Is YellowPages.com Losing Its Touch?
I’ve been dealing with a frustrating advertising situation that I wanted to share (some of you may be able to relate). Having seen via a client that an ad on YellowPages.com generated good results, I decided to get one for myself. I worked with a rep to get set up.
A few weeks later, an ad magically appeared on their site. I wasn’t contacted to find out what I wanted in my ad, and that showed. It looked like a fifth grader designed it; it was very rudimentary and didn’t look professional at all. Add to that the fact that my contact information was wrong. I won’t give you details on how many dozens of calls I made to get it taken care of, but in the end (really, in the middle) I paid a designer to create the ad.
Two months later, my phone number is still wrong (despite speaking to at least 5 people about it) and I have received a bill for my ad.
It seems the sales department and the graphics department don’t communicate very well, and the customers are the ones who suffer. My sales rep gives me the number of customer service and the graphics department and asks me to contact them. Naturally, I’m a busy woman, and I pay for this service, so I don’t feel I should jump through hoops to get this corrected. I even went to the trouble of emailing the CEO of AT&T (they own YellowPages.com) explaining how frustrated I was, since there really wasn’t anyone else who could really do anything about the major disconnect between departments. Don’t hold your breath; he didn’t write back.
So now I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place. I believe the ad in its correct form could generate some business. And I don’t want to take my business elsewhere because no other company has the name recognition that YellowPages.com has. But it seems they’ve gotten too big for their britches and have forgotten the most important thing: the customer. If it’s not easy for the customer, you’ll soon lose them.
Take this as a lesson. Are you making it easy for your customers to buy from you?
PS Today I received the 2008 phone book, and they put in an ancient ad for my client (not the new one they were given)! Thin ice, Yellow Pages, thin ice.
PPS After writing this post I made a final attempt. I was on hold for customer service for 10 minutes (!!!) and spoke to no one. I’m pulling my ad. Has anyone else had this same frustrating experience??
-Susan
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Susan Payton is the Marketing Eggspert, and owner of 
Hi Sue,
I was searching through different marketing articles this morning and was very disapointed to read this post.
I am an employee of the company and assure you this is not the culture or a reflection of the values we practice.
Although I am on the west coast, I will certianly try to help you.
I will send you an email with my contact information and if you will call me I will make all efforts to see that your issue is properly addressed.
As long as I have been here, I have truly not seen this as a pattern so I am sorry you have reached this obstacle.
Sincerely,
TLM
Thanks for your concern. I’ve actually talked to quite a few YP employees that have been very nice, but none have resolve the issue. At this point, I’ve contacted BBB, and am awaiting a response.
Unfortunately, I’ve had almost as bad an experience with a completely different set of people surrounding my client’s YP account.
Hi Sue,
I agree with you! Through the actions of SOME employees, customer service has become a joke at yellowpages.com.
I’ve experienced the same issues that you’ve outlined. Once I began working with the supervisor of my rep at YP.com, things got done, but it was a real chore.
While I was having issues with yp.com, I began dealing with superpages.com / Idearc Media. Over the course of a year and a half, I went through 6 different reps, spent over 30 hrs on the phone & emailing to correct simple errors on my listings. [Had they used the information I originally provided, there wouldn't have been an issue.]
It seemed that evertime I called in I was being passed to a new rep, and had to explain the situation for the three hundredth time, only to be told that they would have to look into it or that they completed what I asked them to do, therefore if there was an error with the listing, it was my fault.
When you call into a business these days, you get that recorded message telling you “…this call may be recorded for customer sercive purposes, blah, blah, blah. Just once I’d like to have a company call me back and say, “Sir, we reviewed the telephone conversation you had with our rep, and feel your issue wasn’t handled in an appropriate manner…”
In all fairness to YP & SP, I did come in contact with employees that were polite and attempted to assist. Unfortunatlely, in my experiences the polite & helpful employees were the exception and not the rule.
Are these companies getting so big that customer service isn’t an issue?
Sure… I can try and take my business elsewhere, but where! These are the big dogs!! Their sites drive business and it’s expected that I have a presence with them.