Hibu, Inc

Review: the company claims that I owe them just over $1,500 for advertising that I did not order. When I called and asked them how I could owe money for services I did not sign a contract or an agreement for, they said that an employee of mine signed a contract for the advertising. None of my employees are qualified to sign me up for any goods or services. Also, my employee states that she has never signed a contract or agreement on my behalf.Desired Settlement: Dismiss me from these charges of over $1,500.00 and remove any harm done to my credit rating

Business

Response:

Please find attached Hibu's response to Complaint ID [redacted].

Review: I have been trying to cancel a service that I'm not happy with and the customer service/sales rep will not help.

I met with Jerry B[redacted] regarding a service package for web design for my company and I have had many communications with him since stating that I am not happy with the service and do not wish to continue or pay for the service. He informed me that he could not help me and I was told to call a customer service number (where I could not get through to talk to anyone) and was charged for the contract anyway. Jerry refused to help me cancel and assured me during the process that I could cancel the service at any time. The amount I was charged on a current statement I received was $169.95. The transaction has not been processed but the company has a credit card of mine on file and says they will charge it. My cr is [redacted] and the statement number is [redacted]. I have also reported any charges that come through my credit card from this company as fraudulent.Desired Settlement: I would like my account cancelled and any charges I have incurred or been billed for to be reversed. I would like written proof that this has been taken care of.

Business

Response:

November 26, 2014Dear [redacted]:This letter confirms receipt of Complaint ID [redacted] filed by [redacted] of [redacted]. We have reviewed the customer’s complaint concerning the cancellation and find that an email was received on November 11, 2014 requesting cancellation and the cancellation was processed and confirmed on November 19, 2014. However, further research shows that another prior cancellation request was received on October 15, 2014 but there is no record of action being taken on the account. Due to this delay, the payment of $169.95 was processed to the customer’s credit card when it should not have been. A refund request has been submitted to refund this payment to the customer.We apologize to [redacted] for any inconvenience this has caused. If you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at the number below.Sincerely,Heather H

Review: When I signed up for Hibu pay per call service I was told that I would only pay for legitimate sales leads and all call s are recorded and I can dispute any non sales calls and be re funded.. When the service started I would receive non sales solicitation calls and fax calls all sent to my personal cell phone and not even my business line!

I was charged $10.00 for every bad call. I would maybe receive a real potential customer phone call 1 out of every 50 calls. When we disputed the "bad"/non sales calls they ignored me and stopped sending the invoices for me to even review to be able to dispute them. When I finally got a manager on the phone they said they have not been recording the calls so they can't possibly refund the $10.00 per bad call put they would start recording them now. When I tried disputing again a month later they still have not started to record the phone calls! I finally demanded they release me from the contract and they did on April 2nd of 2014 but they continued to bill me. to this day. They are now threatening legal cation against me. I am outraged at Yellow book/Hibu business ethics.Desired Settlement: Since their service never provided what was promised I would like all money they have received returned to the business [redacted].

Business

Response:

9/24/14

Review: There is a scam going around under the title of Yellow Business book. It has been posted about all over the internet. The basis of this scam is they call your business and ask YES or NO questions such as "Do you have fire alarms", etc... They then take your "YES" answers and dub them over a prerecorded track of you saying YES to updating your advertising listing in the yellow book. They will send you a bill for X amount of money and then if you call them they will play back the fake dubbed audio track. This scam is well known in multiple states and is well documented on many websites dealing with such scamming issues. We have been hit with this scam twice, first for 599.99 and a second for 496.81. Neither of which we paid to them, however it is just getting annoying and ridiculous and this scam is going around the country like wild fire. Something needs to be made public about this because many companies just see this as a normal expense and pay it ASAP without questions.Desired Settlement: I would like this settled by seeing a public advertisement made to local and small business' across the country by all state attorney general offices.

Business

Response:

9/5/13

Revdex.com of Metro Washington DC and Eastern Pennsylvania

1054 Oak St

Scranton, PA 18508

RE: Revdex.com Number[redacted]

Review: When hibu launched a publication in my market I was approached by the representative asking me to sign on to advertise in the [redacted] Life magazine. There was a special price to sign up for a year, but the rep- [redacted], said that I could cancel anytime, the special price was for a year to get people started at a lower rate, but I could try the book out for a few months and if I wanted to cancel, no problem- SHE WOULD TAKE CARE OF IT. This was in 08/12. The book was not published until 11/12. In FEB 2013, I CLOSED MY BUSINESS. At this point I was also writing content for this and many other books in your network of publications. I contacted a [redacted] (the editor for the [redacted] book) to let him know I needed to cancel the ad, but would still be happy to write articles for all the publications he wanted to put me in. He said NO PROBLEM, just contact my rep and they will get my ad cancelled. I attempted numerous times to contact [redacted] with no response, so I finally contacted the 800# for customer service. They informed me that hibu does not cancel ad contracts regardless of whether I am in business or not and I had to buy out my contract or they would print the ad for my closed business until OCTOBER 2013 and continue billing me.

This ad contract was misrepresented to me by the sales rep, who assured me I could cancel at any time, otherwise I would not have signed up.

I have called every month they printed it since FEB, begging them to stop because it was misleading since I was closed and I have never had any media vendor hold me to a contract in 15 years, EVER! ALL I HEAR IS A CONTRACT IS A CONTRACT and it doesn't matter that I am closed. Apparently they do not have the integrity to work with a closed business and void the contract and they don't care about the quality of the content in their publications to keep putting BAD ads in when the space could have been sold to an OPEN business who is trying to reach new customers.

[redacted] has insisted that he is completely embarrassed that the ad dept is handling clients this way, and he even made an effort to get them to stop printing it and charging me. Apparently he has been unsuccessful too because I just got charged again! I finally told him last month that I could no longer write articles for this book or any hibu book because their integrity and ethical standards are just not par for a business to business relationship. It is not personal to him ,he is very professional and easy to have rapport with, and I enjoyed being about to provide content . I hated that this issue got in the way of us continuing to work together on content.Desired Settlement: Ideally, I would like to be released from this CONTRACT immediately and have them refund all the charges made to my [redacted] from March - July-- $225 x 6=$1125 and DO NOT CHARGE ANY MORE or print any ads for my store. Those ads should have never been printed because my business closed prior to the print date for those issues and I made contact in an effort to STOP the ads in a timely fashion before the book went to print and have continued to call and complain about the way in which my account is being handled every month I see the ad reprinted.

At the very least, CANCEL MY CONTRACT effective immediately and discontinue printing an ad for a business that has been closed for 5 months and do not charge my credit card again.

Please let me know what you are willing to do to resolve this issue.

Thank you!

Business

Response:

Attached is hibu's response to Complaint ID [redacted].

Review: In may 2013 I signed up to have HIBU assist with my internet advertising with Eric G[redacted]. I was told how much additional traffic I would get by using their company and how they would work for me. Well my additional traffic was not seen by using their service. I tried to contact my representative with HIBU in August 2013 but he would not return my emails or calls. In September I finally contacted HIBU directly and was told what I would need to do to cancel my services with them. I was finally able to cancel my contract but now they have messed up my internet listing. They used a phone number that was theirs to track internet traffic and when they closed the account they did not change the number back and now when you [redacted] my company [redacted] Houston, TX a number comes up that is disconnected which is causing me problems with getting business and also with my clients trying to contact me. I have attempted to contact [redacted] directly but can not get through. I have even been on hold for up to 2 hours but still can not get through. My account number is [redacted].Desired Settlement: I want a refund of monies paid over the last 2 months of service ($1,200.00) because they were not accessible and they have cost me money by leaving up a number that can not be used to contact me. I can place a dollar amount on the amount of money I have lost because I was just made aware of the issue 2 weeks ago.

Business

Response:

Please find attached Hibu’s response to Complaint [redacted]

Review: I signed a contract to advertize in the Yellow Book in the fall of 2013. I didn't really want to because people don't really look in the yellow pages anymore, they go online. The salesman talked me into taking part in a "door-hanger" ad that would cost $900, and that money would be applied to my yellowbook ad for the year. I agreed. I remember him calling me later and telling me that it would cost an extra $12/month. I said that would be ok. I received the proof for the door hanger ad, and didn't like it. I sent it back with revisions but it was not changed. I still paid the $900 in Sept., Oct., and Nov., of 2013. Starting in December I got a bill every month for $87. I am working on my own - I would never agree to pay that amount every month for something that hardly anyone will ever see! My website costs way less than that! I called in March and the person in customer service was very rude. She made me feel very small and alone. I admit, I swore at her and hung up. I called again a couple days later and the person in customer service told me that she could not find a signed contract. I was transferred to "investigations". The man (Larry) told me he would get back to me in 2 days. He did not. I left a voicemail about 3 weeks later. Meanwhile, I was getting harassing emails, phone calls and mail telling me to pay or it's going into collections. When it is a real person from collections talking to me, they talk to me like I'm some sort of jerk who doesn't pay bills. I'm not like that! I tried to contact the original salesman via email and phone. He never got back to me. For some reason, [redacted] switched me to [redacted] sent me the same information, and I told her the same story. She did not help. Then I got a call from [redacted]. He said he would like to meet at my business in person and get to the bottom of this mess. We met on May 15, 2014. He was a half hour late. He came with a manager or supervisor who remembered me signing something on the trunk of the salesman's car. He said he believed me, and we will get to the bottom of this. We spent about a half hour going over the same details of the account, then [redacted] went into a long long sales pitch for hibu web hosting. I interrupted him to ask the price. The manager/or supervisor said they could knock off $400 of the set up fee because of all of the troubles I've been having with the company. So, I asked WHY would I continue to do business when they over charge me, don't respond when I need help, harass me.... AND on yellowbook.com there is STILL a non existing website under my business name! Am I expected to pay for that?? [redacted] said he will "call off the dogs" because when there is an investigation open they should not be calling me. Also, he will call back on Monday. He did not. June 13, I'm still getting the phone calls from collections but have not heard from [redacted]. I left a message on his voice mail in the morning. In the afternoon got an email from [redacted], telling me she's opening an investigation!!!Desired Settlement: Billing Adjustment.

My correct website on yellowbook.com.

My correct phone number in the book would be good too.

Truth and accountability.

Please treat me like I matter.

Business

Response:

6/27/14

Review: I called HIBU to cancel my business with them (internet and yellowbook advertising) and was told I had to pay my bill first. I had just received my bill that day. I opened the email to look at the bill and decided I wanted to cancel their services. I asked for a supervisor and was put on hold for 20 minutes and the CSR came back on the line to tell me he couldn't get a supervisor. I just want to cancel my service with them. Why is this so hard? I don't want to do business with HIBU. I have always paid my bills with them.

Product_Or_Service: AdvertisingDesired Settlement: DesiredSettlementID: Other (requires explanation)

I want to cancel their services.

Business

Response:

7/16/2014

Review: I own [redacted] in [redacted] Ma and I have been doing business with Hibu (formally Yellowbook) for almost 4 years. I have a ad in their phone book that uses a tracking number different from the [redacted]'s phone number. The contract I have with them is, I pay $9 every time someone calls that number and only that number. This is how I pay for the ad. I had a website through them which I have asked to have shut down 2 years ago and they have yet to do so. Each moth they e-mail a statement showing all billable calls. It has been pretty consistent being either 0-4 calls that are billable, with an average of 6-15 calls total. I am not billed for any solicitation calls. This month I received my statement showing a total of 36 calls with 18 billable. I thought that was a very high jump so I proceeded to listen to the calls (all calls are recorded) I found several were wrong numbers or the person did not leave a message. One call was even from a person requesting escort service. I contacted Hibu because in the past these type of calls were removed from my bill. They informed me they no longer do this. There was even a few calls from existing clients who have our real number. I thought it was strange so I wondered if buy chance those clients called 411 (information) to get the [redacted]'s phone number, so I called 411 myself and discovered the number given out was indeed the tracking number used by Hibu. At no time did I agree nor was told that Hibu had done this and I was going to get billed for people using 411 information. During my conversation with Hibu the gentleman commented on how the service I hired them to do was working and I should be happy. I explained to them I thought it was odd that their was such a jump in call volume and how I never agreed to use the billable tracking number to be used by 411 information and again was told "well our service is working and your getting more clients". The service I agreed to pay for is calls driven by the use of the phone book only. Hibu has nothing to do with 411 information and any callers coming from 411 information is not a result of any marketing campaign done by Hibu. I again called [redacted] 411 because [redacted] is the company I use for my land line to remove tracking numbers and give them the [redacted]'s real phone number and I also contacted [redacted] 411 information to do the same. They informed me that Hibu gave the order to have the billable tracking number to be given out to anyone calling 411. Another problem I have is if you call the number that is given out by 411 information there is a recording of some woman stating " Hello and thank you for calling [redacted]. For our valued customers please press 1. For employment opportunities please press 2" Then another recording states this call is recorded for training purposes. I never did such recording, and it is using my name not the [redacted]'s name.

I strongly feel that this falls under fraud and informed Hibu I no longer wanted to do business with them and would be contacting the Revdex.com and the Attorney General regarding this matter. I feel they are making customers such as myself pay for a service they did not provide and they changed previous agreement without notifying consumer.

Thank you for your assistance.

Owner; [redacted]Desired Settlement: I wish to terminate contract with Hibu immediately. Also since I am unaware of when or what other calls I have been charged for by those using 411 information and not the phone book, I wish for a full refund from September 2013 to present of all charges paid by my company.

Business

Response:

4/29/2014

Review: Received a statement from this company and we do not use their services. I did a google search and found many complaints with them. We called the number that was provided on the statement and asked for proof of purchase and still have not received any faxes or phone calls.Desired Settlement: No Settlement requested we did not send them a payment.

Business

Response:

[redacted]

Revdex.com of Metro Washington DC and Eastern Pennsylvania

1054 Oak St

Scranton, PA 18508

RE: Revdex.com Number: [redacted]

Review: We were to purchase a "Business Builder Package", which was to make our information show up when a consumer did a search for Pet Styling, Pet Grooming, Pet Spa, Pet Supplies, etc. The searches were supposed to be picked up whether they were on google, yahoo, msn and so forth and then directed to our name address and phone number, which was supposed to be at the top of the page of the search information being displayed with a lighted, moving border around our info, everytime this search was conducted.

This did not happen and a coupon for $10 off new customers was also listed on our linked website. The website didn't work for 5 months and when I called to complain to a service rep. that we weren't getting any new phone calls or customers, he asked me if I realized that consumers doing the search would actually have to go into the Yellow Book website to find us. I did not know that and I specifically told our representative what we wanted and she said, "yes" , that's what we were getting. In fact that is not what we were getting. At no time were we ever told that the search needed to be done in the yellow book website. I refuse to pay the bill and have sent letters telling them why and they keep saying "oh well, we don't guarantee you will get business". So what is there purpose? I didn't get ANY business and when I ask to be shown what I received the subject gets diverted to something else and no one has ever shown me anything. They just say that because I signed up for it they will come after me and ruin my credit even though I am the manager of the company and not the owner. Why haven't they shown me what I paid for?Desired Settlement: Write our bill off and except the fact that the misrepresentation happened. We paid for two years prior to this for the "same" package! It wasn't until the third year that we stopped all other advertising and decided it was the most important to be found on the internet, so we will continue with Yellow Book. This was when we realized we weren't receiving anything from them, we have not received any coupons or new customers and it is now September. As far as we are concerned they got their money the first two years and we got nothing in return. The third year we realized it so now we aren't paying. The total package cost $3, 588. 00 for one year! Certainly I was supposed to receive something for that amount of money. Really, we may end up asking for our money back from the first two years as well but for now they need to fix the hole in their strategy and stop lying to the poor business owners!

Business

Response:

Dear [redacted]:

Review: Hibu sales presentation was misleading . We need one payment of 300.00 to start the advertisement for 1 year online. Then we would review in 12 months to see if it was working. Then decide if to continue advertisement. He then said this is a standard contract to start your add and giving us the right to make sure no one else is using that name. He called it a domain name. Then we can start your add on your behalf. We cant start your add with out your signature.

Then they started billing 3 months before the 12 months trial period ended with no review.

I called to cancel and was told could not cancel. Tried to talk to some body even e-mailed them. No one would help or listen.

Then they sent emails to renew add.

I was not told Hibu was also yellow book. I started receiving mailing from yellow book. Thought it was junk mail and through away

I Sent them payment for 3 months and they are now trying to get 580.00 more.

A lawyer contacted me before the 12 month reviewDesired Settlement: Not to pay because of misrepresentation

Business

Response:

Dear [redacted]:

Review: I signed a contract to receive Website design and administration services for my business through Hibu Inc. West last November. I agreed to pay $399.00 for these services. The amount was paid to them on 12/6/2013. Long story short, they failed to provide the service. It was sometime in March that I fired them because we still did not have a live website despite many phone calls and numerous promises that they were working on it. One fellow admitted that they were overwhelmed with the work load. I was promised that the $399 would be refunded. It never was. We called again 6/17/14. We were promised that the amount would be refunded to the card in 5-7 business days. I still do not have my money back.Desired Settlement: I want the full amount of $399.00 returned to me.

Business

Response:

Dear [redacted]:

Review: My husband and I work(ed) with homicidal/suicidal populations. And while I have left my job to stay at home with our children, my husband still works for the federal government dealing with severe mental health issues. We have already had death threats on our phone approximately 6 years ago. So, we made sure that all of our information is private. We even pay a reputable company to keep our home address and phone number off of the internet. I am EXCEEDINGLY upset and concerned that Hibu/Yellowbook somehow got our personal information and has published not only our phone number but also our home address! No other phonebook company has done this! When I contacted them numerous times to find out who is distributing this information and how they found it, I was given many excuses and no actual information. Our physical well being hangs in the balance, as well as our children's well being. I have not contacted a lawyer yet. I'd like to get to the bottom of this without one if at all possible. But something very unethical is going on and they will not disclose their practices or allow me to follow the trail concerning who is selling our information. I have contacted everyone I can think of on our end to ensure that our privacy settings are all exceedingly secure. And every last one of them said they didn't distribute our information. If we have to move because of this, or if one of our family members gets hurt, I will be infuriated and pursue legal action.Desired Settlement: I want to know where the information came from so I can stop it.

I want them to stop soliciting information from unethical sources or in an unethical manner.

I want my name or any name affiliated with our phone number and address removed permanently from all further publications from this company, period.

Business

Response:

9/11/14

Review: I have contract with yellow book to post my AD on GOOGLE MSN YAHOO pay $140.00 per maonth my AD not exist ,or never posted by HIBU ,number of times I called talk to diffrent peopl incling [redacted] and asked where is my AD,everybody said let me research and call you back ,no return call

NO ONE COULD SHOW ME my AD its not exist .I paid for 2 month and stoped pament ,now collection agencies harasing me and this company extortioning me to pay for nothing and damage my credit score that been 828 .I apprecice that look at this problem.Desired Settlement: cancell this fony contract and return my money

Business

Response:

Dear [redacted]:

This will confirm receipt of your letter dated March 12, 1013 regarding the advertising concern for [redacted].

As a result of your letter I have worked internally to address the concern being expressed by this customer. This customer purchased the WebReach Basis Program which guarantees 540 annual clicks. I have found reports are being sent to this customer weekly. In December he received 31 clicks, January there were 55, and in February there were 7. For February the campaign did not run the full month because the customer reversed the payment and did not submit a new payment so the campaign was cancelled 2/5/13 to avoid spending money on clicks that we didn't have. The customer is questioning the number of clicks received during these months. With this program you receive a tracking number. We have the tracking number forwarding to his business. From there the customer has set it to forward to his business cell phone number. It has been explained to this customer that because he is forwarding the phone to his business cell phone that this is the reason the calls are not showing up on the reports.

Click Fraud is fairly uncommon. Search engines monitor all traffic to look for oddities such as the same IP address clicking over and over in a short time. In that case the customer would never even see the clicks reported. They are removed before they ever hit our reporting. This is not as common as many people think. People click on ads while they research something. Many do not call. They may click it now and click it again if it comes up in 20 minutes as they continue to do research. The same/person clicking an ad multiple times is not click fraud. The business owner always concerned about their ad searches and clicks on it to ensure it is working. It is possible that a competitor clicks on their ad occasionally which would not be detected as click fraud as there is no way to know for sure if this is happening. Google does watch IP addresses, if the same IP address is doing the same search all the time they will eventually pick up on it, but there is no way to prove disprove this.

We apologize to [redacted] for any inconvenience this may have caused, but it appears everything was working as it should have up until the product was cancelled 2/5/13 due to lack of payment

Sincerely,

Executive Services Specialist

Consumer

Response:

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response. If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.

Regards,

Thank for your attention from yellow book paralegal settled the case but HONESTY MY AD WAS NOT EXISTED .THANK YOU AGAIN [redacted]

Review: In April 2014 I signed a 6 month agreement with HIBU for a [redacted] Ad campaign for $515.00 per month. I canceled another form of marketing, which was generating business to switch to HIBU. At the time my Sales Rep told me that I would have a dedicated inside analyst who would be able to work with me to customize my campaign to ensure I get a lot of people finding our company and calling us. After the agreement was signed, I was told that my monthly spend of $500.00 was not enough to have a dedicated analyst and that I would have to call in and talk with a generic analyst. After a month and not receiving any calls, I called my sales rep who agreed it was not working well. I have emails to back that up. I called and reviewed my account with an analyst on three different occasions, each made some changes and had all kinds of reasons why it was not working and I should see improvements. After three full months I had paid $1,545.00 and had received three calls, which is documented by HIBU reporting. At this point I spoke to my Sales Rep who agreed this just was not working. I asked her to cancel my agreement because the performance was so poor. She said she could not do it, but copied me on an email to her direct supervisor, who does have the authority to cancel the agreement, asking him to help and approve cancelling my agreement. Nothing was ever done. Another month went by and I now had paid $2,060.00 and had received four calls. At the end of September I mailed a letter to HIBU, supported by HIBU reporting, notifying them to cancel my account due to bad performance. I also emailed copies of the letter to every email address I had, including my sales rep, customer service, general service center, ad campaign performance department, etc. I was told that I could not cancel until my 6 months was up. At that point I stopped the auto debit billing to my bank account. I have paid thousands of dollars and have received four phone calls in 5 months. On top of that I canceled a marketing program that was generating business in order to sign on with HIBU, so I have lost much, much more in lost sales due to no business being generated with the HIBU program. Anyone in business should be able to stand behind their product and do the right thing when something goes wrong or does not work. I surely do in my business. They have the ability to cancel it, but insist that I owe them two more months of payments for another $1,030.00. This is by far one of the worst companies I have ever dealt with.Desired Settlement: All I am asking them to do is cancel my account without paying the final two payments due to extremely poor performance of their marketing program. It is the right thing to do. My account number is [redacted].

Business

Response:

10/22/14

Review: Add listing in wrong category

We have had an add in yellowbook for many years under the same two categories Drug Testing and either DNA or Paternity testing. Lsat year the rep said they may not have those two categories so we selected labs medical. They put us under drug testing and nursing services. They came back to sign us up and we were assured they would either put our second add under DNA, Paternity or Medical Laboratories. They put our second add under nursing services again. This year we were actually contacted by a State investigator due to the fact we are not licensed a a nursing services provider. We have also had to field numerous calls from people wanting pricing for private duty nurses.It also did not allow us to derive any income for our DNA testing since we had not been listed and probably lost income from their mistake.Desired Settlement: We simply want a 50% discount for the add that was placed in the wrong category. One add was properly listed and we are willing to pay for that half but not for a misplaced add that provided us no benefit and actually caused a brief State inquiry due to the fact that they listed us under Nursing Services which we are not licensed for.

Business

Response:

Dear [redacted]:

Review: did not deliver what promissed.

exessive delays on making changes

[redacted] the local hibu sales rep, approached me as a Yellow Pages representative, and I decided to go ahead & purchase advertising pruducts from them. In the first conversations before I actually purchased [redacted] used all kinds of sales pitch including "you will be assigned a person to make all the changes you need to your website anytime" and I indeed was assigned a person ([redacted]) it all begun as soon as I gave them the original down payment of about $300- $350 over a month went by & I never got any news or progress updates on my package I contacted [redacted] and her reply was "I have no idea why is taking so long" so I kept waiting after sometime they sent me proof of the website, but the website needed lots of changes and every time I needed to make a change it would literally take 2 to 4 weeks even if it was just a word I needed changed, aside from all text the website also had a big red area on the bottom of every page I asked for it to be removed weeks later when they got to it they made it from red to blue but I asked for it to be removed, at this point the site was not yet live, but [redacted] asked me for permition to launch the site live saying it could take up to a month for it to appear on the web, and we could fix all the issues on the mean time, so I agreed to launch, what she failed to tell me is that they would also start billing my account then, so time went by they just got slower & slower so bad that [redacted] asked for permision to take the site down "while they catch up" at this point several months had gone by I could no longer bear the frustration, so I stopped comunicating with [redacted], and I sent an email to all HIBU employees who had been in touch with me asking to please cancel my account, that they had failed to deliver what they promissed, nothing happened so they kept billing my account for several months after that, I was so frustrated that I started sending emails with obsene language asking them to cancell my account, with no succes. I contacted [redacted] and asked her to help me because she got me into this mess, she said she would and promise to put the auto withdrawals to my account on hold, and I promised to continue working with her to fix the ill website at a later time as I was busy at the time, but the auto withdrawals continued for several months, and I kept emailing her but was not being nice anymore, after sometime the auto withdrawals stopped but I started receiving bils on the mail I emailed [redacted] again asking for an explanation she said again she would take care of it, bottom line a few employees had lejitimate will to help me but no body could do nothing as of now I am being harrased by a collection agency. I would have been better off keep paying them for the the disaster and agravation they put me trough than wind up being harrased by collections agencies when I was told by [redacted] that she would put payments on hold, and even refund any monies that were taken out of my account.Desired Settlement: I am not interested on getting money back. I simply want you to leave me alone, stop harrasing me, because I was told by your employees they would take care of everything (I have all the conversations saved, it will be my pleasure to foward them to you)

Please get the collection agency to stop harrassing me, delete the ill website, delete me from your data, and let me live in pease as It's been over a year of headaches already

Business

Response:

Dear [redacted]:

Review: They do not use their contract date as the contract start date. Our contract was signed on Feb 7th 2014, however they say the contract starts on July 3rd 2014. They represented that date when we signed. Why would we sign a contract 5 months in advance?Desired Settlement: I would like to pay our monthly fee until our contract is over in Feb 15.

Business

Response:

August 12, 2014Dear [redacted]:This letter confirms receipt of Complaint ID [redacted] filed by customer [redacted] of [redacted]. We have reviewed the account. With directory advertising, there must be time between selling the advertising and compiling, printing and publishing the directory. In most cases, advertisers sign contracts anywhere between 6 months and one year in advance. In light of this, we do not bill our advertisers that have purchased print advertising until we have completed the directory. The [redacted], ND directory publishes and is delivered in June of each year and the billing for this directory begins in July.Our records indicate that [redacted] has advertised with us since 2003. Just a brief review of the advertising shows that the contracts are normally signed between November and February. I have enclosed four contracts with this letter as support – the current [redacted], ND 2015 contract along with the prior three years. Please note:• The [redacted], ND 2015 directory was signed 2.7.2014, published June 2014 and began billing July 2014.• The [redacted], ND 2014 directory was signed 1.3.2013, published June 2013 and began billing July 2013.• The [redacted], ND 2013 directory was signed 1.6.2012, published June 2012 and began billing July 2012.• The [redacted], ND 2012 directory was signed 11.18.2010, published June 2011 and began billing July 2011.In light of this information, we find that there has been no error or discrepancy in the billing of the advertising. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at the number below.Sincerely,Heather H[redacted] Executive Services Specialist Hibu Investigations and Resolutions

Consumer

Response:

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]

Review: [redacted]

I'm rejecting this response because:The tactics that this company uses to bait and switch are unacceptable. Your contract really isn't the contract date it's really the date the book is published. They also trick the customer by have the subscription Auto Renewal! It's companies like this that all should be very careful of. The day is hopefully coming that knowbody will need their services.

Regards,

Review: I paid Hibu for a website November 14, 2013. As of this date, February 28, 2014, I have not received my website.

I have spent numerous hours following up with Hibu over the last four months - only to be told "it went to a black hole", "sorry, but let me look into it and get back to you" (and they don't), "your designer is on medical leave" (they don't route the work to someone else?), or the best one "I'm sorry but there's nothing I can do." I have emailed and called so many times!

Not only have I lost money (I am self-employed and could have been running my company)but I have also lost the revenue the site would have provided for almost FOUR months!

When I inquired about getting my money back or not being charged the monthly fee for a period of time to compensate me for my losses I was told by Ashley, "I'm sorry there is nothing to credit you for, you haven't been billed the monthly fee so I can't help." I then asked to receive my initial payment back as an inconvenience credit and again I was told, "that is a creative fee for your site." And I said, I don't have a site!

This is the worst customer service experience I have ever had! And that is the TRUTH.Desired Settlement: My specified website up and live. Credit my initial payment and one year of monthly fees to compensate for my losses.

Business

Response:

May 30, 2014Dear [redacted]:This correspondence confirms receipt of the complaint filed by [redacted] of [redacted]. We have reviewed the account and the concerns raised by the customer. It is correct that the customer initially had a credit on their existing Hibu account. We have spoken with the sales representative [redacted] and she has confirmed that she discussed the existing credit with the customer at the time of the sale. However, she disputes advising that the customer could cancel once the credit had been expended. The contract that was signed is Hibu’s standard one year contract. The customer states that the company took the signature from the tablet that was signed when they met with the customer and placed it on a contract. This is incorrect. When the customer signed the tablet, this was the authorization of the contract. This procedure was no different than the customer’s previous contract with our company. For your convenience, I have included copies of both contracts.We have reviewed the website and find that it is consistent with the information that was provided and the changes that were submitted. Our review of this matter finds that there is has been no error and there is no basis for an adjustment on the account. If you have any additional questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us at the number below.Sincerely,