Crazy…Crazy…Crazy…
How is that for a start? Like most businesses you do anything and everything when you start to find out what kind of advertising works for you. Here is my scenerio with Idearc. Talked to the rep, filled out a form, faxed it in….That was the easy part. Next you are suppose to get a proof sent to you for approval. Here is what I received:
1. Proof (100% different from my ad specs) When I contacted the rep about it I was told “ya I know just wanted to show you this”….For what reason I have no idea
2. Received a PDF file that was suppose to be an extension I was given due to not having a proof. Instead the PDF was actually a letter to the court requesting getting out of jury duty due to having to work from my rep….(Why I needed that I have no idea)
At this point I realized this was apparently too much for my rep to handle so I called and said to cancel the ad, I also sent an e-mail to the rep. In return I got a phone call to my storefront from the rep (I was not there) stating the ad was going to run and it did not matter about canceling it was too late.
Well low and behold the ad did run (with mistakes in it). Contacted Idearc and after 4 months of going back and forth I am given 2 choices:
1. Will take off 25% of the cost for the ad
2. Can get a free ad next year if I pay in full this year
To me this made no sense. But, the reason I was given is you only have 5 days to cancel the contract once signed. My question is if you never receive a proof then how would you know if it is wrong or not? So Idearc can basically run any ad they want and you just basically suck it up…..And if you complain then they will give you a “percentage” off the ad of what they deem fit.
Obviously I am still fighting with them, but on the good side I now know i’ll never advertise with Idearc again. I actually should not of even gotten involved with them in the first place due to my last “full year” ad resulted in basically no revenue.
For the cost to advertise with Idearc you have allot more options available by doing something else with your money….. If you are currently dealing with Idearc and want to stop but not sure what to do about advertising then let me know. I’ll be glad to help any “previous” Idearc advertiser.
Dan
Computer Repair Business Lessons Learned
p.s. I have all the docs to support this i.e. “jury duty” “wrong ad” etc….
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April 7th, 2009 at 11:28 am
Well here is the latest update…After numerous calls, e-mails etc nobody at Idearc actually will do anything. Even had a person from Idearc read this post previously and say he would check into it personally and never heard back from him (yes, I will post his name in time)…
But, today I get a call from the rep who basically ripped me in the first place calling my business and saying “If I want to cancel my ad I have to call her”…Of course my office staff contacts me and relays the message. I start to think to myself why in the world would I have to call the is same “rep”…I really did not expect her to cancel what i’ve already been paying for an ad I didn’t want.
So I called, first thing said was “I’m assuming you don’t want to run your ad again”….WOW very intuitive…. and I am told that I have to sign something in order for my ad to “not” run again. This makes NO sense to me at all. So if I don’t sign this then my ad gets run for a second year that I didn’t want ran in the first place? Personally I think that would be crazy on their part to just run another ad with no authorization. But, maybe that is their new way of just making sure they get another ad placed and you end up paying..like it or not. OR, maybe just maybe this “rep” was foolish enough to actually believe that I would run an ad….
As expected Idearc is providing “great” customer service….btw the rep’s name is Chaya should you get a call….
p.s. I actually held off a day before posting this comment to see if the rep “Chaya” would send me this mysterious document to sign so I don’t get ripped again from Idearc..and guess what? NO DOCUMENT!