both parties are notified with a disclosure that the call is no longer being recorded.

To record an individual phone call:

• Open the Phone app.

• Make or receive a call.

• To record your call, on the ongoing call screen, tap Record Record

• To stop recording, tap Stop recording Stop recording.

A simple way to record a call from either iPhone or Android is to purchase an inexpensive digital recorder, set it to record, place the phone on “speaker” and place the recording device near the phone’s speaker.

Are these investments worthwhile? That's for the consumer to decide. But judging from the 1-Star reviews received at ConsumerAffairs.com about disputes with customer service and sales representatives, maintaining an accurate record of your conversation might pay off.

An Ohio appeals court has thrown out a nationwide class-action settlement involving Carfax, ruling that a trial judge should not have approved the settlement without requiring notice to all of the affected consumers and without considering information about whether the coupons offered under the settlement had any value.

The settlement would have resolved a class-action lawsuit alleging that Carfax, which sells history reports for used cars, deceives consumers by representing that its reports are based on complete national accident data. Public Citizen represented 17 individual class members and the nonprofit Center for Auto Safety in objecting to the proposed deal.

The ConsumerAffairs.com database has no shortage of complaints about Carfax. Among them:

• Steven of Chaptico, MD tells us, "I purchased a used vehicle in 4/2009 and requested a Carfax. Carfax failed to report the car was in an accident. 11/2009 during my attempt to sell my car, Carfax reported a car accident that occurred 3/2008. I lost $4,000 in resale value."

• Anastasia from Orange, CA writes that a potential buyer ran a Carfax report based on the VIN number on a car she is trying to sell. "The report stated that my vehicle was involved in an accident. My car has never been involved in any accident. I spoke to my insurance company and I got a report from the DMV based on the VIN number and it showed a clean history." She says upon calling Carfax she learned that "the company does not get the VIN report from the DMV, but rather from 'anonymous third parties.'" Anastasia concludes, "They are making me jump through hoops to clear my vehicle history. I believe that this is misrepresentation of innocent victims for money."

• From James in James Palm Beach, FL comes this complaint: "I inquired about trading in my 2001 Honda Accord for a 2010 new Honda Accord and I was dumbfounded when Braman Honda produced a Carfax report indicating that my vehicle had been in a serious accident and it had been 'disabled' at one time while I owned it." James tells ConsumerAffairs.com he has never been in an accident with this vehicle, adding that since he works for a police department, it was "very embarrassing when the salesman indicated that I was lying to him." He says he's filed a complaint with Carfax and will "use all the resources of my police department to prove that their report is a boldfaced lie." James says he was advised that since his Carfax report inaccurately indicated a major accident, his vehicle was worth very little as a trade in.

Not much notice

The settlement had defined the class of consumers bound by its terms to include anyone who purchased a Carfax vehicle history report prior to Oct. 2006, which would include consumers who bought the reports during more than a decade preceding that date.

However, individual notice of the proposed settlement was sent only by e-mail and only to customers who bought Carfax reports during the one year preceding the settlement. As a result, the majority of class members got no notice of the settlement, according to Public Citizen's objections. The decision of the 11th District Court of Appeals in Ohio held that individual notice should have been sent to all class members.

Moreover, as part of the settlement, consumers were offered a coupon for additional Carfax history reports. The time for claiming a coupon had expired before the trial court approved the settlement, yet the court had denied Public Citizen's motion seeking disclosure of how many class members filed claims.

The court of appeals found that the trial court erred in not requiring Carfax to disclose how many consumers had taken advantage of the coupon offer. Those numbers would show whether the coupons had actual value to the class members and, therefore, whether the settlement had value to the class, said Deepak Gupta, one of the Public Citizen lawyers who handled the case.

"Class actions are a tool for securing consumer justice, but settlements like this one give class actions a bad name," Gupta said. "The appeals court's decision sends a strong message that class-action settlements should be approved only after a legitimate attempt to inform the class members and only if the settlement offers real value to the class."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it will ask a federal court to order the closure of a New Jersey cheese manufacturer it says has a history of operating under unsanitary conditions.

The FDA said it will seek action against Quesos Mi Pueblito and two of its officers, Felix Sanchez and Jesus Galvez. According to the agency, recent inspections by the FDA and the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services found Listeria-contaminated cheese and unsanitary conditions at the Passaic company.

If entered by the court, the injunction would stop the company and its officers from manufacturing and distributing food until they can bring their operations into full compliance with FDA food safety regulations and produce cheese that does not test positive for the presence of Listeria. The complaint for permanent injunction was filed in the U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey.

"FDA's work with federal and state partners to root out or remedy food manufacturers not compliant with food safety laws ensures safer foods get to our dinner tables," said Michael Chappell, the FDA's acting associate commissioner for regulatory affairs.

Quesos Mi Pueblito currently manufactures and distributes a variety of soft, semi-soft, and hard Mexican cheeses in grocery stores and supermarkets in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Florida, Virginia and the District of Columbia. Among Quesos Mi Pueblito's products are queso oaxaca, queso fresco, queso requeson and queso cotija molido.

By Jon Hood
ConsumerAffairs.com

The complaint, filed this week in federal court in San Francisco, says that RockYou kept confidential user information in an unencrypted plain text file making it incredibly easy to hack.

The suit alleges that RockYou recklessly and knowingly failed to take even the most basic steps to protect its users' PII (personally identifiable information) by leaving the data entirely unencrypted and available for any person with a basic set of hacking skills to take the PII of at least 32 million customers.

RockYou is mainly known for providing so-called widgets for Facebook, MySpace, and other social networking sites. The widgets allow users to customize and enhance their personal pages. The company was founded in 2006 by two former employees of software developer Iconix.

Alan Claridge, the lawsuit's lead plaintiff, says that RockYou compounded the security breach with a slow and ineffective response. He says he received an e-mail from the company on December 16, warning that his information may have been compromised because of RockYou's failure to create a secure user database. But Claridge alleges that RockYou was aware of the security breach up to 12 days earlier on December 4 but did nothing to warn users.

RockYou's website now sports a red-and-white banner reading Important Security Notice from RockYou. A lengthy statement says that the company is investigating the data breach, reviewing our security protocols, and implementing new practices to prevent this from happening again. Specifically, the statement says that RockYou is encrypting user information, implementing a more secure platform, reviewing security procedures to ensur[e] that they meet industry standards and best practices, and cooperating with Federal authorities to investigate the illegal breach of our database.

In the meantime, RockYou recommends that users change their e-mail passwords to prevent hackers from viewing any confidential information. There is also less obvious danger caused by the breach: since many consumers use the same password for multiple accounts, those accounts may also be susceptible to breach. Thus, consumers should update any account for which they use the same or even a similar password.

The suit, which is being handled by KamberEdelson LLC, alleges breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, negligence, and violation of several California consumer protection laws. The suit seeks unspecified damages and a court order that RockYou improve its security measures.