Letters to the Editor: Hitting a Nerve

© 2006 Door & Access Systems
Publish Date: Fall 2006
Author: Tom Wadsworth
Page 62

Letters to the Editor

Hitting a Nerve

Dear Tom,

Great articles in the current magazine. Several hit a nerve with me, and I just had to write.

I question some of that guy’s statements in your “Defending the Yellow Pages Scheme” interview. He placed blame on the Yellow Pages (YP) rep for the content in his ads. When you spend that kind of money for an ad, you double-check everything. Those YP reps only put in what you tell them. Why would anyone trust them?

Here in Atlanta, there’s been a huge decrease in YP ads this past cycle. Door guys either think it’s not worth the money, or Atlanta’s service work has slowed down considerably.

Zinc springs look nice and never break, but they lose tension very fast and need to be re-torqued too often. It makes a good sales pitch, but doesn’t work that well.

Keep up the good work.

Mike Sibley
Garage Door Services
Marietta, Ga.

How Can They Justify This?

To the Editor:

I just read your article on “Defending the Yellow Pages Scheme.” (A firm like that) just came into Wisconsin, and I saw an invoice from them to replace two torsion springs and 10 rollers for over $600!

How can they justify this? I replaced the door for $735.

Jerry Herbst
Cedarburg Overhead Door
Cedarburg, Wis.

Victimized

Tom:

I read your (“Trouble in Omaha”) article, and I have a competitor in my area using similar practices.

I believe that businesses may charge whatever the market will bear, so long as that amount is determined by fair and honest business practices. This does not include using deceptive, made-up, or otherwise false claims and selling unnecessary parts and labor. The competitor in my area is actively engaged in this practice as evidenced by the copies of repair quotes that my customers have shown me.

One of my repeat customers was victimized by this company to the tune of over $500 for springs they didn’t need. I was subsequently called out to make the proper repair, which was merely a bad wire connection at the infrared sensor. The springs that were replaced were around eight years old, not broken, and had been checked by myself only a few months prior and found to be in good order.

Any decent and qualified GDO technician would have fixed this for the price of a service call. I felt so bad for this customer that I did the repair for free.

I have had several other customers who have received repair quotes in excess of $400 for items not needed. Fortunately these customers sensed a scam and declined their service.

I hope that you will continue to investigate businesses like these and expose them for what they are. I especially hope that the federal government will soon take notice. Go to www.ripoffreport.com, and you will be amazed.

Larry Schumacher
Schumacher Garage Door
Temecula, Calif.

Expose the Yellow Pages

To the Editor:

I thought "Trouble in Omaha" was well written.

It seems to me that the Yellow Pages should bear some responsibility for policing ads. If this abuse of Yellow Pages becomes a trend, the Yellow Pages directories should be made aware of these suspicious ads. A similar exposé of the Yellow Pages ad acceptance practices might be an enlightening article.

Greg Galloway
Wayne-Dalton
Pensacola, Fla.