Banks Recording Customer Calls for "Training Purposes."

Have you ever called your bank or any large business and been greeted with the recorded phrase "we may monitor or record your call for training purposes?"  I hear it all the time whenever I call a large bank or business, so I'm sure many of you have too. 

Well a client told me today that she called one of the large national banks about her loan modification application which has been pending for over 10 months now. She of course heard that recorded phrase that they "may monitor or record" her call for "training purposes."

When a representative finally got on the phone, this client said to him that she intended on recording the call herself for her own records. The representative immediately said that he could not continue the call if she insisted on recording the call!

She asked the next logical question which was: "if you can record my call for training purposes, then why can't I record the call about my own account for my purposes?" His response, "we cannot keep talking with you if you insist on recording the conversation. Are you recording the conversation, ma'am?"

This exchange just typifies one of the problems with dealing with large banks in this country when a consumer is having a problem with their account or loan modification: the bank can do whatever it sees fit (in this case recording a consumer's conversation) when it fits their purposes, but when a consumer tries to exercise the same rights - forget about it! We won't talk to you anymore.

Have you run into the same sort of wall? We would love to hear your personal consumer nightmare stories as part of this blog string.

Have at it...