I was just starting an Internet business when I was contacted by a telephone marketer from SuperPages.com one day. I was interested in promoting my new business, but I also knew that I had no preconceived notion of what my success rate was going to be. I specifically asked about the ability to opt-out of the relationship. If this form of advertising worked, I would be happy to go forward with the marketing plan. But since I was just getting started, I wanted the option to jump out of anything that wasn't working for me.
The rep assured me that I could change the advertising around, or opt-out altogether, if the marketing plan was unsuccessful in bringing sales to my new website. This, she told me, was the magic of advertising electronically, as opposed to yellow pages in the traditional print form, that we could make changes any time. So I agreed to try advertising with SuperPages.com for $86 per month. The rep "threw in" two free months with my package. Later, as it turned out, I discovered that those 'two free months' were at the end of a year's contract — but I decided to look the other way on that one, and just chalk that up to some misunderstanding.
At the end of the first month, I had received two (2) visitors to my website through Superpages.com (according to their own metrics and, obviously, paying $86 for two visitors was going to be way too much. So I contacted SuperPages.com, paid the bill for the month, and asked to opt-out of the rest of the agreement. They knew nothing of this opt-out clause, they firmly assured me that no such option existed, and they were intending to hold me liable for the next eleven months at $86 per month with no choices, no options, no way out.
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