Yellowpages.com - AT&T Deceptive Verbal Phone Contracts Glendale California

I created a "FREE" account at Yellowpages.com within a week I was called by a sales rep to let me know about their paid subscription services. I said I wasn't interested. Over the following weeks I recieved more calls and more explanations on the benefits of a paid subscription. Having stronger coverage appeared like a good idea. So eventually I decided to upgrade. Of course one month was so much more per month than if "you go with a year contract"

They said I would show up as one of the top listings for "my area" I was wanting a listing for the Denver Metro area, but since I lived just south of the metro area, they litterally meant "My Area" hence the begining of my problems.

My free listing was upgraded willingly to a 1 year paid listing.

That was fine, but they did not make it clear that it would only cover the Englewood area, I called them and complained that I performed a search for Denver and could not find my listing anywhere, they explained that is because you are only listed in the Suburb of Englewood where your business is located.

I was so pissed at both them and myself for being duped into this. I explained that I need a Denver listing. As my business is a Home Business and most of my actual jobs are contracted out in Denver, not Englewood.

I wanted to cancel the paid listing or change it to be in Denver. As it would not do any good just paying to be listed in Englewood. The Rep told me I could not cancel until the year contract was done. He said we could upgrade the contract to include the Denver Metro area and surrounding counties, I wasn't sure but paying $100 a month for a listing that would not bring in business made no sense. Paying $200 while more may actually make more sense to have since it would include far better coverage and possibly bring back more money in return. I agreed to upgrade the account, but their wording did not clarify that upgrading the account also meant that the account contract would have to be restarted from the date of the new agreement (a whole new year) My original contract was started a whole 6 months previous to this new agreement. Come January of 2008 I started feeling the pinch of the $200 and wanted to cancel the account. My rep told me I still had some time left on the contract and that he should be able to cancel the account in March 2008 as soon as the contract expires. I made it clear that would be fine and I will pay til the contract was over but wanted the account closed as soon as the contract expires.

He assured me it was set to cancel in March 2008. March 2008 roles by and I get another bill. I Call my Rep he said "Oh you still have to pay for the month of March 2008 but the account should be cancelled by the end of the month"

April roles by and I receive another Bill. At this point I refuse to pay as they had promised me the account would already be closed. I call my rep He says he'll look into it. Meanwhile their collectors start calling me. I explain the situation to them, they just tell me when you upgraded the account was extended a year from the day you upgraded so my account would go all the way til September of 2008. I called my rep and told him what they said and that I was not aware that upgrading the account also meant extending it another year. I explained I simply want my account closed as I had been laid off months prior and could not afford this hefty bill every month. I've tried countless times to get through to "someone with Authority" no one wants to transfer me to someone with more authority over the accounts and they kept reitterating "You agreed to upgrade the account" I explain I agreed to upgrade but not to extend the account. They always say "When you upgraded you extended the contract another year"

I have called other customer service reps, and tried to call their managers, none of them have been co-operative or have returned phone calls. I have not been able to talk to any of the managers directly, I have left phone messages and have never received a call back. The only people that ever call me are the collections department, and they are always unwilling to transfer me to anyone with authority over the account.

Yellowpages.com is just plain bad business.

Their listings don't even show up on searches for what I was supposed to be listed under. My website shows up on page one or two of google theirs does not, so why should I pay them for bad service? I paid them for a year, for unnecessary service, that should suffice, let me out of the badly explained contract. It was deceptive and criminal the way they lured me into "extending the contract" so the very least they could do is have a manager listen to my problem and offer a form of compromise solution rather than send me to collections then send me to an outside collection agency.

Now my credit rating is in jeopardy because I refuse to pay for something I never wanted in the first place, but was duped into. I guess you can call me a fool, since a fool and their money are soon parted... But a Company can only "fool people every now and then" before they themselves go out of business.

Obviously this was a huge misunderstanding and as such the company should be able to at least listen to and fairly assess the situation rather than issue one blanket statment over and over again.

My advice to anyone using Yellowpages.com:

Stick with the free ad, Don't ever upgrade to a paid ad, as they will not provide good customer service if you are not satisfied!

Vanguard
Englewood, Colorado
U.S.A.

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