Stay FAR Away from SuperPages/Idearc Media/YellowPages.com

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xmcp123

xmcp123

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Sep 20, 2007
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www.slightlyshadyseo.com
Ok. So I'm absolutely fuming right now. This company is a fucking rip off, and I hope they enjoyed their recent bankruptcy filing.

Here's the rundown of what happened:
I took out an ad with SuperPages back in March of 2008. One ad. This ad had a few customization options on it.(bold, colors, etc) The traffic wasn't backing out, so I paused the ad, made sure my account was caught up billing-wise and never looked back.

Fast forward to today: I no longer live at my old address, (and hence didn't get any letters; the account was dead in my mind) and get awoken this morning by a mother fucking collection agency that they apparently sent my way.

I thought to myself, "surely, there must be a mistake...I had my billing caught up". Well, it turns out those bastards decided that although the ad itself was not active, they were still charging me for the customization options
So they've been charging me for the formatting choices on an ad that hasn't gotten a single impression in over year. Because it's mother fucking paused.

I called their customer support today to try and get it handled. The first few times, the person I needed to contact wasn't there. Then he was in a meeting. Then he wasn't there again. Then I got a different lady on the phone who tried to convince me that this kind of BS is the industry standard, and there's no way to handle the bill other than paying what they decided to charge me for a fucking paused ad.

I've got a bit of a temper, and I'm not fucking paying. Even though it's not very much money. I mean, how the fuck do you charge for a formatting option on an ad that didn't get a single fucking impression AND WAS PAUSED.

So let's hear it guys: Am I out of line?

PS: Right now I'm just refusing to pay on the basis that I didn't get anything for it, and I paused the fucker. I've never spent a nickel I don't have, so I've never dealt with a collection agency before, and I'm a bit unsure if I have any recourse here.
 


How much is the amount? Sometimes it's easier to pay than deal with the hassle and move on with life. Where do you live? Collection agencies can be bastards. Which agency was it?
 
Personally, I would fight them tooth and nail out of pure principal even if it was for $20 or something. That's probably not the right call if the money is small, but I've got a bit of a temper when it comes to stupid shit like this. I don't think I would let it go or "let them win". Bad advice, but it's what I would likely do.
 
tainted said:
How much is the amount? Sometimes it's easier to pay than deal with the hassle and move on with life. Where do you live? Collection agencies can be bastards. Which agency was it?
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It's not very much. But I can be a bit of a contemptuous bastard, so it's kind of beside the point for me (maybe I'll think differently when I cool down).

As for the agency:
It's Allied Interstate. They're so ghetto they want me to send the money to a POBOX at the damn airport.
It's a part of a larger organization based out of New York called IRMC (it appears).

I'm considering tracking down the names/phone numbers of some of the higher ups at the collection agency, and calling them in the wee hours of morning like their employees did me(Once again, a notion that may disappear with my temper, but who knows)
 
Look man I don't know where you're at, but from where I come from collection agencies are a thing to be feared. Most are just jumped up mafia thugs trying to do something with their lives. And they've been in this biz for years. They've probably seen tougher nuts than you to crack and collected. Their specialty is collecting money from people. It's just not worth the hassle.

Calm down and just fork over the cash. You make lots from what I gather, so just blow it off quickly and move on with life. You have bigger shit to worry about than these little money grubbing apes.
 
xmcp123 said:
It's not very much. But I can be a bit of a contemptuous bastard, so it's kind of beside the point for me (maybe I'll think differently when I cool down).

As for the agency:
It's Allied Interstate. They're so ghetto they want me to send the money to a POBOX at the damn airport.
It's a part of a larger organization based out of New York called IRMC (it appears).

I'm considering tracking down the names/phone numbers of some of the higher ups at the collection agency, and calling them in the wee hours of morning like their employees did me(Once again, a notion that may disappear with my temper, but who knows)
Click to expand...
Pay it, Then go for recourse. Maybe small claims and sue for defamation, I guess depends on what was outlined in the TOS though.
 
Your best bet is certainly to try to get SuperPages to call off collection efforts. Escalate the issue to the top if you have to.

If nothing works, I'd pay it.
 
nvanprooyen said:
Personally, I would fight them tooth and nail out of pure principal even if it was for $20 or something. That's probably not the right call if the money is small, but I've got a bit of a temper when it comes to stupid shit like this. I don't think I would let it go or "let them win". Bad advice, but it's what I would likely do.
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Yeah, I'm much the same way.
tainted said:
Look man I don't know where you're at, but from where I come from collection agencies are a thing to be feared. Most are just jumped up mafia thugs trying to do something with their lives. And they've been in this biz for years. They've probably seen tougher nuts than you to crack and collected. Their specialty is collecting money from people. It's just not worth the hassle.

Calm down and just fork over the cash. You make lots from what I gather, so just blow it off quickly and move on with life. You have bigger shit to worry about than these little money grubbing apes.
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There is definitely logic in what you say.
What could they actually do to me(the collection company)?
I have access to mail at the address they have(my old one), but don't live there.
To dive into my credit score or something like that what would they need?
AdExhibitJason said:
Pay it, Then go for recourse. Maybe small claims and sue for defamation, I guess depends on what was outlined in the TOS though.
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I feel like once it goes through, I lose any leverage I had...

Ugh.
 
You might want to fact check yourself but any collection account less than $100 no longer effects your FICO score - I thought I read that when the new scoring model was introduced last year but check for yourself.

Allied Interstate has been a collection agency for a long time. They are a larger well established outfit, which usually means you will get that one call and your file will be sent to never-never land (they got bigger fish to fry). The collector you spoke with was their ghetto-front-line-first-day-on-the-job-lacky for sure, especially if the balance was so low.
 
xmcp123 said:
It's not very much. But I can be a bit of a contemptuous bastard, so it's kind of beside the point for me (maybe I'll think differently when I cool down).

As for the agency:
It's Allied Interstate. They're so ghetto they want me to send the money to a POBOX at the damn airport.
It's a part of a larger organization based out of New York called IRMC (it appears).

I'm considering tracking down the names/phone numbers of some of the higher ups at the collection agency, and calling them in the wee hours of morning like their employees did me(Once again, a notion that may disappear with my temper, but who knows)
Click to expand...

Parent company is called I Qor, Inc and they are in Columbus, OH. Here is a list of all the executive names and titles. Have fun.

iqor.gif
 
What could they actually do to me(the collection company)?
I have access to mail at the address they have(my old one), but don't live there.
To dive into my credit score or something like that what would they need?
Click to expand...

They can do all sorts of illegal things. And I just googled Allied Interstate, seems like they're the worst of the worst. Things that have happened to a family member of mine before is that they would come to your house and physically confront you. They'd push you, start swearing at you and tell you you better get the money. They will also do the same to and of your family members they can track down, call you at work and do the same. They will call your house multiple times a day every day. They will phone harass your family members as well. They will ignore C&D orders and any calls for them to refer to your attorney.

To dive into your credit score they don't need anything, not your consent, no nothing. They've probably already gotten it and are wondering what to do with it now, along with your SSN and any other personal pieces of info. You have your congressmen to blame for that.
 
This crap happened to my Dad's business. They totally screwed up on the Ad and my dad canceled the ad. They billed him anyway, and he didn't know about it for two years. We moved during this period.

A collection agency sent a letter out of the blue asking for $4K. We sent letters off to the BBB and escalated as far as we could. They gave us a "generous" 50% discount for their screw up.

There was so much other stuff they f'ed up on. But, we decided it wasn't worth wasting our time. We are paying them in monthly increments of 20 dollars for a decade.

They also messed up my dad's credit score so he can't get a loan for a home. They are frickin punks...
 
If you want to talk to the head office of Allied Interstate, they are in Minneapolis. Here are the execs that run that:

allied.gif


This is what their structure looks like:

structure.gif
 
On the topic of Yellow Pages the book, I paid $1500 for a qtr page ad a few years ago.

In the whole year guess how many calls i got... 2!
 
tainted said:
They can do all sorts of illegal things. And I just googled Allied Interstate, seems like they're the worst of the worst. Things that have happened to a family member of mine before is that they would come to your house and physically confront you. They'd push you, start swearing at you and tell you you better get the money. They will also do the same to and of your family members they can track down, call you at work and do the same. They will call your house multiple times a day every day. They will phone harass your family members as well. They will ignore C&D orders and any calls for them to refer to your attorney.

To dive into your credit score they don't need anything, not your consent, no nothing. They've probably already gotten it and are wondering what to do with it now, along with your SSN and any other personal pieces of info. You have your congressmen to blame for that.
Click to expand...

Fear-monger much?

I could only wish a collection agency licensed to operate in the U.S. would abuse me so. Google "FDCPA violations" and you'll see what I am sayin.
 
amigo -
1. Go to FatWallet and page someone in the finance section named codename47 , do some searches there and you'll find everything you need to know about debt collectors.
2. Once you've done that, follow the steps to validate the debt, if they don't agree you can win a nice chunk of change in court.

ping me if you need anything
 
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