Call Kurtis: The Unresponsive Ad Rep

"Anger, frustration to the point of I'm done; I'm done" says Jean Hawkins.

Jean Hawkins says she's had enough of the neglect and indifference she's gotten from her advertising representative.

She strongly believes her business needs the attention of a more responsive professional.

"We opened up the store in 1994" she recalls; Jean's "Valley Oak Appliance Gallery" is celebrating another anniversary; 16 years as Valley Oak, 20 years in business.

The family-owned and operated store has remained afloat while others have sunk.

But her problems with advertising rep, The Berry Company, have been making survival more difficult lately.

Jean says the website she had The Berry Company develop in August of 2009 was months overdue and wasn't what she'd asked for.

"This isn't our showroom. It's not our product" she says looking at the home page for the site Berry produced.

She also never saw it, never approved it, nor authorized The Berry Company to publish it to the web.

She found it only by accident when a customer found the unofficial site and tried to redeem an online discount coupon, one she hadn't approved.

"I was so angry and so frustrated."

Then The Berry Company started billing her $785 a month.

So starting in February 2010, Jean tried to get her rep to call her.

She says she got little response.

She called customer service -- no response.

She finally got ahold of an account rep in September.

"I said it's the worst customer service I've ever experienced in my life."

Jean tried to get The Berry Company to remove the website and the charges, which by now total $4,710.

"She wouldn't get me to anybody further in the company.  I said fine, I'm going to have to go forward with some legal action. She says go right ahead. That was their attitude."

Instead of hiring a lawyer, she called us.

"If you don't treat people right the word gets out and your business goes downhill."

We reached out to The Berry Company's corporate headquarters in Englewood, Colorado.

We sent them Jean's documentation and said that she felt they were in breach of contract.

We never heard back from The Berry Company.

But Jean did, on Veterans Day.

They told her they would take the website down and remove all charges.

That's the power of Call Kurtis, and of a survivalist business owner.

"And as I told them quite pointedly I will never advertise with them again. So they've lost a 20 year customer."

A few things that could help prevent a situation like this is to spell out all details in the agreement/contract, including due dates.

And don't rush into a contract; get advice from low cost legal services, pro-bono attorneys, or small business counselors like S.C.O.R.E.