Call to cancel AOL Account

OK, you've got Vincent Ferrari recording his Customer Service call and trying to cancel his account and according to an AOL spokesperson, the person was fired. Typical corporate baloney. Regardless of the company most larger companies have measurements of how well things are going and those metrics are to help the company, not help the customers. While it may show up in the bottom line in the short term positively, it goes to show in the long term how bad this type of measurement and metrics can hurt a firm, not help it.

Another interesting thing is that there are laws that are on the books that allow for Vincent to record these calls without the other party's consent. According to this web site Can We Tape? it states that journalists can record anything without anything being wrong. This site states:

"Federal law allows recording of phone calls and other electronic communications with the consent of at least one party to the call. A majority of the states and territories have adopted wiretapping statutes based on the federal law, although most also have extended the law to cover in-person conversations. Thirty-eight states and the District of Columbia permit individuals to record conversations to which they are a party without informing the other parties that they are doing so. These laws are referred to as "one-party consent" statutes, and as long as you are a party to the conversation, it is legal for you to record it."

OK, so while most customers are not going to make a phone call and try and snag you into saying something which is bad for you and your company, what this implies is that anyone can call anyone and record their phone call and put it on YouTube or their web site for the whole world to know. So if you work for any company, remember that anyone can record your conversaion without your knowledge and based on the above incident, you could be fired for following "company policy" of "zero tolerance" of something or what not.

Maybe that's why phone calls waiting times get longer and longer? Or just maybe it gets tiring of hearing "I Win, You Lose" attitude from companies.

Oh, and by the way, the reverse is also true. How many customers lie to get out of paying something to a company?

It works both ways!!!!