When sales started to slow last month, I looked for new ways to advertise my commercial HVAC repair company.
I found a magazine that offered space for advertising and they only charged $200 each month.
I had to sign up for six months of service to get the $200 price, but I didn’t mind. After I saw the ad in there, I was impressed. The banner in the magazine looked exactly like my business card. The colors in the advertisement were bright and Vivid. The same day that the magazine was released, I had a charge on my card for the advertising fees for the heating and AC repair business. I checked the credit card statement twice, especially after I saw the amount. The advertising company charged me $2,000 for the advertising instead of $200. It certainly seems like an accounting error, but I was still upset. I only had a few more dollars than that in the bank and I had to make purchases for a few AC repair jobs that weekend. I immediately contacted the advertising company. They put me on hold for 15 minutes. I never hung up the phone, because I wanted to get to the bottom of the problem. When the representative from the advertising company answered the phone, she apologized for the weight and asked if I was calling about the billing problem. Apparently every person that advertised in the magazine this month had a withdrawal for ten times the amount they would normally pay. They took care of the issue the next day and refunded the full amount of our advertising fees as well.