[fenclean]

Waited in for rep from BT today, was going to book a 1/4 page add but she didn't show nor return my messages on the answerphone.

After spending hours trying to get the text i was happy with iv'e now lost interest in them.

Anyone get much response from this book, i can't imagine it's as popular as yellow pages but it is cheaper.

Cheers Steve.

[Neil Grainger]

Hi Steve

Send them an invoice for your lost time plus a letter stating what happened and they may give you an advert for a much cheaper price.

Had this problem with Thomson and they let me off the last 5 months of my payments for my advert that ran this year.

Just got to keep on at them.

Cheers

Neil

[craigp]

i've tried and tried to get price of yellow pages ad down (discounted) any one ever achieved this???

[Neil Grainger]

Hi Craig,

Ive tried this myself and they always say that you are getting the best price anyway. I have dragged this out this year and they still wont give it to me any cheaper.

THe lady dealing with my ad is top though but they no they have got us by the b.lls anyway and need to go in.

Anyone got any ideas?

Robert Saunders says should can deal with them but I have not seen this ever with them.

Regards

Neil

[Spot On cleaning]

My ex brother in law ran a fishing shop, then when his yellow pages advert was ready for renewal, he simply told them that he could'nt afford it, and they let him have it for half price.

It must be difficult for these people when laying out adverts onto a page, and the inconvenience of an advertiser pulling out at the last minute. Has anyone tried leaving their advert until the last minute, then telling them you have changed your mind. Personally i only evr advertised in their once and decided not to bother again. My free one line entry gets me work, plus i prefer to post tens of thousands of leaflets through peoples doors so it is just my business they are looking at, instead of being spoilt for choice.

Dave

[craigp]

 :(i tried again today but my rep insists she cant give me anything, i told her weres the incentive to go bigger, it does not even get better value going bigger. i tell her they got a monopaly and how much millions they made last year!! how much more do they need? she just laughs

i had 25% off my first ad because of misunderstanding on position, i tried for more, then they told me i take it if i were you your lucky to get that,   so i thought time to shut up now and take that, lol!



its just so blo*dy pricey!

[craigp]

i wonder if i contacted Y/P and said i got a pact with 50 buisness s across the country and if you dont give us all 10% discount will bycott you, losing you  £1500.00 average a piece, thats £75000.00  !!!  this year



??

whats think?

[Spot On cleaning]

Craig,

That's a good point. All carpet cleaners form a cooperative then have some bargaining power. When we have sorted them out, we will then sort out petrol prices, imigration, politics in general, etc etc etc.

I nominate Craig as our leader :

Dave

[Neil Grainger]

Is that not what the IICRC or the NCCA should be doing.

[craigp]

dont say that, im not with them, lol

it could work though, could'nt it?

[Spot On cleaning]

Yes,

people power. People today are too apathetic and don't complain enough. Take the one motoring organisation. When they first started they were there to warn you of policmen hiding in bushes to catch motorists speeding over 5mph. Today motorists get ripped off by speed cameras, and the motoring organisations don't give a toss.

If your local bank or whatever business is making people redundant then relocating to an indian call centre, people should boycott them.

Craig, sit down tonight and write an open letter to yp telling them of your boycott and that we wil not pay no more than a fiver per half page advert.

Dave

[Kinver_Clean]

The NCCA do corporate ads. About £130-150 pa mine fetches in work.

Trevor

[John Rimmer Marshall & Rimmer Ltd]

After many years in this business, and trying all kinds of advertising i have one golden rule that i abide by now and that is that i do not spend another peny
on Directory Adverts. For what you have to spend on the add you very rarely
get that money back. As for BT Phone Book my advice would be to avoid it like the plaigue, believe me i know from bitter exp. What you have got to think about now is that the Internet is slowly but shurely taking over from Directory
Advertising anyway. 

                                              Take Care John

[Spot On cleaning]

Sound advice from you John. I also don't advertise in directories, preferring to post the good old leaflets. My own personal advert on someones doormat with no competition from anybody else. I was lucky in that i learned this with 3 years of starting up.

I did the office calenders, business card dispenser scheme and yellow pages. As we have a dedicated business No anyway we still get our free one line listing, which if people want to, can look in the book to verify who we are.

To all new starters; Business is hard enough out there today without the added burdens of expenses before you earn a penny. If you are prepared to put in the effort and post a good quantity of leaflets every week, you will get a good response back.

Dave

[Nick Johnston]

I don't advertise in Yellow Pages for three reasons:
1. The directory covers a massive area, centred on Bradford, and Halifax folk aren't too fond of Bradford.
2. Millions of adverts for CCs in the directory.
3. Prohibitively expensive.

However, I do advertise on yell.com and I get an increasing amount of business. More and more people use t'internet to search for tradesfolk and there are only 4 priority adverts in my area - 2 are for Chem Dry (1 in Leeds who won't get much work in the Halifax area); 1 for a company for which carpet cleaning appears to be a sideline; and me. Also, advertising that I am an NCCA member has already paid for my subscription.

My van also attracts the paying public.

Nick

[John Kelly]

Nice van. Would you like a nice Newcastle United sticker to put on it

[Nick Johnston]

John 

The only sticker I would put on my van would be Halifax Town, but the colours are wrong. However, give me 50% off a Prowler and you can choose the signwriting!

Nick