http://www.yellowpages.com.au/onlineSolu......mp;st=bn

http://www.yellowpages.com.au/onlineSolu......mp;st=bn

Here is my two ads for this year. Can you spot the difference?

Yes...they got my PHONE NUMBER WRONG!

I booked the add in September, didn't get a proof until December at which point I noticed the mistake.

I rang, fax and mailed them my complaint. Was assured it was fixed.

And here we are...

I have a lawyer friend who has advised me that legal recourse will be expensive and unproductive as the amount of lost business is difficult to prove.

So what do I do?

Nick,

Did you PROOF it?
Or did you give them the wrong info?

I don't know your AU laws, but if you haven't paid yet, seems to me you'd have no obligation to pay. Or at the very least - put the burden of law on them.

They'd have to file against YOU and then go to court and admit their mistake etc.

Just a thought. Don't know what your laws are.

Robert Bloor

I got the proof in December (three months late and less then a week before they went to print) I rang, faxed and mailed them the correction and was assured it was fixed. They all went on holidays and didn't do anything!

Then clearly they are at fault. If te ads have been printed, demand a refund plus compensation. If people are seeing your ad and trying to wring the wrong number, then you are loosing out on business. If they haven't been printed, chase chase chase, ask if they can upgrade your ad as compensation and then do whatever you wish, i.e. don't go to them again or continue.


Hope I helped
Ali

Nicholas you can request them to place an intercept on the line of the listed #, this would be a courtesy to you & the holder of the incorrect listed #. The intercept would be something to effect "if you are trying to reach Nicholas Johnson then please dial ########, we apologize for the listing error" if the listed # is a residential then the leasee of that line may be willing to change their tn# & you could pick it up as a distinctive ring # to ring into our line. I will add that the yellow pages is not owned by your local service provider then all this could be considerablly more difficult to negotiate. As for attempting to recieve any loss compensation your chances are slim to none on that, your attorney may be able to send a few letters but chances of recieving any compensation are slim.

After years of trouble with the phone books I got around paying them. First I told them that I changed my company name to the name of my website. Then I dropped all of my paid advertising with them. Because I have a business line, they have to list my business under whatever heading I choose. I don't pay for ads anymore, because I dropped all the bigger ads. I get a better response from online advertising in my market then from the yellow pages. (People who have enough money to hire me, also have computers and look there for what they want.) If people do go to the phonebook, they still see my website and phone number. I have three phone numbers from different areas. Each listed free in different books. Keeping the additional lines and forwarding them to my office is cheaper then the cost of advertising a single ad in the phone book.

Nick

You might need to get really friendly with the people with the number!

Make sure they know who's fault it is and that you're working on a solution.

At the very least the "Online " version should be able to have the correct number.

timothy

Nicholas -

If you had to sign off on your proof, and you didn't, then they should have sent you another for you to sign.

I had some problems with a phone book rep a couple of years ago, and went through three proofs with errors. I didn't sign off on any one.

In the end, I was so frustrated with this employee that I backed out of advertising with them, although I had been doing so for years.

It seems to me that if you didn't sign off to approve an ad, then you don't owe them payment. Around here, they need that ad to be approved with a signature (faxed or mailed) before they can run with it. (This is not legal advice. I am not a lawyer, nor have I played one on TV. )

However, your concerns go beyond that to wanting some sort of corrective action (suggested in one of the posts above) or compensation for their mistake. I can't advise you as to whether that's a reality.

- Donald

A rep has just tried pushing new advertising on me. I advertised last year with my local yellow pages but it didn't really generate much business.

Anyway, they said they would send me a new proof antway to look over and think about it. Now my name has changed from Darren to David! the 'g' in magic on my web and email address is now 'j'! and my phone number is now different! So I backed out of that very quickly.

Another phone book aproached me about a year and half ago. Sent me a proof, which got to my addres ok, but the address on the advert was some place about 150 miles away!

I think most phone bost are run by a bunch of monkeys!

Yellow Pages
Very limited range, to mainly the poor folk, for a rediculously high fee. This sounds like a pretty good deal to me. What's the problem?

Nicholas
I don't know much about Australia, but people in the US who can afford to hire a magician shop either on the internet, or through an agency. The phone book is where the bargain hunters go, so if you want to be deluged with low ball offers the yellow pages is for you.
HAVE FUN
Al Angello

Al I was trying to find a politically correct way of saying what you just did.

I no longer need to hunt for such a thing. Thank you for putting it out there!

Bravo sir

*sigh*

The yellow pages gets me a lot of high paying gigs. If it didn't, I wouldn't advertise in it.

You Auzies do everything different. You have your days at night time, and you have summer in the middle of winter. As I said when I started "I don't know much about Australia" and I at least got that right.
HAVE FUN
Al Angello

Al, those cultural differences seem to trip us all the time.

Glad you stepped in the biggest part of it though thanks!

Its not so much a cultural thing as a market thing. Different markets use different services in different ways.

Here is the full story

July - Rang them to book - no reply
August - Rang them to book - no reply
September - Rang them to book - no reply
October - book and submited artwook with correct number.
November - chase proof
December - get proof on Christmas eve 6 weeks after book closes. Notice that they have added the suburb line to the bottom (not my suburb) and changed the phone number)
Janauary 5 - Call and complain to boss about wrong number. fax over changes. ring and check changes received.
February - No new proof despite calls. Boss on holidays
March - book comes out. Ring an complain. promised response in 24 hours....no reply. Call head office and told claim with take four weeks.

Nick, marketing is a cultural thing my friend.

That is why we are of little help.

You market differently baised on different needs. Needs and wants are indeed cultural. I am happy for you that Yellow Pages works for higher paying jobs.

They have just offered me my money back and a free ad.

Not sure what to do....

Borrow my chainsaw and go show 'em who's boss.