Complaint Review: 411.ca

I am a small business owner of Canada, Shine Coaching, who really trusted this company was trying to help me. They didn't. I paid through the nose for a service based on false promises with no return except headaches and hassles.

It started when I google searched free advertising. I found 411.ca had a free listing available. Within the hour after providing my contact information, an agent called me. She promised me my listing would get upwards of 1000 hits a month if I upgraded my listing from Free. I was delighted. So I signed up for a one month trial at $157.50 (a special reduced rate offer).

She promised that if I was not completely satisfied after one month, and they meant to deliver so they would prove to me that there was value in the service, I could cancel. I verified, so I can cancel after one month if I don't get any calls from this ad. Well yes, she said but we require 30 days notice to cancel (read possibly 60 days?).

When my husband got home I told him I had registered with 411.ca to help my business get found. He searched Google for any complaints about them and wow, there were a lot. I felt really bad. My business cannot afford to pay for advertising at all, let alone from a scamming company which doesn't actually improve search engine optimization as they indicated. My site's results showed no click throughs from my ad on 411.ca. Zero. Zilch. If my ad got 1000 hits, do you think maybe even one might click through to my website? Nope. Not one. Don't be fooled. It seems these folks are so slick that even web designers are convinced and sign up according to: derrickbarber.ca/2012/03/411-ca

So I signed up July 26, and received a confirmation letter within days. No welcome package that was promised. Because of my husbands discovery, by August 6, I sent an email to cancel my subscription. The auto reply indicated that you cannot cancel by e-mail. ???? So to follow up I called their Cancellation Department. I spoke with a lady named Kelsey (Kausalita). She wanted to keep my business, so offered to upgrade my ad for free. I said she could, but I still wanted to cancel my paid ad.

My husband then called Visa to deactivate my then current Visa card, just to make sure we wouldn't be billed for any further months. Well my friends, it is now October. I have been billed for July, August and September.

October 13 - I call Visa to inquire why. Song and dance. I call 411.ca. I am on hold for 10 minutes. They transfer me. I am on hold for another 10 minutes. Now I am talking to Kelsey again of the Cancellation Department. Well she says, I followed up our conversation where I retained your business with an email. I also recorded our conversation. I say good, then you will have proof that I cancelled. I insist she cancel my account immediately, today so that I don't get any more billings. She says she has done so. I call again to speak to the Accounts Receivables department to check on the status of my account. I spoke to Carolyn. First she says I see you have spoken to the Cancellation department. Then she says I can't see the status of your account. I tell her I have cancelled my account and she needs to follow up with the cancellation department to confirm this. I also tell her I am recording the conversation as I was when I spoke to Kelsey. I tell her I have also registered a complaint with Visa's resolution department. I follow up with another e-mail to 411.

I call back Visa's resolution department. They say they will credit my Visa account for September and collect from 411.ca. I really hope this happens. 411.ca is known to Visa as a scamming company. They said they have a slew of complaints. 

I'm sad that I made this mistake. I really hope filing this complaint helps to prevent others from being taken advantage of.