I want to share my story with as many businesses as possible to make them aware of the company you have to be very careful to get engaged with. That is what happened to me...
I have a new social networking and dating website for singles and married that is called Find New Passion - www.FindNewPassion.com. We're completely different from other married dating sites because we don't have any sexually explicit pictures or content, and are giving people an opportunity to communicate on a proper level. We give our members a chance to chat, engage in strictly platonic as well as long term relationships, and participate in reading and discussion of controversial articles and famous quotes from the best magazines and journals. Our site is elite and very classy, currently giving a 100% free promotional membership.
That was an information I gave YellowPages' representative who contacted me regarding an advertising opportunity. She told me that my site is very nice, and there is no concern regarding future adds. 1 year contract promising great service and excellent web add display was signed. After an add was placed, it turned out that it was identified by YellowPages Quality Control team as being against company's policy which is "Family Friendly", so my site's URL link was removed making my add inactive and useless.
Nevertheless, I was told over and over again that 1 year contract was signed and the rest doesn't matter. I have a responsibility to pay, and my contract would be cancelled only after full amount which is $738.00/month X 12 is paid. YellowPages absolutely refused to cancel my contract, demanding a payment and escalating my case to a collection agency. It took me 6 months, 62 e-mail, numerous phone calls to customer care department, sales representative, regional manager, billing and collection departments with no resolution. Eventually, I had to contact Mr. David Krantz - President of YellowPages to bring his attention to this matter saying the following:
"I have an absolutely terrible experience doing business with YellowPages.com. I'm not sure if I've just run into people who are intentionally deceptive, or this is a normal way of doing business for your company. For six month I've been trying to reach somebody in your organization who is interested in my experience without any success".
Only after Mr. Krantz intervention, my contract was cancelled. To this day I haven't received an official apology for all the time I had to spend trying to resolve this problem, and all the frustration they put me through. Also, I'm still wondering, why was I put in this position in a first place? Is it possible that neither sales representative no regional manager know their own company policy, or did they intentionally lied trapping me into almost $10,000 contract that they knew they would never full-fill?
After contacting Better Business Bureau and Massachusetts Attorney General office, I learned that 41 complaints against YellowPages have been files in Massachusetts alone, making me wonder how many more are still pending in other states. I had a chance to talk to a lawyer who said that it took him 7 years to make YellowPages leave him alone.
Also, I learned that "Family Friendly" company makes a lot of money from the following business that advertise in their Entertainers Family Business category:
- Strippers Network
- Bachelor Party Headquarters
- Chippendales
- Dream Dolls advertising: Massage, Dining And Social Events, Bachelor Parties, Strip-O-Grams, Strip O Grams, Specializing In Women Of Brazilian And Russian Nationalities, New Talent Needed, Couples Welcome
- EscortMe
- Midnight Express advertising: Out-calls Only, We're Already On Our Way
- Personal Escort
- Executive Pampering New England Finest Female and Male Exotic Dancers advertising: Adult Entertainment For Any Occasion
So, this article is to make people aware of two-faced and deceptive way YellowPages does business. |