Yellow Book USA ripoff Deceptive Sales and Contracts; Submission and Billing of Cancelled Contracts National Burlington Massachusetts

Below is a letter I sent to the Attorney General's office in the state which the Yellow Book offices reside, Massachusetts:

I am the owner of Heavenly Bodies, Inc., a companionship service based in New Hampshire that advertises in the Boston area. I am an advertiser in Yellow Book USA, the Verizon Superpages, and Localtel Yellow Pages, although I'd prefer not to have advertising in Yellow Book. The story is sort of confusing so I'll attempt to explain as clearly as possible.

In 2001 I began advertising in the Yellow Book USA Greater Boston, Metro North, and Metro West books for 2002 to supplement my advertising in the Verizon Superpages. I also advertised in Localtel Yellow Pages. The total cost for advertising that year was approximately $9,000. My gross income for the year was approximately $43,000.

In 2002 (for 2003), my Yellow Book representative Keith Nolfi, who is no longer with the company, convinced me to switch my advertising money away from Verizon in favor of Yellow Book by making misinformed representations about the quality of the book, the projected effectiveness of my advertising, and the income I could expect from it versus Verizon. To Mr. Nolfi's credit, I do believe the misinformation in question came from parties above him.

The specific representations made were that Yellow Book was exclusively and contractually placed in the large majority of hotels in the Boston area, that the size ad that I purchased would be placed towards the beginning of the heading, and that I could expect to see a modest increase in business and profit.

For 2003, the purchase price of my advertising with Yellow Book USA was over $18,000 for all 3 books (financed after a deposit of $2376), twice what I had spent the year before and increasing my ad size from the quarter column I had in Verizon to a quarter page ad in the Boston book, half pages in the North and West books, and 50% more ad space free broken up into more ads and under more headings. Despite this, my corporate income for the year was virtually unchanged.

In time it was revealed by my Verizon representative that Yellow Book does not have the exclusive contracts it claims it does. The ad sizes that I bought were not placed anywhere near the beginning of my heading in any book, in fact the ad in Greater Boston was placed exactly where I'd told my Yellow Book representative I didn't want it to be - exactly in the middle.

It is true that yellow page advertising placement cannot be guaranteed, but I informed my rep that I would change my advertising plan if there was any indication that I would placed near the middle and that the change would likely involve reducing the size of my ads since I could not afford to buy anything larger.

Incidentally, I was never warned that I might need to decrease my advertising as I'd indicated. I also noticed that the clients that were calling my service during the time that I relied solely on Yellow Book were generally less affluent and did not want to pay the fees that our service commands, which is the going rate for companionship in Boston ($200/hr). Also, the number of "crank calls" to the service had noticeably increased. Our gross income for this year was approximately $49,000.

When the Greater Boston book was released, I made my concerns clear to Yellow Book by calling their customer service line. We then began the process of negotiating a price adjustment for the remaining balance on my account. I had informed them of my concerns and requested a 50% price adjustment on my advertising since I believed my Yellow Book advertising was only worth as much as I had spent the year before. Despite multiple phone conversations, Yellow Book never came close to the settlement I was looking for. They claimed that they had never given a customer an adjustment even as large as the one they were offering for a "placement claim" since they do not provide adjustments at all on those grounds.

I informed them again that I was not complaining about placement but rather the false promises made to me by my representative. At this point I asked Yellow Book to hold off on collection activity until the North and West books were released in the hopes that the new ads would overcome the shortage of calls from the Boston book and generate enough income to pay for the entire advertising package. It was around this time that I signed my contracts for the 2004 books because I was told that I needed to sign early in order to retain my seniority in the heading. Yellow Book agents have since asked me why I would do that if I felt that I was defrauded and I have informed them that it was done in case we came to a settlement and furthermore that evidence of "fraud" had not necessarily become evident at the time of signing, only that I was not satisfied and that things could change after successful negotiations. I later cancelled these contracts with my sales representative, who later quit.

To this day I have made no payments on this account since I paid my deposit, so in the fall of 2003, I received a couple of phone calls from Yellow Book collections and they had informed me that if I did not make a payment or arrangement that my advertising for the 2004 books would be cancelled. I refused to pay and it was understood that my business relationship with Yellow Book was terminated (I have even enclosed a final demand letter sent by a Yellow Book collections agent falsely claiming that I "ignored" him).

However, in early 2004, the Greater Boston Yellow Book was released and included a three-quarter page advertisement for my service. Then came the bill: another $25,908. Again, I called Yellow Book to complain. The customer service representative on the phone made a startling revelation. She discovered that in fact I had refused to pay Yellow Book for the previous year, had accused them of fraud, and had cancelled the advertising in question. She then informed me that she didn't "know how the advertising was printed," but that I would "have to pay for it," stating that Yellow Book has a contract signed by me authorizing the advertising. I informed her that I had received multiple calls requesting a new payment arrangement in order to secure my 2004 advertising and that I had rejected all requests and demanded that my 2004 advertising NOT be printed.

Incidentally, I never discussed any of the ad designs with Yellow Book's copy department and they went ahead and printed advertising for my service under a name used temporarily on the contract ("We'll Make You Smile") on the day it was signed. This was done for the sake of completing the contract with understanding that it would be changed later. This never happened, indicating that I had cancelled my advertising in 2004.

I feel like I was outright lied to by Yellow Book and I have contacted other Yellow Book advertisers. Most of them have indicated to me that they were not satisfied with Yellow Book and accordingly, the Escort heading in the Greater Boston book has half the number of ads it did last year. Also, my Yellow Book representative, Keith Nolfi, has indicated an interest in testifying against Yellow Book on my behalf.

Mr. Nolfi has already informed me that it is common practice for reported sales figures at Yellow Book to be independent of whether or not payments are actually collected. His testimony hereafter will likely include, but not be limited to, information regarding sales department practices, specifically, their practice of sending unpaid, cancelled ads to print and immediately billing the customers in order to increase sales figures, and should also include the false information given to him including who provided it.

I would implore the Attorney General's office to please investigate the sales and collections practices of Yellow Book USA and to contact other Yellow Book advertisers that may have been affected. Thank You.

Eric
Derry, New Hampshire
U.S.A.