The Berry Company /for Windstream Yellow Pages, LocalInsightmedia.com, Yellow Pages scam/The Berry company Rip-off. Deceptive sales techniques. Hudson, Ohio

I am at the end of my annual contract with the Berry company for yellow pages advertising (which I paid for in one lump sum when we agreed on the pricing last year) and since I will not renew with them they are billing me for an additional 3 months of advertising because they will delay their next directory by 3 months.  How anyone can run a scam like this and get away with it in this day and age is beyond comprehension.

I renewed my annual Yellow Pages ad. with The Berry company last year and recently was contacted by their sales rep to renew for another year. I declined, after using the yellow pages for 11 years and not finding any need for it in my line of work. After a rude call with the sales rep who became irate that I wouldn't take him up on a better offer, he confirmed with me that all I had to do was sign off something stating that I didn't want to renew the ad and then our relationship would be terminated/complete.

I signed it and was led to believe we were done. Apparently they were not done and I then received a bill for an additional 3 months worth of advertising. Their reason? I quote: "We decided NOT to print our next directory for another 3 months, and since our contract with you was from directory to directory that means you owe us for 3 months more of advertising." This is absolutely crazy! It sounds to me like they're feeling the pinch of the economy so they're not going to bother coming out with another directory, but instead charge their vendors for the break they're taking before they decide to put another one together - how can that make sense for any of the vendors in the book? Especially those who have paid for the contract a year in advance based on the figure The Berry company gave them?!

I had paid for my ad. a year ahead of time (so last year) based on what they quoted me was the bill for the contract. Even then after I paid the full year amount they kept sending me monthly bills that they "accidentally" sent out, for some reason or another. This kept on happening for about 4 months taking up my time to call in and sort out their problem, only to be assured it won't happen again yet I kept receiving bills for months. It was such a waste of my time yet I could not just ignore it since they kept billing me and then apologizing.

I would like to know if anyone is working with a lawyer on them because this current scam is ridiculous and sounds like something someone came up with at a board meeting to see how they can make some money without doing anything. Today I received a message from them saying "We're sorry but we can't adjust the 3 months additional billing we've sent you - its company policy" - yet never once, ever in the 11 years of being a customer was I told that this is in the fine print.  Something should be done to prevent this happening because its such a waste of time and money and is totally senseless.