Our company has been advertising in the yellow pages for decades. We have watched the market place and the proliferation of yellow page books and the changes to the product as the internet grew by leaps and bounds. To that end we were very careful to get a complete understanding of the final products we were purchasing. We were clearly told by the Supermedia representative D King in their Sandwich, MA office that there would be no change in the printed format of the directories. However when the books came out the residential white page listings had been removed.
At no point during the planning process for the advertising for the current yellow page books were
we made aware that such a drastic change would be made. Not only was no information regarding the restructuring of the books provided but, when questioned about a rumor we had heard of non-publication of SuperMedia yellow pages, the information was denied and we were reassured the printed book would remain the same and would be distributed on schedule.
In addition, we had purchase the online listing service at an additional cost. When we disputed the
Supermedia charges they removed our online listing but continued to bill us for the service. Their only remedy was to offer us a break on the increase in advertising in the next book. Thus their scam not only reaped a reward in the current book but was a way to get us locked into an increase in the future book.
Supermedia intentionally falsified their product with a purposeful omission of information. We
operate in an area that has many elderly consumers if the residential listings are not included the book it is less valuable to advertisers. We regard the blatant omission of critical product
information unethical and an unfair business practice.
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