AT&T YellowPages.com does what they want

Complaint

0
James
Country: United States
Hello,

A warning for anyone that gets a telemarketing call from AT&T YellowPages.com. My wife and I own a small mom and popbusiness and my wife received a call and listened to the person go through their services, but when he gave my wife the pricing she told him that she would speak with me and he'd contact her the next day. When the next day came she told him no not now.

They proceeded to bill us and said that from part of the conversation they consider it an ok for the expensive but totally useless service. A billion dollar company screwing over a mom and pop. Know they are trying to sue us for failing to make any payments in a service which we did not want.

I guess billion dollar companies and their lawyers think it's ok to screw mom and pop stores and my guess is that the idiotic court system will probably side with them since the supposedly have a voice recording, but coincidently without the end section nor the day after part just cut down to what the contracted telemarketer (who no longer with them for some undisclosed reason) are using as the ok. I guess that since they can no loger use their marketing tactic on people now they have started on mom and pop's.

Jim Tabele

Comments

  • 0
    Holly mad as hell
    sorry michele but my guy lied. He lied, mislead and told  me i couldt really talk to the IT guy ( the  only one who knows whats going on til I signed. but when I voiced my concern he said I wouldnt be billed! Its a FREE consultation) "Do you see me taking your credit card? I cant bill you, how would I bill w/o a credit card?" lies, deception and horrible way to do business. I basically signed under duress, and made a note it was contingent. never got a thing form them except the consult...no reports. no proof t review, no leads for sure! I will be taking legal action and I have video tape if need be. As a very busy entrepreneur, mother and retail operator, I resent having my life stolen to have to deal with this!!  I will be canceling my phone service as well and warning online warning people..sorry..if this  hurts your biz...maybe YOU should also find a  new company to work with.  this is costing innocent people hundreds of thousands...if it cost yo some income well Im sorry.it doesnt equate.

    IF a honest company can do honest business, they wouldnt have to resort to these shady practices and NO customer satisfaction to try to remedy or compromise- NONE!  They also wouldnt have pages upon pages of complaints. I only wish Id seem these before trusting these jerks. So you may be the shining gem among them, but something is REALLY WRONG.
  • 0
    Holly mad as hell
    ditto. worthless. but thats not evne the entire point, sometimes ads dont work, that is a rick, but ONOINEcan be chagned, ONLY if you cuz you never even knew they were running. no reports, no opt in on proof nothing. and a bill I CANT PAY BY CC as told AND twice as much as stated. before i even knew what hit me it was 1100!
  • 0
    sophisticated plumbing tennessee
    I am seeking a class action lawsuit against them and am trying to find others that are interested 6 of the 12 months of our contract they advertised on the internet another plumbing company under our business phone. I took screen shots and printed them out as evidence. We lost revenue last year and we told them that we did not want their advertising services. We refuse to pay for misrepresentation and breech of contract.

    they renewed automatically for this year and have turned us over to a collection agency and are claiming we owe over $4,000. who wants in on this class action. Need lot of input our phone number is public so look us up by our website. thanks Sophisticated Plumbing
  • 0
    sophisticated plumbing
    I agree watch out for them services suck.
  • 0
    Sophisticated Plumbing
    Let's file a class action law suit against them then. contact through Sophisticated Plumbing clarksville tennessee
  • 0
    Cowhead
    | 1 reply
    Seems to be alot of the same stories and i have become a victim of the same advertising fraud.

    Have been advertising with ATT yellow pages for 10 years and this year they failed to call me for our contract renewal.  They tell me that they can renew my contract unilaterally without my consent or authorization.  

    Has anyone been succussful in getting out of this situation?  If so, what how did you handle it.

    Thanks
    • 0
      bsbb2u replies to Cowhead
      No, I am dealing with that now. I don't know how they can do this. They say its in the contract but don't point it out. I never talked with anyone either.  Have you ever gotten a response?
  • 0
    Casey
    No luck yet. But working on it. I'm available to speak with anyone that would like to.  clklandscaping@gmail.com.   We are in PA.

    It is a scam and they harrass and mistreat the customer. It is difficult to find results of a class action if there  were any. There should be a huge one. They refuse to let me see a copy of the contract i have entered into, even though they have to.  What does that tell ya????
  • 0
    Cowhead
    We are all in the same situation.  These are the steps I have taken:

    -Contacted my local At&t rep but no supervisior has called me back in a  week. Documented all phone calls.

    -Contacted the better business bureau and filled a compaint

    -Contacted local consumer protection group (call for action) to get advice, then will work with me in resolving this issue.

    -If nothing develops,  contact the attorney general and see if others have filed a simular complaint.  If alot of complaints then are filed, that will tell our local government consumers need protection from these types of activities.

    Good Luck
  • 0
    Ann
    On 11/29/2010 I received a call from AT&T Advertising Solutions.  I spoke to a Ray Wagner.  We discussed online advertising with YP.com.  He explained all the features and cost.
    I explained to him we would be interested, but not until our billing to the Real Yellow Page book would run out in 9/2011.
    I began getting billed in January 2011.
    I'm at a lose as to what I'm Paying for.  The information is incorrect online.  All of the features I understood to be getting are not there.

    I listened to the phone recording with Ray Wagner and the end of it was cut off.

    I am being harased by McCarthy, Burgess & Wolff,  AT&T collection agent.

    As so many of you, this is now a matter of principle now.

    Include me in any CLASS ACTION.  Enough is enough.
  • 0
    callen
    I have the same experience that is ongoing.
    http://adsolutions.att.com/
    They signed me up promising that I would increase my business. The reason for signing a contract was  that "it takes time" for it to work. I could see early on that it did not work and was costing me much more that I was making.
    The contract included running my Google, Microsoft-Bing account. They made so many mistakes and cost me so much money that I demanded they turn it off.
    Once they signed me up they  did not fix the errors in the ad. They had it leading to the wrong landing page and the incorrect  verbiage was never fixed.
    It is a scam. Their categories are much too broad, I was receiving phone calls all day that were irrelevant.
    I has put me in a financial hole and have refused to pay them another penny

    They signed me up promising that I would increase my business. The reason for signing a contract was  that "it takes time" for it to work. I could see early on that it did not work and was costing me much more that I was making. It was a Bait & Switch deal
    The contract included running my Google, Microsoft-Bing account. They made so many mistakes and cost me so much money that I demanded they turn it off.
    Once they signed me up they  did not fix the errors in the ad. They had it leading to the wrong landing page and the incorrect  verbiage was never fixed. My phone calls were continually ignored.
    It is a scam. Their categories are much too broad, I was receiving phone calls all day that were irrelevant.
    I has put me in a financial hole
  • 0
    steve
    An ATT salesman called me and said I should add the sponsored listing to my yp.com add for an additional $175. Two months later they started billing me but the ad never appeared on Google or anywhere else. I phoned the sales man and he checked and said your right it's not there. After two months of going in circles with them they play back the verbal contract which I agreed to, assuming the lingo included the additional add we discussed for 40 min, wasn't even mentioned. They're saying I agreed to increase my yp.com ad from 30 to 90 clicks (true) and increase the cost from $150 to $375, with no new sponsored listing. Is the verbal contract legally binding?
  • 0
    Steve
    ATT salesman Kevin Carter called me and sold me a 'sponsored' listing for $175 additional, in addition to my existing YP.com 'gold' ad. It never came on Google, which he acknowledged on the phone. They've been billing me for it for 3 months now anyway, at $375. I won't pay anything on that invoice. I tell the customer service reps to look up my account. I have one ad, the YP.com gold. I tell them to type in my zip code to see what it costs, $119. Every week a different rep calls and says I'm behind, we go thru this same cycle over and over. This is what happens when you buy an ad from a commission paid ATT salesman, the result is the yp.com I had for 4 years will terminate, and they will likely turn me in to a collection agency.
  • 0
    t clark
    | 1 reply
    please contact me..I am trying to pusue a class action suit against att yellow pages.
    tdwclark@gmail.com
    • 0
      Jonathan Avalos replies to t clark
      I have been scammed by yp and owe 2000 dollars,  I will not pay as my advertising was published in dallas, tx and I live in Houston tx, also my website didnt have anything close to the performance I was supposed to receive
  • 0
    cvkathy
    Last year I paid for my Yellow Pages ad even though I did not want it. They said that it was an automatic renewal. I told them that I did NOT want automatic renewal and that it seemed very illegal for them to do that. The person I talked with said they would remove it. Now wasn't I surprised when my ad appeared in this year's Yellow Pages.

    I called to complain and the 'Customer Rep' told me that unless I had talked to someone in 'her' department what I was told was not legitimate. She then told me that in order for me to cancel my Yellow Page ad I had to send a CERTIFIED LETTER(!!) with very precise information. However, she said I still needed to pay for this year's ad.

    I asked her to provide verifiable proof that I was ever informed that I needed to send a certified letter to cancel my ad. She said that there was information on the ATT webpage stating that. I pointed out that that isn’t legal. Was I supposed to intuit that my personal contract information was on a website? Did ATT just assume that everyone has computer access?

    She also stated that I had agreed to my ad through recorded telephone verification with ATT. I asked her why ATT could verify something over the phone and could not. She didn’t have an answer.

    Of course, she could not ‘locate’ the recorded phone conversation that I had last year.  I asked to speak to her supervisor. She said ‘they don’t do that anymore. Each customer representative is trained to take care of anything that comes up.’ This is an interesting new ploy. If someone is not having a satisfactory conversation with a representative that’s just tough. There’s no recourse.

    I asked if ATT was going to reimburse me for the cost of sending a ‘certified letter of cancelation.’ She said they would not.

    My question is – has anyone started a class action suit against these illegal practices? If not, it’s time that we do.
  • 0
    woods plumbing
    i'm going through the same thing. they said they would test the service to ensure it works and there wouldn't be a billing for that. instead, i get a bill $135.00. i called them back and they said they would take care of it. meanwhile, i am getting larger phone bills and the sales rep dissappeared so now i've been dealing with cust svc. i sent a letter, within 2 weeks, fax'd and mailed, to cancel and they can't find it. i'm a small plumbing company in los angeles and thought it was only me being taken advantage of. every time my phone rings with an unidentifed number i let it go to voicemail supposedly there isn't a cost if it isn't answered by me physically.
  • 0
    Att sale Rep, Over Exagerated
    Well, like everybody here I have a story to tell.  I was called back in mid October of 2011 by a sales rep named J.  I will not use full names but will tell you I was told the following.

    1) Over 600 + people per month in my area were looking for my services.
    2) I would also be placed in over 150 internet directories
    3) The program works and I would have my listing in the top three.  The highest program you can get.  
    4) These 600 + are not doing searches on YP.com because they are browsing.  They are on there to do business.  

    I said wouldn't Google be a better place for me to put my hard earned money.

    Response: Google is for people looking for and browsing for stuff.  Not for people ready to BUY a Service or DO Business.

    Had over 6 phone conversations with sales person.  They answered all calls back and the followup was amazing.  

    Sales rep even went over numbers on the phone with me and stated that I should easily get 8-10 new customers per month with this ad program.  I should get at least 20+ calls per month with this ad program.

    Now, After making the order I expected to get something from ATT like a contract, terms, cancellation period information.  

    I then after placing ad spoke to my uncle who also had an ad with ATT the year before.  He stated he will not renew the ad that he did not make any money from the ad. He stated he got no business from it and will not use YP.com again.  

    I called my sales rep to cancel my program.  This was on the 6th day.  No return call.  I then called again.  No return call.  I then on the 10th day at 8:05 AM Emailed the Rep to cancel.  I also asked for a return call.  I received an email back on the 12th stating it was too late to cancel and I was under contract.  I never received this contract with any cancellation details in a timely manner. As a matter of fact, I never received anything stating the cancellation period.   I tried to cancel but the rep would not call me back.  I did not have any information on who to call, where to call.  Only his number and his managers number.  I left 4 messages with the manager and still over 30 day's later have not had a single call back from any of my messages.  My funds were pulled from my bank account over 20 day's after the ad was placed.  Over 14 day's after I called asking to cancel.  Over 10 day's after I emailed due to the NO Response to calls.  Nothing was live, Nothing was Done.  No AD other than the basic free one I had built myself on the ATT YP.com site.  

    I received my contract on November 20th in the mail.  It was dated November 17th.  More than 2 weeks after the cancellation period ended.

    I have emails from the REP that clearly state that some ads will not work.  Why does ATT sale these ads that do not work?  He states because they are placed too low...  Mine is the highest under one category and the very next level under another category, Oh yea, the 600+ people looking for my services was only for ONE category.  My other category has literally Thousands every month looking for that service.  But Not 1 Phone call.

    I have been on the phone now numerous times with customer support trying to get this resolved but since I'm under contract they will not cancel.  

    The sales rep did however finally email me back and stated the ad will work and that I should give it at least TWO months to work...  Why two months?  I'm already at the top.  Why would two months make a difference when it's listed at the top Now and has been?

    That was 16 day's ago.  Still, with my 1st place ad in my category, and supposedly over 600+ people searching for this service per month I have not received a single phone call.  Not a ONE call.  I have received 4 calls in the last two weeks for this service that att stated over 600 per month were looking for and all four found me on Google Places.  So, he lied about Google, Lied about the number of business I'd get, Lied about basically everything. I do not see these 150+ directories He stated I'd be placed in.  

    ATT took my money.  The REP has lied to me about its true value, expected results but yet they lock you up into a contract that they do not have to show performance for.  They use numbers as part of their sales practices that are not real numbers.  I have a link from my business website to my yp.com ad.  I visit the site every other day to figure out why it's not working.  They built the ad, not me.  I think these numbers, 600+ are mainly made up of other people looking at their own ads or their competitions ads.  

    Good luck if you deal with this company but they have no RATING Stars on their website so potential customers can see how they really treat their CONTRACTED Clients.
  • 0
    Yooper
    After my disappointing experience with ATT Ad Solutions Contract issues, I decided to go this route.

    https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/

    Federal Trade Commission.  Start here people.  There is no bigger free hand that will help you other than the Feds.  These are the ears that need to hear our voices.  Fill out the form and pray for the rest.  Hopefully enough people will start flooding their database with ATT as a headline and that will get their attention.
  • 0
    Yooper
    After some researching it looks like most people are having success fighting ATT with the Bureau of Better Business.  Filing a complaint is free and easy and most cases are resolved withing 30 days.  It seems like this is the bad press that Att will respond to.  The options for Att are huge once you do the search.  I took the area code from my sales person (314) Then did a Att search in the St. Louis, Missouri area.  Then I clicked on Att advertising our of St. Louis and filled the complaint.  We'll see how this one comes out.  Here is a link for their website.

    https://www.bbb.org/

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