That's one of the questions the owners of three Dunedin businesses are asking themselves having been excluded from the latest White Pages telephone directory.
The Gourmet Ice-Cream Company, in Birch St, the Good Oil Cafe, in George St, and the Green Acorn, in Albany St, are all unlisted in the 2009 directory.
Mark Scorgie said this week his ice-cream company had been in the White Pages for 13 years and when he rang to complain, he was told he had asked to be left out.
"They had the cheek to tell me I'd told the 'rep' I didn't want to be in the white pages, yet I'd pay for advertising in the yellow pages.
[comment caption=Have you had problems with a phone listing?]"We're a tourist and local operator and we need to be in the phone book."
The White Pages directory, formerly owned by Telecom, is now owned by the private investment arm of the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan.
It's website states: "Every business is eligible for a standard listing in the White Pages within their region, at no charge."
Brian Raymond, who took over the Good Oil cafe a year ago, believes the cafe's change of ownership might have caused things to go astray.
However, he had rung White Pages "ages ago" to ensure the business was in the white and yellow pages and on the Internet.
"I wanted us on there somewhere and left it at that presuming it was going to happen. But nothing ever happened."
Mr Raymond said he took a "wee bit" of responsibility because he had not pushed harder to be included.
"We're lucky we're not a business that relies on phone calls."
The Green Acorn has also been left out of the White Pages after almost 20 years and is not included in the online directory.
The cafe and catering business, owned by Angela Burns and Ivan Brenssell, paid $2373.75 for Yellow Page listing and advertising, and expected a free listing in the White Pages.
Ms Burns said this year, instead of a rep calling to discuss their listing and advertising, everything was done by phone and fax.
She considered the listing was even more important than usual this year, as the business had relocated to Albany St.
Mr Scorgie said his company's name was restored to the Internet site after he complained, but he would like to find out how many other people in Dunedin were "in the same boat" over their listing in the book.
Responding to Otago Daily Times inquiries, Yellow Pages Group's acting head of communications, Jo Sutherland, said all three omissions were the result of human error and the difficulties caused were regretted.
The company would be talking to the affected businesses.
"While we treat every error with the seriousness it deserves, it is important to note that with more than 20,000 listings in the Otago directory, these errors are an isolated case and not linked to a wider problem."
