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Yellow Pages
garethplant
Posts: 4 Newbie
Hi,
I would really appreciate some advice on this one.
At the tail end of last year i started a new small business and subsequently got a call from good old Yellow Pages.
After the typical sales spill i agreed to take up a small advert in the YP and on Yell.com.
I received a proof of the advertisement upon which i asked them to add a space between the 7 and the E of our address.
As the Yellow Pages was not due out to next year they said they would contact me early next year to arrange payment.
January time they contacted me for payment and i said i would like to pay in installments. They said they would send me an email where by entering two characters from my password would enter into a legal contract with them to provide the service.
I forgot all about it until the good old YP dropped through our door. I immediately looked for our advertisement excited about the prospect of attracting more business. To my horror YP had put my home address in the advertisement and not my business address originally requested. I immediately sent them a long letter by recorded delivery stating:
Dear Sir/Madam,
We are writing to inform you that as of today we will cancelling our agreement with you and will be seeking advice from our legal advisors in respect of a claim in relation to a recent advertisement placed with your company.
We was approached by yourselves back at the end of last year and after much persuasion agreed to take up a small advertisement with you in the Yellow Pages and on Yell.
We dealt with one of your advisors ******************* who provided us with an overview of the service and a proof of the advertisement on the 21st December 2010. I spoke with ******** after the Yellow Pages advertisement was emailed to us informing him that the advertisement was ok however there needed to be a space added between the 7 and E of our address which he agreed to do.
On the 25th January I received a telephone call from ************ requesting payment and I stated I would like to pay by instalments. ************ emailed me a copy of the credit agreement which included a direct debit instruction. I advised *********** I would complete the credit agreement and email him the copy, which I did on the 26th January. ******* then informed me that he would email me back and by entering the letters of the password chosen by me in a reply to that email I would be bound into a lawful agreement with Yellow Pages. In no part of that conversation was I advised that any amendments had been made to the advertisement or to confirm again that the advertisement was indeed correct.
Today the 12th March we received a copy of the Yellow Pages through our door and much to my disbelief found the advert contained our home address and not our business address.
Not at any time did I make a request to ******** or any other employee at Yellow Pages that the address in the Yellow Pages advert be changed from our business address to our home address on our Yellow Pages advert either verbally, electronically or in writing.
Look backing through the emails received from yourselves I noticed that in the email attachment sent on the 26th January from yourselves the advert address had mysteriously changed from our business address to our home address. Not only am I shocked that such an error could be made by yourselves as its states our correct address on Yell but the disbelief that you have printed our home address in the Yellow Pages.
As a company you have broken your privacy statement and we therefore have no alternative but to seek legal advice in respect of your actions. This error by yourselves will result not only in loss of trade to our business, but an invasion of our privacy and our children with people attempting to visit our home as our place of business. By printing our residential address in your publication you have violated our privacy.
As stated we will cease any payments owing to you immediately due to your negligence and will advise you in due course of any action that may follow as a result.
Yellow Pages have offered us as a result a twenty percent price reduction which i have refused. They have now stated unless i pay they will take legal action to recover the amount owing.
I am so angry at their conduct and could really do with some good advice please.
Many thanks
I would really appreciate some advice on this one.
At the tail end of last year i started a new small business and subsequently got a call from good old Yellow Pages.
After the typical sales spill i agreed to take up a small advert in the YP and on Yell.com.
I received a proof of the advertisement upon which i asked them to add a space between the 7 and the E of our address.
As the Yellow Pages was not due out to next year they said they would contact me early next year to arrange payment.
January time they contacted me for payment and i said i would like to pay in installments. They said they would send me an email where by entering two characters from my password would enter into a legal contract with them to provide the service.
I forgot all about it until the good old YP dropped through our door. I immediately looked for our advertisement excited about the prospect of attracting more business. To my horror YP had put my home address in the advertisement and not my business address originally requested. I immediately sent them a long letter by recorded delivery stating:
Dear Sir/Madam,
We are writing to inform you that as of today we will cancelling our agreement with you and will be seeking advice from our legal advisors in respect of a claim in relation to a recent advertisement placed with your company.
We was approached by yourselves back at the end of last year and after much persuasion agreed to take up a small advertisement with you in the Yellow Pages and on Yell.
We dealt with one of your advisors ******************* who provided us with an overview of the service and a proof of the advertisement on the 21st December 2010. I spoke with ******** after the Yellow Pages advertisement was emailed to us informing him that the advertisement was ok however there needed to be a space added between the 7 and E of our address which he agreed to do.
On the 25th January I received a telephone call from ************ requesting payment and I stated I would like to pay by instalments. ************ emailed me a copy of the credit agreement which included a direct debit instruction. I advised *********** I would complete the credit agreement and email him the copy, which I did on the 26th January. ******* then informed me that he would email me back and by entering the letters of the password chosen by me in a reply to that email I would be bound into a lawful agreement with Yellow Pages. In no part of that conversation was I advised that any amendments had been made to the advertisement or to confirm again that the advertisement was indeed correct.
Today the 12th March we received a copy of the Yellow Pages through our door and much to my disbelief found the advert contained our home address and not our business address.
Not at any time did I make a request to ******** or any other employee at Yellow Pages that the address in the Yellow Pages advert be changed from our business address to our home address on our Yellow Pages advert either verbally, electronically or in writing.
Look backing through the emails received from yourselves I noticed that in the email attachment sent on the 26th January from yourselves the advert address had mysteriously changed from our business address to our home address. Not only am I shocked that such an error could be made by yourselves as its states our correct address on Yell but the disbelief that you have printed our home address in the Yellow Pages.
As a company you have broken your privacy statement and we therefore have no alternative but to seek legal advice in respect of your actions. This error by yourselves will result not only in loss of trade to our business, but an invasion of our privacy and our children with people attempting to visit our home as our place of business. By printing our residential address in your publication you have violated our privacy.
As stated we will cease any payments owing to you immediately due to your negligence and will advise you in due course of any action that may follow as a result.
Yellow Pages have offered us as a result a twenty percent price reduction which i have refused. They have now stated unless i pay they will take legal action to recover the amount owing.
I am so angry at their conduct and could really do with some good advice please.
Many thanks
0
Comments
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Could you clarify something please? The email attachment dated 26th Jan seems to be the key here. Was this received *before* or *after* you emailed back the letters of your password?0
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does anyone actually use yellow pages or yell these days ? i got my copy a couple of weeks ago and it went straight in the bin , if i want a service i just google it , may be you would be better off with that than y/p0
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Why aren't you as in your own words: we therefore have no alternative but to seek legal advice in respect of your actions??
This isn't a simple matter, and it involved business to business contracts, not business to consumer."Every single person has at least one secret that would break your heart. If we could just remember this, I think there would be a lot more compassion and tolerance in the world."— Frank Warren0 -
The PDF attachment was attached to the email when they asked me to enter my password characters.0
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In reply to MsHoarder i would but i'm not sure who to approach for free business advice?
Can a company enlist a debt collection agency to act on their behalf and collect the debt if you are in dispute with the company?0 -
garethplant wrote: »The PDF attachment was attached to the email when they asked me to enter my password characters.
Presumably this was their final proof copy and it should have been checked before you effectively "signed" the contract by enetering the password characters?
They have certainly messed up between proofs but as they sent you a proof and you asked for it to be amended and then they sent you a final proof you should have checked it before entering into the contract.
It is impossible to know the exact legal position without seeing all the documentation. I'm by no means a legal expert and haven't seen the contracts so take this with a large pinch of salt but I'd be kicking myself for not reading the proof rather than threatening YP with legal action. I would be demanding a 50% discount from them for such a large error though.
I'm only giving my non-expert opinion because you have to weigh it up before approaching a solicitor...they'll charge around £200 p/h ex VAT so you'll soon match the cost of the advert even if you win, and I'm sure YP will put up a fight as they can prove they sent you a proof to view before you entered into the contract.
The moral of this story is its best not to go with advertisers that just crank out adverts by the bucket load on what is effectively a production line. Take the time and effort to build local partnerships and do local promotions and PR...it will also be much cheaper and much more effective.0 -
garethplant wrote: »In reply to MsHoarder i would but i'm not sure who to approach for free business advice?
Can a company enlist a debt collection agency to act on their behalf and collect the debt if you are in dispute with the company?
Your business insurance may have a free legal helpline or if you are a member of a trade association that may also come with the same thing.0 -
yes, people still do but I quite agree that online is the way to go these days. Some people have a lot of trust in Yellow Pages because there is never likely to have any scammers in there (yeah right...)does anyone actually use yellow pages or yell these days ? i got my copy a couple of weeks ago and it went straight in the bin , if i want a service i just google it , may be you would be better off with that than y/p0 -
Reply from YP today:
Dear Mr Plant,
Thank you for your email.
********* was reiterating the 20% reduction offer that was originally made on 30/03/2011 by ******, as a result of the Complaint raised on 18/03/2011.
This offer was made as the advert can still potentially generate business
as the telephone number and website address on the advertising is correct.
The balance of £156.00 invoiced on 24/03/2011 is outstanding for printed Yellow Pages advertising, & we will continue to pursue payment.
Should you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to email us
again or telephone on 0800 555 444.
Kind Regards,
Yell Customer Service Team0 -
For £156 it wouldn't be cost effective to get your solicitor on board as they will charge more for 1 hour of work.
My feeling is to pay it and move on, you have a business to run and time is money plus you don't want a black mark on your credit rating. As stated before that's just my lay advice though. No one ever made money out of trying to prove a point, I do go through all invoices and make sure I pick up any errors and always chase up credits but I'm not convinced you're going to win this one so I don't think it is worth dragging it out beyond trying to get a larger reduction.
Entirely up to you though, only you have all the documentation and the exact order of events.0
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