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AT&T Advertising Solutions YP.com Rips Off Small Businesses! Sign My Petition! internet
After taking my internet business offline and closing up shop, AT&T Advertising Solutions YP.com says I still must pay the remaining 10 months of advertising even though there is no business to advertise. I started a petition at change.org to hopefully stop this company from continuing to mistreat small business owners and need signatures. AT&T Advertising Solutions YP.com, Stop Ripping Off Small Businesses! Please sign.
6 Updates & Rebuttals
abraham1122
Burbank,California,
United States of America
Pacific Bell Directory & AT&T, Helping The Underground Economy
#7Consumer Comment
Thu, November 08, 2012
Pacific Bell Directory & AT&T, Assisting The Underground Economy
What is an underground economy? "Underground economy" is a term that refers to those individuals and businesses that deal in cash and/or use other schemes to conceal their activities and their true tax liability from government licensing, regulatory, and taxing agencies. Underground economy is also referred to as tax evasion, tax fraud, cash pay, tax gap, payments under-the-table, and off-the-books.
Pacific Bell Directory, a subsidiary of AT&T, proliferates advertisements supporting the underground economy in Los Angeles. Because AT&T claims no responsibility to screen advertisements. Hundreds of false, deceptive contractor ads are being published through their print and online directories. The underground economy cost the city and state millions of dollars. Consumers are getting ripped off, Senior Citizens are being taken advantage of, and legal companies loose business.
The Federal Trade Commission ,the Direct Marketing Association and the US Postal Inspection Service have industry guidelines for the screening of advertisements. The LocalSearch Association (a national yellow pages association) provides industry advertising specifications standards and guidelines. AT&T and Pacific Bell Directory say these industry standards and guidelines do not apply to them.
AT&T and Pacific Bell Directory allow advertisements with unregistered/untraceable company names. The illegal advertisers also have hundreds of untraceable fake addresses. These fake addresses make the illegal companies look like local companies.
I have a garage door company in burbank with a true physical location. Since 2008 I have had to compete with 80+ false advertisements that AT&T allowed in the Burbank book with local addresses. Currently my company must compete with 380 garage door companies listed by AT&T within 10 miles of my location. About 85% of these ads are false and 10 % are miss listed. That is 95% inaccurate and misleading. These are horrible advertising ethics and AT&Ts products cannot be trusted.
Wendy
Spokane,Washington,
United States of America
Thanks, however...
#7Author of original report
Tue, August 14, 2012
While I appreciate that yp.com agreed to cancel my contract, I still believe the company would do well to discontinue its use of telephone conversation recordings to establish their contracts and to give dissatisfied customers easier routes to discontinue their services. If you are offering a quality service, these changes should not pose a problem.
YPSocialMedia
Tucker,Georgia,
United States of America
Resolved
#7UPDATE Employee
Tue, August 14, 2012
Thank you for visiting with the YP customer service team about your advertising
contract. We are glad we were able to work with you to resolve this
issue.
We appreciate your business.
Wendy
Spokane,Washington,
United States of America
There is no written contract
#7Author of original report
Sat, August 04, 2012
That's precisely the problem. They do the contract in a recorded phone conversation that only they have access to. I think they should change their business practice so that it does include a written contract.
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Golden Meadow,United States of America
Question for kenny
#7Consumer Comment
Sat, August 04, 2012
how is it that you have so many contracts, must be a lot of reading
Ken
Colorado,USA
If you read your contract, I believe you would find you agreed to this...
#7Consumer Comment
Sat, August 04, 2012
This covers the account setup and any artwork plus publishing.
You're likely wasting your time pursuing something you claim is wrong, but you agreed to.
Do they only do this to "small" businesses?
Sounds like they were meeting the terms of the contract, but you're unwilling to do so.