Auto Glass Search.Com Company Spokesperson Attempts to Clarify Misconceptions
August 6, 2009

Auto Glass Yext, previously known as Auto Glass Search, came on the scene just about a year ago, and many shop owners quickly signed up for the service. The company adds each business name to an online listing, segmented by area, and creates a unique phone number for the shop, through which calls can be received via the company's regular phone line. Auto Glass Yext then charges the shop a fee per each call received through the site—though there is no fee just to be listed.

"It's a pure pay-for-performance model," says Auto Glass Yext division president Ed Cheely. Today, Cheely says the site lists more than 2,000 auto glass businesses.

However, not all users have been happy with the service. glassBYTEs.com™/AGRR magazine has received reports from some readers who believe they were charged for calls that didn't come through the system-or calls that were never made.

One reader, who wished to remain anonymous as his negotiations with the company are on-going, advised glassBYTEs.com™/AGRR magazine that after he discontinued use of the service, his credit card was charged $270 for calls of which he had no record.

Though one popular feature of the site is that users can log in to review the calls, this shop owner has cancelled his affiliation with the site—to avoid future charges altogether. When he contacted the company, he says he was advised that if he signed up again, he could listen to the recordings. He didn't want to do this—-and has since cancelled the credit card provided in an effort to stop the charges, but still hasn't gotten his money back.

"[Auto Glass Yext] did respond to me after awhile and said if I would send them a detailed listing, which I had done previously, they would consider refunding the money," says the shop owner, who's now been dealing with this issue since mid-March.

Cheely says problems like this shouldn't be occurring.

"There must be a misunderstanding in that case, because the only way we can charge for a call is if it goes through our system, and every single call is logged and recorded within a customer's account," he says, "so they literally have a recording and analysis of each call."

The shop owner also advised that many of the calls he received and was charged for were for replacements—and his shop is repair-only.

"I even got a call from Nationwide Insurance about an invoice and [Auto Glass Yext] said that came through them," he recalls.

However, Cheely says that shops are only charged for new customer calls.

"We're also able to use our technology to filter out [things like] bogus calls, because it's possible that you might get a sales call or job inquiry," Cheely says. "Using our technology we're able to filter those out. We're charging for new customer calls only."

For those who have concerns about calls they may have been charged for, Cheely encourages them to contact the company.

"If someone wanted to contact our support team, we could easily clear up any misunderstanding about that," he says.

Regarding the recent name change to Auto Glass Yext, Cheely says it came from a company-wide decision to unite all the various search options the company offers under one banner name.

"Our company has been growing very, very quickly in the past two years and up until recently we kept all of our websites across different industries as independent units," he says. "So, for example, there was autoglassearch.com, LocalVets.com, etc. We just recently, because of our growth and success, made the move to consolidate all of those under the Yext brand."

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