This is a rip-off company....!!!!!!
Complaint
Diana
Country: United States
The advertising Agents from AT&T Yellow Pages (AT & T Yellow Pages 101 Spear Street San Francisco, Ca 94105) contacted me several times by email and phone, soliciting my business and asking me to advertise online at www.yellowpages.com as well as in the Yellow Pages book.
• One of the agents, called me on June 27, 2008, about online advertising with www.yellowpages.com, Before explaining the fees, the agent voice verified my authorization about advertising online with AT & T. During the recording I realized that the fee that I am agreeing to is $455.80/month- so obviously I said that I do not want to advertise if I have to pay so much money. So the agent told me off records that she is going to offer a lower plan, and that I actually don’t have to pay for it, until I have actual leads signing up for my service online. This offer, sounded really appealing to me, however I told the agent that I do not want to start the advertising program until I see the actual contract. She said O.K. and said to authorize the advertising, and then take care of the rest. I never received a contract. (I only received it, when I contacted Steve Gaynes, (another agent), and asking him to cancel my advertising with Yellow Pages. I signed it and wrote CANCEL on each page and faxed it back, requesting cancellation.)
• Steve Gaynes and another agent (she said her name is Sherita), are working at the same company, but looks like they are competing agents. In my case Sherita signed me up for online advertising (www.yellowpages.com ) and Steve signed me up for advertising in the Yellow Pages book. The way both agents were communicating with me, was very confusing….
Concerns:
• I never received any contract/bills from AT&T by mail, as I was promised. I kept getting continuous calls from similar agents who were trying to sign me up for their advertising plans. I told them that I am not interested, and during one of the conversations it turned out that the contract that I faxed was disregarded, so the cancellation did not go through. So now, the AT&T kept sending Invoices to a wrong address. (which I never received!) During one of the phone conversation the customer service representative, apologized for messing up the address, but she continued on the “excited” tone to congratulate me about being a customer with AT&T….(I never felt like one of their customers)
• Voice verification was done a few times, so it’s quite confusing to what I am actually agreeing. I agreed to start the program, but I never agreed to pay, because I was told that I will receive the printed contract, so I could make up my mind about the further steps.
At this point:
• I contacted an Attorney, he wrote a letter disputing the charges with AT &T. The attorney asked the company to mail a decision within 10 days. AT &T never followed up on that letter.
• Then I contacted San Francisco Consumer Protection. As a result I was supposed to receive a call from one of the AT&T agents to nullify the charges. Instead, they keep telling me that I still owe the amount. Almost each week they are increasing the amount that I owe.
• I believe that this issue deserves to be investigated and merits to be a class action.
• One of the agents, called me on June 27, 2008, about online advertising with www.yellowpages.com, Before explaining the fees, the agent voice verified my authorization about advertising online with AT & T. During the recording I realized that the fee that I am agreeing to is $455.80/month- so obviously I said that I do not want to advertise if I have to pay so much money. So the agent told me off records that she is going to offer a lower plan, and that I actually don’t have to pay for it, until I have actual leads signing up for my service online. This offer, sounded really appealing to me, however I told the agent that I do not want to start the advertising program until I see the actual contract. She said O.K. and said to authorize the advertising, and then take care of the rest. I never received a contract. (I only received it, when I contacted Steve Gaynes, (another agent), and asking him to cancel my advertising with Yellow Pages. I signed it and wrote CANCEL on each page and faxed it back, requesting cancellation.)
• Steve Gaynes and another agent (she said her name is Sherita), are working at the same company, but looks like they are competing agents. In my case Sherita signed me up for online advertising (www.yellowpages.com ) and Steve signed me up for advertising in the Yellow Pages book. The way both agents were communicating with me, was very confusing….
Concerns:
• I never received any contract/bills from AT&T by mail, as I was promised. I kept getting continuous calls from similar agents who were trying to sign me up for their advertising plans. I told them that I am not interested, and during one of the conversations it turned out that the contract that I faxed was disregarded, so the cancellation did not go through. So now, the AT&T kept sending Invoices to a wrong address. (which I never received!) During one of the phone conversation the customer service representative, apologized for messing up the address, but she continued on the “excited” tone to congratulate me about being a customer with AT&T….(I never felt like one of their customers)
• Voice verification was done a few times, so it’s quite confusing to what I am actually agreeing. I agreed to start the program, but I never agreed to pay, because I was told that I will receive the printed contract, so I could make up my mind about the further steps.
At this point:
• I contacted an Attorney, he wrote a letter disputing the charges with AT &T. The attorney asked the company to mail a decision within 10 days. AT &T never followed up on that letter.
• Then I contacted San Francisco Consumer Protection. As a result I was supposed to receive a call from one of the AT&T agents to nullify the charges. Instead, they keep telling me that I still owe the amount. Almost each week they are increasing the amount that I owe.
• I believe that this issue deserves to be investigated and merits to be a class action.
Comments
It all sounds improbable, except that there have been several other complaints here over the last several years of similar "bait and switch" fraudulent telemarketing of advertizing allegedly by ATT.
Your reported details are consistent with those other complaints, and are also consistent with how "bait and switch" fraudulent telemarketing is often practiced by other types of consumer scams, though use of what at first appear to be just "sloppy" sales practices.
If the terms of the offer weren't disclosed at the time of this "verification" then there is no agreement being acknowledged in the "voice verification", so no contract.
And then the supposed "better" terms are "off the record", even contingent on "leads" (that could be gamed by click fraud)?
And in fact, you keep "accidentally" not getting a copy of this "written contract", that you never saw, or signed. If you never see it, and never sign it, it's no "written contract", it's an oral contract, with some other document floating around being misrepresented as a "contract".
"Then I contacted San Francisco Consumer Protection. As a result I was supposed to receive a call from one of the AT&T agents to nullify the charges."
As they should, since there is no contract. (If SF Consumer Protection is the City Attorney's office, they are actually pretty effective, and have sued some big companies. Providian comes to mind.)
Who are these clowns?
ATT employees, or some third party marketing company selling you their own package, that they then forward to ATT?
If you call ATT headquarters directly, what do they say?
Why are they contacting you only by email and phone?
Why aren't they contacting you by U.S. Mail?
Something says they aren't who they say they are. Too much "plausible deniability" built into their tactics. It must be there for a reason, but of course you have been seeing what that reason is: "bait and switch".
https://complaintwire.org/complaint/MKYBAAAAAAA/att-yellow-pages
https://complaintwire.org/complaint/45EBAAAAAAA/att-yellow-pages
https://complaintwire.org/complaint/kPTmvghs6gQ/at-t-yellow-pages
If when you catch the discrepancies, you fail to dispute, you might get "account stated", but if you dispute on discovering the mess, you get NOTHING, just as SF Consumer Protection is saying.
Their sales practices are starting to sound like Canadian online directory scammers.
the next year it automatically renews. I told the ATT rep that I thought I had my business sold and therefore did not
want to renew or sign a contract. He sent me numerous registered mail cpntracts which I never opened or signed, so they emailed the contract and said that constitued a legal contract. That I now owe them for the balance of the
year, several thousand dollars. You may not know the policies of ATT if you think it is not them, this is the ATT
representative and the phone ATT which I am now dealing with. I have his card and the phone number of the offices
I have verified it is ATT. I would never deal with ATT again in the advertising department.
Beware they are crooks. The agent to sue is CT Corp Systems Dallas Texas....
I told the person "Yvonne" that this was it, no more. She told me that she would note my account this was the final payment and that I was not longer interested. What do you know, someone called to verify that I was finished and that my final balance was going to be paid. and, yet again, I have a new account.
Months of phone calls I get a manager named "tony" to apologize and say you are done. Now, in the mail I have a Letter that threatens me with court actions.
RIP OFF, THESE PEOPLE ARE REALLY CROOKED.
Then I get a bill for $2200. When I call to find out what it is all about, they said I entered a one year contract. I never said I wanted that! I just wanted to see if it would work a few months first.
The worst thing is that they sold my email. My business email NEVER got spam before and now it is flooded with notifications of my inheiritences, etc.
Horrible experience. I want to change my website name and domain now because of yp advertising.