I’ve just been alerted to another “brand new” directory with barely any content, hardly indexed by Google (check this out – not promising). Funny how it is brand new but they are selling “renewals”.
UAskNow sports a lovely parrot which made one of their cold call recipients wonder if they are the same crowd as the non-starter U Ask Polly owned by Sonia Klair [more on UAskPolly].
I took a look through the site and they give no hint of the people behind their directory. Their phone numbers don’t appear to be linked to any other business:
The domain registration information is hidden and I would be wary of any company that doesn’t want you to know where they are physically located. Their “information pack” and “listing form” both omit a physical or postal address.
I was curious about how they had managed to get advertising for such a new site and cheekily started this twitter conversation
Its not hard to get accepted for Adsense advertising, or Adbrite or any of the others. So why have they got “fake” advertising on the site?
Read Motella’s post: A New Dodgy Business Guide?
I own the Gents Barber shop in Mt Albert, This is very interesting because they contacted me a while ago regarding listing on there directory, i was told that they were new and its a special price they were offering and if i wanted to be listed it was $99 for 2 years, i wasnt told it was a renewal, I have actually been quite happy with there service as i have had customer come to me thru there directory.
Just thought i would give my feed back.
Thanks for your feedback and I’m glad its working for you.
Other correspondence that I have seen states that
“we are a brand new site, that has just launched in NZ”
so its odd that they contacted you a while ago. Odd too that your post was made from the same IP address as that email.
The plot thickens…
The Gents Barber Shop can’t be found in the White Pages and I went for a drive thinking I’d pop in and say “Hi”. Thing was, I couldn’t find him – only houses. In the Mt Albert shopping strip there are half a dozen + hair dressers and not one of them was him. Why did that customer need to search for a hair dresser when the area is so well catered for?
Google Maps for The Gents Barber Shop
He’s also posted his comment on the Motella blog and then it turns out it was the U Ask Now staff posting on his behalf. Explains the IP match I guess but is it ethical?
Just went to meet Sean from the The Gents Barber Shop in Mt Albert and found the address doesn’t actually exist.
He’s supposed to be at 796 New North Road.
790 New North Road is a large hostel.
The next house is 1a for a side street
802 is a brick and tile house
so 796 doesn’t exist. Please explain Sean!
Footnote: I chatted with a woman at the salon (when I found it at a totally different street number) who was in the process of buying it from Sean. He was only selling it because of ill health and I chose not to pursue this further when he is obviously in a difficult situation. At best U Ask Now have taken advantage of a sick man however I doubt he knows anything about his endorsement.
Hi…These guys did a wonderful job! Uasknow is the best online directory site I worked with.I have my business listing named Canoe & Kayak Auckland in their site and I really amazed with the results I got.I would recommend Uasknow to anyone. They did a lot of work with great results! Thank you!
I just spoke with Russell at http://www.canoeandkayak.co.nz ph (09) 815 2073 and he denies making this endorsement. The email address given is canoekayak@in.com and he says it isn’t one used by his company.
I have just been scamed by this bunch. I hate the way they hound you, tell you you have had free advertising for the past 12 months and have only 10 mins to confirm you want an extra 2 years. My fault for not checking them out before signing their agreement. I did not send the signed agreement back to them within the time frame and once I had I realised my mistake. Within 24 hours I had telephoned them but guesswhat I got the answerphone, asking them to canx but they did not get back to me for a good few days and then I was hounded all afternoon. Since then I have faxed twice and left numerous answerphone messages. I was told the company was 18 months old I can not see them lasting another 18months without yet another name change. I shall be making sure everybusiness I do business with knows about this comapny and not in a good way.
Hi there
Yes, me too. They did the your listing is up for renewal sale and you only have until midday to sign and I stupidly did sign and fax back. but realising soon afterwards to check these guys out and found the website dreadful and no big businesses listed like our organization. So knowing my rights I faxed to them to cancel and thought that was the end of it. didn’t hear from them for a while. Now I have them harrasing me telling me I’ve signed and can’t get out of it, which is cr*p, our lawyers have looked into this and are looking forward to contacting them. This time though they thought they were dealing with a small business and made a mistake of taking on a NZ retail chain. So I hope they have good lawyers.
My company received a bill from these guys, im certain its a scam, everything is just ripped from our website, but boss seems to think he agreed to it… anything out there that I can show him to prove its a scam?
They need to be able to provide documentation which shows that your boss did indeed agree to it. The site is very new so it would need to be a new contract and not a renewal. Any legitimate company will happily fax/email a copy of the contract in a jiffy.
I’m pleased to be able to report that UAskNow did provide “Anonymous” with a copy of the contract and all was in order. There remains the concerns that the directory is not performing in any search engine results and therefore not providing the value that was promised – but the contract itself was valid.
Nearly got scammed, thankfully, my Boss/Husband had a suspcious mind, I am in the office of our family business, ‘Tammy’ rang, very nice, believeable, I agreed, waited for the fax. Was about to send back when hubby checked their website, found you, & we stopped. In the meantime, before I realised she rang twice, insisting on the urgency of faxing it back. On her 3rd call, I said No, no fax was getting sent to them. I feel like an idiot, a trusting fool who nearly got caught..!! thank you for this website.
I have had emails from this company, and also today i got a fax from them, all of them with my ‘SO called’ overdue invoice.
I have had the same issue last year with this, but i just ignored the emails, and the threats of going to Baycorp, never had anything from Baycorp regarding them…
I just tried to phone them, but all i get is the answer phone, so i left a mesage to call me,
Issue has been resolved
Some feedback on http://www.phonespamfilter.co.nz/search.php/092713209