Still use printed phone directories?

[Phil Thien]

It has been so long since I've resorted to looking in a phone book that I try to avoid taking them. At work the book delivery guys need to bring them into the shop, and we politely decline the books. When I returned home yesterday there were a couple of books on the porch, though.

We once advertised our small computer sales/service business in the yellow pages, but it got to the point where the people calling from our ads were just looking for free technical support. We tracked this by inserting a unique phone number in the books and tracking the types of calls we were getting. Pretty disappointing.

What is your take? I created a poll, but feel free to comment, too. I thought the poll might be handy for other small business owners that frequent "The Creek."

[Charlie Reals]

For some reason I tend to get 3 or 4 phone books a year. I throw all of them away except the small local book, and most of it can be found on the net.

[Joe Pelonio]

I stopped yellow pages advertising back about 2003, after my tracking of new customer source revealed that nearly all
were all coming from the website and referrals, while the prices continued to climb. A few came from people stopping by that were in the neighborhood and saw my signs but the phone book was a total waste of money. IN Seattle now a law was passed allowing people to opt out and a high percentage did that, because they didn't want to have to through them away. Here in my area the phone companies have an opt-out program also and we no longer get them.I don't know what percentage of people have online access nationally now but in this area it's about 80% so there must still be some people using the phone book.

[Brian Elfert]

I still use the Yellow Pages, but only the "official" Dex version. The rest get recycled.

There are many times when online searches either miss half the places or they list places that are not even remotely local. I was looking for a local hydraulic shop to call them. I couldn't remember the name and couldn't find them online. I had to go to the Yellow Pages.

[Greg Peterson]

If I'm looking for something or someone, I generally just Google 'em.

[Brian Elfert]

Google doesn't help if you forget the name of the place. I couldn't remember the name of a hydraulics shop earlier this year. I spent 20 minutes on Google looking up hydraulic shops and couldn't find them. I finally looked up hydraulic repair in my trusty Yellow Pages and they were the first listing.

[Bonnie Campbell]

And my complaint is that they could at least give out TWO phone books at my place. I had to resort to begging friends for theirs. If my power is out and I need to look up a number, my computer isn't going to be working. So I want a phone book on hand.

[Bruce Page]

I look up almost exclusively on line, but like Brian, there are occasions when I have to use the book.

[Stephen Tashiro]

I'm used to hearing the phrase "hardly ever", but the phrase "only ever" sounds strange to me. (The phrase "used to" also sounds strange, but only if I stop and think about it.)

A story that a small business owner told me:

He had just moved his shop. The printed directory sales person came an made a big pitch about all the things they could offer him that the phone company could not. He signed up for an ad. He gave them his new addess. When the directory was printed, the ad had his old address. He complained to the sales person. He was told the company was not at fault and would not refund his money because the directory company got its address information from the phone company.

[Phil Thien]

I'm used to hearing the phrase "hardly ever", but the phrase "only ever" sounds strange to me. (The phrase "used to" also sounds strange, but only if I stop and think about it.)

LOL, sorry 'bout that. I should have put more thought into the poll questions.

[Joe Pelonio]

A story that a small business owner told me:

He had just moved his shop. The printed directory sales person came an made a big pitch about all the things they could offer him that the phone company could not. He signed up for an ad. He gave them his new addess. When the directory was printed, the ad had his old address. He complained to the sales person. He was told the company was not at fault and would not refund his money because the directory company got its address information from the phone company.

Just for fun I looked in the latest phone book to check my business address, and it shows where I was in 2006. I left there in early 2007, and that phone number has been disconnected since then.

Where I work (daytime job) there are over 600 employees and there is no phone book in the building.

[Scott Donley]

I still use the Dex book for looking up a business, all the others are a waste of time and I have opted out of their delivery as they are only paid ads, and not everyone pays, but they are all in the Dex book if they have a phone number.

[ray hampton]

the paper book loses out to the computer because I can not increase the font size in a phone book

[Mike Cutler]

I keep the local phone books only because using the online yellow pages is too slow. Way too many popups and pop behinds trying to sell me online look up services,and they keep wanting me to refine my search, and each refinements starts the advertising barage again.
If I know the name of the place, I use google. if not, it's the book, under the heading.

[ray hampton]

How do we recycle the phone books ? will the people that deliver them come back and pick up the unwanted books ?

[Matt Meiser]

I voted never, but I think I did use it once this year when I looked up well drillers. Don't know why because I knew the name of the place I wanted to call. I don't use them out of town anymore either since I can use apps on my phone to determine what is near where I am, see reviews, etc.

[Joe Pelonio]

How do we recycle the phone books ? will the people that deliver them come back and pick up the unwanted books ?
Not hardly. We can put them in our recycling bin picked up with the trash, but it's a waste of resources to print them whether people want them or not and the recycling cost to the city/garbage company is big. Seattle has a new law requiring the phone companies to pay the city $148 per ton of books delivered, because unwanted yellow pages cost them $350,000 a year in recycling costs. That law and the opt-out program were fought in court by the publishers but are in effect now.

[Kevin Gregoire]

when im not at my computer downstairs to look up something on whitepages.com i do get out the phone book
but it really sucks and really tics me off that the print is so small anymore! what do they save paper wise, maybe
3-5 pages by using such small print? and why cant large print books be available to the vision impaired or those who
want them? i have to use a magnifying glass to read the names & numbers.

[Eddie Watkins]

I use them when I'm looking for something local that I don't know the name of. Searches tend to give me too many out-of-town places. Example: I was looking for a place to buy a flag recently and did a web search. I didn't get a single company locally. I went to the phone book and found them immediately.

[Floyd Crocker]

Does anyone issue a phone book CD as well as a printed directory?
I think a local directory installed on my PC would be useful especially if it could be updated periodically

[Phil Thien]

Does anyone issue a phone book CD as well as a printed directory?
I think a local directory installed on my PC would be useful especially if it could be updated periodically

Agreed. I think they should publish these things as PDF's.

The electronic (CD) directories I know of come from third-party companies, are nation-wide (typically) and you have to pay for them.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Ok - make fun of me if you want.....

I enjoy reading the yellow pages whenever I'm in a strange town on vacation or on business.

[Bonnie Campbell]

Ok - make fun of me if you want.....

I enjoy reading the yellow pages whenever I'm in a strange town on vacation or on business.

I won't make fun of you. I do the same thing ;)

[Derek Gilmer]

The only thing I use phone books for anymore are shooting. Soak em in water, stack them 4 deep, and test out some hollow points!

[ray hampton]

The only thing I use phone books for anymore are shooting. Soak em in water, stack them 4 deep, and test out some hollow points!
4 deep you do know that some phone books are maybe 1 " thick, other books may be 4 or 5 inches thick

[Derek Gilmer]

4 deep you do know that some phone books are maybe 1 " thick, other books may be 4 or 5 inches thick

True, I was thinking of the 4-5" that show up on our doorstep.

[Eric DeSilva]

And my complaint is that they could at least give out TWO phone books at my place. I had to resort to begging friends for theirs. If my power is out and I need to look up a number, my computer isn't going to be working. So I want a phone book on hand.

When the power is out, that's what smartphones are for. ;)

[Bonnie Campbell]

And lets hope your batteries are all charged up, right? lol No smart phone here and I make sure I have a corded landline.

[Matt Meiser]

Or sit in the car and plug it in. My cell phone, especially after leaving Sprint, is more reliable than my landline.

[Don Wacker]

And lets hope your batteries are all charged up, right? lol No smart phone here and I make sure I have a corded landline.

I just cancelled my land line. I always kept it thinking "what if we need to call 911". Picked up the land line after finding my shop on fire, no dial tone. The fire killed the land line.

Don

[Matt Meiser]

I'm told that my work line, recently rewired to a remote terminal to allow them to get me DSL in a few months (woohoo!,) will stop working after a little while during a power outage until they can get a generator out there. The other line will continue to "work" the same as before, as long as squirrels don't eat the wire, trees don't fall on the 7 miles of wire, lightning doesn't hit it, water doesn't get in any of the 100's of connections, etc. We are very close to porting that number over to a cell phone which will eventually become my daughter's phone/number. The only thing holding me back is ongoing communication with the phone company regarding that DSL service, the fact that we've got the services cut back so far that it only costs us about $35/mo, and the fact that we have a $200 credit balance on the account due to how well it "works." We use our cell phones for enough of our calls now that we wouldn't need to change our plan minutes for now (see the comment re: my 9yo daughter) so it would only cost us $9.99/mo to add the line and whatever flip phone is free will be great, thank you.

OTOH, the cell towers all have automatic generators and E911 + GPS can determine your location even if you don't have a clue or can't tell them.

[Eric DeSilva]

Same thing with FiOS. We had some serious storms out here--the battery backup on your FiOS (which also supports your phone) is, I think, 12 hours. Can't run power over a fiber optic cable!

And, as you observe, a cell phone has a lot of battery options, even beyond the car. I can plug it into one of our laptops and leech USB power, or even bodge together a conventional set of batteries into a power supply. A lot more reliable than my landline, in my opinion.

[Matt Kestenbaum]

The last time i used a phone book it was to put under a niece--so she could better reach the table in lieu of a booster seat.

[Rick Gibson]

For local businesses I almost always use the phone book. Most of the local businesses are so small they don't even have a website and half the time when they do they only have an email address for contact.

[Steve knight]

we still get books but have not had a land line in 7 years or more.

[Matt Day]

I think we get at least 3-4 books per year, and for some reason I keep one around. I have never used one in at least 3 years. I always recycle them, but it still seems like such a waste of paper, and I find it annoying that they they seem to keep coming.

Even if my power goes out, I still have internet access on my phone to look things up.

[Matt Meiser]

Ours came this week. In a plastic bag, but thrown on our dirt road in rainy weather so its completely useless anyway.

[Rod Sheridan]

I use the on line yellow pages if I need to search for a business.

I don't have a paper phone book of any type now..............Rod.

[Jon McElwain]

What's a phone book??

[ray hampton]

a phone book is a book that you phone if you can find a phone booth

[Brad Adamson]

We do not use the books anymore as we find everything online more readily. Unless we do no know the name for a location, we always use the internet.

I have had relatives advertise their businesses in the phone book for over a decade, but recently stopped back in 2009 due to the higher advertising costs and the fact that no one was using them compared to the internet. You can get way more business advertising on the social forums and facebook than in any of the phone books now and it is free.

[Bud Millis]

What a waste of trees. In today's society, it's quicker to access the number on my smart phone or Google it. We still get a phone book, however, I like to test my strength every year by ripping it in half. Resulting in two sections that are approx. 5 1/2 x 8 1/2. Then its off to the recycling bin.

[ray hampton]

What a waste of trees. In today's society, it's quicker to access the number on my smart phone or Google it. We still get a phone book, however, I like to test my strength every year by ripping it in half. Resulting in two sections that are approx. 5 1/2 x 8 1/2. Then its off to the recycling bin.

until I see the pictures of you ripping the book in half, I will doubt that it happen