Consumer Claim: The Check in the Mail Is a Bill Houston chiropractor Brett Downey cashed a $2.50 check last December from Yellow Pages Inc. of Anaheim, California. That is when his troubles began. He thought the check was some kind of refund for overpaying his company’s ad in the Southwestern Bell’s local telephone book. Like many small business owners and professional people, he takes care of his own bills and does not have time to read everything carefully. In January he was flabbergasted to receive a bill for $179 from the Anaheim company for registering his Fairview Health Center in its Yellow Pages directory. He called and discovered that by cashing the check, he unknowingly had signed up for a one-year listing on the Internet. Fine print on the back of the check apparently authorized the listing. Representatives of the company insisted that by signing the check, Dr. Downey had accepted their promotional incentive, which starts the billing process. He did, after all, sign the check.

Your Task.
In teams or individually, analyze what happened. How many companies do you think have “Yellow Pages” in their names? Does this “Yellow Pages” check offer sound like a scam? What other scams do you know about that involve small businesspeople? Should Dr. Downey contact the Better Business Bureau? Assume that Dr. Downey has received several billings, and he wants them to stop. He asks you to help him write an appropriate letter to Yellow Pages Inc., P.O. Box 4298, Anaheim, CA 95091. Should he send back the $2.50 from the check he cashed? Use the simplified letter style to avoid a salutation.