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YellowPages.com promised my company, Adventure Films International, more than a year ago that we would be receiving regular stats with our new contract. I periodically checked the service by running a search on my business classification, but not once during the entire term of our contract did my business ever show up in a search - it would only show up if you searched for Adventure Films International, Inc. - and not once in a year did we receive any stats. We were hassled by phone every two hours starting in middle May 2006 for the contract renewal, even though I repeatedly told them I was dissatisfied and would not renew and they began calling me every hour. I could not even conduct business because of their incessant calls. They promised to fax a form from Yellowpages.com to cancel the account, but they never did send it. I wrote my account information on a FAX Cover Sheet and wrote PLEASE CANCEL MY ACCOUNT IMMEDIATELY and faxed it to YellowPages.com. A couple of weeks later they pulled out their regular monthly payment out of my business checking account, and they continued to withdraw monthly debits in spite of repeated attempts to get them to stop. They continued this for months after my contract with them expired. I eventually had to close out the checking account in order to prevent them from making monthly unauthorized withdrawals. That was about 4 months ago. The harrassing phone calls come a dozen or so times a day. Yesterday, I got a threatening letter saying they are going to sue me. They are now claiming that our cancellation was never received.
I want the seven months of payments September, 2006 through March, 2007 investigated and returned. I want the phone calls to cease immediately. This is a cease and desist order to the fullest. Stop calling our business line, stop taking payments that were NOT authorized and return the payments you took without authorization and leave us alone. This account is CANCELLED and has been for almost a year now. I have already contacted the FTC about this and they stated that YellowPages.com had recently agreed to a settlement for similar charges of illegal billing practices, and they were extremely interested to learn that they are continuing their illegal practices.
Adam Giesing and Alfred [censor]i lied to me just to make the sale. Adam promised me several times that the plan I signed up for would work and that he had seen it work for so many customers. He lied and cheated about the statistical numbers of people looking for my type of services in the 'Ontario' area. He said I would be receiving calls all day long and so far I have NOT received more than 2 calls.
He also lied about the search engine position that he promised me. They're reporting that I am getting search engine hits from google, yahoo, and bing when in reality they are coming from unknown websites that are used specifically to just click on links.
Adam is a lier and now he and Fred are ignoring my phone calls and emails asking them for help. They are not giving me answers about the "traffic" that supposedly I am getting from their search engines. They are unwilling to cancel my contract even though they lied to me.
It is completely unprofessional and unacceptable for this type of business practices. I have read tons of complaints about the same issue other people are experiencing with their advertising services. Adam acts like he doesn't know why the program is not working, knowing he lied to me just to get the sale.
I've repeated asked to get proof of where the hits are coming from, but they are ignoring my calls and they won't help me. I have two babies that depend on me and it is completely unfair that Adam and Fred lied to me just to make business - they don't care about their customers and push really hard to make sales that don't produce any results.
I am completely disappointed in AT&T and Adam Giesing and Alfred [censor]i. Alfred won't pick up the phone unless I *67 his line, that is completely unprofessional and unacceptable.
On top of everything, Adam is pushing me to sign up for MORE services. He has no shame. He will regret what he is doing to small business owners just to put a few dollars in his pocket. One day he will be out of a job and will regret what he is doing, it is immoral. I feel betrayed and upset about AT&T's misrepresentation and sales tactics.
Apparently it is a common practice within AT&T - look at this /URL removed/
I want AT&T to cancel my contract because i am receiving ZERO calls, they don't return my phone calls, they STOP my click program after hitting the 120 mark when Adam said many times that it would just continue working and I wouldn't get charged. LIAR!
I have NO SALES, NO money to pay the bill.
Adam also lied about the number of people searching for my type of services in Ontario. The numbers below are NOT real, he made them up.
Ontario
Category
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
YTD
Computer Service & Repair-Business
451
567
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1, 018
Computers & Computer Equipment-Service & Repair
776
862
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1, 638
Web Site Design & Services
438
182
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
620
Total Category/Directory Views (Ontario):
3, 276
At&t advertising solutions is the biggest scam ever. Let me explain how it works (or doesn't work). They promise you a bunch of "clicks" on to your website. But the way they give you such a low price is that they assign you keywords that are completely irrelevant. For example, if you are a plumber in Salt Lake City, UT, they will get you clicks from a very broad range of people, like people who are searching for an electrician in Las Vegas. So ultimately, they do get you the clicks that they promise, but all the people coming to your site are not really interested in your services. That is the only way they can get you the clicks and keep the price down. Believe me, if you sign up for the promised clicks program, you will receive all the clicks you want but you will get absolutely no calls. And that's a guarantee!
Last year I spoke with a rep from Att advertising solutions and I verbally agreed over the phone that I would have a yahoo yellow pages ad, a banner, and a website for my production company within 2-3 weeks. Also in this package was the promise to get updates from yellow pages showing statistics and how many clicks I was receiving per month. The website was never built, I never heard from the rep again, the statistics never came, the only thing that went live was the banner ad. Now the banner ad was not something of my concern, my concern was the website. So, I totally agree with the above comments because, they are charging you in full for half of what you ordered. Thats in my research a breach of contract on their part. They didn't live up to their end of the bargain, and are obligated to either void the contract, or reconcile the issue and offer a deal, not say oh well, you're on your own because "we got you on tape". That is an obstruction of law, they are using contract agreements to coerce and sap funds from its consumers which should result in a class action suit against them.
I have contacted the FTC at [protected] with a similiar complaint. I have been trying to quit since 9/08 and all I get is additional charges and threats. If this type of corrupt billing issue is going on in your business please call them because if they get enough of these complaints I was told they will reopen the investigation.
In May of 08 I contacted yellowpages.com by phone to place an ad in two towns in my area. The rep. went over the date of publication of the phone books etc. Went through pricing and I agreed to the monthly charges. As an apparent afterthought, she mentioned that this also included yellowpages.com internet ads and that they could begin within two weeks. I asked several times and was quoted around 45.00 for the two ads to be on internet yellowpages. I agreed. It is important that I live in a very rurual area and the internet is not the source for people seeking businesses. However, she told me that they had had 200 hits on the business classification I was advertising under and I thought for 45.00 per month that it was worth it.
Shortly I received a confirmation showing what I thought was the internet costs of the ads and took no action as the pricing was what we had discussed on the phone. Within two weeks I received a bill for 50.00 +/- and paid it thinking it was the internet bill for the month. After about 30 days I received a bill for $177.00. I called billing and said there must be some mistake. They reviewed the "tape" and said that the rep had fullly explained the cost. She did. She explained the total cost for both ads. What is not on the "ammended tape" is the questioning I had about the monthly internet cost. So now I am being billed the bulk of the contract price for the phone book ad which I inquired about for an internet ad that was "included".
I paid one month just to keep it out of collections. The state attorneys office is my next step and then on to the FTC.
This is kinda like going into a restaurant to order a $5.00 cheeseburger and the waitress says "That comes with fries." She returns with the fries and says they are out of hamburger until tomorrow and since you have started on the fries they charge you for the full price of $5.00. Scandelous at best.
yellowpages.com illegal billing practices: This happened to me also in California. My company signed a 1-year contract with yellowpages.com and at the completion of the year, yellowpages.com kept billing my account in 2007 without a renewal of the contract. After 9 months, I noticed the billing and called in to cancel, and complain. They never cancelled it after (3) claims that I placed with them. Now their collections department is after me stating that even though I never signed a contract, that I had agreed to a contract just by virtue of my company paying the bill, even on auto-pay. And furthermore, I owed the remainder of the 2007 year, even without a signed contract!
YellowPages.com and sales reps both confuse and manipulate customers. They state that their T1 service is $129.00 yet my mother was charged $415 /month for a listing that is seen BELOW free listings. Sad but true.