New York based call recording company 2ReCall just recently launched their initial call recording product last week. The new service lets you record any US domestic outgoing call by first dialing into an 800 number and then number you want to call. The old fashioned way of recording calls consisted of Spy-vs-Spy type tape recorders and suction mics. VOIP changed that a bit, making it dead simple to grab the conversation as it passes through your phone client, although it leaves you chained to the desk. 2ReCall’s 800 number means you can record an outgoing call on any phone. Over the coming year the service will be able to record inbound calls as well, with the ultimate goal being a completely seamless solution that records all calls on the number.
When calls are recorded, they are stored on your online 2ReCall account in .wav or .mp3 format where you can download, review, and annotate them. Although the service works by 800 number, you must first buy a 500MB storage account for $4.95/month and pay 20 cents a minute or a 1GB account for $9.95/month and pay 15 cents a minute to use it.
Currently call recording is a rats nest of legal issues, with 38 states only needing one party’s permission and the other twelve needing both parties’ consent before recording a call. It gets complicated when calling between states. They cover the legal issues deeper in their FAQ.
While the service is geared to anyone needing to frequently record their calls (journalists, professionals, conference calls), the founders have already used the service to catch one stonewalling architect. The architect, who was reviewing plans for one of the founder’s developments, said he wouldn’t let him build a house on their property regardless of whether they met the development guidelines or not. Armed with the tape of their conversation, the reviewing architect backed down and settled the matter out of court.
This is going to be the source of an absolute pile of pranks, break-ups, revenge recordings, etc. Can’t wait.
talk about a double-edged sword.
A lot of new phone services/goods have been popping up
I am puzzled on how they plan compete with this since some of the phone sites like Grand Central already have this as a feature in their product and it works quite well. I would also suspect I could do this using asterisk or possbily vonage. It is interesting but to me just a feature.
Yah – my thoughts exactly, Rob Mowery.
Here are some FAQ links about GrandCentral’s Call Recording feature -
http://www.gran.../showanswer/627
http://www.gran.../showanswer/691
This is great, I wish I had this a few weeks ago while I was away on vacation. I had to change our flights (there was three of us) to the next day, so I called up Delta and the lady assured us that there would only be a penalty of $50 per person. All is fine and dandy, until we get to they airport, and they said we owed $150 per person, a $100 difference. So I get on the phone with customer support again, tier 1 wasn’t much help, tier 2 was the rudest person ever, and tier 3 pretty much called me a liar. I asked if they can pull up the recording of the conversation, and they said no, but claimed to have asked the rep I spoke to, and she insisted she said $150.
Never flying Delta again, and if I had this service, I would’ve stuck the recording in their faces and saved $300. I’m certainly going to be using this going forward when making calls to call centers.
why use this when grandcentral does this for free and you don’t have any weird numbers to call?
I get that for free on my grandcentral account, plus i can even start recording on the fly. To me recording is the kind of thing you really never plan: you’re in th emiddle of a call and you suddenly wish you could record. Love grandcentral for that…
Ahhh…That’s not real wiretapping. Wiretapping is when you hit someone’s line for conversations that aren’t even between you. Though, I suppose I wouldn’t want my private conversations with people I’m calling to be recorded by them…
You should really edit this and put a reference to grandcentral if these folks are offering the same kinda stuff free. Plus GC seems to have some nice PR in NYT and CNet.
As nerds already know, this is a default option for TrixBox and earlier Asterisk@Home project work… and trivial to do with vanilla Asterisk installs… but this is drop dead simple for anyone to use.
Is it too early to predict a Jerky Boys-esque renaissance?
2nd paragraph, 2nd sentence: ‘by’ = buy
I thought you should know…
Guys, yeah grand central has a feature that allows call recording. so does gizmo. but they both require you to use the service. With GC, it means you have received a call on your GC phone number. That isn’t really what this is about.
http://www.tech...-lovable-again/
I can see it now. Lots of potential fun here. But, on the serious side, this is very useful for people who want to make customer service or technical support calls. Now they have evidence to show! But, I believe they are required by law to notify the recipient of the call that it is being recorded.
http://braincast.viatalk.com does this quite nicely? … Dial Braincasts 800 number, then threeway the outgoing number .. record everything. good quality too
Well, anyone can provide this service and for much much less. All you need to do is like I did. Go to http://www.flatplanetphone.com and open an account with The Flat Planet Phone Co. You can then sell many services including this exact same service. The actual platform costs only $199 a year and the operating costs are something like a tenth of what these guys charge!
I’m so glad this service and those like it are becoming available. I was surprised when I called my big voip provider to ask about recording calls, and they suggested a packet sniffing software used by the intelligence community.
This seems like a great start… regarding the legal/moral/ethical implications, I have a problem with recording personal conversations without the consent of both parties. But in a commercial context, I think this is the kind of thing that has been a long time coming. And I was reading something Marc Hedlund wrote recently over on the Wesabe blog: there’s a service that a couple Stanford guys put together called 321-CALL-LOG (321calllog.com) that lets you record, track, and access your customer service interactions by vendor/provider.
This is just a brilliant example of how VOIP call recording can be a critical feature in many useful products. Imagine what is possible if 37signals added call recording to HighRise, for example. Or what if Zoho CRM let you share your sales interactions with relevant team members from cold call to close?
Hey Jay – You should check out 321-CALL-LOG. I just caught a Sprint agent acting like a jerk on the record and wound up saving about $150 on my last cellphone bill.
Almost all my phone calls are in-network, with unlimited minutes. Dialing an 800 number would only help me on calls that weren’t in my network.
Although, realistically, almost all my calls to customer support companies would be applicable here…hmn…
Too bad it’s expensive/monthly subscription. I would consider using this on a per call/cheaper basis.
POSSIBLE LEGAL QUESTION and More…
Do you need to Consent Corporate America on the phone?
Gents: Here is a question for you and the 2ReCall.com Folks and all of you self-serving promoters of competitive BS services grandstanding above.
If the call announcement played to any company’s dial in number stating that “the call may be recorded for quality assurance and training purposes…” (or if your employer tells you that every “call you make may be recorded”) does that alleviate the need to consent the call or tell the Customer Service Reps that the call is being recorded since they have already told you that the call is being recorded?
Also that Grand Central telephone service is over featured, too complex and obligates you to change the way you use every phone you own. Get real!
Grandcentral.com is like a telecom dorks’ wet dream!
Just record my call please!
For $5 bucks a month and two dimes a call you get to reverse any injustice, greed, mistake or scam. And if these big companies don’t do the right thing, behave politely, and read you their account notes honestly, you get to humiliate the crap out of them and cost them $$$ millions on their brand.
Post them like this famous AOL one http://consumer...-aol-180392.php
then the State Attorney from Florida sued AOL for these and other billing practices.
That Delta (and American Airlines) example happened to me out of SFO and LAX on two occasions as well and once I even called in while at the airport with Delta on the crowded check in line! I got screwed for $427, wasted 2 hours and missed my flight.
If this service existed and I could have play back the call from my cellphone or laptop… NO QUESTION WHO WAS telling the truth!
Thank these techno-weenies for putting this service online, I signed up after reading their site over a few times (can we get a customer service number?) and these posts, tested it and hello Mary …it works, plain and simple. I am going to try and record my voicemails that my 2 year old and boss left since are about to be deleted next.
RAMON, Good idea, set up a one time $.99 call for that one call you need
Can anyone answer the above question?
Oh, right – sorry. I don’t work for any BS competitive services. I just found the 321CallLog application and I like it. I especially like that after you record your interactions with a particular company, you can compare your notes to other people who’ve interacted with them on the site. Pretty handy. The service seems free (at least for right now).