AmGeek Banned from “The Book”

Could you be next?

If you ever need to call me, and can’t remember my number, 783-1000, you will have to find it on the web. Don’t bother looking in “The Book”. I am not there. I’ve been thrown out! And, if you aren’t careful, it could happen to you too!

Not only are my name and phone number no longer in “The Book”, but they have vanished from several major on-line databases (who obviously draw their info from “The Book”) as well. If that weren’t bad enough, as long as I am confessing, it took me over six months to realize that it happened.

“Fool”, you ask, “didn’t you notice a drop in business?

No, there wasn’t one. I know I should have seen it sooner but, to my shame, I admit, I no longer read “The Book”. In fact, it has been years since I last sought its guidance for what to purchase and from where. Instead, I have strayed to the Internet for that information.

Even the occasional client saying, “I can’t find you in ‘The Book’” didn’t set off any alarms. That was nothing new. I had always attributed their confusion to the multiple sub-headings and classifications of “The Book”

It was, in the end, a persistent credit balance on my monthly statement from “The Book” that made me look. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I really wasn’t in “The Book”. Can you imagine my horror? Me, the owner of a small business, most of which comes in over the phone.

What did I do? What sinister malfeasance have I preformed to get myself expelled from “The Book”, where even the lowliest smut shop is free to list?

At first, I had no idea. Now, looking back, what I did seemed like such a good thing at the time, that I honestly, never gave it a thought. Like thousands of others recently I VOIPed.

That’s right, I switched my phone service from landline based Verizon to an Internet based Voice Over IP provider, called Vonage. In doing so it seems that I have committed the ultimate transgression against the keepers of “The Book”.

Yes, I knew that I would lose my “Free “ listing in “The Book”. That, I thought, was a good thing – fewer telemarketers! I also knew that I sent the “The Book” a separate offering every month for its yellow pages. And so, it never occurred to me, that I would be purged from there as well. Boy, was I wrong.

What am I to do?

Well, that is a story for another day. I hope you will come back and find out. Wow, now that I am not in “The Book”, I hope I am here to tell you.

In the mean time, please, do me a favor. If you have to call, and can’t remember my number…

Look me up on the web.

Ed Barnat A/K/A Amgeek

518-783-1000 www.amgeek.com