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Report: #193135

Complaint Review: Pacific Yellow Pages - Smart Network Services - Smart Shoppers Club - North Hills California

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  • Reported By: York Nebraska
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  • Pacific Yellow Pages - Smart Network Services - Smart Shoppers Club 16163 Nordhoff Street, Suite 554 North Hills, California U.S.A.

Pacific Yellow Pages - Smart Network Services - Smart Shoppers Club Ripoff Deceptive fraudulent Absolutely terrible business practices Scam artits Cowards LIARS!! North Hills California

*Author of original report: Still no word.

*Consumer Comment: Pacific Yellow pages is not the same company as Smart Shopping Club.

*Author of original report: Still no rebuttle OR refund from Pacific Yellow Pages/Smart Network Servies...

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Normally I would have shyed away from this solicitation but I HAVE heard of the Smart Shoppers Club and as an independant businessman I know businesses need to try different avenues of advertising and such in order to increase their visibility and customer base..

The letter below was written as requested and pretty much sums up what has been going on...

April 14th 2006.

To d**k Jeffrey,

I don't know why I keep being asked to write letters explaining my situatuion and WHY I am requesting a refund but I was instructed by Ralph Stepanian to write a letter directly to YOU so here it is...

Back in November of 2005 I was called and solicited by John Lawrence to sign up to become one of your Smart shoppers club vendors...it sounded like a good program so I decided to give it a try and signed up on 11-14-05...I was told that there were already a few customers in my area waiting to be sent to me and I would see them hitting my door as soon as I signed up AND that I was guaranteed that I would see at least 5 new potential customers per month...well I haven't seen 1 person using this service coming to me to do business and I have given this program what I feel is MORE than a fair chance to see if it worked and brought in any new business (5 months now) and I haven't seen a thing..I'm sure this program may be working out there on the west coast but it is not working here in the midwest...at least not in central Nebraska where my shop is located so I spoke with Ralph Stepanian and he fully agreed that if this program isn't workng for me that there really is no point in me continuing as a vendor and assured me that a FULL REFUND would be issued to me upon my written request which was submitted to your company back on Feb. 22nd 2006 and reads as follows...

"To whom it may concern...I would now like to exercise my rights as stated in our contractual agreement dated 11-14-05 and request a full refund of the $589.00 membership fee....it would be greatly appreciated if you could expedite my refund as soon as possible."

After getting the run around for several weeks I was sent an "authorization for refund " form to sign and send back...however the form states that there is a so-called "account setup fee" in the amount of $275.00 and I have been offered a net refund of $314.00 which I find COMPLETELY UNACCEPTIBLE!

The reason I find this unacceptible is due to the fact that I was told I would receive a FULL REFUND if the program didn't work for me...I even went so far as to ask if the refund would be pro-rated to the amount of time that would transpire between sign up and cancellation and I was told AGAIN that it would be a FULL REFUND....at no time was I told that there would be a non-refundable "set up fee" during my phone conversations with John Lawrence or Ralph Stepanian NOR is there anything stated in the contract that I signed about the alleged non-refundable $275.00 set up fee...

Further more I would like to point out that EVERY time I try calling your company I NEVER get an answer...no matter what day OR time of day I call I get the same recorded message that "all lines are busy"...I have called MANY times over the past few months to try and get this matter resolved quickly and peacefully and I find it very hard to believe that each and every time I have tried I have always called when all lines were busy (sometimes several times throughout a given day)...I ask you how can anyone run a business when no one ever answers the phone?...I find it funny that when John Lawrence was working me to sign up he answered the phone each and every time I called back...then...once I sent back the contract and the money nobody answers and I have to leave SEVERAL messages and even get a bit angry before anyone gets back to me....in fact I have not spoken to John Lawrence ONCE since your company has received my money...Ralph Stepanian is the only one I have talked to since signing up...Ralph has been nice and at first he had put my mind at ease that things would be resolved...but nice only goes so far...

Further more....When John was trying to get me to sign up and I told him of my concerns over this and HE offered to allow me to post date the check for 30 days to see if I had any new contacts after the contract took effect and if I didn't see any action I would have the opportunity to stop payment on the check and cancell my contract so I DID post date the check but the check was cashed AS SOON AS YOUR COMPANY RECEIVED IT!

I was suspicious about this whole thing from the start but John assured me if the program didn't work for me that I would receive a FULL REFUND...I have requested a refund IN WRITING as per instructed by Ralph Stepanian and the only thing I have gotten in return is this "offer" for a lesser refund and that is extremely WRONG on so many levels and I am now beginning to wonder if my previous suspicions about your company were warranted...

I have tried to be patient and be nice about all this but my patience has run out...I am a small business owner and bust my butt to keep things going and $589.00 is a lot of money to me but I was willing to try your program to see if it would increase my business flow but it hasn't and had it not been for the "money back guarantee" I never would have tried your program in the first place...

I am tired of getting the run around on this issue and I DEMAND A FULL REFUND IMMEDIATELY...this is NOT arbitrary NOR is the amount of the refund up for negotiation...I will not settle for a partial refund...$589.00 is the amount I will accept....I have consulted my attorney regarding this matter and he is in full agreement with the fact that I am entitled to ALL my money back since I was not made aware of your alleged and completely outrageous $275.00 "set up fee" neither verbally NOR in the written contract...I have not taken any legal action as of yet but if you do not address this issue and remit my $589.00 refund A.S.A.P. I will be forced to persue legal action and it will end up costing you MORE in the long run as I will also be seeking restitution for legal fees and time lost dealing with this situation to boot and in addition I will also contact the Federal Trade Commission...The California Department of Consumer Affairs...Ripoff Report.com and many other avenues available to report fraudulant activity and/or poor business practices...I do not want to go that route but if this matter is not resolved in a timely fashion you will leave me no other choice...

I strongly advise you respond to this matter immediately and I pray we can resolve this matter quickly and peacefully and I would appreciate it if you would CALL me as soon as you get this letter...my phone number is listed below..

Thank you in advance.

So...you can see that I have been trying to get these people to work with me for MONTHS to no avail...(I started out being very nice)...d**k Jeffrey is supposedly one of the supervisors there but REFUSES to talk to me and always has this other guy talk to me...what a COWARD!...I have been offered 2 different refund amounts and the last one was like 439.00 if I remember correctly..they are still trying to keep at least 150.00 as a "setup fee"....set up for WHAT?...I contacted the Better Business Bureau in their area and I was informed this SO-CALLED "company" has had many complaints against them but the BBB will not give me any information about who has complained and I think that is just WRONG...what the hell good does the BBB do if they will not help the consumer in a situation like this?

I will be watching this post for responses and I would love to hear from others who have had run ins with this worthless "company"...if you have had problems like me..lets get in touch.

If Pacific Yellow Pages..aka:Smart Network Services..aka: Smart Shoppers Club and especially d**k Jeffrey think if they ignore me I will eventually give up...they are dead WRONG!...I have only just begun!

Scott
York, Nebraska
U.S.A.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 05/24/2006 03:11 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/pacific-yellow-pages-smart-network-services-smart-shoppers-club/north-hills-california-91343/pacific-yellow-pages-smart-network-services-smart-shoppers-club-ripoff-deceptive-fraud-193135. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
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#3 Author of original report

Still no word.

AUTHOR: Scott - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Saturday, August 05, 2006

Hi Dee...thanks for the response!

Am I safe in assuming YOU have had dealings with these low lifes also?...if you have PLEASE speak up!..and yes...I do remember them making reference to "Smart Yellow Pages" also...it must just be another in a long list of phoney company names these scam artists are creating or are piggy backing...but the main platform they were using when they solicited ME was the Smart Shoppers Club and I am going to try to contact the actual Smart Shoppers Club and alert them that their name could possibly be being used for illegitimate business practices...that is of course unless they are "in bed" with these other people and part of this scam...maybe it's a ring?...who knows...

I claim this as a scam with the utmost confidence and great conviction due to the fact that any LEGITIMATE business would not be ignoring a customers attempts to contact them and find peaceful resolve in this matter..and they would also be able to justify their alleged "setup fees" and would include them stating that fact in their written contracts..the point is these people are PHONIES...pure and simple and I certainly hope no one else is falling for their B.S.!!

I have tried contacting "Pacific Yellow Pages" numerous times since my last post and STILL have had no response...I have been holding off on further action due to the fact that I have been very busy with MY life and don't have time to deal with this childish crap and also I have had hope that these people will eventually come to their senses and settle this matter...but obviously they haven't so I have taken the next step and reported them to the California Attorney Generals office...all I need to do is fill out the form they sent me and send it back in...that will be happening here real soon...then we will see where things go from there...

I am NOT giving up!...I am absolutely sick and tired of scam artists screwing over honest..hard working people!

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#2 Consumer Comment

Pacific Yellow pages is not the same company as Smart Shopping Club.

AUTHOR: Dee - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Saturday, July 15, 2006

They were using the "SMART Yellow Pages" name for a while but again, not the same as Smart Shopping Club. hope this helps a little bit

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#1 Author of original report

Still no rebuttle OR refund from Pacific Yellow Pages/Smart Network Servies...

AUTHOR: Scott - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Thursday, June 01, 2006

Since making my original post a week ago I have yet to hear anything back from this so-called "company"...I have tried calling them a couple of times this past week and left messages but have received no call back and EVERY TIME I call I get the same old message that I have been getting for the past 8 months..."welcome to smart network services all of our lines are currently busy...please leave your name..number.. including area code and we will get right back to you".....HAHAHAHA.... yeah RIGHT!.. all WHAT lines?... all ONE of them?

I find this funny due to the fact that several months ago I complained about never being able to get through and I was informed that they were working on getting more lines in very soon...again I say..YEAH RIGHT!.... tell me....what kind of LEGITIMATE business operates like that?... It's like calling someones HOUSE and getting their answering machine...hmmm... maybe thats what is really going on here?... I still find it odd that when they were trying to get me signed up that they were right there to answer the phone!

I can't believe NO ONE who has been ripped off by these people has seen this report and responded... I KNOW there are people out there that have had the same problem that I have with these people..(according to the California BBB)... maybe because there are SO many reports being filed on this site against scam artists like this every day that it gets lost in the shuffle?... or maybe these other people have just given up and are going to let these losers get away with this?... well..."I" certainly am NOT going to give up!... I WILL get satisfaction one way or the other!... preferable all my money back... or at LEAST see these people shut down or someone go to jail for theft by deception...one way or the other... I will be sure to cause them the stress and headaches I have endured dealing with them!

I'm still very upset with myself for EVER falling for their B.S....I should have known better!

People...please... if you have had similar dealings with this company PLEASE speak up.... lets band together and get our money back and/or at least get back at THEM!

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