Thryv Reviews

Original Review: Nov. 12, 2014

I have been in the marketing industry for over 30 years and have never experienced a company with worst customer service, more deceptive sales practices, or more corporate arrogance than Dex Media. I would like for all the unhappy, ripped off customers to consider a class action lawsuit to expedite their exit from the industry. A quick overview of my experience. We were approached by a local sales rep who was obviously very concerned about her commission and promised that an SEM program from Dex Media would serve the needs of our start-up business and specifically that a Dedicated SEO expert would work with us for questions and suggestions (this is all in writing).

In fact, they use an old contract based on telephone directory advertising to lure you in to their "program" and then drop you like a hot potato never to be heard from again. Oh, except from the billing department looking for money - they call a lot for that. Nothing at all for the service they contracted for, never answer emails or phone calls (I made over 25 attempts). THEN after months of trying to reach them and cancel the contract (which they won't do), they stop providing any service (according to my "Business Dashboard" there is 0 ad serving going on), they continue to bill and then send us to collections. Still not a single conversation with an account person, manager, SEO expert or anyone whatsoever to provide the service they promised.

They actually expect me to pay over $2200 for less than 90 hits to my website over an entire year (only 3 months were active and horribly targeted at that time but they won't answer their phones so nothing could be changed). Their attorney and collection agency hide behind the contract saying that it doesn't matter what the service or results were and that you are required to pay - assuming that it is an ad in print in the directory that is already in the market and cannot be pulled or stopped. No one will discuss the reality of what went on or listen, so they just move it through their process with no thought or ownership of their lack of follow through. Even the attorney's office I spoke with promised to return my call after I wrote and emailed a lengthy outline of the details of the situation, attaching documentation - and guess what? She never called back either - guess they are perfect for each other.

Obviously with online marketing it can be changed or pulled at any time, and DEX made the decision to stop the program but still expect me to pay for NO promised work done, no results, no communication, no consulting, no "dedicated SEO expert". The last conversation they told me they will ding my credit with the collection activity and continue to harass me and phone me as much as they want - it is "their right." Well I have rights too. And my right is to go to court and/or go to arbitration and to stop their deceptive business practices, and to write about my experiences so others don't get caught in their web of lies and bully tactics. I am happy to pay for what I signed up for. They never even came close to providing any of what was promised. I am working with other firms and happily paying them for actual results. These guys are a sham and don't know what they're doing in the online marketing space AT ALL. Stay away, stay away, stay away.

Original Review: Sept. 17, 2014

SuperMedia LLC, R.H. Donnelley Inc., Dex One East, Inc., Dex One West, Inc., or Dex One Digital, Inc. (collectively, "Dex Media")

I signed May 21 with Marketing Consultant Dex Media, AREA CODE 303. And after one email from my new account rep April I never heard from them again. I received an odd email from a different department with Dex One in August and I noticed my company info was not correct. This red flagged me. If I am paying them why is my info wrong.

I am a busy person. I realized it had been over 2 months since I heard from them. I contacted in Aug 5 to find out what was being done. April never replied so I contacted my original sales lady, Amy. On Aug 5 they told me my account rep April got promoted and there was a new guy, Michael. The new guy emailed me Aug 5 and I called him on Aug 6. He was friendly, apologetic, said he was unaware of my account, that he was trying to get his bearings in his new position. He looked into the computer and it SAID that they were waiting for info from me for Google, Yahoo and Bing. I told him what info? No one ever requested info from me. I was concerned that nothing was being done. I had no idea what was being done, and apparently neither did he. I was very frustrated. He agreed that my 1 or 2 keywords in one lonely city were really not going to be useful to my national company.

Armed with this knowledge, I was very frustrated now after I had signed a 6 month agreement I am told that it won't benefit me, he's a new guy catching up, and I just want the contract voided due to lack of performance. I contacted the sales lady, Amy, told her to cancel my account Aug 5th. She told me to contact claims. I made a claim August 6. They reviewed it and called me today, Sept 16. Claims, after 5 weeks reviewing my claim, said she saw my side but the new guy said I was hard to work with and so they could not cancel my account. I said, "The new guy said I was hard to work with? How could he know, I only spoke to him one time the only time, the time he told me he was unaware of my account until I called."

I told them I WILL NEVER NEVER NEVER EVER PAY THIS CONTRACT, NOT A SINGLE PENNY OF MY GOOD HONEST HARD WORKING MONEY WILL EVER GO TO THEM. They dropped the ball on my account and they should be man enough to admit it and void the contract. Today they sent me the fine print of the contract which states it can only be cancelled in writing to an address in Tennessee. As of today's date, I have certified mail, cancelling their contract. You know, a contract with that much fine print should have been my red flag. Very bad business ethic.

I called customer service to end my contract or adjust my monthly payment and they told me there was nothing they can do. I'm very unhappy with this Co. and I wished I never signed a contract in the first place. I hope this letter helps some other possible prospect not to be screwed like I was. We are a family owned small business and the amount of money I'm spending with Dex each month is a non-producing cost to running our business. Please be informed before signing anything with this RIPOFF CO CALLED DEX. Thank you :)

After a week of emails and requests for corrections, she stopped answering her phone and responding to my emails. I called their customer service directly and emailed them. A very rude and obnoxious man told me he would not provide my office number. That the listing requires routing phone numbers to monitor the calls that come into my office. As a consumer, I would get the impression that this unfamiliar area codes were a business from out of state and out of the area. The type of business I operate attracts local people, who like shopping local. I strongly feel this is the reason I am not receiving phone calls. This was not disclosed to me at the time I was in negotiations with their company representative, Victoria **, nor is it indicated on my paperwork. I will not pay their bill, when I receive one, and I anticipate a court battle will ensue.

After weeks of phone calls from customers asking me to give them gold for junk cars, gold for classic cards, gold for baseball cards, requests for lawn mower parts, tractor tires, Ford Roadside assistance and the final straw, a Call girl request, I called Carl again to tell him to get my phone number off the YP site as I was sick and tired of getting unrelated phone calls for nothing to do with my business. He said they could not cancel my taped agreement and I had to allow them to fix the situation. I told them that I didn't want him to fix anything and that they would not be getting a dime from me.

Today I have an expensive phone bill, hundreds of calls and angry callers who end up with my business on the other end of their search request. When I ask how they received my number they tell me that they were transferred to my number after the number they called was reported to them as disconnected. I no longer am able to conduct my business because the phone is constantly ringing with misdirected phone numbers that YELLOW PAGES have purposely misdirected to me in an effort to thwart my business.

Buyer Beware. "Caveat emptor". YP is a malicious and predatory agency that is relentless and unethical when wooing you in an attempt to get you to sign up. They promise services they cannot deliver and will not tape any of their promises to you. They will then tell you that you misunderstood them and that the contract is verbal and is no cancellations are possible! DO NOT SPEAK TO THEM ON THE TELEPHONE! THEY ARE THE WORST BUSINESS I HAVE EVER COME INTO CONTACT WITH!

We ended up having a different company perform our SEO since Dex is only good at manipulating statistics to make them look good. The service is a scam and the account reps have no idea what is going on (or blatant liars). Going through past emails from the dashboard, we found Dex didn't even have our correct email information. Most phone calls Dex credits itself for averaged less than 30 seconds. Dex claimed that these potential client inquiries meet their guarantee but the incoming inquiries were a joke and shouldn't even count as a legitimate lead.

I sent a screenshot of this screen to the claims department. Come to find out that after 5 months of telling me they were performing SEO, they hadn't done anything. Their response was "The ticket never went through to our SEO, so they had no way of knowing you had SEO on your account." The rep said she would credit me for the full amount of $917 that was due. Then two weeks later, I received a past due notice in the mail. When I emailed her about this, she told me that the claims department could not call billing and that I would have to do this. "Isn't this your mess?" I asked her. She replied back with she couldn't contact billing (even though it's in her company) and that I would have to. She didn't provide me with a phone number.

My lawyer sent several emails to Dex telling them that I no longer wished to be their client as they admittedly were in fault. Their response was that if I wanted to get out of the contract, then I needed to take them to arbitration. Dex makes their contracts air tight. They also put you on auto renew. You have to notify them well in advance or they sign you up for another airtight contract year. If you ever have any problems, you won't be able to get out of their contract. Not even if they are the ones in default. I would advise that if you are looking for a great website with good SEO, I've got another person to contact who doesn't put you in a contract.

When Laurel **, your salesperson came to my house and had me sign papers that I wished to advertise with your company I was told that the cheapest ad I could put in your book was the package she gave me. I expressed to her that I only wanted an ad in the regular book for Lake County, Fl. She said they no longer do just the book and that I had to accept the package with the Internet advertising to get in the book. You told me this was not true and also informed me I was in your plus book. Laurel probably told me that also but made me believe that was part of the package I must have to be in the book. I was never offered a price for what I wanted which was a simple ad in the printed book and I was never told I didn't have to be in the plus book which I also did not desire. In my opinion I was lied to and misled in order to get me to sign a contract for additional items I did not want.

I gave you this information and your response to that part was, "Well, you signed the contract so you must pay." You now know that I never wanted the Internet advertising and still don't even correcting the serious mistakes made but it makes no difference to your company what I wanted. Obviously your position is whether it was a misunderstanding as your salesperson claims or outright lying to and misleading your customer since I signed you refuse to stop the internet advertising and intend to continue to bill me for something you now know for sure I don't want. This to me is as bad as the misleading sales method of getting me to sign your contract. The small book advertising I also didn't want and that was already printed and so was the ad that I did want in the regular book.

Now we come to the other problem, the ad you printed did not include my Fl registration number, which is required by law and did not include my toll free number. Your solution to this is to give me 20% off the printed advertising and you will fix it on the Internet advertising that I didn't want. This solution is unacceptable. You said other ads don't have the registration number but when I looked at the book all the ones I read had either a Fl registration number or a MC number or USDOT number. These numbers show customers you are a legitimate business. There is a lot of competition out there and customers are not going to call a business that appears to be illegal and they are not going to take the time to try to find out if you are legal. The proof is in the calls I have received from the Dex phone book. That number is zero. Second big problem with the ad is my toll free number was also omitted from the ad. This is also very important. Most customers actually call using cell phones and will always call a company with a toll free number first.

I have forwarded you the emails from your sales person proving I pointed out these problems to her and she said they would be fixed but they were not and this has made my ad worthless. I realize everyone makes mistakes and maybe Laurel was overworked and messed up and maybe she was misinformed about what kind of advertising I could get. Whatever. My solution is this. Your company can keep the 97 dollars and change they have already received for a worthless ad and I will hope something will come of it. At least people will see my name and maybe when the new book comes out next year and if I advertise with you again, maybe next year they will call with a new corrected ad. I will not sign a contract next year until I see a proof with the info I want and should expect included. Stop the Internet advertising, didn't want it. As far as billing me any further I believe you should credit the last bill and stop billing me until we have a new contract next year.

On November 8, 2012 I called Dex again to attempt to come to an agreement. I spoke with Chris **. After explaining everything he offered to cut 30% off the printed ad but refused to stop the Internet advertising. I did finally find out what the ad would cost without the Internet potion. This was the first time I received this information. Christian ** evaded this question. Anyway the cost would be $56.00 per month. I told Chris I would agree to pay the $56 less the 30% for screwing up my ad and making it virtually worthless if they would stop the internet advertising that I never wanted but signed for due to misleading sales tactics, fraud, or misunderstanding, whatever they wanted to call it. He said he could not do that because I signed the contract. Dex's position is apparently they don't care whether I was misled or lied to. The only thing that is important to them is I signed and I must pay. The difference in the cost is not even that much but I told him I was trying very hard to come to terms and their offer is unacceptable.

I feel I was bending over backwards agreeing to pay for the printed portion they screwed up on. Truly I feel I owe them nothing. They outright lied to me telling me they don't do just printed ads anymore and I must do this package deal to get a printed ad. I would not have even known that I could have had just a printed ad until Christian mentioned it. I then told Chris that if this was their position I would not do business with them ever again to which he replied we don't need your business. And yet they are forcing me to pay for the internet advertising that they now know for sure I don't want and never did. I told them I would not agree to their offer as a matter of principle. If we cannot come to an agreement they would have to take me to court. As far as I am concerned they have breached their contract by #1 fraudulently getting me to sign it and #2 printing it in their book omitting important information required by law and information I deemed necessary and their salesperson promised to fix before it was printed. I believe I have truly shown that I was willing to negotiate and settle this matter.

As you can see in my letter to Christian my solution was not to pay them anymore and I believe that should be the way it is but in order to settle this I made huge concessions and told Chris I would agree to 70% of the printed ad but that was not good enough. I signed their contract and it does not matter what the customer tells them. They feel they have me for the next year and care not about the misleading methods involved. I believe their salespeople are either trained to lie to the customer or she was just misinformed although it is hard to believe the salesperson did not know I could purchase the printed ad only. Had I not had problems with the printed ad I never would have known I was lied to about what I could or could not purchase.

We contacted them several times. They apologized but said that I was wrong and am getting excellent results. We have been advertising since we started the business 7 years ago and know when something is working. I argued that the CSR gave me results for another company much larger than mine and caused me to make a decision I would not have made otherwise. This is not good business. It is dishonest and borderline fraudulent. DEX can easily terminate the contract but insist that they cannot. This is a lie. The Internet advertising can be removed within a few minutes. When we have an unhappy customer, we return their money. But DEX keeps it even if they are blatantly wrong. We will never advertise with them again and I get the same sentiment from other business as well.

The problem with DEX is that they are so large a company, none of their employees have any idea of what running a business is about. They are trained to furnish the customer with information and if that customer is unhappy with the results, they can simply apologize, hang up the phone and forget about them. This arrogance and ignorance is what is destroying them.

I am tired of losing patients, because the phone system in this typical incompetent nation refuses to update changes. I have tried to contact Dex to get listed in the phone book with the correct number, and no one ever came to my office, or call locally. Now these stupid new books have gone out, and no where am I in it! I want Dex to stop coupling my number with some female, who may not even be in this state anymore, and I want them to stop only allowing Illinois caller to appear on called parties' caller IDs.

Unfortunately, on November of 2010, I renewed my order for 2011 for 12 months over the phone without written contract. The term/duration of the contract, as was clearly stated over the phone by my assigned Dex customer service representative and corroborated with Dex voice confirmation/recording (which I listened again today), clearly stated that the advertising contract was for 1 year, ending on Dec 2011. During the recording, the automatic renewal of the contract was never mentioned. I just trusted what she said over the phone that contract was for 1 year. Given that I found a charge from Dex on my bank account on Jan. 3, 2012, I called Dex to dispute the charge. To my absolute surprise, Dex had automatically renewed my order with increased price included without my consent!

Apparently, my "forgetful" CS representative missed to inform me that although the contract is said to be for 1 year, Dex automatically renews the contract unless you send them a letter requesting cancellation 30 days before, as printed in the Terms and Conditions of the 2011 written contract which I never signed nor I received. No Dex CS representative contacted me in any form whatsoever. Given that I was not interested in renewing my order due to the poor effectiveness my advertising had on 2011 (not a single client from advertising on Dex Yellow pages book/Plus), I did not call to renew it (nor did they contact me either). Today 2012, I am set with a payment of $1,464 for an advertising that I did not requested! Dex CS's only response was apologizing, saying that there is nothing to be done since the ad is already printed out. Extremely poor customer service!

The only reason it showed up today is because I've been calling them repeatedly to get the billing issue resolved. However, it's not supposed to be on there until my yellow page ad expires. My bookkeeper has been paying the bills which have included additional web ad fees but I've had no web ad until today, as previously stated. I have been trying for months to get a reimbursement from a service that hasn't been provided to me until today. The fees are: 11/15/2010-11/30/2010 $48.00, 12/1/2010-12/31/2020 $120.65, 1/1/2011-1/31/2011 $140.00 and 2/1/2011-2/28/2011 $140.00.

I have a bill due now and I am going to subtract all the money that they've charged me since November because I shouldn't have to pay for something that hasn't been provided to me. Also, today, since the ad has actually come out (which is a month too early), I've noticed that there are over twenty errors. They've made multiple spelling errors. They've omitted information and they've changed wording. It is very unprofessional.

Dex claims that we did not cancel the contract correctly. Of course it is a big lie. Our office called Dex multiple times immediately after their repeated wrong advertisement. We faxed and mailed the cancel notice. Later, their sales representatives even called and came trying to talk us back to sign with them with better deals. They claim they never have received the cancellation notice. They claimed I signed the agreement stating the contract automatically renews itself, which I was not aware, and never signed or initialed.

They sent me a copy of the agreement they claim I signed, that I could find no signature or initials. The only thing I agreed and signed was the advertisement proof and monthly rate, which they either advertised wrong or raised the rate without my consent. They continue to bill us. They ignore our complaints and hire a nasty collection agency to harass us, even during the Thanksgiving Holidays. I think they are robbing small business worse than the bank robbers.

We are still being harassed and threatened. We have no money to hire a lawyer to fight for this two thousand dollar claim. They know exactly what happened. They are just mad that we canceled the contract. Due to the wrong address they advertised, our patients were sent to the wrong address continuously. Even on 10-03-2009, one of our patients went to the old address according to Dex advertisement. Because of that, our patients were late and angry. Our business has been greatly hurt. Our professional reputation has been damaged, and we are continuously being hurt by these long-lasting consequences of wrong advertisement. The damage is so severe that we are forced to change our phone numbers to avoid further damage.

When I spoke to them, they said that Lisa gave them a verbal approval over the phone. Lisa did not have any authority to give such approval and she always avoided the incoming calls from Ann so how could she give the approval? I stated to Earla that Lisa did not have the authority to give any kind of approval and that the only person would be Mike, our owner, and he never agreed to that. There is no written agreement of any kind with DEX and **. Earla said, "that is too bad," and that they are sticking with the verbal approval that Lisa supposedly gave to Ann. ** is now stuck with having to pay $45 a month for something the owner did not agree to. I stated to Earla that what if Lisa was just a temp and again she said, "too bad." ** does not want to pay for something they never signed up for (written and/or contracted for).