But that goes with the territory when running a business directory, and we will do everything we can to protect our customers from nuisance calls.
One common modern day annoyance is the charity magazine cold call.
You all know it, take out an advert in some charity or police affiliated magazine, with super duper payment options...
One company that I'm fed up with is Advanced Publications and their streetwise/streetwatch magazine.
They seem to generate a lot of complaints, and they go to great lengths to get these removed, including successfully getting Google to remove complaints from their index:
Defamation Complaint to Google -- Chilling Effects Clearinghouse
Even forum posts receive the attention of solicitors letters (I'll keep you informed).
We catch them by planting fake listings on our directory, and leading them on to get as much information as possible, which is then passed to Trading Standards.
I have spoken to their directors, Alec Power and Josh Gumbhai, and I get told its a rogue operative that's acting alone, and has been fired (an operative called Sam has now been fired twice!). Obviously it will never happen again, blah blah.
But it does. What makes it worse, they claim to be working on behalf of Brake, the childrens road safety charity.
Here's what Brake has to say:
Information about Advanced Publications - Brake the Road Safety Charity
My Local Services has been assisting Brake with information and will continue to do so.
We are now considering issuing a joint press statement and publicity campaign which with the backing of Brake will make this more newsworthy.
For all new business owners out there, and this goes for any cold call marketing:
never agree to anything from a cold call
spend 5 minutes and do some research!
spend 5 minutes and do some research!
If we repeat this often enough, then maybe the message will sink in!
