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When I call Airbnb, I get a recorded message that warns me that the conversation may be recorded. Once I jokingly said on a call that “you may be recorded”. The Airbnb employee immediately demanded to know if she was being recorded, and told me it was company policy that she would have to end the conversation if she was being recorded. I told her I didn’t know, and was she recording me. She said yes, and I told her she had her answer. I asked if it was Airbnb policy that they can record our conversation, but I could not. She told me yes, and then disconnected me.
So I am stunned by the arrogance of this company. Can you imagine that. They feel perfectly righteous in claiming that they should and do record me, but they will not allow me to record them. Stunning.
In certain states you can record phone calls without disclosing it. I recorded a certain awful bank during my negotiations for a loan modification and caught them in lie after lie.
Right. That’s not exactly my complaint. It’s their arrogance, when they
collect 10% for letting a machine run a website. No actual customer
service provided.
You’re not very good at this are you. You don’t even read my comments. I wish that Airbnb would spend money on providing me customer service, instead of paying you to defend them in their forums.
Please don’t reply.
@dconsta David. Are you normally this rude to a fellow host?
I read your comments …
You called Airbnb. You ‘joked’ around that you were recording their call. They told you that it was company policy to end the call if you were. Then they did.
You are narked by this. You feel righteous. And are stunned.
I wish I had recorded two separate conversations I had with air’s Customer Service.
In each call, the reps. told me they were instructed to lie to us if we phoned about particular problems with our listing.
My first post on this forum detailed these experiences, with accurate quotes from notes I took during the calls. (Post titled "AirBnB staff instructed to lie to us. "July 3rd 2017. )
Helsi replied to me, a one sentence response of:
"I very much doubt that any member of staff would tell you they were lying."
It was a rough introduction to the forum and I’ve not yet been able to feel anything but disdain for her.
Had I recorded the conversations and Helsi was interested enough to hear them, rather than immediately judge me as fabricating the story, I would have forwarded them to her. Perhaps she prefers to attack, rather than listen.
I understand your concern that you are recorded when you call CS, but were disallowed to reciprocate.
It does come across as a bit precious that they can happily record you (and then have the luxury of whether or not to use a recording in their defence), but you are not allowed to make your own copy of the conversation.
Also annoying that you only made a joke, but it escalated to a hanging-up!
That’s the funny thing about forums…no matter how experienced you are in something, the second you join a forum, you’re just a newbie, and get treated like a dingus.
I am really sorry that my reply to your earlier post upset you. I was expressing surprise that Airbnb staff would admit on the phone that they were lying to you, when they know calls are recorded, rather than implying that you were making this up.
At the time you replied to myself and another host who similarly expressed surprise… “Helsi and Zandra – I do understand your disbelief/bemusement of the content of what I have shared here. To me, it is also unbelievable. The fact that it was reported to me by two different assistants has me suspect it is true”.
From that I took that you understood why hosts would find Airbnb admitting to lying shocking.
My initial response to David certainly wasn’t an attack. I simply explained my perspective that many customers services from utilities to holiday companies record calls. And this is good practice as it protects both the host/guest in the event of a dispute.
Nor were you “polite” to me as a fellow host, Helsi.
I could be grateful you have now apologized, but it rings somewhat hollow. Your response did not in any way express the surprise you claim you felt. but rather it showed complete disbelief of what I reported had happened to me.
And yes, I did understand your disbelief, as it was for me an unbelievable insight into the lack of integrity displayed by airBnB’s management.
You’re nor correct in stating I was “upset” by your response. It was indeed a rough introduction to the forum, but as I was writing the truth, your response didn’t upset me. However, it may have driven away someone more emotionally fragile than I, and that would be unfortunate.
Your doubting of the validity of my post had me ponder, with frank amusement, what you may have imagined my reason could have been for fabricating such a report.
My posting was to alert other hosts of what they may experience should they have problems with their listing and seek assistance from CS.
Any time a call is recorded by a company in CS or sales, they ask you whether you are ok with this, and you are fine to say no, not to pursue. In fine, this is typically how I hang up for good from sales company calling me about financial offers, etc.
Similarly, the airbnb agent has the right not to want to be recorded. And you can then mention you will not record and go on, or record yourself talking. All makes sense in a catch22 type of logic.
Kind of odd to join a forum just to post such a common occurrence as calls being recorded. My bank, my cc companies, insurance company and many other companies have the message “this call may be monitored or recorded.” It’s protection for all parties.
I think the poignant bit is: they hung up when DConsta joked that he was recording. That’s what makes it an interesting post, as opposed to a ‘call centre records your calls for training’ post.
I think it is a question of technological development. In the year 2017, it is very easy for any company, like Airbnb, to record any call with customers.
One or two years from now, it will be just as easy for you and me to record any call. Right now, it would take me a little bit of effort to record any and all calls, but I have a feeling that a technical solution is just around the corner. In fact, I guess my new iPhone should be able to make those automated recordings - I wonder if anybody would be able to give me some hints here?
I never ever objected to any company recording customer calls I make with them. Similarly, I would expect any company, including Airbnb, to not object if I want to record calls myself. Will probably take some time for companies to get used to the idea of customers rising up to their level, to be on an equal footing with them.
“Once I jokingly said on a call that “you may be recorded The Airbnb employee immediately demanded to know if she was being recorded, and told me it was company policy that she would have to end the conversation if she was being recorded. I told her I didn’t know, and was she recording me. She said yes, and I told her she had her answer. I asked if it was Airbnb policy that they can record our conversation, but I could not. She told me yes, and then disconnected me.”
Even though he started out by saying he was joking about recording them. When they asked him if he was recording the conversation. He answered yes. This is why they cut the call (unless he was being rude and abusive too).
I am not sure which country he is from and laws around consumers recording calls, so can’t comment on that.
@Eberhard_Blocher - I think you can record calls on your iphone on their voice recorder?
Again, you didn’t bother to read my post. It is pure ARROGANCE that they claim a right to record our conversation while refusing that same right to me.
You clearly didn’t bother to read mine… I said ‘I am not sure which country he (ie you) is from and laws around consumers recording calls, so can’t comment on that’.
Much ado about nothing imho, however, for those who are interested here’s an article about this exact subject. https://www.dailydot.com/layer8/comcast-customer-service-recording-secret-weapon/
You don’t have to listen to the recording, you can read what happened when a Comcast customer recorded his conversation with the company without their knowledge. I’m no big defender of Airbnb but I think many companies would react to the op’s “joking” in a similar manner.
