[Jonny jones]

hi guys,

where do i stand on this one,

i had a visit from a bt sales woman dated on the 23/9/08.  i decided to go into the book, i was asking for half a page, got qouted £1,400 ish.   she told me that i would ecieve a proof of the advert in about two weeks
i recieved a letter dated dated 21st nov. with a proof of the advert, had a proper look at it and it wasnt half as good as it could have been, because my business is bilingual there was a lot of spelling mistakes. and it didnt jump out at me my tag line wasnt included and no pics.

so i made the changes i wanted and was ready to send it off,  missus had a look at the  letter and noticed the red writting stating that unfornuatley due to the time scale it was too late to change the advert and it was going to the book as is.

i called them and they they were apoligetic and told me it was deffinately too late to change it. and offered me 5% off the total price of the order.

my point is that im in a very strong welsh language area and they have mad emistakes on the welsh spelling and the advert is crap and i had no chance of changing it.

what would you guys do or have you ever had a situation like this and what did you do.
#


thanx jonny

[fenclean]

Tell them not to put it in the book if it's that bad, it's not your fault that they messed it up. When i advertised in the bt book last year i didn't get the bill untill the book was distributed.

Steven.

[Jonny jones]

i know that its going to print now, but where do i stand because if its not what i want can i refuse to pay.

[BDCS]

Speak to trading standards - they are a real help

[Ian Rochester]

If they've not got a signed proof copy from yourselves then they don't have a let to stand on.

Tell them you're not paying for the advert, cancel any direct debits they have coming out of your account until it is sorted.

There may be even a case that this advert has done/will do more damage to your business than good.

[clinton]

I had a similar problem but with y pages many years ago

Got a big refund as i did refuse to pay at first so dont back down on it as the directories are strugling nowadays because of web site adverts 

[drive surgeon]

would never deal with bt phonebook again,   had two big adverts and not one reply. also they ripped my girlfriends business off.

[mark.laycock1@ntlw]

ive only gone in the yellow pages and was thinking of going into bt book. i will have a rethink about it.

[drive surgeon]

no m,ark dont bother its a waste of money, yell pages is the only directory worth anything. even thats not too good at times.  one year i was in garden services, but the onlt calls were from old ladies expecting the jobs to be done for nothing and the other year i had none cos we had a bad summer, its only a seasonal section. 

i would say blast cleaning or cleaning services only really.

[Chris Galloway]

If they've not got a signed proof copy from yourselves then they don't have a let to stand on.

Tell them you're not paying for the advert, cancel any direct debits they have coming out of your account until it is sorted.

There may be even a case that this advert has done/will do more damage to your business than good.

If thats the case of the above then i would seek to get 100% of any monies back, and perhaps take legal action on them for possibly causing damage to your business reputation.

[colley614]

Thats disgusting that. I had a similar problem myself, I have 2 small children and a baby at home and instead of printing my business phone number they printed my home number in 2 books. Considering I spent over £1000 to advertise in the commercial section, now if a customer from a big company called and heard my little ones fighting or crying in the background I bet I wouldn't even get a chance to quote.

[Jonny jones]

i have now deleted the dd,  i will be giving the calls over to my rotviler  now( my misses    grrrr)
 
thanx jonny

[Les]

Went in BT Phonebook this year, Colour ad in the front classified section with Photo and repeated in
 B & W  in listed section.... £380 

Very cheap......but useless,  only a handful of responses.

The rep, (that's short for Reprobate  ) rang to say he was coming to see me about next years ad....

Let's say I saved him the price of his Petrol !!

Les

In your case I would definitely be taking advice and not settling for the paltry amount they've offered.