ComplaintsforRoyal Publishing Co., Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  01/24/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Received several calls from this number on my cellphone - which is registered on the do not call list. Voicemails are left, but they are 3-4 seconds long and they do not say anything. I have called back in, and was advised they have over 100 people working there and cannot tell who called. I advised them I was on the do not call list, and do not wish to be contacted. I have not requested contact. P

  Business response

  02/06/2024

  Our apologies for the calls you received. Business to business laws are a bit different, and though we are not required to have a Do Not Call List, I will do my best to block your number from being dialed. I will do that to the number listed.

• Initial Complaint

  06/23/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  This morning 6/23/23 at 1130AM CST I received a call from someone identifying himself as **** with ******* **** ******. Inquiring about placing an add for ***** ****** in a Cross Country Meet program. I asked if he was with ******* **** ******, he said yes, I asked if he was a teacher.... or what was his position. He then said he worked for a company representing ******* High. I asked the name of the company with deep sigh... said Royal Publishing. At that time I said ' there you go". Meaning why not identify yourself right away and not con people... he misrepresented himself until I pressed the question. He did give me his phone number ************ which helped my further identify this company. Upon speaking with my boss, to warn him about a scam call, he said he had in fact been contacted about a Football program for ******* High as well. The purpose of this complaint is to get my number and any other number associated with us - ***** ****** ********* *** ******* ********** off of their call list. We do not do business with people and companies that misrepresent themselves.

  Business response

  07/10/2023

  ****, I am extremely sorry about this issue. Our sales presentations begin with the rep introducing themselves as calling "in regards to" the name of the high school, but at any time when asked who they are with they are to clearly state they are with Royal Publishing. Though we monitor sales calls, we are unfortunately unable to monitor them all to make sure that is what they are saying. Obviously our rep is NOT with the school, and this issue is being addressed immediately. We do have an agreement with ******* **** to produce their XC program, but we are not the company that called for their football program. 

• Initial Complaint

  05/15/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I RECEIVED SEVERAL CALLS FOR ONE OF THEIR TELEMARKETERS, I ASKED NICELY TO TAKE ME OFF THEIR CALLING LIST, AFTER HANGING UP ON THIS PERSON 3 TIMES SHE FOLLOWED UP WITH SENDING ME AN INVOICE 5 MINS LATER!! DISCRACEFUL AND UNPROFESSIONAL ON THE OTHER HAND YOU THE BBB HAS REPEATEDLY SHOWN BUSINESSES WITH A+ RATINGS THAT DONT DESERVE IT AND ARE CONTINUOUSLY STEALING AND DEFRAUDING PEOPLE, BUT THEY CAN JUST PAY YOU AND KEEP THE A+ RATING BECAUSE THATS JUST HOW YOU HAVE BEEN DOING BUSINESS FOR YEARS AND THE MAIN REASON I DISCONTINUED DOING BUSINESS WITH YOU!!!

  Business response

  05/18/2023

  ***, 

  We are very sorry to hear that you feel this way. Our company has worked hard servicing the schools and organizations with quality souvenir programs for their sporting events since 1979. On March 2nd you were contacted by one of our reps regarding your local grade school who was fortunate enough to have wrestling athletes qualify for the **** Wrestling Championships, and as you had purchased an ad back in 2016 for a similar program the rep wanted to give you a chance to get involved for this event. As you can see by the phone report attached they spoke to you for almost 5 minutes at 1:53 pm. In that conversation, you had them add: Serving **** and ******* Counties to the ad we had in our file. We had not known to do that otherwise. We can certainly block your number here from being called in future but would like to speak with you about the ad in question. The calls you refer to in your complaint wherein you have hung up on our rep are her attempts to collect on the outstanding invoice (also shown on attached phone report). 

• Initial Complaint

  02/24/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I used to advertise with this company and they would constantly call for a different school than I am committed to. I would complain and tell them I don't care about *******, rather send me info for *******. One gentleman told me that it really doesn't matter because I am not placed with the school anyway. It was never told to me that I would not be placed with my school and had I known that I would not have used that service in the first place. I told them to never call me again and since that time I have been harassed constantly by this company. They need to stop calling me and inform all future clients that their advertisements will be nowhere near their school of choice.

  Business response

  02/24/2023

  i replied to an email that was sent earlier today. Hopefully that has satisfied the customer as we have also noted his account to not be called. 

  Customer response

  02/28/2023

  I am rejecting this response because:
  

  As long as I don't get called again I'll be happy. This is the third time Ive been told  I wont be called and I am continuing to be called.

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

• Initial Complaint

  05/17/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On February 7, 2022, ***** ******* from Royal Publishing sent the attached email inquiring as to our interest in adverting in a local girls sectional/district basketball program (email - attachment #1). On February 14, 2022 we responded back to ***** ******* via email stating that we would not be interested in this advertising opportunity. She responded back via email that same day stating that one of the member partners had called her back gave verbal approval to run the ad over the phone (email - attachment #2). Attached is the 1st invoice that we received in the mail (attachment #3). To support that we did not place a call back to ***** ******* on February 8, 2022 is our long distance phone bill covering the period of time that she said that a call would have been placed to her from our business to phone * ************ (attachment #4). We received a "Statement of Outstanding Invoice(s) Due" last week (attachment #5). We pay our bills but not for items or services that we did approve. We want the phone calls to stop and our billing for this advertisement to be done away with.

  Business response

  05/26/2022

  We have credited the above invoice. Lawrence has purchased several ads from us in the past and though my Senior Sales Rep indicated she got a call from his partner wishing to purchase the ad we cannot confirm that as we don't have incoming call records showing numbers calling in. I have attached the phone record showing 2 calls to the business, one for a significant amount of time, but nothing that shows an incoming call from anyone at that number. Though we have an email from Lawrence that he didn't wish for an ad, the programs were already printed by that point. In light of the situation, as mentioned, we credited the account. We are very sorry for the situation.

• Initial Complaint

  03/25/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Royal Publishing is charging ****** ****** for multiple invoices for advertising that were never approved or initiated by ****** ******. ****** ****** paid the false invoices in February 2022 to close out the account. Now Royal Publishing has called ****** ****** with yet another "invoice Past Due." This goes against ILLIONOIS BUSINESS TRANSACTIONS (*** **** ***/) Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act. This same issue has been happening with Royal Publishing for 2 years. ****** ****** will no longer Pay the fraudulent invoices.

  Business response

  04/08/2022

  Our sales representative spoke with the Manager and he, *** ********, purchased the ad. ****, the comptroller, sent information to our rep letting him know the ad was "fraudulent" because she should be the only one to purchase ads. Our General Manager spoke with **** and indicated that we would note the account as such but we did not know this information prior and as *** had purchased ads before we had contacted him for the latest ad. **** was insistent that was not true so our General Manager called *** himself and he admitted he had purchased the last two ads. Our GM asked him to please clear this up as **** had said the ads weren't purchased. He said he would. Our GM then emailed **** to let her know that she would be hearing from *** to clear the matter up and that her account was noted. 

  Customer response

  04/08/2022

   I am rejecting this response because: This is a multi year issue. Royal Publishing has repeatedly contacted multiple unauthorized ****** ****** associates after Royal Publishing has been notified in writing and via phone conversations that ****** ****** would not purchase any further advertising. This same issue happened the previous 2 years and ****** ****** paid the bills. Royal Publishing uses unethical standards to continue to contact ****** ******. The General Manager herself contacted Mr. ******** after being told not to call anyone at ****** ******. It is fraudulent activity to continue to get "approval" by unauthorized personnel after being notified multiple times of the same issue.  The unethical business practices definition encompasses anything that falls below minimum standards for business code of conduct. It is ****** ******'s position that the advertising was obtained under false pretenses. The solution ****** ****** asked for was no further contact with Royal Publishing. ****** ****** has been contacted 2 more times since the original complaint.
  
  
  

  Business response

  04/08/2022

  The minute our rep forwarded the complaint we locked down the account noting that **** was the only person that was to be listed on the account to purchase ads for ****** ******. In the past, 5 of 11 ads had been purchased by someone other than ****. This was the first time a manager had ever gotten correspondence about noting their account to only accept ads from ****.  When I called to talk to the manager, ***, at ****** ****** WHO ADMITTED TO BUYING THE LAST 2 ADS it was not to sell an another ad; it was to clear up the issue at hand. I am glad I spoke to *** to get the truth as an "unauthorized ad" could lead to disciplinary action for my rep, and I was assured they didn't do anything wrong.  It is certainly in our best interest to have information like this noted and had we known it prior it would have been noted then, and we would have only been reaching out to ****. I also explained that in my email to ****. We take complaints seriously which is why I myself became involved. There was no intent to deceive anyone as indicated by the word "fraudulent"; we just simply didn't know that her people that were saying yes had no authority to be doing so. Now we do, and we have done our best internally to stop them from being called. I emailed **** to let her know we have noted her account so I am a little unsure of how better to serve her. 

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