HIBU ( publisher of YELLOWBOOK) RAUCH-MILLIKEN INTERNATIONAL, INC. (a collection agency) Johnnie Richard P.O. Box 8390 Metairie, LA 70011-8390 RIP-OFF CONTRACT WHEN SALESMAN HAD ME SIGN ONLY HIS LAPTOP AND I NEVER RECEIVED A COPY OF THE PAPER CONTRACT UNTIL AFTER I WAS OUT OF BUSINESS AND THEY SUPPLIED ME WITH WHAT LOOKS TO BE MY SIGNATURE SUPERIMPOSED ON THEIR CONTRACT
After 32 years in business, I had advertised in the yellowbook for many years. During that time Yellowbook was sold to HIBU. On April 23, 2018, I signed the salesman's laptop under the name of my store, signing as President of the Corporation. I never received a paper copy of this contract unti after I was out of business on September 8, 2018.
My landlord sold the property I leased from him for 13 years and in August 2018, he gave me three weeks to vacate the property. It looks like my signature was superimposed on their paper contract and SURPRISE!, just above my signature it says (Read paragraph 15 of the terms and conditions) which is actually page 5 of 12 pages of a contact and that paragraph is titled Authority: Persons Obligated: Signer Obligated: basically saying that I am signing this as a personal debt.
When they started contacted me to say that I owed the balance of 2018 and all of 2019, I asked for a copy of the contract and this is what they sent me. I had never seen any paper copy of the contract until after I was out of business. Also the salesman had told me that if I went out of business for any reason ( a question that I asked because I had cancer in 2011), I would be released from any obligation to pay HIBU.
I have since spoken with him about this twice and he told me that he previously believed I would not have to pay HIBU if I was out of business and that this was a coporate debt and that he did not understand when I told him the contract made my personally responsible. He said he was just told to have the lap top signed and that was the end of it.
I have had an attorney trying to handle this matter for me with HIBU and now they are saying they have turned it over to an attorney and they are demanding $5,600.00 plus possible interest and fees if I don't pay them. Also, I have also paid my attorney over $1,000.00 in attorney fees and gotten nowhere, and then I decided to look them up on the internet and found this website and found that there are many other unsatisfied HIBU customers like me who are being harrassed for payment.
If there is anything that can be done, or there is a class action suit, I would like to be a part of it. I am afraid to take a chance for them to take it to court, because then I could have many thousands of dollars invested just paying my attorney and court fees, etc. PLEASE HELP ME!!!