TCPA: Fourth Key — Document The Calls To Your Cell Phone


TCPA:  Fourth Key — Document The Calls To Your Cell Phone

TCPA:  Fourth Key -- Document The Calls To Your Cell PhoneWe have covered three keys and now we are at the fourth key which is to protect yourself by documenting the calls.

You have to do this because you need to be prepared for the company breaking the law to lie to you about the number of calls.

(If you need part one about what calls are covered, part two about permission to call, or part three about revoking permission, you can click on them to read the earlier articles).

We often have defense lawyers at our seminars, webinars, and who read our website.

That’s fine because I share this with defense lawyers and I’ve trained defense lawyers in this law.

So I don’t mind. But you know what? Assume that the company calling you will lie.

Again, folks on the other side will sort of go crazy and say, “How dare you say that!”

Here’s why I say it. When we sue these companies, we know we’ve got 50 documented calls.

We know there were more, but we can document 50.

I’ve even had in-house lawyers for these companies call me and say, “We want to settle with you. I’ve done an exhaustive search using your person’s name and phone number, and there were four calls made.”

I say, “Really? Four calls? We allege 50 in our law suit.”

“No, there were only four.”

I say, “That’s kind of odd because I have like seven recorded voicemails with the computer as pre-recorded message.”

There is this pause and they say, “Oh, send those to me.” I send them, and then they’ll say, “Oh, we just found these other calls.”

It’s become almost comical, even though it’s not.

It’s almost funny that we know these guys are going to lie. Just expect that.

How do you protect yourself?

Take screen shots

You take screen shots. Most of us have some kind of smart phone.

If you have an iPhone, you press the top button and the home button.

Really, there are only two buttons on the phone. It take a screen shot, and then you just e-mail that picture to yourself.

Take a screen shot of a missed call that might say, “You had a call on August 30 at 1:27 P.M. from this number.”

Use that for a connected call, too.

That way, when they lie and say, “We never called you on August 30,” you can say, “Well, I have four missed calls right here. I have the screen shot.” That’s when they’ll say, “Oh, we had a little computer glitch and we just found those other records.”

Just assume they’ll lie.

They’ll get mad about it.

Just protect yourself. Take screen shots.

Save your voicemails

We had one case where I think we had 98 voicemails.

If you just heard it, you might say, “That sounds like maybe somebody left that live.”

But we had 98 voicemails and they’re all identical – the same pause in the message.

Somebody has just recorded themselves and they just use that over and over.

That’s a pre-recorded message.

But if we did not have those, this company, a major bank, would come in and say, “Oh no, we made like four calls. That’s it.”

We know that that’s not true. Save the voicemails.

If you can e-mail them from your phone, that’s fine.

Take your laptop, turn the microphone, play your cell phone voice message out loud, record it onto your laptop, and e-mail that to yourself.

Again, get it in the cloud. Put it in Dropbox so if something happens to your phone or computer, you have it.

Pull your cell phone records

What I mean by that is you go to Verizon or AT&T, either the website or store, and say, “I want my records here so that I can show at least the connected calls.”

It normally won’t show the missed calls, and sometimes it will show voicemails, and sometimes they don’t. It just depends on what company and what plan you have.

Go ahead and pull it because it will at least show some things on there, particularly if you’ve had actual conversations.

(Part five — suing under the TCPA — is available for you to read also).

If you live in Alabama and have questions about the TCPA may protect you, feel free to call us at 205-879-2447 or contact us online and we will be glad to discuss your options with you.  We are also happy to send you a free information package so you can better understand your rights.

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