Vivial (formerly The Berry Company) review: Diseptive Charges after Contracts End 21

I was most concerned to review your posting dated 04/27/10, regarding your experience in advertising with the Berry Company and the concerns you raised regarding your service. I would like to extend our apologies in recognition of the confusion and frustration caused by your experience. I can assure you this is certainly not the way we do business – customer service is our highest priority. We pride ourselves on our hard work, dedication and commitment to meeting the needs of local business clients, and we’ve expanded our offering of local search solutions in an effort to continue meeting those needs. We are continuously working to improve our customers’ experience, and your feedback will be shared internally with the intention of improving our best practices.

I am happy to work with you directly to resolve this issue in a timely manner. Please provide us with an email address or contact number and we will be in touch within 24 hours.

Warmest Regards,
Jessica Pruss
VP of Client Care
The Berry Company

Jessica, I appreciate that you are willing to defend your company, but my experience has been far worse than the original complaint above. I will explain several major points to ensure that

I tried to cancel online advertising in February 2009 due to mis-representations about the quality of the online ad and breach of contract on the part of the Berry Company (that was in my 12th month of the initial contract, which stated that I had the right to cancel before a new term started). The ad rep I talked to (from the Rochester office) said he would transfer me to the other ad rep who originally handled my online ad order after I agreed to advertise in the Southern region book. So, I agreed and then never got transferred or received a call back from the other ad rep.

After giving up on phone calls (since your representatives apparently do not abide by their promises) I sent several letters and received no response. One letter was included with a check that your company cashed, your company updated the billing address as requested in the letter, and still didn't respond to my complaints or request for cancellation. Due to your company's non-response, I have refused to pay any further until this issue got resolved. That finally got your company to call me after a coupel of months. I reuqested that my complaint be escalated at that time.

I talked to a Darryl in your complaint resolution office and he was utterly unprepared. He did not have my account information or copies of the letters that I had sent in front of him. On the third call with Darryl, he stated he had my letters but hadn't had a chance to review them yet. I asked himt o review them and call me when he was ready. I NEVER RECEIVED A CALLBACK from him.

So, I filed a BBB complaint, where your representatives lied to the BBB claiming that I never contacted them until October 2009 and that I never returned calls to your complaint department. Both are blatant lies. Your representative Darlene, after being prompted by the BBB twice for a response, finally offered to give me a credit for October through December, ignoring the fact that my initial request to cancel the service was made in February. Needless to say I rebutted requesting credit to February 2009, after which the BBB closed my complaint stating that your company responded appropriately.

I have made more than a good faith effort to resolve this issue with The Berry Company and have been lied to from the beginning! The initial ad rep I dealt with for the online advertising promised that my listing would be "above the fold" of the listings in my category for my zipcode (I was 17th on the list), that I would get a logon to update my listing whenever I want (never received and did not receive any callbacks to calls left for the ad rep a month after the initial contract started), that I would receive monthly traffic reports (did not happen, I received several months of reports in under a week after my 2nd complaint letter was mailed though - more proof that your company received my written complaints).

So, as far as I am concened, I should get a credit for all online advertising billed from february 2009 to current. The current print advertising contract was coerced and agreed to under the pretense that the online ad would be cancelled, and I was lied to about the quality and serviceability of the initial online advertising.

Jessica,
Some one in your organization need to go under cover and you will find out what is going on. Your company has the WORST customer service of any company I've ever done business with.
I have been harrassed by your sales associates. They call every day when I have told them I do not want to renew my subscription. I was told they will renew it anyway...my husband is retiring...we don't want or need it.
Also, there isn't any follow up on calls or contracts.
I've asked that the subscription not be renewed and that I don't receive any more calls from Artina.
I've been forced to make a complaint to BBB. If I'm charged for an subscription I didn't authorize I will make a complaint to our Attorney General. What is going on there is illegal.

I have been charged for 15 months on a 12 month agreement no one has been able to resolve this. I talked to berry again today, no more luck than on previous attempts. I am paid in full for 12 months then they decided to extend it for 3 more! I told them I will not pay i would rather spen the money in court than pay extortion. This is a matter of principal i will not budge. I will however report this to the BBB and Attorney General also. can you say CLASS ACTION LAWSUITE.
Charles Lee

CHARLES LEE:

I too have been a victim of Berry's 3-month extension on the contract, in the Orange County NY Frontier phone book. I paid my 12 months of worthless yellow pages advertising (not one new customer from the phone book during that period) for a phone book that expired in February 2010. At some point in November 2009 Berry realized they did not have the capital/resources/personnel/advertising contracts? to publish a new book to replace the expired one, and so they unilaterally notified all of their yellow pages customers that they were extending their contracts until such time as they published a replacement book.

Mind you, the phone book clearly states on the outside cover and spine "Recycle after February 2010". So they are expecting me to pay for an additional 3 months of advertising for a product that they have instructed their users to discard. I am now subject to the company's collection calls, but will not budge on this one. I too am interested in a Class Action Lawsuit, but so far do not know the proceedure for starting one.

I would suggest to all of you that you make a complaint with the BBB. I did receive a response after the complaint was made.
As far a phone calls, you are wasting your time unless you get in touch with Jessica. The rest of the employees seem to be covering for each other.

I have had the exact issues happen to me too with the three month extension and also a "automatic renewal" of last year's ads because I never notified them as it states in my alleged contract. I have requested a copy twice and have not received as of this writing. I never signed anything either. My next course of action is to report them to the BBB.

Dave

Ask them to give you a copy of the your signature on the contract. They can't not provide it in most cases. They could not mine ( because it didn't exist). I diidn't sign the contract they said I did..I never saw it.
I think if you ask them to produce it...they know they can't...they drop it.
Also, they can't not automatically renew if they raise the rates. They can't change any of the terms of the contract or it is void.
You can always take them to small claims court.
However, the BBB has been very helpful to me.

Also, you might have to change your bank account numbers to keep them from taking the money out.

i also have not been able to resolve problems with the Berry company. No sales person ever showed up to renew my yellow page advertising after they were told I wanted to downsize. Instead they raised my ad. They can not provide a signed contract since there is not one. No results from calling. Ridouts Heating & Cooling

I have had excellent results with Yellow Book . The coverage is wonderful and includes a web page. It's the only ad company we use now. The prices is good and customer service is the best. Yellowbook get's 5 stars.
The Berry Company is nothing but a scam.

Hey,
My name is William and have had the same problems with Berry Company. I have been battleing this for over a year now. The biggest problem I'm having is my phone company Century Link is the middle man. They do the collecting form Berry Company's clients. This means if I refuse to pay they cut my phone and with out the line I get no incoming sells calls, which means no income. I don't know what to do . I'm live in Birmingham, AL and would love to be part of a class action.

I'm quite upset dealing with Berry Co. In April 2010 I got rid of my business line and was assured that the yellow page adds (I was in three directories) would not renew for another year. I never received the letter, as I had in the past, regarding reprinting yellow page ad for next issue for any of the three directories. In October 2010 I receive a bill for one of the directories. After talking with a Berry representative (Irene on 10/11/10) and after I agreed to pay the bill (I didn't want an extended fight and have a credit report problem) I was assured that all the yellow page ads were cancelled and that they would not be renewed. In December, I received another bill for a different directory. This time I talked with Robin from the Berry Company, explaining the entire situation, she said she'd open up a complaint and the Berry Company would call back. THEY NEVER DID. In January 2011 I received the bill again with late charges. I call Berry Company talk to several individual, explaining the entire situation, which all ended with being transferred and the phone line cut off. The Last person I talked to was Travis and he said I needed to talk to Kim. He gave me her direct line but said he would transfer me - CUT OFF. I called Kim at her direct line, left a message and I'm still waiting... I don't want this to be an ongoing problem so my next step is to file complaints with BBB and to talk with my attorney (he's not as nice as I am).

I've had to deal with Berry's Customer Service and let me tell you they just plain Suck! My issue has not been resolved. Everyone there treats me like I"m a criminal... Do you people understand who keeps you in business? Obviously not!

I have been dealing with Berry Company customer service for 5 months regarding an ad that was ran this year after I asked c.s. to cancel it last year. Not only was it printed, it was incorrect in the web address. I have been given the excuse "oh that office closed and no one transferred your file" which is quite shady. My file has been given "to an investigator" three times, yet I keep getting bills. I specifically called to cancel my YellowPages.com ad three months ago--and am still getting billed. I cannot believe after 5 months customer service is still giving me the runaround. If I did this I would be out of business.

I want out of the berry companies contract. There service sucks as anyone can now tell.
A rep of berry came to my business and signed us up for a year signed contract
By the owner of the company my gf. She owns the company name, I own the phone
Number with Cincinnati bell. I wonder if the contract is valid with the signee not owning
The phone number? Or do they have any recourse with the phone service?

To Ripped Off in Rochester. I’m in the Seattle area and have also been ripped off by the Berry Company. It all started when the sales rep gave me the snake oil sale pitch about their web service and the hundreds of hits per month I could expect utilizing their Yellow Pages website. In fact in 12 months I got 7 hits and most of those were from me checking to see if my ad was still present, as I wasn’t getting any action what so ever from it. Then when my rep came by that same year to renew my ads I told him to cancel the Web Yellow pages and he agreed and signed me up for just the renewal of my display ad only. Of course that didn’t happen and I continued to receive billings for the yellow pages web ad as well as the display ad. Also they started billing me under a new account number and my automatic bill pay was sending payments to the old account number. To this day I’m not sure if I was ever credited for those payments made to the old account. After a year and many many phone calls I finally received a letter cancelling all my advertizing with the Berry Company. Of course I kept getting monthly invoices increasing my balance every month. Now I’ve been turned into collections to their collection firm of McCarthy Burgess & Wolff, I sent them a 40 page reconciliation of payments and the letter of cancellation I received from the Berry Companies Account services manager. These documents were completely ignored and I ended up having a very heated discussion with a rep from McCarty Burgess and Wolff. I even offered her a settlement to end the collections today and she advised me that “this conversation is over” and I could expect the collection to escalate. My next move is to hand this over to my attorney ~ I would rather pay him $10, 000 than give The Berry Company another cent.

Berry Company sounds like a scam ?

Well at least I don't feel as bad now...ripped off in Georgia. This is my 3rd year attempting to advertise in the yellow pages for two different directories. The salesperson who contacts me does everything to get me to commit to the deal, then "promises" to send me a proof of the add. After about a month of waiting, I call to find out the salesperson is no longer with the company and a manager will resolve the issue. This is the 3RD YEAR IN A ROW this has happened?! They are just terrible...worst customer service I have EVER experienced.

I cancelled the service successfully over a year ago and I just received multiple emails saying that they are going to restart my service since "they couldn't reach anyone". You can't auto renew something that DOESN"T exist!

We went with the yellow book instead of L.M. Berry yellow pages--Jessica. L.M reps kept calling and leaving messages to re-up for another year. We never answered their calls and never gave them permission to run our ads. They ran our ads anyway, - WITHOUT our consent, - and charged us! They somehow got a default judgement and want us to pay crazy money for something we wanted nothing to do with. I was personal friends with a different account rep that quit because of their scams. They use Lacy Katsan to collect their scammed money. You can't negotiate with a terrorist. They are criminals using the legal system to wear down small businesses. I am committed to telling everyone I know to stay away from L.M.Berry or you will be victimized.