That seemed a little ridiculous to me, so I left a comment. A comment that the Local Search Association has let sit in a moderation queue since October 20, 2011 at 2:37 pm:

Now, one could make the case that just because someone owns a computer doesn’t mean that they prefer using it for looking up local business information, so we shouldn’t be taking away their print directories. I agree. All we need to do is switch to an opt-in system where people who truly want the books will get them.

This would allow the Local Search Association to stop having to defend itself against the bad PR that comes from spamming households. And, they could stop making videos about trees since their environmental impact would decline dramatically when directories are only delivered to people who have a use for them in 2011.

Here’s the start of the latest exchange:

Just another whacko? fighting the good fight. Do you go to all the companies that send you junk mail and throw the mail onto their property. I think it’s only fair to treat everyone equally.
planesx12

planesx12 raised a decent point. Here was my response:

@planesx12 I’d consider doing something similar with junk mail, except direct mail companies actually do a good job honoring opt-out requests. That’s a sensible approach. Why do they get it right while yellow pages directory companies continue to fail??
thedeets

That generated a response from planesx12:

@thedeets Because their mailing is computer generated and it just takes a simple keystroke. Phone book deliveries are done by people and most don’t look at the delivery sheets which have your opt-out request. They simply go down the street and deliver to every house they see. And when you make a stink the deliver guy gets reamed a new ass hole or fired and the next schlep does the same thing.? If you nicely call up the delivery office and ask them to come pick up the book, SUCCESS!
planesx12

I don’t know what type of response planesx12 is expecting to his comment, but here is what I hear: “We don’t know how to use computers, and we’re not willing to pay and train people to work at a competent level. Instead, we’d like to offset our incompetence onto you by asking you to call to fix a problem you asked up to fix but failed to do so. We would consider this to be a success because it means less work for us.”

But planesx12 didn’t stop there. He/she took the time to leave a second response:

@thedeets Why not just be a decent bloke, pick-up the book and throw it in the trash. Your not saving trees recycling because the books are made from recycled paper. the only other? use for the book is to cut the binder off and shred it into filler as recycled paper can not be made into paper again. The truth of the matter is phone books are better off in the dump as they break down naturally and help filter other crap.
planesx12

How about that? By planesx12′s logic, yellow pages trash actually improves landfills. That’s some seriously twisted logic.

Seriously, planesx12, keep talking. Your arguments are golden. Or, is it yellow? All I know is that they aren’t solving my problem. All I want is to no longer receive unsolicited print yellow pages spam. Is that too much to ask?

And then their is Yellowbook USA’s strategy, which seems to be “insult the frustrated”. I get to experience this on a semi-regular basis on YouTube where commenters associated with Yellowbook take time out of their busy schedules to leave comments like this:

Dude, I work at Yellowbook. You’re such an idiot. Find better things to do with your? time. Maybe try and make some friends.
petejt1983

I left a reply:

@petejt1983 thanks for the tip. If I could offer? one to you: See if you can get your company to live up to the promises it makes. I think that’s a reasonable request. Agreed?

Will @petejt1983 take me up on that reasonable request? Based on what I’ve seen of Yellowbook USA’s culture, I have my doubts.

After doing this, I left a comment for Mr. rescommm74326 on YouTube in response to one of his earlier comments on one of my videos. I said:

@rescommm74326 it looks like you work for? Yellowbook. That explains your motivation. I wrote up a little summary on my blog of what I found in a few minutes of searching. Try Googling your username together with mine, like this “rescommm74326 thedeets” to find it.

This brought a response from rescommm74326, who said:

I’m sure the 7 people who read your? blog will actually care. As for me, I couldn’t care less. Why not spend your time doing something positive, like, perhaps, getting a job? Or, better yet, a life?

Coincidentally, as Greg pointed out in the comments to my prior post, rescommm74326 deleted his YouTube account today. What a coinkydink.

Also, as I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I had downloaded a copy of rescommm74326′s video where a group of Yellowbook employees held a Shake Weight party at their office. I’d hate for something like that to disappear. I know that the 7 people who read my blog will find it entertaining.

I don’t know why rescommm74326 suddenly decided to close his YouTube account. Did someone at Yellowbook realize that they have an embarrassment working for them? Did he get canned? Did he get threatened with being canned if he didn’t delete his YouTube account? Does someone working for Yellowbook have more common sense than rescommm74326? (Let’s hope so.) Is rescommm74326 searching for a new job? A new life? All I know is that rescommm74326′s talking and walking are a bit out of sync at this point.

I hope the seven of you who read this have found it as entertaining as I have.

For example, I’ve recently been receiving harassing comments on a YouTube video I posted in July, 2009 titled “Yellowbook Yellow Pages Opt-Out FAIL” where I collected Yellowbooks that my neighbors hadn’t bothered to bring into their homes and returned them to our local Yellowbook office in Mendota Heights. This was inspired by Yellowbook failing to honor their promise to STOP delivering their books to me. For those who haven’t seen the video, here it is:

A new commenter has been lobbing some bombs at me on YouTube. Here is the latest:

As one might imagine, the kind of person who takes the time to attack me based on the content of a video like that probably has some sort of connection to the yellow pages spamming industry, and probably to Yellowbook specifically.

So I Googled the username, rescommm74326, and things got interesting.

Back on December 3rd, I gave a presentation about yellow pages spam at the Give & Take event at Intermedia Arts. During that presentation, I explained that there are people who hate yellow pages spam more than me. Sure, I’m not above throwing spam directories at yellow pages offices, but it’s not like I pee on their buildings. Pee on their buildings? Yes, pee on their buildings. Which is something that a YouTube user named . . . wait for it . . . rescommm74326 posted a video of himself doing, which I happened to grab two screenshots from for my 10th slide:

Those screengrabs are from a video titled “Idearc Media pissed me off. So I pissed on them” which has since been deleted from YouTube. To be clear, that was done by an adult.

Now, at the time, I figured that this was someone I could identify with. A print yellow pages spam hater who takes things further than I would. But, after watching this video from the same YouTube user, rescommm74326 . . .

@rescommm74326, delete it if you want. I’ve downloaded & saved a copy.
UPDATE: @rescommm74326 deleted it, so I updated this with the copy I saved.

Hmm, is it just me, or are those Yellowbook directories in the background? Is that a Yellowbook office? It’s the kind of thing that makes me wonder whether someone harassing me about my Yellowbook video works for . . . you guessed it . . . Yellowbook.

I realize that Yellowbook has a lot of employees, but how many companies foster a culture that makes employees think it’s okay to attack end users of your product on YouTube who have a legitimate complaint about a company’s customer service incompetence?

Keep in mind that this is the same company, Yellowbook, that never responded to me about my request to be paid for their continued spamming my my property after they promised to make it stop:

While many yellow pages companies are tone deaf when it comes to dealing with the public, I think Yellowbook leads the pack.

Back to YouTube user, rescommm74326. Here is another Idearc Media video that rescommm74326 decided to comment on recently:

Here are his comments:

Yes, he really wrote that.

@rescommm74326 has two followers on YouTube. One of them is the official YouTube account for . . . wait for it . . . Yellowbook. Yes, that’s correct. Yellowbook has associated themselves with what appears to be an employee who pees on competitor’s buildings, harasses end users of their product when they have legitimate complaints about Yellowbook failing to live up to their own promises, and makes racially horrific YouTube comments about a competitor’s spokesperson.

Yellowbook is going to have to try hard to outdo these examples of incompetence.