phone book error, calls routed to wrong business

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Question

Country: United States of America
State: New Jersey

A large utilities company in the mid-West has published my business 888 telephone number in the yellow pages, instead of theirs. Over the past 9 months or so, we have gotten hundreds of phone calls from their residential customers, many needing gas or repair service. These calls disrupt my business, as I take nearly all calls in order to provide a high level of service in my composite repair work. We often have to stop-start projects when these calls come in as we have to explain they have the wrong number and re-direct them to the correct place. This costs us in lost time, delays, expired materials, and also 888 phone minutes. After several attempts to contact the company, we have been asked by Corporate Counsel, 'What do we want? for compensation. We are seeking guidance for a fair settlement. We know the phone ad will impact us for well over a year as not everybody throws out their phonebooks each year.

Answer

You may ask for the cost of handling such calls and sending them to the company etc--often approx. 60 cents per call using standard services...