evatt.com

Last night as I was paying my bills, I came across a new Chase VISA credit card that needed to be authorized. I called the 1-800 number on the sticker on the card and keyed in a couple pieces of information. Once I thought I was done, the automated system asked me to press 1 for up sale opportunity #1, press 2 for up sale opportunity #2, or to stay on the line to complete the authorization process. I waited. Then I heard, not once, but twice "Your call may be monitored or recorded for quality assurance."

Being in a silly mood, I added "I am recording this phone call for quality assurance" to the answer to my first question. This freaked out the lady on the other end of the phone. She tried to tell me I was not supposed to record her. But I calmly insisted that if her call center was recording the call, that I would too. After several rounds of her telling me not to record the phone call even though her call center was recording it, she put me on hold for about five minutes to "go talk to her manager." When she returned, she authorized the card and hung up as quickly as possible skipping all references to up sales. Very nice.

It is strange that it is normal business practices for the credit card companies to record the calls, and according the the New York Times, they even routinely record us while we are on hold. But the second I say that I am recording the call, the call center freaks out.