If No One Uses The Print Yellow Pages, Why Does Everyone Get So Upset?
August 19, 2008
The Paper Atheists who all believe that printed phone books are an evil infringement on their personal space, are only used by elderly people, are only good for finding buggy whip company’s, and are responsible for most of the world’s pollution are a very vocal bunch online. They insist THEY never use a printed directory. Heck, everything they ever need is online or on their mobile device.
If all that is true how come everyone gets upset when an error is made in those print Yellow Pages?? The last case involves the DEX/RHD directory in Snohomish, WA, a Seattle suburb. From Kristi O’Harran at the “HeraldNet”:
“….The first general county number listed, 360-568-2482, gets you to the parks department.
The first listing for the courthouse, 360-435-3441, gets you to a place to make a shelter reservation.
If you dial the Snohomish Health District, listed as 425-388-3411, and press “0″ for an operator, you’ll get the county human resources department….”
Could it be possible that people really do you the print phone book???????????? If you need more proof the next line in the article confirms it:
“…..The human resources department gets about 50 health district calls every day, said Christopher Schwarzen, with the county executive’s office….”
Seems someone must be using those books…
Entry Filed under: Print YP Facts. Tags: phone books, printed errors, snohomish, yellow pages.
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1.
KenC | August 21, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Here’s another one –
the Daily Chronicle in DeKalb, IL reports that the white pages of the four directories that cover DeKalb area — Yellow Book, the Idearc/Verizon SuperPages, Premiere Directories and the Communiversity (which ironically is published by Shaw Newspapers – who also publishes the Daily Chronicle) has the incorrect phone number for the DeKalb airport. Link to article: http://www.daily-chronicle.com/articles/2008/08/21/news/local/doc48ad073406eca894314246.txt
So what’s the problem? No one reads the white pages anymore do they??
Of course they do, which is why local officials are so upset with the wrong numbers…..
2.
Alex | September 26, 2008 at 7:42 pm
The issue is that for those of us who do not use them (and there are indeed many of us), there is no opt-out option. We cannot ask them to stop delivering to us. There could be a large amount of paper and resources saved if we could request no delivery. But there is no such thing, though we have tried very hard to find one. In fact, the phone book companies appear to actively avoid this kind of discussion because they know that their profits would take a huge nose-dive if we were able to opt-out. So they simply make it impossible.
3.
KenC | September 26, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Alex:
You may not believe this but the publishers are putting processes in place to allow for opt-out. The mere fact that you think they are avoiding it is silly. Every publisher that has tested or implemented these programs has seen a rate well below 5% of people opting out.
They will however need to verify on an on-going basis that the person/family that choose to opt-out is still there the following year. With annual relocation rates in some areas approaching over 30%, that next resident in the abode may indeed still want one.