More Dunedin residents and businesses have emerged from the Otago telephone directory with complaints about their listings.
Dan O'Leary from the Southern Sports Bar and Grill in Princes St said he had been trying to get out of the yellow pages for three years, but kept appearing and receiving the bill for it despite not being asked if he wanted his business listed in the pages.
This year he was determined to make sure his business did not appear in the yellow pages, only to find when the telephone book came out, it did not appear in the white pages either.
To top it off, the personal telephone number of his son, who had liaised with the telephone book company's "very insistent" representative, was also missing from the telephone book.
"They're saying this was an accident, human error. But I think vindictiveness is behind it."
When he rang the company to complain, the call taker initially accused him of being rude to the representative, but later retracted that, apologised and offered him a very good deal for next year.
"But that doesn't really help us this year. They must be a very, very sloppy company," he said.
Dunedin resident Madelon White said her name and contact details had been omitted from the white pages but no-one seemed to take responsibility for the blunder.
Upon contacting her Yellow Pages representative, she was told: "Your residential listing is classified as non-published with Telecom which is something that we are unable to see at our end.
"This is something that you would have discussed with Telecom when you connected your Telecom account. Thus your residential details are not printed in the current edition".
When she contacted Telecom, she was told she should have requested that Telecom publish her number.
"Everyone is teflon-coated, but they are quick enough to take your money."
St Clair Fish Supply on Forbury Rd and Quest Dunedin were also omitted and their managers were concerned about the financial repercussions.
Quest Dunedin managing director Stacey Gibb said she was furious.
"We are an accommodation provider, and as you can imagine, this has caused us a great deal of frustration.
"People are already finding it hard to find us. It's embarrassing - it makes us look bad and it's not our fault."
Fairfield resident Phil Hollard also complained that his telephone number was difficult to find in the online directory.
Traditionally, a name and city were all that was required to find a telephone number on the directory, but Mr Hollard said his number could only be found if you put his name, city and suburb into the search engine.
Yellow corporate communications manager Lenska Papich said the company did everything it could to ensure listings were accurate and errors kept to an absolute minimum, and apologised to anyone who experienced issues with their listing.
"Again while we treat every error with the seriousness it deserves, it is important to note that with more than 20,000 listings in the Otago directory, such errors remain isolated.
"We are investigating . . . as a matter of priority and are happy to work with the parties involved to rectify the issues," she said.
Otago Daily Times marketing co-ordinator Steve Ramsay had some good news for those affected.
A new ODT online directory will be launched in March and those affected could get a free premium listing on the directory valued at $99 by contacting steve.ramsay@alliedpress.co.nz. john.lewis@odt.co.nz.
