Business Tip: Avoid Advertising With Yellowbook
As many business owners know, Yellowbook is a very aggressive marketer of Internet and Yellow Pages advertising. My recent experience with Yellowbook has shown that it is an unethical company with sloppy business practices and dishonest employees.
After a very unsuccessful stint with Yellowbook, I notified them of my desire to cancel the advertising contract for future publications. Verbal notification was not enough for them, so I faxed in a notice of cancellation and also hand delivered a written notice to my sales representative on a form prepared by a Yellowbook employee. When I called to dispute the balance on my account, I have been given various excuses that included (1) wrong method of cancellation (false); (2) no record of cancellation (false); (3) the employee who took the cancellation no longer works there (false); and (4) I didn't cancel in time (unverified).
I have repeatedly asked for a copy of my contract and proof that my advertisement was included in the 2008 edition of Yellowbook. Despite numerous promises to do this, I have not been provided with either item.
Avoid advertising with Yellowbook at all costs or you will be severely disappointed. In my case, the revenue generated did not even cover the cost of the advertisement.
About the Author: Carl H. Starrett II has been a licensed attorney since 1993 and is a member in good standing with the California State Bar and the San Diego County Bar Association. Mr. Starrett practices in the areas of bankruptcy, business litigation, construction, corporate planning, insurance subrogation and debt collection.
posted by Carl Starrett @ 11:06 AM
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4 Comments:
I agree completely. They are at best incompetent. About 6 years ago an attorney that I know had a deal with Yellow Book where he paid for a full page ad, and they gave him 2 extra half-page ads at no extra cost. He and I worked out a deal in which I paid him $300 per month for one of his half-page ads. We told Yellow Book what we were doing, because there was a danger that they would have listed his phone number instead of mine if we hadn't explained it to them. That arrangement lasted for about 2 years, and then we went our separate ways.
This year I decided to run 2 Yellow Book ads of my own. One was for my bankruptcy practice, and the other had to do with defending against bogus credit card lawsuits and taking actions against abusive debt collectors. Mine was going to be the only ad in the book covering such a topic, and I was looking forward to getting a leg up on this up-and-coming area of practice. I spent a lot of time setting up the ad and deciding how to attract my target audience. There was even a picture of the Yellow Book salesman and me on page 1 of a the local daily business newspaper. Here's a link to that article and photo: http://www.memphisdailynews.com/editorial/Article.aspx?id=34495
That was in November, and the new book was supposed to come out in March or April. I never heard another word from them, and it was only after the new book came out that I discovered that neither ad had been placed. When I called to complain, they claimed to have agonized over the decision, but that they had decided not to place my ad because the guy that I had shared ad space with all those years ago had defaulted on his account.
There are three major problems with that explanation. First, the alleged default happened years after my association with that ad ended. Second, Yellow Book is already running an ad from that guy in this year's book. Third, according to my friend, he never did default on that account. He mailed in a payment for roughly $4,000, and they misplaced his check for a few months. They finally found it, and they credited it to his account, but then they tried to charge him penalty and interest on the payments that he "missed" while they were looking for the check that they had lost, and there was still some lingering issues about that.
So none of what they are saying makes any sense. I threatened to sue them, but I know how hard it is to prove damages in a case like this. Maybe some day.
I couldn't agree more, although I do not believe these issues are solely with YellowBook.
We had similar issues with SuperPages and getting that (worthless) ad cancelled. On top of that, we were on a 12-month contract (supposedly). But when I received bill #13 I called to complain. They explained that it was being cancelled but for some reason or another, they "extended" the original contract by one month. When I got bill #14, I called again to complain and learned that the "new" directory (replacing the one my ad was in) was delayed in printing/production, and that they have the right to keep charging me for every month that the directory our ad appeared in was "current." So, yes, they actually get paid MORE money for doing LESS work. Unbelievable.
And I have had nothing but trouble with the online YellowPages listings. I actually would pay for the premium online listings, but it takes an act of Congress just to get them to put one of the free, basic listings in the correct category, without typos in the address. How can I possibly have any assurances that an ad I pay good money for will be correct?
So frustrating.
You are correct in saying that it's not just Yellow Book. A couple of years ago I signed up to run an online ad with "the Real Yellow Pages." It was a 1-year contract, with monthly payments of around $100. By the 9th month I had not received the first nibble. When I called to cancel they said that with the cancellation penalty it would be cheaper to just let the year run out, sot that's what I did, but I made it clear that I was not renewing and that I would not pay for anything after the 12th month.
A few weeks later I received an email from Yellow Pages thanking me for renewing my subscription, and trying to sell more services to me. I called again, and they apologized for the error, and told me that it was fixed. Another month or so later I received a letter from Yellow pages acknowledging my new subscription. This time I wrote them a very stern letter repeating the above history and threatening to sue them if they even tried to charge me for anything.
When the 13th month rolled around I noticed that they were trying to draft the monthly payment from my bank account. I called and quite sarcastically thanked someone for giving me the right to sue them. I soon received a letter of apology, and as consolation an offer to run my listing in the paper phone book's business section for free. So for the past 2 or 3 years my name and phone number have been in the business section of the local Yellow Pages, and I haven't paid them a penny. Every now and then they send some sort of contract that they want me to sign, acknowledging my cancellation of their service. Since there is obviously no point in trying to communicate with them I simply ignore those requests.
Oh, and don't even get me started on how much money XO (my office telephone service provider) cost me by repeatedly misspelling my last name in every local phone book, despite several corrections. They would correct the spelling, and then somehow the misspelled version would creep back in, time after time.
Again, all of these telcoms are incompetent at best, and some are just beneath contempt.
Just to add to the list of horrible advertising company's- city search! When their pay-per-click product failed to produce any calls, we switched over to a pay-per-call program. Well, after several months we discover they've started charging us a minimum monthly fee- something we never ever agreed to. And of course after we cancel they claim we owe them more- even though they should be refunding us money (and yes, still never a verified call from that source)
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