GTE
/ Verizon / now Idearc is feuding with
Northwest consultants who offer to help clients save money
by cutting the cost of their ads in the phone book's
yellow pages.
And advertisers in Coeur d'Alene,
where a new GTE / Verizon / now Idearc phone book is about to go to press, are
getting caught in a cross fire.
The consultants charge:
1- The communications giant's publishing subsidiary,
GTE / Verizon / now Idearc, wants to run them out of town.
2- So the company won't accept ads that are prepared by
consultants to save yellow pages customers money.
3- That way the company can squeeze more money out of
advertisers.
Nonsense, says Bobbi Hennessey, a
spokeswoman at GTE / Verizon / now Idearc Dallas-Fort Worth headquarters.
The problem, she says, is that
GTE / Verizon / now Idearc can't rely on independent consultants to be as
thorough, knowledgeable, conscientious and cost-effective
as the company's own representatives in serving its
customers.
Thus, GTE / Verizon / now
Idearc requires all yellow
pages advertisers to use the company's own order forms and
work through a company representative, whether they want
to or not. Further, customers are required to sign a
purchase contract with a seven-day escape clause in the
presence of a company representative.
However, Hennessey insists, none
of this is intended to stifle efforts of customers and
independent consultants to work together.
Also, if an agent legally assumes
financial responsibility for placing the advertising of a
client and meets the credit qualifications of the company,
GTE / Verizon / now Idearc will accept ads placed by that agent, Hennessey says.
But consultants I talked with
dispute that claim.
"Our clients sign an agency
authorization," says Jay Valiquette of Jayco
Advertising, Seattle. " GTE / Verizon / now
Idearc won't accept
that. So we go through the back door, and give the
ad to the customer to order." That way, even
though GTE / Verizon / now Idearc may "try to tear the ad apart," they
end up having to accept it from a customer.
But Clark Jones of Tel-Ad
Advisors in Portland says GTE / Verizon / now Idearc "chased us completely
out of their market with tactics like that. We had
to let GTE / Verizon / now Idearc know we were involved. They gave
our customers a hard time."
Matt Tonning of WestPage
Advertising, based in Kent, said his company disguises its
efforts to help customers of GTE / Verizon / now
Idearc, but not customers of other publishers. |
"Other publishers don't beat up on customers who
use consultants." Says Terry Holo of WestPage.
Recently two GTE / Verizon
/ now Idearc salesmen paid a visit to Gil
Stinson of Cope's Appliance Center in Coeur d'Alene after
a consultant sent in an ad for him on his stationary under
his signature. "They said I'd have to
work directly though them," he recalls.
"I said they already had my order" They
left. Says Stinson, "I hope I don't get left
out of the book. But I think that's rotten."
So does David Volkenand of
Country TV & VCR in Coeur d'Alene. He signed a
contract in late December, then wanted to change his ad a
couple of weeks later. "They definitely weren't
happy. I was working with a consultant," he
says. They refused to budge. "Next
year," he promises, "things will be
different."
Last year, Allan Hedman of BB's
Pharmacy in Hayden Lake paid GTE / Verizon / now
Idearc $924 for his
ad. This year, a consultant worked up one
about half that price-$527.40. "I like it
better," he says of the new ad, "but they don't
want to accept it. They're coming to see
me. And I'm sure they're going to pressure me to go
back. It doesn't sit well."
I couldn't get Barry Matheny,
GTE / Verizon / now Idearc
division manager in Spokane for this area, to talk with
me.
His office referred by request for more
information to corporate headquarters.
There, Hennessey,
who describes herself as "communications
administrator," tried to answer my questions without
knowing the local circumstances very well.
Consultants with whom I talked
all said difficulties with other publishers are minor by
comparison. Says Valiquette about "We get "They
are the Darth Vaders of the yellow pages industry."
Hennessey assures me her company
wouldn't intentionally frustrate and obstruct customers
efforts to get other advice. GTE / Verizon /
now Idearc only wants to make
sure its customers don't get short-changed by not
receiving full information and assistance from the
company's representatives.
I can't say who's right or wrong.
But I can say this: A
company that badgers or penalizes its customers for using
the services of an independent consultant doesn't deserve
to have customers. And any customer used that way
ought to raise hell about it. |
