AT&T YellowPages.com does what they want
Complaint
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
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
Kristen Rhoades, MGR
480-907-8524
Enclosed is an extremely helpful link that will stop AT&T YellowPages.com bill collection / phone calls dead in their tracks.
According to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, [15 USC 1692c] Section 805(c): CEASING COMMUNICATION: allow for protection against harassing phone calls from debt collection companies including AT&T YellowPages.com.
In order to stop collection calls at home you must send a certified signature "Stop Calling Letter" to the collector. (see below)
After sending the Stop Calling Letter, if the collection phone calls do not stop, the debt collector may just be liable to you for statutory damages of up to $1,000, plus any actual damages suffered, plus attorney fees and court costs!
You will want to file a conciliation (Small Claims Court) action documenting the continuing phone calls from the collection company. Be certain to record the calls along with time and date to provide as evidence. The telephone company maybe able to provide phone records. Also your cell phone records can also provide documentation of the harrassing phone calls.
Conciliation or Small Claims Court is a very simple process (did I say simple!) with a filing fee of approximately $50.00. If the defendant (AT&T YellowPages.com) does not show up to defend themselves, you may just end up winning a default judgment against them. Small Claims Court can award damages from $5000 to $7500 depending upon limitations in your state.
Alternatively, a junior attorney in a larger legal practice may be willing to take your case for a split of the damages awarded by the court.
Now here is the STOP CALLING LETTER:
FREE Sample Letter to Stop Debt Collection Calls
Today's Date
Your Name
Your Address
Collector's Name
Collector's Address
Mr./Ms. Collector,
I am writing in response to your constant phone calls!
According to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, [15 USC 1692c] Section 805(c): CEASING COMMUNICATION: You must cease all communication with me after being notified in writing that I no
Terms not defined. Recorded offer not the same as billed. Web site contact not approved. No customer support to speak of. Cancellation letter lost. Continued billing after written and verbal cancellation.
Please add me to the list for a potential Class action suit. This is just plain wrong.
kcandland@sbcglobal.net
5. Renewals. We reserve the right at our discretion, but we are not obligated, to renew your Advertising for renewal Terms coinciding with the publication dates of the directory. We will send you notice of renewal by U.S. Mail, containing any change in Advertising rates and the accompanying terms and conditions, and you may refuse the renewal by giving us written notice within 15 days from our mailing, or by the deadline contained in the notice, whichever is first. We reserve the right, upon written notice to you at any time prior to renewal: (a) not to renew your Advertising for reasons set forth in paragraph 2 above or (b) to eliminate or modify any terms, conditions, standards, specifications, products, headings or policies (including without limitation priority placement of Advertising) affecting your Advertising. All Internet Advertising will automatically renew at our discretion at the then current rate unless cancelled prior to the publication date of the next printed directory. After renewal, only changes resulting in the same or increased level of Internet Advertising charges may be made.
After reading this I wrote a letter to my sales rep informing AT&T of my desire to cancel and not renew my contract. I mailed the letter certified mail so someone at AT&T had to sign for it. I have a copy of the letter and a return receipt that proves the cancellation letter was received. Now if AT&T tries to do something stupid and auto-renew me, I have material evidence that proves my notice to cancel was delivered.
Here is the text of my cancellation letter:
This letter is to inform you that our advertising agreement for print and internet advertising signed on ______ is not being renewed.
Our company is extremely concerned that our other marketing activities -- free craigslist ads, contractor review websites and targeted flyer distribution – all outperformed the yellow pages print and internet advertising. Our free craigslist ads alone generated $300, 000 in contracts, yet the paid advertising in the Yellow Pages book and yellowpages.com generated $ 0 in revenue.
In regards to internet marketing, over the last ten months yellowpages.com generated only 24 clicks to the our website. This was an average of 2.4 clicks a month! If I factor in the total cost of the internet advertising ($42 x 10 months = $420 ) and divide by the number of clicks generated ($420 / 24 = ) the cost per click is $17.50. During this same time frame our website had over 500 hits from craigslist at a cost per click of $0.0.
Unless AT&T Advertising can somehow refund a significant portion of the funds paid on this non-performing advertising contract Our Company will make it a policy to never do business with AT&T Advertising again.
Thank you,
<your-name-here>
This Works, just remember to send the letter certified or registered mail and the letter must be received by AT&T by your renewal deadline or you will be automatically renewed for another year.
AT&T Yellowpages are scammers. Crooks. They will not cancel account. The only way to down internet advert is not to pay and only after 4-5 months they will stop it and will send you a debt collection letter. Who had the same case please e-mail me @slavanin1@yahoo.com
Did they hurt someone's credit history?
Sincerely,
Jana Trnovsky, DMD
Holding out for justice