118trades.com - anyone heard of them/use them?

[thekitchendesigner]

I've just had a call from someone in the corporate dept. of 118trades.com.

He was saying about a kitchen company who had bought a full A5 advert in their trade directory for my area. The cost for this he said was around £10k.

This company aparantly had to relocate to kent and had their advert put in the kent edition, leaving a full A5 colour advert spare, adn they were getting very very close to printing and needed to fill it.

after quite a lengthy chat, he said because of the urgency of having to fill the space, the cost would be wiped, and that all there would be to pay would be £950 towards the printing, with £100 of this to be a deposit. This was a full colour glossy A5 advert, for 18 months.

I dont know whether this is genuine and worth looking at or not?? I'm very good at sussing the scammers but cant tell with this one! He was very pleasant and not at all pushy. He gave his name, direct line, and is emailing some stuff across.

What do you good people think?

 

[creospace]

How does it reflect on your advertising budgets?

 

[mattk]

Weren't they on BBC TV's Watchdog consumer affair programme recently?

 

[simplyme]

Weren't they on BBC TV's Watchdog consumer affair programme recently?

Apparently so....................

http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/watchdog/reports/homes/homes_20060321_2.shtml

 

[fastfences]

Whoaaaa!!!

Keep clear, keep clear.

I joined 118 trades last December with promises of local advertising and a delivered directory to all homes in the advertised area. Nothing has been forthcoming despite followup calls.

I actually joined 2 areas based on my belief in the advertising material. I didn't just take the salesman's word. They don't seem to show up in any search engine searches and I've never had a call originating from their 'service.' I will most definately NOT renew.
Cheers, Nigel

 

[thekitchendesigner]

Blimey! Thats made my mind up! Thank you people.

I've just had an email from the guy outlining what we discussed, and he send me a powerpoint presentation - looks a bit naff (even he said it was) for people who ask in excess of £10k for an A5 advert!

I'm soooooo glad i asked on the forum about these people!!

 

[SuffolkDesigns]

"We have had a cancellation because of....." seems to be the common sales pitch to offer "discounted" advertising scams

 

[FunkyBears]

Hi,
These posts just highlight the excellent feedback on these Forums. Well done guys you could have saved thekitchendesigner a grand!

 

[SuffolkDesigns]

and a quote from their solicitor...

"

1. We refer to the claims made by ex-employees, many of whom no doubt now work for competitors. The discretion of our sales persons to negotiate the price of advertising space is extremely limited and any discounts agreed have to be cleared with a sales manager. Obviously if more than one advertisement is required, charges reflect thi, but a standard charge for a single advertisement in one county is £599 plus VAT."

 

[Dave Hybrid]

Yellow pages don't even charge 10k for a A5 ad.

As they are arguably market leader in paper directories this would immediately raise a red flag with me.

Also have you ever had 118trades directory delivered to you? I havent and as a result probably no one else has either.

Dave.

 

[garyk]

yep as Dave says if you havent heard of it then straight away question its circulation/popularity and if you dont know about it its likely most other people dont either!