A few years ago I called on a well-known company (Willowbrook) for an electric rise/recline chair. The salesman came to my house and showed me a letter purportedly written by a Harley Street orthopaedic surgeon. What I noticed was that the spelling of the name did not match the signature! I located that surgeon and spoke to him on the phone and he said he did endorse Willowbrook's beds but not their chairs. The outcome was an ASA ruling... http://www.asa.org.uk/Rulings/Adjudications/2009/8/Willowbrook-Ltd/TF_ADJ_46765.aspx Last year, I decided to call out another company to see what they could offer in rise/recline chairs. This time, I voice recorded the whole visit! I am glad I did as the claims made by the salesman were so bizarre is was actually quite hard to keep a straight face. I passed that recording to Trading Standards some six months ago and they have been in contact with the company most of that time. The company sought to play down the allegations, indicating they were not of a serious nature. They said the salesman had been disciplined though. Finally, Trading Standards released the recording to the company. The result was that the salesman was immediately sacked!! An officer from the company has now been interviewed by Trading Standards who are also seeking to interview the now ex-salesman who does seem keen to be interviewed. Trading Standards are still considering prosecuting the company for breaches of trading regulations and prosecuting the salesman for fraud.
Indeed a good idea. But aren't we obliged to either ask permission of at least notify the other party that one is going to record them, in advance?
This was not a phone call, this was someone visiting my home. You don't need permission to use CCTV on your own property and the same applies to sound recordings. Problems only really arise when recording phone calls. Even then, as an individual, you may legally record phone calls without informing the other party if you will only use that recording for personal use (ie not pass the recording to a third party) Even then I don't think there is any problem using a recording, obtained without permission, in a subsequent court case. I think the legitimacy of using recorded phone call evidence is much the same as using email evidence as they are both electronic forms of communication falling under the same legislative requirements. Trading Standards did debate over the legitimacy of using the recording as evidence, but I have not asked them what their conclusion on that point is. I guess they must have felt confident that the recording could be used without me breaching any legislation, as they have passed that recording to the company. I suspect the company will get off Scott-free in this case as, by sacking their employee, they have demonstrated they have systems in place to prevent this sort of practice and so not warrant prosecution under trading laws. For the ex-salesman, I think there is a potential for a prison sentence, unless he is a first-time offender, for fraud.
