Yellow Pages Advertising Problem

CrustyMcMuffin

Hi

Last year my company took out an ad in the yellow pages and didn't get many referals from it. This year we decided against advertising in it and told this to a rather persistant salesman who phone us up a few months back. I soon noticed our listing was removed from yell.com, which is fair enough as the advertising we took our was just for a year.

A week or so ago we got an invoice from the yellow pages, I emailed them and they replied saying this was for an ad in the new edition of the yellow pages. They went on to say that they'd never received any cancellation document from us so went ahead with the ad. The invoice said they would remove the cash via direct debit later this month.

I've emailed them back saying we never agreed to this ad but have no proof, all I can tell them is I told the guy on the phone we didn't want the ad and I thought that was the end of it. I was just wondering where we stand on this, they never received a cancellation document but at the same time they never received any signed confirmation from my company that we wanted a new ad. I'll see what they say in their next reply but I'm interested to hear what you guys think about the situation.

Thanks

seaweasel

Just cancel the direct debit before they try to take any money out.

ukbill69

Yes just cancel dd then they cant do anything.

greyteam1959

As far as I know from advertising in Yellow Pages they need a signature on a confirmation of order form which will have an order number on it before they go ahead.
Ask them for a copy of this signed form. Which as you know they have not got !!
You dont have to cancel an add as far as I know.
Make sure you cancel the Direct Debit ASAP cos once they have your money you will have a devil of a job getting it back.
Yellow Pages have a nasty habit of pressuring ( pestering more like ) people into taking space.

WHA

Yes, make sure you cancel the DD. Some YP sales staff are (to put it politely) con-merchants.

When I first started with them, a salesman visited to take my details and was very pushy that I also went on Yell.com - I said I didn't want to but then he said he could do it for no charge, so I signed the form - order form clearly showed "FOC" in price column again the yell.com entry. Then comes the bill! I complained and they provided me with a copy of my order showing I had agreed to pay for Yell.com. Luckily I had kept my copy of the order which clearly showed "FOC". The salesman had obviously tippex-ed out the FOC and put the cost in after he'd taken it away. They eventually credited the bill but it took A LONG TIME!

Then just last year, another one phoned to try to persuade me to advertise in the directory. When I refused, she offered to put me into the directory of the adjoining county for the same price, so I agreed. Then she faxed the order which clearly showed she was charging for both. I phoned her back and she denied it saying that she would put a credit through after I placed the order!!! Needless to say, she lost the sale.

In both these cases, I made formal written complaints to their Head Office but got no sensible reply, so be warned, and be vigilant in your dealings with them.

ukbill69

You know what im thinking like an American now days, take them to court is my fav word.

CrustyMcMuffin

Thanks for the advice, I'll phone the bank later on and get the DD cancelled.

They're been terrible at replying to my emails, I asked them last Wednesday for a copy of the order confirmation, and also a copy of the ad they've placed for us and have had nothing back so far.