Zone Communications & Relevant Yellow

BOY, THIS WAS A WEIRD ONE. About two weeks ago, I got a phone call from a woman telling me that I could increase the position of my website on the various search engines by using a nifty new technology her company was hawking.

Though fuzzy on the details, I decided to go for it. At the time, I had no online advertising to speak of, seeing as I had just cut things loose with Party Pop. The price, $60 a month, seemed reasonable, especially since they offered a money-back guarantee.

A few days later, however, problems began. I discovered that the company I signed up with (a Temecula firm called Zone Communications) was not, in fact, the company that would be handing the work. The actual work would be done by a company called Relevant Yellow. And, strangely enough, if you look at Relevant Yellow’s website, the same service that had been sold to me for $60 a month (plus a $60 setup fee) was priced at $20 a month, with no setup fee, by Relevant Yellow.

Confused, and assuming that I was getting something extra for my triple-upsale price, I called Relevant Yellow. As it turned out, I was getting nothing extra. Zone Communications was supposed to be the sales rep for Relevant Yellow, and RY had simply neglected to take down the e-commerce part of its site...

So, I cancelled with Zone Communications and signed up with Relevant Yellow. The whole thing has made me a touch uneasy, as it seems there are so many flakes and weirdos out there selling click-through rates, online ads and SEOs.

Fortunately, Zone Communications stated that they would return my money. We’ll see. I talked to them on Thursday, and nothing has been credited to my account yet. I think I’ll write Zone Communications on Monday and see what’s what.