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A family has received an apology from Yellow NZ after a deceased woman's gardening business was listed seven years after she passed away.
Rona Russell was shocked and saddened to see her deceased daughter, Georgina Smith, in the 2022 Hawke's Bay Yellow directory, previously known as the Yellow Pages.
Shesaid a friend had got in contact after being shocked to see "Georgina Smith Gardener" in the Yellow directory while looking for a gardener.
"I got most upset about it and I cried most of the night," Russell said.
Russell was concerned the listing gave the impression the family did not care enough to remove the listing.
"I want her friends to know that we care and we didn't want it there, we never would have left it, she doesn't need that."
Russell said her daughter had told her she had cancelled her Yellow listing about seven years ago when she discovered she had terminal cancer.
Yellow NZ spokesman Gordon Bayne says the listing in question was a free listing which has now been removed and Yellow NZ will be in touch with the family to apologise. Photo / NZME
Smith's daughter TJ White said she and her sister Maxine had also called Yellow soon after their mother's death to make sure the listing was cancelled.
"We thought mum had done it, we had done it, surely it was gone."
Without their knowledge the listing had continued to print and remained on the online directory until this week.
Yellow NZ spokesman Gordon Bayne said the listing in question was a free listing which was removed immediately when the family reached out this week.
He said the paid advertising had been cancelled in 2016 following a call from Georgina Smith advising she had cancer.
"The free listing had not been removed in our error and we would love to directly respond to the family when the time is appropriate with aroha and a written apology."
He said standard procedure for Yellow upon retirement or death of a person was to stop all listings.
Rona Russell and TJ White hope they won't be seeing "Georgina Smith Gardener" in the 2023 Hawke's Bay Yellow pages. Photo / Warren Buckland
"We certainly keep our 'notes' on file for every client and in this instance we can certainly see our error and acknowledge that, as we did to the whanau last week."
White said her sister had lived in the house and continued to receive calls for their mum's business until they turned off the landline.
Russell said, "She had it taken off and then there wasn't so many calls so we didn't worry about it anymore, but it never occurred to us that the number was still in the Yellow Pages."
White said, "Until next year's publication comes out and we actually see that it is not there, I don't believe it until it actually happens."
