It’s your call – it should be your recording too

IMAGINE signing a contract with a company – a cellphone contract, say – in one of its stores, and as you put your signature to the paperwork, the sales assistant snatches it away.

“Where’s my copy?” you ask, indignant. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to complete a request under the Promotion of Access to Information Act if you want a copy,” he says, and walks away.

Even someone with an underdeveloped sense of justice and fair play would argue that a consumer has a right to their own record of the terms and conditions of the contract they agreed to enter into.

In fact, the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) compels companies to give consumers a free copy of their written agreements.

But for some reason I cannot fathom, the Act regards “non written” agreements differently, requiring companies only to “keep” a record, not to give a copy to consumers.

Sadly, many companies don’t subscribe to the “sharing is caring” approach to call recordings, which is not only unfair but extremely arrogant, in my view.

A few years ago, when I raised the issue with National Consumer Commissioner Ebrahim Mohamed, he said despite the fact that the CPA was silent on making call recordings available to consumers, the commission was of the view that the CPA rule which compelled companies to supply consumers with copies of written contracts should apply to telephonic contracts, too.

I’ve repeated the Commissioner’s statement many times, but still many consumers’ requests for access to their call recordings are either ignored or denied.

In the case of Benjamin Lunsky, of Cape Town, he was convinced that when he took out three 24-month data contracts 18 months ago, he was told he could cancel them at any time without penalty.

But when he tried to do that in December, he was told that early cancellation penalties were payable, and his pleas for the recording to be listened to were blatantly ignored.

In desperation, Lunsky recorded his phone conversation with a member of Vodacom’s social media team.

When he asked why his telesales call recording had not been listened to, there was an awkward pause before the agent said: “Because the case has been closed . . . ”

Lunsky turned to me for help via Twitter and I then took up the case with Vodacom.

A spokesman got back to me to say that the call in question had been listened to, and the agent did mention the contracts could be cancelled without penalty, but specified that this was only within 14 days.

“But we are willing to cancel at no cost as a goodwill gesture, which has been communicated to Mr Lunsky,” a Vodacom spokesman said.

Asked why he was unable to engage Vodacom on the issue of the call recording, despite many attempts over some time, the spokesman said the network would like to apologise to him for the service lapse, and that he had since been invited to listen to the recording at its Pinelands branch.

Each request by a customer to listen to a call recording was considered on its merits, she said, “and in most instances we would request that the customer complete a request under the Promotion of Access to Information Act”.

I wonder how many people would have the time or the inclination to jump through those procedural hoops in order to listen to a recording of their own conversation with the company they chose to do business with.

So, with that in mind, know that if you enter into a contract the quick, convenient way – over the phone – forcing them to release it to you if you later dispute the terms of the contract could be anything but convenient.