Complaint Review: YP Advertising Solutions - Nationwide

In short: Robert Kern, the sales rep for YP Advertising Solutions signed my name on his electronic device registered to YP, entering me into a 1 year contract with his company, without my knowledge or authorization. He committed Idenity Fraud and I have since filed a report with the FTC and have contacted his employer regarding such crime.

Details: Robert Kern, Sales Rep for YP Advertising Solutions, came to our office to sell advertising. He proposed getting us 183-333 leads (Phone Calls, Texts, Emails, Form Fills) per month for $1000. We told him 2 things (that we explain to every solicitor). 1. We are a seasonal buisness in that we perform Auto Hail Repair. That requires us to move from state to state. We chance hail storms. That is our money maker. So we cannot be tied to advertising in 1 location. Yelp for example, ties you to 1 location for advertising. You have to pay for each seperate location. 2. We are a seasonal company. It typically only hails 6 months out of the year across the US so we do not need advertisiment all year thus WE DO NOT SIGN CONTRACTS for this reason alone. We made this very clear. He suggested we try the advertising for 3 months and if it didnt work, they'd work for 30 days free or we can cancel. I was on a hail storm in Texas at the time he met with my wife (buisness owner) to proceed with what we thought to be a month to month transaction and she gave her credit card for payment. During the next 90 days, my wife was in contact with Robert "Bob" Kern regarding the analytics of the advertising. She mentioned a couple times that the lead generation was just not there and that if they didnt improve, we'd have to end our services and go elsewhere. Never any mention of a contract.

After the 90 day mark and paying $1000 per month, my wife called to end our advertisments when we were told about the contract. Upon seeing the contract (for the first time at this point) we have exceeded the 10 day right to cancel policy. Robert "Bob" Kern stated, when questioned how we got into this "contract", he stated that when my wife paid with her credit card that the "Contract" adopted her signature as an approval of such. Mind you, the contract is in my name not hers. And her credit card is in her name only. It does not make sense does it? And no, this is NOT LEGAL! I checked with my lawyer. Anyhow, all three of us sat down to disguss this and he stated he didn't recall  anything regarding us being a seasonal buisness and that we don't sign contracts. Mind you, we have been in buisness for over 20 years. This is our absolute policy for the reasons I specified. There are times we cannot advertise with buisnesses because they want us to sign contracts and we have to go somewhere else. He did tell him this, like we do everyone else. Hence the reason he probably never mentioned the word "Contract". Because we would have to turn him away as well and he wouldnt get a commission. However, he did recall saying to us at this meeting "changing the monthly charge to $300 after 3 months" if it wasnt working out for us. Again, never mentioning "Contract". But it does prove we discussed month to month services and our buisness being seasonal which would require adjustments. But he was adament now about the contract valid and signed by my wife when she paid with her credit card. After the meeting, he did send me a new contract, via docusign to my email for review and signature. The first contract was never sent to my email for review and signature.  

Upon reading this new contract for the remainder of our 1 year term (now 8 months) for $300 a month, it included me waiving my right to a class action lawsuit, binding electronic signatures and the sort. I did not sign this contract either. Again, not in the best interest of my company and goes against our buisness policies. So in the end, I filed a Identity Theft Report with the FTC against the sales rep who signed on my behalf, Contacted the Georgia Attorney General and the Colorado Attorney General (where the event took place), filed with the Consumer Financial Bureau, placed fraud alerts on all of my acounts and with the credit reporting agencies and am devoting several hours per day to ensure that this is being reported to all the appropriate authorities and will not stop until a satisfactory resolution is concluded. I am holding Robert "Bob" Kern personally liable for all of this and am seeking justice. I am certainly not opposed in joining anyone in a class action lawsuit. Contact me. Quality One Dent in Englewood, CO. 80113