Yellow Pages - Anyone taken them to task?
Discussion
Bought a yellow pages ad. £1200 worth. They made a fundamental spelling mistake (they have admitted that my proof was correct but their excuse was that it was a "difficult" word to spell!) in the ad headline - the type that makes the ad worthless in a competitve sector - they have offered me 30% off (up from 10%). i have rejected this and they can offer no more (so they say) so -
1. How do i sue them and on what grounds?
2. they have ignored my written request to cease taking monthly payments under a standing order - do i have a case
3. Has anyone else taken them on and if so how did you get on?
All advice gratefully received. i am a one man business so advertising is a serious invetsment that needs to return as is the cost of pursuing someone through the courts!
Look forward to your advice
Steve (lemansman)
1. How do i sue them and on what grounds?
2. they have ignored my written request to cease taking monthly payments under a standing order - do i have a case
3. Has anyone else taken them on and if so how did you get on?
All advice gratefully received. i am a one man business so advertising is a serious invetsment that needs to return as is the cost of pursuing someone through the courts!
Look forward to your advice
Steve (lemansman)
I could just be being daft/pissed/both, but could you not just withdraw the ad./payments until they get it right?
Just common sense, but if they have the ad. wrong then it isn't what you requested, therefore it is unfit therefore you shouldn't have to pay for it?
:disclaimer: I am no legal expert at all and common sense is known to be secondary to many British laws :disclaimer off:
edited because...erm I have had too many? (good enough for me!)
>> Edited by mannginger on Sunday 22 June 20:51
Just common sense, but if they have the ad. wrong then it isn't what you requested, therefore it is unfit therefore you shouldn't have to pay for it?
:disclaimer: I am no legal expert at all and common sense is known to be secondary to many British laws :disclaimer off:
edited because...erm I have had too many? (good enough for me!)
>> Edited by mannginger on Sunday 22 June 20:51
If the proof they supplied you is, as you say, correct, you signed this off for press, yet they published what is in effect - a different ad, then you can rightfully refuse to pay.
However, should it go to court, they would claim that all other information was correct and the spelling error was no more than an inconvienience. In other words, you would have to prove that you have suffered a loss of business as a result of the error.
Best advice would be to cancel the standing order and send them a cheque for £50 stating that this is in full and final settlement. I'd also push for a hefty discount next year too!
In future, I would strongly suggest that you (or anyone else for that matter) gets their design company to put an ad together. That way, you have total control over what goes in.
Good luck.
However, should it go to court, they would claim that all other information was correct and the spelling error was no more than an inconvienience. In other words, you would have to prove that you have suffered a loss of business as a result of the error.
Best advice would be to cancel the standing order and send them a cheque for £50 stating that this is in full and final settlement. I'd also push for a hefty discount next year too!
In future, I would strongly suggest that you (or anyone else for that matter) gets their design company to put an ad together. That way, you have total control over what goes in.
Good luck.
Thanks:
1. I can't cancel the DD / SO because I have six other ads running in various directories, the payments for these are also taken monthly as a single payment for all of the adverts.
2. Yellow Pages (be warned) get very very serious if you start witholding payments.
3. The proof was correct and YP have admitted that the ran the "wrong" advert.
4. How do you prove loss of business? It seems to me that if you are looking for a professional service (we are chartered surveyors) you are not going to be encouraged by an ad with a spelling mistake and will simply go to the next one on the list. We try and monitor all of our calls to identify the source of the enquiry but we have not run this ad / directory before so cannot make a comparison.
Steve
1. I can't cancel the DD / SO because I have six other ads running in various directories, the payments for these are also taken monthly as a single payment for all of the adverts.
2. Yellow Pages (be warned) get very very serious if you start witholding payments.
3. The proof was correct and YP have admitted that the ran the "wrong" advert.
4. How do you prove loss of business? It seems to me that if you are looking for a professional service (we are chartered surveyors) you are not going to be encouraged by an ad with a spelling mistake and will simply go to the next one on the list. We try and monitor all of our calls to identify the source of the enquiry but we have not run this ad / directory before so cannot make a comparison.
Steve
lemansman said:
Thanks:
1. I can't cancel the DD / SO because I have six other ads running in various directories, the payments for these are also taken monthly as a single payment for all of the adverts. cancel it and offer to re-start a d/D for the correct Ad's
2. Yellow Pages (be warned) get very very serious if you start witholding payments. do they FCUK! - I haven't paid them - see link below
3. The proof was correct and YP have admitted that the ran the "wrong" advert. same thing happened to me
4. How do you prove loss of business? It seems to me that if you are looking for a professional service (we are chartered surveyors) you are not going to be encouraged by an ad with a spelling mistake and will simply go to the next one on the list. We try and monitor all of our calls to identify the source of the enquiry but we have not run this ad / directory before so cannot make a comparison.
blag them that customers & competitors have pointed it out to you, ridiculed you etc
Steve
I honestly think that yellow pages have used either a company of illiterate printers this year, or a bunch complete morons!
I know of half a dozen local businesses that have had problems this year ranging from spelling mistakes, not printing domain names that were sold to them by YP rep and one of my mates had his phone number printed wrong
I still havent paid them a penny and dont intend to if they cant up their offer from 20%
www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=26024&f=23&h=0&hw=Business+owners
Nice to know I'm not the only one!
Had to push and push to get to 30% and I'm still not happy. The contracts they use are constantly variable, the small print changes from year to year and differs between types of orders.
Still going to take them on though, I'll let you knwo how I get on.
Steve LMM
Had to push and push to get to 30% and I'm still not happy. The contracts they use are constantly variable, the small print changes from year to year and differs between types of orders.
Still going to take them on though, I'll let you knwo how I get on.
Steve LMM
Don't pay them - how can they get nasty with you if the ad is incorrect?
Are they really going to threaten to take you to court to get money from you for an advert you didn't ask for? No, exactly.
I wouldn't care what they threw at me if i was you, your case is the stronger and has an admittance of guilt in your favour. They loose 6x your custom for the adverts you currently run. That should be more of an incentive for them to act, than for you to act on a 30%discount.....
Are they really going to threaten to take you to court to get money from you for an advert you didn't ask for? No, exactly.
I wouldn't care what they threw at me if i was you, your case is the stronger and has an admittance of guilt in your favour. They loose 6x your custom for the adverts you currently run. That should be more of an incentive for them to act, than for you to act on a 30%discount.....
Can you give a bit of detail on the error, on forum or off-line ?
English contract law not my forte, but principles are the same anywhere. You have a contract to advertise. If they aren't fulfilling their side of the bargain, there is no consensus, therefore no contract, and no duty to pay any bill. Expect however YP have a plethora of get out clauses which would need studied.
If you are stuck with paying something, sue on the basis of negligence. Get them to confirm in writing that the fault is theirs. You then argue if they had exercised reasonable skill, they would not have made the error in the advert. Straight forward enough. Problem though in quantifying loss. Comes back to the details of the error. Guess you will seek to argue that their error makes you look incompetent, which damages your reputation, which costs you money in lost business, but how much. Really is in the realms of crystal ball gazing but play them at their own game. They probably have promo literature stating advertise with us and get your money back in months, or boost sales XXX%. Use that as a starting point.
Really does depend if error is minimal - a minor mispelling, or wrong phone number type error. If you have more details, I'll get you a better answer, who know, even a suggested letter.
English contract law not my forte, but principles are the same anywhere. You have a contract to advertise. If they aren't fulfilling their side of the bargain, there is no consensus, therefore no contract, and no duty to pay any bill. Expect however YP have a plethora of get out clauses which would need studied.
If you are stuck with paying something, sue on the basis of negligence. Get them to confirm in writing that the fault is theirs. You then argue if they had exercised reasonable skill, they would not have made the error in the advert. Straight forward enough. Problem though in quantifying loss. Comes back to the details of the error. Guess you will seek to argue that their error makes you look incompetent, which damages your reputation, which costs you money in lost business, but how much. Really is in the realms of crystal ball gazing but play them at their own game. They probably have promo literature stating advertise with us and get your money back in months, or boost sales XXX%. Use that as a starting point.
Really does depend if error is minimal - a minor mispelling, or wrong phone number type error. If you have more details, I'll get you a better answer, who know, even a suggested letter.
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