Complaint Review: Infocom USA Inc

I worked for Infocom USA from 2000-2004. I watched as the company employees and managers tried and tried to figure out the most reputable way to sell a product they truly believe in. I do know that the company met with the BBB on a couple of occassions trying to address any confusion on the part of customers with respect to what they were ordering.

All I can say is that it's very frustrating to watch as managers, VP's, Presidents, etc of companies authorize orders for listing their company in the directory only to have their boss phone back and say the manager wasn't authorized to order.

I've even seen Presidents order and then their wife calls back and says the president wasn't authorized to order. What does this say to the state of American Business nowadays. I agree there are plenty of bad companies out there. Most don't even have a product at all. Those are the real scams.

Maybe I'm just too old to understand the way companies work today, but when I was younger when you ordered something and said you were authorized to purchase for the company... you just paid your bill. I know alot of people are saying fraud this.. scam that. But who is really scamming who?

Is the company that sells the product, asks if the customer is authorized to purchase for the company, confirms the fee, thanks them for placing the order? Or is it the employee of a company who says he/she is authorized to order on the company's behalf when they're really not? Sure there are other ways to sell your service, but when you're running a national directory at what price would you have to charge to be listed.

Heck the local yellow pages charges my wife's business 3,500/year just to list, and that just covers her business for our city! Is that fair? WHat price would a national directory have to charge? 6,000... 20,0000? At what point does the cost of the listing become too much? Most companies that I talked with while working at Infocom USA were already paying for their local yellow pages and just wanted to give their company a little national exposure without the exhorbatant cost.

I'll tell you this much about Infocom USA, while other companies claim they offer a national directory look at their books. 100,000 listings at most. Is that National? I don't think so. Does that help a business? Nope. Infocom USA has 9.8 million listings on one CD, no books, no fumbling around looking through countless pages that make no sense. Search by any field, company name, zip code, SIC code, city, state, nationally.

Like I said, I no longer work for Infocom USA, but I don't think they deserve to be lumped in with all these other companies like you guys are doing. All the effort that Infocom USA has gone through trying to set themselves apart from the rest seems to be pointless.

...And the list goes on! They love it. Anyone can call up and record an affirmative answer and then use it to harass you for "payment."

I refuse delivery on the stuff (return it unopened -- the Post Office and UPS will do this for you and you don't pay anything). It IS basically unordered merchandise, so if you DO accidently open one, you are still under no obligation.

You should report them to the Postal Authorities for mail fraud (that's what the invoice really is).

Send them a registered letter telling them they have thirty days to present a signed contract and if they can't that they should not contact you again by telephone, fax, electronic mail, mail, courier, or in person.

Send them a copy of the Vermont settlement with World Wide Source who does the same scam (you can find it on this website). Once they know you are not going to fall for it and that you are informed they will probably just go away.

I wish to clarify the original complaint...I was not sent a book as stated, that was from another telecom company with very much the same name as this one, at the same time, naturally there was confusion on my part. However, my complaint is the same as all of these other folks on this site about Infocom USA.