Classified Ad Rip Off

[Phuketshrew]

I placed a premium online ad with the Phuket Gazette on Wednesday 22nd February 2012 at 16:47

This Ad was paid for immediately online by credit card.

By 9.45am on Thursday the Ad had still not been published online so I emailed [email protected] (Khun Jeab) at 09:52 - Still no reply.

At around midday on the Ad finally appeared but by 6pm it had been taken off the first page. I emailed again at 18:11 - Still no reply.

Effectively I have had about 6 hours of advertising exposure for over 800 baht (That equates to over 3,000 baht for a one line ad for a day - quite a rip off).

I phoned the Phuket Gazette this morning - Khun Jeab was not available so I tried to explain the situation to Khun Man (Mam?) - Had a very terse and unfriendly response stating that their database indicated that the ad had gone live when it was first placed, which it didn't. She would not accept that and said that there was nothing further that she was prepared to do.

(Remember Little Britain? ......computer says no.....computer says no ..... )

Clearly, there is something amiss with the way ads are placed, approved, and finally published. There is also a huge problem with customer service.

Needless to say the Phuket Gazette has lost a customer. I had planned to place another ad today but think I will now stick with ThaiVisa, BahtSold etc.

[necronx99]

Charge it back.

[snamos]

Best responses I have had for advertising are with Thaivisa. The other 2 island newspapers were expensive and I never had the same amount of hits that I did with TV

[LivinginKata]

Tip ... place your ad in the morning when (weekdays) there is staff on duty. I have had the same promblem in the past.

[apetley]

Give your cc company a call and tell them what happened and that you want a refund.

Posted with Thaivisa App http://apps.thaivisa.com

[Rickster]

Why pay extortionate money for Ads when you can use TV and B&S for free inc photo's. I've had a very high success rate with both these options and will continue to use them in the future when req'd.

The PG classifieds section is woeful at best and the customer service non-existant, however the trade off is good coverage as many read the hard copy and go on-line but first port of call will be free Ad's for me.....

Edited February 24, 2012 by Rickster

[bino]

Is it possible that the ad went online like they said, but your browser was displaying a cached page?

[petercallen]

The PG is a very expensive paper to advertise in

Much more expensive than papers in Australia with

100 times the circulation

Its about time they had some decent compatition

[Phuketshrew]

Is it possible that the ad went online like they said, but your browser was displaying a cached page?

No sorry but that's not a possibility - I even tried to test the ad on two different machines - my Macbook and my Netbook.