the irish lass

Infosmells

Justene at Calbog is getting some trouble from a bogus business directory publisher, Infotel. Xrlq spells out all the details and the blogospherics keeps a running blog on her defenders from the Bear Flag League.

I'm not a lawyer, but I do have some expertise in this area. I sell yellow page advertising for the phone company.

One result of the breakup of Ma Bell in 1984, was the proliferation of independent or niche phone books. The phone companies were obligated, by law, to sell their directory lists to anyone who wanted to buy them. As a consequence, hundreds of business directories and independent yellow page companies exist is the USA, most of whom have a pretty weak product. A common practice is to copy your ad from the phone book and send an invoice asking you to verify the information is correct for the next edition of the book. The invoice is very plain looking and states in small letters "This is not an Invoice" and that the ad will be $365 annually. You sign that the info is correct and now you've placed an advertising order. Their success is based on the fact that the amount is small enough that the bookkeeper sometimes just pays the bill.

When Dan Lungren was Attorney General, he took action against some of these companies, but I don't have access to the legal journals.

I have had dozens of customers show me invoices over the years. These companies do a huge business, and bring absolutely no value to the businesses who list or advertise with them.

Justene, enjoy your travels and forget about these scumbags. The Bear Flag League rushes out to defend you.