Business warned about ‘free’ online directory

Nov 27 2009 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Business warned about ‘free’ online directory

A MARSH woman is warning retailers in Huddersfield to be on their guard after her shop was targeted by a ‘free’ business directory.

Alison Rayner, who runs the Don’t Forget card and gift shop, received a letter from Business Internet Directory asking her to update her shop’s details.

The letter said it listed businesses online for free and would help get the shop’s details out there to the public.

But first the York-based company needed missing details – the shop’s category of business – to be able to activate its business listing.

The letter said: “We feel it is important that your business details are present and correct on the Business Internet Directory for UK businesses.

“We need your business category so that we can activate your business listing.”

The letter asked Alison to call a telephone number to update her details, but the owner of the Westbourne Road-based shop said she immediately became suspicious.

She said: “As soon as I read the letter I thought something wasn’t right.

“It said I needed to provide my business category but a six-year-old with access to Google could have gone online and found that out.

“They had all the other details of the shop, like the address and phone number, so it struck me as very odd that they didn’t know what type of business it was.”

Mrs Rayner’s suspicion that all was not as it seemed was confirmed when she read the back, which was filled with small print.

She said: “On the front of the letter it says the service is free, but then I turned to the back and there was some very hard to read small print.

“The gist of it was that as soon as you pick up the phone and ring the number your business is entered into a contract.

“It then talked about payment and if full payment wasn’t received it would be passed to a debt collector.

“It was awful really. I rang Trading Standards in Leeds straight away.”