What's the company culture at Yellowpages.com?

The ArchAngel in Richmond, Virginia said: Yellowpages.com is a total joke. I worked there for a very short time, was successful and still thought the culture and the product itself sucked. The people that stick around for any length of time do so because they share a few traits-- they are all two-bit hustlers, con artists, and manipulators. This is the most disorganized band of miscreants you could ever imagine assembled. But, in the end, you can make some money. Ask Mary Anne in D.C. Oooops! Did I say that?!?!

please email me-
paulperkins@lynchlawyers.com

thanks.

INTIMIDATOR in Idaho Falls, Idaho said: Yes , the money is real. HOWEVER, any real sales person can make what you make at YP.com if you work those hours and do the dance. However, you better like having a whip behind you at all times. 24/7. 24/7. It is really not a great place to work. My advice, sell for a company with a great product, work on straight commission, work 70-80 hours a week and you'll make easily what you'll make at YP.com. Most people that work there NEED the base salary and the car allowance. If you are a droid and need to be given lots of direction , great place to work. I was never so happy as the day I quit that factory. Plus the products don't work, you'll have a load of unhappy clients very soon!

can you email me?
paulperkins@lynchlawyers.com

pivan113 in Glen Rock, New Jersey said: please email me-
paulperkins@lynchlawyers.com

thanks.

1. customers of yellowpages.com are regularly lied to, taken advantage of and bullied by premise sales reps.

2. theft of customer account information by premise sales employees, despite new security measures, is still a regular occurance.

3. many premise sales managers at yellowpages.com regularly harass and have sexual relationships with subordinates in exchange for leads and promises of promotion. what is the total number of sexual harassment settlements yellowpages.com has made to date i wonder?

4. termination for failure to meet quota is in no way applied fairly or uniformly at yellowpages.com

lying to both customers and employees is SOP at yellowpages.com premise. there are a few truly honest, hardworking sales professionals within premise but the majority are unethical con artists who lie to small business owners.

While I have never worked for YellowPages.com, I have been a advertising customer, and have spoken with and dealt with about six different reps.. The stories being recounted here fit with my impression: The reps are weird, nonresponsive to questions, and just everything fits with it being a work environment where you say and do anything to manipulate customers into forking over more money, and in exchange, you get more money. Ugly stuff, and we no longer have an account there.

And after analyzing the website logs of several of my clients (I build websites) who have had YP.com advertising, I've concluded that it's a big waste of money. The number of "clicks" relative to the cost is ridiculous, and from reading some other stories on the 'net, it looks like even some of those clicks may be fraudulent. The money is much better spend on Google Ad Words (and it saves a lot of grief, too).

Oh, and one other thing I found curious, about several YP.com reps I talked with: They asked confidential questions about our sales volume and capacity, and then feigned shock and amazement that I wouldn't reveal it. I'd be interested to hear from former YP.com employees what that's all about, if they know. Are you encouraged to ask such questions, and then told to enter it into the computer?

I made a lot of positive comments throughout this thread. I haven't worked there in over a year now. I am still very close to several people there in telesales, premise sales, and management.

I will not take back my previous comments; there is a lot of good that can come from yellowpges.com advertising. The company, on the other hand, has taken a terrible turn in how they treat employees and clients alike.

Since AT&T has become more and more involved in the company's operations, the way the sales floor is run has become worse and worse. When employees attempted (ostensibly successfully) to unionize, the company utilized all the oldest union busting techniques in the book. Pay has dropped DRASTICALLY and the moral has suffered tremendously. Long time employees with huge books of business were driven out for cheaper replacements. And it;s still getting worse.

Regarding the product, and to Don especially: If that info is determined to be confidential, that's fine and well. Like any good marketing firm, a rep who takes their job and the success of their clients campaigns seriously will want to know what else they're doing and what kind of results they're seeing. Someone who takes it seriously will use this info to craft the most effective campaign possible. None of this info is noted in any computer except possibly in the reps own notes to self, nothing malicious. That is the truth.

Regarding the success of the campaigns - unless you are purchasing their Clix! packages, measuring website traffic is NOT an accurate method of measuring the success of a yellowpages.com campaign. Their Clix product is HORRIBLE; buy your own AdWords. It's not YP's fault; they use a third party to fill those orders and they are AWEFUL. Some web traffic will result from the ads on yellowpages.com; but for most but for most clients this is a small percentage of the business produced. Tracking actual paying customers in-store or wht have you will show that most businesses see decent or very good results from a properly managed campaign.

And that's a lot of it right there - getting a rep that knows what they're doing and cares. I did, many others there did and do. Sadly, many of the better reps have been run off by the company itself.

Jamin, thanks for the comments.

I accept that there are other ways that the ads can pay off (e.g., phone calls, or someone simply getting the address and driving there), so it's tough to accurately assess overall effectiveness. But at least with our reps, there were no attempts at managing a campaign. All were mere attempts to get us to upgrade (along with the non-responses and bizarre responses to simple questions).

But re: sales volume vs. sales capacity, I had people asking me that before we even had an account. It's one of the first questions they asked. And I just don't see how telling them that, helps us determine what we need. We need more customers, as with any business. When making a wise decision about advertising, the business owner(s) only need to be informed about what the ads will do, what they cost, and data on how effective they typically are, based on past experience. Equipped with that information, the business owners can decide how best to spend their money. Only the business owners know the big picture of their limited finances, and whether or not "x$" is a good use of it. The sales rep. can't possibly know that, and knowing gross sales tells them absolutely nothing useful for designing a suitable ad campaign.

This felt more like going onto a car lot, and one of the first questions the salesman asks is "how much do you want to spend?" (to which I always respond, "nothing, given the choice"). I don't need someone telling me what I should buy. I need them to inform me of what's available, what it costs, what it will do, and any other pertinent information. Anything else is a sales job.

Anyway, back to the work env. at YP.com. I was compelled to seek out sites such as this one, because the experience was so bad, and from about six different reps (every company has bad apples, and even good folks can have bad days, but this seemed to be a trend). And comments from others synced with it. Something's just not right at YP.com

This comment is posted toward "pivan113 in Glen Rock, New Jersey" BEWARE Paul is an attorney or associate who working for a law firm that just filed a class action lawsuit against AT&T. Question Paul's comments as "UNTRUE".

This is the worst company out there to work for. They scam their clients into thinking they are going to get clicks directly off google and yahoo. They use methods that cost pennies on the dollar to deliver those clicks. They tell their sales people false information and that is what is relayed to the business owners. The great part is that I now have proof after working there for over a year. I hope that they get sued over and over again. I blew the whistle to all my clients and showed them the how they commit fraud. I have a letter from the Director of Search Engine Marketing telling me to alter the reporting so that the business owner doesnt see the entire report. ITs a boiler room operation

Oh, and one other thing I found curious, about several YP.com reps I talked with: They asked confidential questions about our sales volume and capacity, and then feigned shock and amazement that I wouldn't reveal it. I'd be interested to hear from former YP.com employees what that's all about, if they know. Are you encouraged to ask such questions, and then told to enter it into the computer?

The reason you ask that question is to get a feel for a good ROI for the client. I have been in advertising/marketing for over 10 years. Is this my ideal job, no absolutely not, but I like to thing I do what is right by the client at all times. To answer your question, the reason I ask this is because if you are selling cars, and you currently sell 38 a month, and I want you to spend $1,000 with me, but you need to move 60 cars to pay for it, well then you will never be happy because I know I could not help you. It is disheartening to read all these horror stories about the company, and it is too bad because I do think the products that are available can be helpful to a client, I just think the business model is not. Not all advertising is guaranteed, and while 80% of my clients are not getting the traffic that I thought they would be getting, there are the 20% of the clients that are doing very well. I guess it is like anything else.

You work with many nice people at all of the Yellow Page companies. The job itself is very difficult and the demands on your time and sanity are intense. Customers scream at yellow page reps regularly. There is nothing wrong with taking a job at any of them to gain experience and so that you have a job. Do not leave one that is decent to go to it. The extreme turn over at all of the companies speaks for itself. The product is in a decline and hard as nails to sell. It has a place in the market, but this is a high pressure sale and a high pressure job. I lasted 7 years in the industry, Ameritech, and an additional short 90 days at Yellow Book. I could never go back to working like this ever again. If want to work for these companies, try not to be a advertising sales rep. The other jobs do not churn like that one, that speaks for itself.

No, they do not gather it for marketing data. They are asking so they can do an ROI presentation for you. Asking your price per sale tells how to calculate the cost of the ad and how many calls you need for return on your investment. The employees are lucky to get a computer that works, let alone do a tracking task for management. I am a FORMER rep- have been gone for years and run a small business my husband and I own. Not defending YP- the turn in the employees speaks for itself. It is a miserable job to have.