Does your US telephone service provider supply you with a phone book?

Somebody throws phone books on my front step. It is somebody’s phone company, but I have only prepaid phones. I don’t use a phone enough to keep an account with anyone.

I still have a land line as well as my cell phone. Frontier Communications gives us a white pages and a yellow pages. I keep the old books in my truck.
Phonebooks have maps, and tons of coupons. They also burn if you need to start a fire.

When I am in the house in front of my pc I just google the number.

I get phone books from Verizon but they don’t print private numbers any more.

Yes, and I am old enough to still use them. Mostly for what they were intended, but sometimes for making me taller.

Nope and that’s a good thing, what a waste it is for 90% of the population.

I get a book from the local phone company and at least 2 other yellow pages from others. I recycle them immediately and keep none. I lookup everything online.

Some phone company or other provides me with kindling once a year.

There are different ones that show up throughout the year. Some wear the endorsement “the real phone book” but no one knows ( or cares) where they come from. If you want to have some fun, walk into any business or enterprise and ask to use one. You’re about as likely to find a phone book as you are a pay phone.

BellSouth territory (Atlanta) – haven’t gotten an official phone book in 8 years or more.

Haven’t gotten one of those advertising phone books in 5 years or so.

Thanks for your answers so far! Keep ‘em coming!
@janbb Yeah, DEX does that here, too. But I requested a separate book of residential listings from them.
@LuckyGuy You GOOGLE the number. I assume you already the name of whom you’re trying to call? What if you’re looking for a service and don’t know the name OR number?

I often use 1–800-FREE-411 (1–800-373–3411). It’s a free service supported by ads.

I think I get about 3 phone books. They put them in plastic bags and leave them by the mailbox.

That’s the reason we no longer advertise our business in the phone book. Paper has been crushed by the internet.

I get local directories; I pick them up and put them in the recycling bin. Usually they are provided by The Yellow Pages, with white pages included.

I do have a land line from my cable company. But I have nowhere convenient to have a phone book considering how rarely I would use it.

They finally stopped last year.

I was amazed they persisted so long.

I have not looked in the phone book for almost twenty years. I delivered them from the porch straight to the recycling bin.

We get one from Haynes and one from Winstream each year.

Book?

* /checks calendar *

The last one I got was in 2009. It’s still there on the porch as art. (Ironically, of course; the only way to do things in Seattle.) We haven’t needed one in years. Not only can we look up numbers on the internet, we can also look at the internet on our phones. I might have a use for one this winter though; we have a fireplace.

I don’t think so. The last time I saw a phone book in my mailbox was maybe two years ago. Not sure who put it out. I try to pass it on to a neighbor.

Nope and I’m glad they don’t anymore. I placed them in the trash straight away. Such a waste of paper.

@cookieman – I sort of disagree. When I received phone books, I used them. Not often, maybe once a month, but for certain things they came in very handy. The web based phone directories are generally crappy. Badly indexed, can’t localize to my specific area, and so on.

While I can usually (eventually) locate a phone number today, for certain things, a phone book was preferable.

Agree. I prefer a phone book in general.

There are 2 things I’ve noticed on the increasingly rare occasions when I reach for the phone book. The first is that old habits are difficult to loose, and next is that the current books have appalling levels of errors and missing listings

@stanleybmanly Yes, missing listings. I overcame an omission just yesterday with YELLOW BOOK, which is not the official Yellow Pages as printed in my DEX (the generally released by the main landline telephone provider, Century Link) phone book. My business is listed under “pet services” but YELLOW BOOK has no such classification, hence the omission. I called them yesterday and arranged to have my listing included in their publication under “Pet Waste Removal Services.” (Thank you, YELLOW BOOK!) I was already included in their White Pages, but what good is that if people don’t know your business’s name?

@majorrich and @janbb Do you use them? Which one do you use the most or which one is on top right now?

If I need a store number or business number, I find googling is best. With the phone, it takes me right to the number and then I just click “call.”

With a person, I either text or email or get in touch with them on FB. Rarely do I call someone if they have not given me their number (in fact, not “rarely” but “never”).

I usually use the Winstream first. Haynes is a commercial directory funded by advertising. There are more errors and often business’ are not listed because they would not pay. I have been using an older one lately as a razor strop, quite successfully I might add. the paper has just about the right tooth to smooth the razors.

The analog directory is surprisingly useful for quickly finding people and services. Because I am old, I can find stuff faster than my son and his smartphone.

@jca But how do you go about finding that person/service in the first place if you don’t know their name or number? That’s what the Yellow Pages are good for. But which yellow pages? The ones in the regular standard phone company supplied-with-land-line-service book, or some other, like YELLOW BOOK?

@majorrich GA! That’s the type of info/response I’m looking for! Thanks!!!

@kritiper – The “near me” function on Google Maps is pretty awesome. Enter in “dog groomers near me” will locate every grooming facility within several miles, and give their address, phone number, website, and Yelp! rating.

If a grooming business in the area don’t have an online presence, then the business owner needs to spend a few minutes getting acquainted with the century.

@Seek About the first part of your post, what if the company has no store front and offers their services to you in or at your home?
I totally agree with the second part of your post, despite the cost that service provider must pay to provide that info on the internet.

If I were looking for someone to come into my home, I would Google for a mobile service, bringing me to the second point again.

The cost to keep a website is minimal, if you’re not hiring a designer. A simple GoDaddy account is $10 startup and about $2 a month.

@Seek To advertise on one specific internet type market billboard (I saw) was $10 a hit. And that is very specific, very focused, extremely advantageous advertising. Some of these specific billboards are as much as $20 a hit. (A hit being any time someone comes looking at your ad.) Yellow page listings are free with your telephone service, or like YELLOW BOOK, a free complimentary listing.( I am not saying that being on the internet is a bad thing, just wanting to know how people might find specific businesses.)
Do you know how the internet would know if a service was mobile or not if no one bothered to input that info? People know by the nature of my business that I’m mobile. Like a carpet cleaner, or window washer, or tree pruner, or a yard service. Now a dog washer (if he/she comes to your house) would advertise as a mobile service…

@kritiper: I’m the Queen of The Google. Trust me, I can find things that most other people can’t. I can find people’s names when they won’t tell me their name. There’s all sorts of information available if you know how to search.

I’m just saying, advertising in Yellow Book isn’t going to help you any better than a good website will, if 99.8% of people throw away their Yellow Books without ever bringing them into the house.

@jca Thanks. I’m sure there are lots of people with formidable internet talents like yourself.
@Seek Thanks. I knew that. Just trying to see what phone book (and Yellow Pages) people use if they use a phone book.

Do you have Angie’s List available where you are, @kritiper? Sounds like that’s more what you’re looking for?

I estimate I use the Yellow Pages around 4–6 times a year, and then only for older, established businesses. If Bell is available, I use them.

Within this month there was a phonebook laying in the drive in a plastic bag. I picked it up after a few days and brought it in. I’d go look to see the publisher for you, but I think it was in the large format, and I stack the books by size.

If the best way for me to contact a business is the yellow pages then they simply don’t get my business. I actually won’t know about them and they will not be in business much longer

I use both the internet and the yellow pages.

Yes penguin. All we antiques still reach for the phone book. The 8 & 14 year old grandsons just give me and the books these bemused looks of sympathetic tolerance. They’ll put up with any annoyance as long as I can come up with the pecan waffles.

@stanleybmanly: for pecan waffles I’ll put up with you, too! :-)

^^^ +1

@janbb Which Yellow Pages do you use most often? YELLOW BOOK or Yellow Pages (The official, real yellow pages.) YELLOW BOOK even has a logo that looks like Yellow Pages’ walking fingers, ie, “Let your fingers do the walking.” Here’s something else you could check, if you would please. See if the yellow pages you use has a category of “pet services,” or “pet waste removal servs.,” or both. Thanks in advance. You have been most helpful!

I have both but Yellow Pages is in front in the drawer and that’s what I turn to first.

@janbb GA! Thanks!

@ARE_you_kidding_me Commendable usage of the internet on your part. If your life depended on how fast you could find a service, (and you didn’t mind running the risk of getting hacked doing so,) internet or Yellow Pages/YELLOW BOOK? (If you had a copy of either on hand.)
PS. Advertising, any advertising, including the cheapest or free Yellow Pages/YELLOW BOOK, is good advertising. ANY business man or woman who is worth his or her advertising salt will tell you that.

I get 3 phone books, so I don’t use any of them.

As the owner of a small business, I know it’s Russian Roulette if you choose to advertise on only 1–2 of the 3. Cost prohibitive to advertise on all 3.
i.e. the Yellow Pages are increasingly a Big Box Store Directory.

Google your want [hardware, clothing, etc] and Zip Code.
Call ahead, as they may be out of business.

@ibstubro Yeah, sort of cost prohibitive to advertise in all three. I get a basic listing in DEX with my business telephone acct and the other 2 give me a complimentary listing for free. If you Google your want, you get only those businesses that have web sites. Anyone else and you have to Google their name. If you’re the only business in the book that does what you do, why advertise there?

It’s 2015. Anyone who doesn’t have a website doesn’t want to work.

Yeah, and there are POS websites out there that have registered every business under the sun, @Seek. If the business is in a phone book somewhere, it’s on the web under Yelp or some other site.
The value in the information is that the company exists, which is about all the Yellow Pages is giving you.

@ibstubro: My stepfather has a business and he said the same thing. It no longer pays to advertise in the phone book, as there are so many versions and they come out so often, and many people don’t keep them or bother with them.

It’s just like anything else, @jca.
Chains and BBoxStores negotiate a group rate that covers all versions of yellow pages at a fraction of the advertised price.
The little guy pays a premium for each book.

If you’re not targeting services for the geriatric, there’s little point in paying to be in the phone book.