Today I met with an Idearc rep and his manager about our advertisement we have in their yellow pages book (Super Pages). I really do hate these negotiations because it's the same thing every year. They come in ask how business is doing, blah, blah, blah and then say our ad costs are going up 5% just because. They try to get us to spend more money but when you have a two page ad in their Philadelphia Super Pages how much more can you spend? I’m waiting for the day the rep comes in and says we have this new holographic imaging tool that when your customer turns to your ad they will instantly see a brief 15 second video of your company. The biggest thing I don’t like about any yellow pages book is that you are in the same place as your competitor. The homeowner sees you and the other 15 companies offering the same service. But anyways what I’m here to talk about is their new SuperGuarantee Program they mentioned to us today.
What the program is basically is they (Idearc) will stand behind the work performed by the advertisers in their Super Pages. If a person has a problem with the services performed by a company they got out of their Super Pages book they will come in as an intermediary. Basically they will do what all credit card companies do for their cardholders, act in a way to protect their cardholders from merchants who don't do right. Why Idearc is doing this is to increase the amount of people looking at their Super Pages book. I guess if people know that if they call Company X and if something goes wrong Idearc has their back. The Idearc reps said the company is spending $60M on advertisement to increase awareness about this program. Throughout the hour long meeting this had to be his biggest selling point to keep us from reducing or leaving the Super Pages all together. I am very hesitant to get happy about what somebody is selling me without thinking it through and doing my homework. Shortly after the meeting I concluded this Super Guarantee Program was stupid, a product that is all show with no substance.
First off, in Philadelphia there are two major yellow page books. It is Idearc (formerly Verizon) Super Pages and Yellow Book yellow pages book. Almost all of businesses in the city advertise in both books. This means that the businesses Idearc supposedly “backs” with this program is the same business in the other yellow pages book. So it's not like you get a better product by calling Company X and getting their number out of the Super Pages.
Idearc does no type of background check on the businesses they will back. Any merchant who advertises gets included. As a potential customer to these businesses how would that make you feel?
Idearc limits their liability to $500. Yea I know thats not a lot of money and it's not a lot since that covers only the labor portion. If a problem arises and a person feels they were wronged by a business they got out of the Super Pages Idearc will refund $500 to that person. This where it's gets interesting. Before you call that particular company out to do the work you have to sign up at the Super Guarantee website and put Idearc on notice. Before you contact Idearc if there’s a problem you have to try to work out it with that business. If you cant work it out you have to log on to their site and submit the claim. Idearc will then look it over and determine if it's a worthy claim. If it's a worthy claim Idearc will ask you to provide written estimates of the the work needed to correct your problem (labor costs only) OR elect to have a third party to inspect the problem you are experiencing. If Idearc determines that there’s nothing else they can do they will refund you up to $500 of the labor costs OR the lowest amount of labor costs from the two estimates you received. Essentially they will go with the lesser amount of the two.
Idearc has about six weeks from the time you submit your claim and do all the extra stuff they require to pay you the amount up to $500. BUT, if you correct the problem yourself or hire another company to correct problem before Idearc resolves the problem then you will be denied that amount up to $500. That’s right, you will have to live with the problem while Idearc works it out.
This is why Idearc’s Super Guarantee program is all show and no substance. It makes no sense and for all the work you have to do just to get $500 and to live with the problem for at least a month and half makes no sense. Why would anybody subject themselves to this? I can see this working on small issues and non-essential items but on serious matters like your roof, a leak coming through your ceiling, heat not working and etc you would be a fool to go to Idearc for help. In our meeting the rep did not mention one thing I said above except for the fact Idearc is spending $60M to let the America know! After Facebook’s fiasco last month on their “fine print” I make sure to actually read the
Terms and Conditions and read it much more carefully.
It would be better for a person to pay with their credit card than to use this route. With the credit card companies you call them up say you have a problem and tell them you’re not satisfied with services rendered and they will open a claim and in the meantime refund you the money or freeze the purchase so you wont have to pay finance charges while the situation is worked out. Either the company will come back out and fix the problem or refund you the money. Yes, there a slight chance this could not work and you might have to pursue legal action but it's better than this Super Guarantee program. What makes the credit company methods more effective is that they have control over the business you have a problem with. For an example lets use Amex, if Amex feels the merchant is not cooperating with their cardholder they can go into that merchants bank account and refund that money back to their cardholder. I know, it has happened to me a couple times. It's not a good feeling but you always know they have that power. With Idearc what are they going to do? Nothing they have no control over the merchant.
So when you see this $60M ad campaign by Idearc just remember the points I mentioned above and don’t believe the hype. Idearc knows less people are looking at their Super Pages book and they’re trying to do whatever they can do to gain those eyeballs back. Sadly people will hear this and go to their book and believe businesses advertised in the book are somehow better just because Idearc “backs” them. All they have to do is pay by credit card and they will have a faster course of action is anything goes wrong then to deal with this slow process offered by Idearc that only refunds you $500.
I just want to see a big company not be a big company and offer something that is actually worth something and not have so many bullet points in the terms and conditions that take away from the value of the product. I know this is America and it's how big business work but believe me the company that goes against the grain and offers a killer product is the one that will be embraced by their customers. This kind of stuff always reminds of the store that offers 5% off your next purchase when you spend some absurd amount.
Comments [0]