Yellow Pages - Got YOUR Number!

I suppose that Yellow Pages is almost an institution worldwide. It's found in many countries and referred to in many movies- Grease, in particular springs to mind:

Danny: Well I do not know. Maybe there's two of us. Why don't you take out a
missing person's ad? Or try the yellow pages, I don't know.



Well now we really can try the Yellow Pages. In a recent advertising plight my boss decided that it was time to send out our new brochures to potential customers and companies. Great idea! But unfortunately he also decided that the place to get the information for our potential customers was in the Yellow Pages. So far all this sounds pretty logical, but wait for it- the story is not finished yet.

Anyway, so I found out about all the various listings in the UK to see which would be most relevant to us. I discovered that there was a grand total of 102 different Yellow Pages Directories for the UK. Yep, that's right- one hundred and two. I also found out that they were £7.50 each, plus p&p. You can imagine my surprise when I was told to 'order them'. The conversations went something like:

'Yes, order them.'
'All of them?'
'Yes, all of them.'
'Are you sure?'
'Yes, of course I'm sure.'
'But there's 102 of them.'
'Yes.'
'And they're £7.50 each...plus postage.'
'Yes, that's fine, order them.'
'Are you sure?'
'Yes, how many of them were there?'
'102'
'And they cost how much?'
'£7.50 plus postage.'
'Yeah, get them.'

You're the boss. So the directories were ordered- much to the surprise of the unsuspecting telephone operator. 'You're sure you want ALL of them? All 102?' Yes. At a cost of £830.64 (including postage) FOR TELEPHONE DIRECTORIES!!!!!!!! But wait- it's not over yet! The directories arrived yesterday and what was the reaction?
'Why are there so many of them?' (You can imagine what's going through my head at this time...)
'How much did we pay for them?' (pause)
'We paid HOW MUCH?!?!?!?!'

(Yes, that's right, 102 directories at £7.50 each plus postage- You do the math.)

'No, I don't want them, send them back.'
Send them back? After we spent 10 minutes trying to convince them that 'Yes, we know how many there are. Yes, we know how much they are. Yes, we would like ALL of them.'
Send them back. Ok, I'll send them back... only... Yellow Pages do not do refunds or take back directories. (so I find out when I'm speaking to customer services feeling like a plonker)

To cut a long story short, a few phone calls and a lot of frazzled nerves later, the directories are being collected tomorrow...Yes, ALL of them.




No, no no... I've got YOUR number!