The Phone Book yellow pages Unlawful and unethical yellow pages practices ST GEORGE Utah
Re: Ad in publication 0107
I placed two ads in "The Phone Book" yellow pages for 2007 under two headings, with associated listings. The ads were small, text-only, inline ads.
Pat Larsen was my representative.
Rather than allowing me to design the ads, Pat Larsen drew up ads for us, and gave us no copies of her drawings.
Proofs were provided to us later, and they had a suitable design and 100% correct information. My front desk person was contacted several times to arrange a time for a representative to pick up the proofs. The proofs were not signed, but Dion did acknowledge that they were correct and gave permission to run them as shown on the proof.
The publication has now been released, and the phone number was printed wrong on our ad. I was distraught that the proof was right but the ad was wrong.
Pat Larsen admitted fault in putting the wrong phone number on our ad. She admitted that she mistakenly copied our FAX number from the contract, and actually had mistakenly copied the *wrong* FAX number from an old contract to the current contract. This is to say that our ad was wrong with a completely wrong number. Due to Pat Larsen's poor handwriting, I did not catch the wrong FAX number on her contract; apparently she could not even read her own handwriting.
Despite admission of the error, Pat Larsen told me today that I must still pay 100% price for the wrong ad, and maintained that I should pay it because I did not return a signed proof. This is a grievously unethical practice, and is not supported in the text of the contract.
The signed contract shows the correct phone number, with no mention of a signed proof being required to absolve The Phone Book of the error.
Further supporting my position, the associated ads for web hosting and design were printed with the correct phone number.
Unless resolved, I am to be ripped off in the amount $ 480.00, not counting the damages due to people calling the wrong phone number and thinking I'm out of business!
Dave
ST GEORGE, Utah
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Cory
San Antonio,Texas,
U.S.A.
A Couple Of Things
#2Consumer Suggestion
Tue, February 06, 2007
Had this same problem with sbc/at&t. Look to see if the errors were on the proof sent to you. If they were correct then it's on them. If the proofs were wrong, then it's on you. My ad appeared wrong in the phone book. I never looked at the proofs because they had faxed me a copy first, which were correct. Then when the phone book came out and the ad was wrong, I had to dig up the proof. When I called the rep. he was worthless. When I spoke with his supervisor, HE offered a discount off a next year's ad, which was next to worthless. I finally spoke with his supervisor who discounted my ad a lot. Now my telephone numbers weren't wrong, just the numbers in the address were. As for your problem, what can be done, at the phone book's expense, is your numbers should be able to be switched at the switching center. If someone calls your fax number, it will ring on what ever number you want it to or vice versa. For a couple of years, they had me down for some number I'd never heard of until a repair came to do some work and traced it down while he was here. It's a whole lot easier to change the the numbers, then the ad. Don't let them know that. Get the ad for free.