Firstly, it suprises me there isn't a catergory for advertising company compiants here, given the amount of fraud that goes on in this industry. My tale of woe with the YELLOW PAGES GROUP goes on for two years. Once upon I had a very small home business (and bear with me here, at the time I was poor struggling solo mother with a a young child to support (now working as a computer programmer for a government body)) and I had an unsolicitated phone call from a person with a thick Indian accent I couldn't undertstand. They asked me if I wanted to place an advertisment with the Yellow Pages Group, I said yes the first year...and they managed to get the advertisment right after about 5 proofs. At no time during the discussion was I made aware on any repeat billing on this ad or any other business policies.

The next year a another person (a woman this time) with a heavy Indian accent called and asked me if I wanted to place another advertisement this year, this woman was extremely pushy and rude, but I agreed to take out another small ad. At no time were any mention of billing practices made. She made serious errors with my listing, it was more than she quoted over the phone, and I was never sent a proof, just a bill. I told her over the phone that I was very unhappy with the level of service provided and said that I did not want to list to with Yellow Pages Group again. I also informed her of this by email. No reply was recieved, just a bill.

This year however, Yellow Pages Group have hit a new poor standard of advertising...no phone call, no advertising proof, no emails - just a $500 bill for a service that I had requested be cancelled last year. To make it worse, the advert published has an incorrect postage address (i.e) it goes to another businesses post office box, my home phone is listed, and I don't even have a business anymore!

Apparently this is their 'repeat billing' policy - in which things repeat without any authorisation from the advertiser and not even a yearly courtesy call to check that the deatils are correct - and remember the key point here - I was contacted about this over the phone, I was never advised of any repeat billing policy, never sent a terms of buiness contract to read, never signed anything - all I got were bills and Indians with incomprehensible acccents. However, it seems my verbal authorisationwas all that was required to commence this process...in light of this I would hope my verbal authorisation was enough to halt the process but apparently not.

I will be opening a case at the Disputes Tribunal with this shortly, and letting the media know about it. I strongly urge anyone else who is disatisifed with Yellow Pages Group to take up issue with this business also as the customer service and support is totally non-existent, I consdier them to be the worst company I have ever had the misfortune to deal with.

This letter is to file an official complaint against the Yellow Pages Group. Over the last 1.5 years I have received numerous phone calls to change my address on the account. Each time I change the account the address is not changed and my account is in collections due to the fact that the Yellow Pages Groups could not change my address. I received no bills in the mail and continued to receive harassing phone calls regarding my change of address and the amount outstanding.

Upon renewal of the account I get attention and some help from a customer service agent to change the address. Yet after this was done I received yet another call from collections regarding my account and the change of address! The service that I have received has been completed unacceptable and has taken up my valuable time.

Even when asked what could be done to make up for these items no discount was offered and no future service discount was put on the account. It is with great regret that I do not advertise with the Yellow Pages Group but it is not my decision. It is based on the fact that the service level has been despicable and my account not important enough to keep.

I will be reporting this to the Better Business Bureau as well as any other business watchdog out there. The harassing nature of the calls from collections has been embarrassing as my accounts are always paid and my time has been wasted!