Hi All.

Has anybody had any dealings with this company? They are the 'corporate' side of 118118.
I recently signed with them on the understanding that my business would be the 'preferred' referal when someone asked for a local garage. (Rotherham, in my case)

A couple of months after we went 'live' a regular customer mentioned that they had asked for my business BY NAME and 118118 had no record of my business! I rang up pretending to be a customer and, sure enough, no record of my number or business name.

Not only that but when I asked for a local garage I was given the number of a guy who used to work for me; left to set up his own garage and had subsequently closed down!

When I rang 118118 customer services (an oxymoron in this case) I was informed that my garage was on a rotor with other garages in the area AND I was only the 'preferred' garage in a few areas within Rotherham, not Rotherham itself. I pointed out that this was not what I signed up for and I wouldn't have gone ahead if that had been explained properly as I didn't want to be associated with some of the garages on the 'rotor'. I also pointed out that they had proved unable to supply my number even when asked for by my business' name.

After putting my concerns in writing (and cancelling the D/D), including a demand for re-imbursement of the deposit/payments I had already paid, I recieved a call (God knows where they got the number) to say my concerns were being addressed.

I have just recieved a letter demanding payment in full for the full contract or legal proceedings will follow! Another call to them resulted in me being told that there is no'cancellation' policy in the contract but they were prepared to negotiate a 'settlement to enable a return on my investment'! I told them that I do have a cancellation policy and to expect to hear from my solicitor.

My solicitor now has the various correspondence including an invoice for the wasted time spent on the phone and writing letters. (I'm posting this free of charge!)

I would be interested to hear from anyone else who has had any dealings with this company as I'm passing the details to trading standards. I bet I'm not the only one fooled by their sales technique. I suppose I should have known it was to good to be true.

Sorry for the long post.
Paul.