I am in the process of dealing with this company too, and I have been going through a somewhat similar situation as Judith.
In October of I received a phone call from a man named Bill Faze. He said he was with this company, Localrealestateyellowpages.com, and he said that he had a great online product that would generate sales leads for my real estate business. After be given the tour, I finally agreed to a one year deal for $399. Their product produced ZERO leads for my business.
In April of I left the real estate business due to the declining market. I ended all ties to the industry and walked away from it entirely. I moved out of the region and started over in a new career in a new city.
In December of I started receiving calls from Bill Faze again, but I had no idea who he was at the time. He did not leave any information in his voicemails, except that his name was Bill Faze, and that he wanted me to call him back. Finally, after several calls, he left a threatening message on my voicemail stating that I had a past due account with Localrealestateyellowpages.com, and if I did not pay immediately, it would be turned over to a collection agency. (Luckily, I had replaced my old credit card, so they were not able to automatically charge me.)
I called Mr. Faze back, confused and wondering why my contract had not terminated. He informed that there is an automatic renewal stated in the contract, but I disagreed with him on that point. If there had been such a clause, I would have acted on it, since I am no longer in the industry. I also said that he never informed me of this clause, to which he admitted. I told him he is required by law to verbally inform me of this, to which he disagreed. He said that what he did "may be unethical, but it was not illegal."
After much discussion, we came to somewhat of an agreement. He said that since I was no longer in the business, he would talk to his supervisor about lowering the price from the $799 renewal.
Several days later, I spoke with Mr. Faze, and he said he would need the entire $799 from me. I offered to pay for the several months of service which have occurred, but not for the full year's worth as I was not using and did not need the service. He said that he would need documentation from me, from the state of North Carolina, saying that my real estate license was no longer in use. I had the document and faxed it to him on January 4. I have yet to hear back from him.
Not long after that fax, I received a call from a collection agency stating that the amount due had been turned over to them. I explained to them that I was currently in the process of working out a solution with the company, and I expected to resolve this matter with them. I then placed a phone call to Bill Face and left a message asking him to call me back. He has not called me back after several more phone calls from me.
I finally received a letter from the collection agency saying I owed them a $1000.79 (thanks to interest) by March 1, or they will purse "alternative remedies" in order to collect the amount due.
Obviously, Bill Faze and Localrealestateyellowpages.com are refusing to return my calls because they are content in letting the collection agency due their dirty work. They said they would work with me, but they lied about that. I did everything they asked, and they have done nothing. It looks like my only course of action is to go to a lawyer, as it appears the collection agency will try to put a collection account on my credit report. I will try to keep the situation updated.
If you have made it this far, then I thank you for taking the time to read this story, and I am open to any helpful advice or suggestions on how to work this out.
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