Who Sucks? - AT&T Advertising Sucks

AT&T Yellowpages
32 Avenue of the Americans
New York, N.Y. 10013-2412
(866) 329-7118
(866) 426-8005
http://www.yp.com/
http://www.yellowpages.com/

I recently purchased AT&T advertising in their print and online Yellowpages. During the sales portion, AT&T made many claims regarding the efficacy of their print and online advertising. After one year of advertising with them I dispute their claims across the board. While some businesses may benefit from advertising in a phone book, my experience reveals that the vast majority of modern consumers use the internet to look for what they need, and not necessarily yellowpages.com. There's simply too many choices for people to make in this modern era. Monies spent advertising via traditional methods is largely a wasted investment.

At&t's advertising department called my home and talked my 13 year old into signing us up for DirecTv. I come home one day to discover that they had disconnected my active cable and hooked up Direct tv. Did I meantion they never talked to me or got a signature? When I called to ask them to take it out I was given the run around. I called AT&T first, they said I need to call DirecTv. DirecTV said they have no control over what AT&T does and that they would be happy to diconnect after I pay the early disconnect fee. They never seemed to get the point that I didn't order it. Neither wanted to take responsiblity for allowing a child to do this. I think it goes with out saying I canceled both services and moved my cell phone account to Verizon instead of AT&T. Now they send me letters begging me to be a customer again. Ha! Fat chance! So be careful when dealing with AT&T, they are extremely unethical! Oh, I forgot. They also said I was responsbile for the bill because I am responsible for my child. I wouldn't have a problem with that had my son called them, but he didn't. They called my home!

Renee

Thank you for making this site. I was scammed by at&t's online advertising department. They told me that I had 15 days to cancel an agreement. Well in the 15 days I called back to cancel and it was never noted into my account. I called numerous times to cancel my account with at&t and now it has turned into a legal situation since they have refused to take my ad from off the internet. 3 months from the "cancellation" of my agreement and they are trying to stick me with a 680.00 bill! That it insane. I do not recommend At&t advertising to anyone.

Jackie Myers

I recently signed up for a minimum online ad with AT&T. In the process, we were given other options which we declined. We signed a second agreement but verbally refused the second level of ads. Three months later, the second ad went into effect and we were billed an additional $400.00 a month.

A. Scanlon

I am a small business owner that was called by a sale person from AT&T. She came to my small mobile home and told me she had a new advertisement deal where when a customer calls us we would be charged a small fee. After a couple of weeks, she called while I was leaving to a job and asked if she could come by to get a little info to run a credit check. I signed some papers and ran off to work. The work I do on my own, I am 50 and a woman and I do work that is hard for a man. The economy has me in a place where I can barely pay my bills. I made around $500.00 per week, on a good week. The salesperson called a week after and told me my credit was not good enough to move forward and I would need a co signer, yet nobody was willing to do that for me at the time. A month or so later I received a bill from AT&T charging me $88 to $49 per call and these people were not even calling for my business. They put around 6 numbers to call forward to my line that used to belong to a medical building and a video store and so on. They sent me a bill for $2,320.00 in one month. I was in shock & I was told they could not move forward. The salesperson also only spoke of the phone book. These numbers were call off the internet. Most of the calls were from out of state. I have spoken over and over to AT&T explaining what happened and they tell me they will look in to it. This has been going on for 7 months, and I never receive a call back. They will not stop billing me. If a customer looks us up in the yellow pages by our name, they find 3 numbers that AT&T has put on there and they send a bill for $49 to $88 per call. I don't sleep anymore I am on the verge of losing what little money and assets I have left. They are blocking people from calling they don't understand all these numbers on yellow pages. I can't pay them I told them this. If I do get a service call, the average price is $65.00 per job and the bills per call are more than that. I guess they think I should pay them to work. I was never told any of this. I sent a cancellation request letter and they signed that they received it on 6 /4/ 2009. I asked them to stop ruining my little Company. They refuse, this is not their Company they have no right to do what they are doing. I was making $500.00 per week now I make around $300 if I'm lucky, thanks to AT&T. I guess they think going after little business's that are already struggling to just feed their families, is good business. It's wrong and I need help I don't have the money to make them stop. I have tried with the Attorney General's office and the Better Business Bureau. I have complete numbers and documents I am hoping someone else is going thought the same problem with AT&T if so please email me at: stopatt@yahoo.com . Thank you and I hope there are still decent people out there that do not prey on destroying what other people have worked so hard for.

Linda

I have a friend that had an advertiing account with AT&T yellow pages for his tow service. He met with an employee by the name of Earl Aikens on Sat., Sep. 23, 2006 at approx 7:30 pm. Mr Aikens helped Carlos prepare a handwritten cancellation notice. Somehow the cancellation was notice was never submitted by the AT&T employee and to this day Carlos has been billed by AT&T in excess of $8000.00. And despite repeated request with AT&T representatives and members of their collection department, they have still failed to cancel the advertisement account Carlos no longer wishes to have with AT&T.

Anon

A business rep from at&t advertising just left my office after getting a signed contract agreement from me. One hour later, the manager called me to cancel my contract because he said I was quoted to low a price. That I must spend more money this year than I spent last year or they cannot offer me this quoted price. Doe's that make any sense?

George

I had similar experience with AT&T Advertising. I signed up for a print and an internet listing on yellowpages.com The internet ad cost about $60.00 a month and generated three to four hits to my website each month ($15,00 per click!). This happened to be the worst online advertising purchase I have ever made. The print ad was $500 a month and only seemed to generate calls from other contractors wanting employment! The worse part is the AT&T contract--AT&T has the right to cancel the contract, but you have no ability to cancel. If you do not pay they can "bill you at an accelerated level," demanding you pay the remainder owed on the contract, and they will mess up your credit. AT&T Advertising = Bad Business

Contractor

I was a victim of Bellsouth advertising which is now att advertising. Same scam. All of the companies will rip you a new one if you let them. No more will that happen!!

Jerry