Sensis ignoring your business? Sure, but why?
Do you operate a small business, here in Australia? If so, is it listed in the online versions of the "yellowpages" and "whitepages" directories?
Are you sure?
If, like us, you're actually not listed in either directory, do you know why? If you do, would you kindly let us know because the support people at Sensis seemingly either have no idea or refuse to reveal their reasons.
A few weeks ago, while experimenting with their "new and improved" yellowpages and whitepages websites, I noticed that our company wasn't listed in either. While we weren't startled to discover our absence from the yellowpages, we thought it was a little odd that we were missing from the white pages directory too.
My original (and straight-forward) query on their "contact us" page:
Can you please tell me why you don't list all Australian businesses, despite the fact that you say that you do on your help page? Try searching for "Lutrov Communications" in postcode "3113" to see what I mean.
Their befuddled reply, a couple of days later:
Kindly try using the white pages as the yellow pages is a paid advertising medium used for finding a product or service. The white pages are designed to locate businesses to which you are already aware of the name and location.
I began to wonder whether this person has even looked at their yellowpages website:
If, as you say, "the yellowpages is a paid advertising medium used for finding a product or service", why does the home page offer a search option to "find business name"?
My question was either too hard or I had become too annoying because their "ever-so helpful" response arrived 6 days later:
To assist you in your search, we recommend the following sites:
To find a particular business or person - white pages(r) online site - http://www.whitepages.com.au/ To find a product or service - yellow pages(r) online site - http://www.yellowpages.com.au/ To find maps or directions - whereis(r) site - http://www.whereis.com.au/ To find a website - sensis.com.au(tm) site - http://www.sensis.com.au/
The yellow pages has a find business option for customers who choose to use the site in that way, it by no means implies that just because the listing appears [sic] in the white pages that it should also apear [sic] in the yellow pages as the information contained in both mediums are diffferent [sic].
Thinking that the responses I've been getting perhaps aren't from humans, I attempt to ask my question once again:
Lutrov Communications is an Australian business and as such, I would expect to find it listed in both, yellowpages.com.au and whitepages.com.au but it's not listed in either. The yellowpages.com.au help section says this:
"In a 'find business name' search you can enter a name of a business and we will look for the name you entered in our database of Australian business listings."
It appears that your database of Australian business listings is incomplete and you're either accidentally or deliberately excluding some businesses, both in the yellowpages.com.au and whitepages.com.au websites.
I would like to know why this is the case.
That was two weeks ago and we haven't heard from them since.
While we're sure that there must be legitimate reasons why Sensis would exclude some Australian businesses, we're not amused by their unwillingness or inability to state why.
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About the author
I'm Ivan Lutrov and I'm the owner of Lutrov Interactive. I have 25 years of experience producing interactive work and I create cost effective business websites that are simple, engaging and easy to use. I practice what I preach and I say what I really think, even if it's sometimes not what you want to hear. Subscribe to the Lutrov Interactive feed via RSS and follow me on Twitter.