Anyone had a call from these people regarding listings? Real or scam?

[TheBigCheese]

Hi all

I've had a call out of the blue this afternoon from a guy asking to speak to the business owner and then saying he wanted to 'check our listings with Yahoo' and tried to direct me to the Yahoo homepage and started telling me it was different than it was.

He then asked if I was the business owner and what my name was.

When I asked who he was calling from he said he was working on behalf of Yahoo, when I pressed him on what company HE was calling from he said Infoserve and was checking listings.

I don't know why but something rang alarm bells, we've all had the calls from companies working on behalf of Google offering top 10 rankings - uh huh.

The guy was gruff and pretty rude, at one point saying "I haven't got all day to sit here and explain it to you" when I was asking exactly what it was they did, and said if we didn't go through the process our listing would be removed automatically.

I ended the call at that point saying I would check it out and contact them again if I wanted to.

I've had calls from Yellow Pages (Hibu) and Thompson Local before now and both of them knew everything already, who I was, business name, all our details and I just had to say yes, yes, yes to confirm and that was done.

Has anyone had dealings with these people before? Is it legitimate?

The phone number on caller ID was 01138 595 140.

Cheers.

 

[JamesSco]

This is one to ignore, they are just looking for information and then will go on to sell you their services.

Yahoo Local is basically a online 'Yellow Pages' which is run by Infoserve. The purpose of the call was no doubt to attempt to get you to pay for the Sponsored Search.

 

[TheBigCheese]

Excellent, thanks for the confirmation. Glad to see my 'steaming pile of cow dung™' detector is working nicely today.

 

[Ashley_Price]

The guy was gruff and pretty rude, at one point saying "I haven't got all day to sit here and explain it to you" when I was asking exactly what it was they did, and said if we didn't go
through the process our listing would be removed automatically.

What amuses me is how they are rude to you and still think they're going to get the sale (or the information in this case).

I had a Yellow Pages chap say to me once, when we turned down having a paid advert "Well, if you don't want any more customers!"

 

[JamesSco]

What amuses me is how they are rude to you and still think they're going to get the sale (or the information in this case).

I had a Yellow Pages chap say to me once, when we turned down having a paid advert "Well, if you don't want any more customers!"

The one we hear a couple of times a month and usually from someone trying to flog us BT Wholesale is:

"Your not interest in saving money??"

 

[TheBigCheese]

Yeah, they don't half get cranky when they know you're on to them!

I think the worst one I had was one of the Google ad things, once I demolished their impossible promises (we'll keep you one page 1 permanently for £99 a month) I blocked the number they had called on so it wouldn't connect to me (thanks for the most useful feature ever Voipfone!).

They rang me back using one of their mobile phones and tried again! :O Needless to say they didn't get far...

 

[UKSBD]

The one we hear a couple of times a month and usually from someone trying to flog us BT Wholesale is:

"Your not interest in saving money??"

I like the "Your not interest in what??" ones when you tell them you're not interested, before they have told you what it is.

 

[GB Showplates]

Not heard from these guys touch wood, but I swear that if I get another call on my business line from a company who want to give me a free boiler aaaargh... I wouldn't mind, but I don't even have gas at my property!

 

[Ashley_Price]

The guy was gruff and pretty rude, at one point saying "I haven't got all day to sit here and explain it to you"

I guess I would have answered something like "Okay, I'll save you the rest of the day..." and hang up.

 

[Ashley_Price]

The one we hear a couple of times a month... is "Your not interest in saving money??"

I get these occasionally and I reply with something along the lines of "Well, as I don't pay for that anyway, how much more money could you save me?" That stumps them.

Obviously it depends on what it is, but by following up about being in a serviced office, usually does the trick.

 

[Excel Expert]

I dont think being taken off Yahoo or Yellow Pages would ever keep me awake at night.

There is always a kind of a darwin principle at work with these companies. Their product is so bad they have to employ lots of people to push it as strongly as possible. This just makes the product more expensive and less attractive. This in turn leads to less people using it.

These businesses will either have to change their offering or give up. It is clearly a business model that only works with a constant struggle.

 

[Ashley_Price]

Well, Yell.com (or Yellow Pages) have been billions in debt for years, and Yahoo has been having a lot of problems, so it's no surprise they're trying to push their advertising as hard as possible.

 

[TheBigCheese]

I guess I would have answered something like "Okay, I'll save you the rest of the day..." and hang up.

I said, "I'll just look at your website and if I'm interested I'll call you and save us both the rest of the day"....then I got in trouble with the missus (who runs the business with me) for being rude to people!

She didn't know who it was at that point. I think she swore when I repeated what he had said.

 

[pcproblems]

I received a call this morning about a listing on Yahoo. He said that they were making changes to the way in which my ad was going to be listed. He wanted me to confirm that I was happy in the way that my free ad was listed by going online..

I said that I wasn't in a position to go online at the time.

The call came from 01325 254390

 

[Excel Expert]

The call you had PCProblems is from a company called InfoServe. They are just resellers of standard Yahoo and Google stuff at extortionate prices.

 

[pcproblems]

Ok thanks, i certainly won't be needing their services but may put together a blog post about that call

 

[garyk]

What amuses me is how they are rude to you and still think they're going to get the sale (or the information in this case).

I had a Yellow Pages chap say to me once, when we turned down having a paid advert "Well, if you don't want any more customers!"

Agreed, I would have hung up instantly and would never ever deal with them again.

 

[Remys]

For a business to call up someone out of the blue and be that rude, goes to show that some people really don't care about their job. If the guy was at least patient and nice to you, it would be a different story. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Socio South West]

[quote="Ashley_Price, post: 2385268, member: 23443"]
I had a Yellow Pages chap say to me once, when we turned down having a paid advert "Well, if you don't want any more customers!"[/quote]

Many small businesses are actually quite happy with the level of business they are achieving through their current marketing and actually DONT want any more customers.

The mindset of the directories has remained localised, and they have failed to understand that many businesses through the internet now trade far further afield than they ever did, and localised listings are of little or no use to many other than specific trades.

 

[pcproblems]

Just as a follow up, I had another call and 'John' was keen for me to see my listing and asked me to search for it on the yahoo site. He didn't try to see me anything at all.. Could it be that it's just to demonstrate to Yahoo that their directory is getting hits?

 

[dingbat]

I put my Yellow Pages straight in the recycling bin.

All these sales people are of a certain nature. They are then pumped up in the morning with their ready made spiel.."If the customer says this...then try....x y z...." . They are turned into wolves trying to outdo each of their fellow workers. The customer is no longer human but just a meal ticket.