Yelp for Business OwnersReviews 653

Wow! I am the latest victim of Yelp!... I too was suckered in by the $300 in free credit... I have to start googling these things before signing up and providing credit card information... They got me for $1300 dollars... What I found to be mind boggling was that they never sent any payment confirmations or invoices or anything for their monthly billing... They just silently bill you while providing no ROI at all... Its SHAMEFUL and Ironic for such a successful company like YELP to take advantage of small business owners and no one seems to be providing a consequence for their actions so they keep doing it to so many people... Basically I was never informed by their reps that I had to go turn off the ads after the credit expires... from the control panel and how to exactly go about doing that... I have gotten exactly 32 clicks to my website for $1300 dollars... THATS INSANE... and not a single message or lead was of quality enough to turn into any sort of business... ALL TRASH... If you are reading any of these comments prior to advertising with YELP!... I am sure you dont need any more advice as far as not to do any business with this crooked company... I will do my best to spread the word more and as should you and anyone else you know... -- Muzzammil Sajjad

So i had some good reviews on Yelp. One day i get a call to sign up for paid service because they thought my company had great customer service. I pretty much said no thanks and hung up. Next thing i know im browsing search results for my company and the 47 reviews were gone. Mind you these were all 5 star reviews. Guess what they left a lonely 1 star review. 47 star reviews gone and one 1 star review remains. Hmmm something doesnt seem right. Oh well. Then i get a call Yelp saying they strong encourage me to start paying for advertising because their review policies have changed and 5 star ratings can be posted with a paid subscription. Well Yelp hope you shove those 5 star reviews as far up your $#*! as possible because all 47 customers and 100's others just keep coming in for our great service. Every dog has its day. And to Russel Simmons that is a founder here - you call yourself a public figure - Yea Ill slap you $#*! like $#*!es in brooklyn get slapped for being $#*!es.

The gentleman who for 2 weeks insisted to sign me up said no more then 300$ a month and about 10$ a day. I said ok i am ready. He said call back in 15 day, if you don't like then stop. On the 13th day, it all went wrong, i had a bill for 280, and was told i sigh up for some Advance program, and i was extra $$$. Long story short, they bill me 501$ and they told me " is pretty self explanatory, you clicked, you sigh up, you pay". My answer was the guys never mention all the extra cost. They are horrible and deceiving.

They cold called me and promised me that with my 300. Credit I can try it out. I cancelled when I was told I can cancel before receiving any significant charge. I did and they did not get me ANY business. I cancelled and keep getting bills for over $500. I told them I will not pay more than $2. Per click and they now tell me that they enrolled into a pay per click program and charged me 15. Per click. I never received any clicks. They told me they sent me an email with the terms and conditions. I asked where it was sent from and when I searched my email it was not fount in mail or spam. I asked them to play back the original sales call to see what I was told I bought (not pay per click) and they told me they cant do this. I asked them to have the original sales person contact me and they could not do this either. They then said the terms and conditions are on their page and after navigating through 6 pages to find it I realized it is in spanish and I do not read spanish. I enrolled in a plan that for $60 would boost my ad and keep competitors off my page. I was not told this is pay per click. I was told I have a new client $300 credit and If I called back within 30 days to cancel I would not have any charges. I did and was told that no charges have occurred yet and to call back in another 30 days to cancel if I did not see any business by then I did call and cancel at that time. Then I received a bill for $390 and was told another bill for $70 would be coming. They told me I received 22 clicks. I asked them to prove it and they could not.
Do not advertise with this SCAM company. They Lie and cheat and lie again.
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I spent 300 dollars per month and received 50 clicks to my yelp page, most being from random places or mostly California or not verifying at all which means it was most likely yelp staff themselves clicking. They say when trying to sign you up that "on average you will receive 3 dollars from clients for every 1 dollar you spend". I didn't receive any business or clients. Using google, Craigslist, cards, signs got me more clients in two weeks than yelp did in a month. Yelp did nothing for me. It let me arrange photos in order and that's about it. If your reviewers do not yelp then their review won't even show up on your page. It's a scheme to get you to make people yelp and use their service more. It's a joke and a waste of money and as a small business I want to warn others that this service is horrible. Go with google! They post every review and have so much more to offer for less. They are an amazing service with more advertising benefits for no money or schemes. Also do it yourself and educate yourself on advertising the best you can.

I was contacted by a yelp representative & told that yelp is offering 300 free in credits to try out ad service for businesses... I canceled before reaching the 300 free threshold and a few days later was told I had a bill of almost $300 bucks. That its wasnt a free 300 credit but a bonus that split across advertising. I asked numerous questions before signing up and at no point was anything other than free trial, free credit mentioned to me. This is false advertising, very fraudulent and a scam and I will be reporting to BBB... I urge all of you to too... also you do not receive any business in addition to it all... not worth even signing up for their quote on quote free credits

I was told I would have a bonus that was activated automatically with no risk if I cancel after certain amount of days. After I canceled I was billed over $200 dollars and was told I had a different type of bonus. Then another agent told me the bonus didn't cover the add on feature. The agents sound as if you can hear people in the background cheering. I am surprised that consumers trust this company to be honest about businesses on there system but they do not practice the same honestly system. The sales agent also told me she was positive I would not be charged by changing my credit card number in the system. She told me the calls are being recorded and she was not lying about the bonus and that I could cancel and not be charged.

After starting a "free" listing on YELP I was COLD CALLED out of the blue by their "salesperson" and she explained to me that I could get much more exposure by completing their advanced page. She insisted on stepping me through different screens to increase my exposure and told me that I would only be charged for "advertising" if people clicked on my page. Total B. S. as I was charged $900 in 2.5 months of "advertising." Unfortunately by the time I realized I fell for their scam and stopped it immediately I had been charged already for "clicks" to the tune of $900. I called several times to have them reverse the charges and they said I entered a contract and would be held to the charges. WATCH OUT! I consider myself a smart consumer but I was totally caught off guard and now I'm paying for it. I will be contacting our state atty general's office and disputing this on my credit card.

Yelp for Business is a scam, IMO! They fleeced me $800 for two months. Setting an ad campaign, their rep showed no concern for my stated budget. I clearly told them I could not afford even $100/month in advertising; then I foolishly depended on them to guide me. I was a babe in the woods. If you use this service, understand very clearly what charges will be, and follow your reports closely. I paid $7 per up to fifteen clicks per day, with the clicks most often not pertaining to my specific service. Stay away from Yelp for Business ad campaigns if you are on a small budget!

After a number of telephone calls from Yelp representatives, I was politely walked through the sign-up website to try Yelp. I was also shown how to discontinue my ads. So, I decided to try it for one months. I set the "trial" to end on the last day of the month I signed up. I thought this was all I had to do, my understanding from the Yelp representative. However, my credit card was billed for the first month - OK, but then it was billed for the 2nd month and then the 3rd month. I called to get a refund for the two months. The Yelp person on the phone explained that I only stopped my receiving of results, and that I have to go to another place on their website to actually stop the ads.
This was not explained to me by the Yelp representative when signing up. Not only have I not received a refund, Yelp is still billing me for another month, "your ads were still running." Yelp is a SCAM, or why would they have a program that when you shut down wanting to receive reports that it does not shut down the advertising? Yelp should be shut down by the government for stealing from small businesses. Any decent company would not require a special way to stop billing when the business requests discontinuing the reports. And any decent company would gladly refund this overcharge. DON'T USE YELP - RUN FROM THIS CHEATING SCAM!

I have a basic business account with Yelp with no cost. Besides the advertisement guy kept calling me which I refused to do anything with them. Everything seems ok. So recently they kept sending me message of the bonus $300, so I was like why not. I clicked on it, nothing particular shows my pricing or anything. A few weeks later they charge my credit card for $540 all the sudden! I am in the middle disputing that. I cannot even remove my credit card info in my yelp account, very similar to Home Advisor. I will advise you DO NOT take any offers from YELP. They probably lure everyone in with this promo. The messed up thing is with this charged suppose to increase my leads but I have no major increase on the leads, means this is just another way to scam your money with their make-up campaign system.

We had nine 5 star reviews from different customers on Yelp that were added over the last 6 months.
After we cancelled ALL the reviews have been removed and Yelps' customer service claims it is their "software algorithm" that removes it, not "them".
Absolute baloney, unless you pay them it will not be included - and God forbid you dare cancel them, then they will remove all legitimate reviews.
We are now in the process of informing all your clients to add those reviews to HomeAdvisor, Google, ThumbTack or Better Business Review.
Yelp has been scrubbed from our website and two other business associates have also removed it from their websites.

I own a buisness in AZ. I had many postive reviews and a couple negative reviews. I paid to advertise with them for about 6 months but it didn't make much difference dor hundrrds of dollars so I canceled it. I stayed very active on yelp, talking to any customers etc.
Yelp employees keep calling me and harassing me because I refused to continue to advise with them. After they where so buritly rude, I finally said too put me on their do not call list. I'm sick of getting harassing calls from the Yelp employees. Well within two days over half my reviews disappeared and everyday, another review is removed! What a Deceitful company! I will never plan on doing any more advertising or hive them another dime! Stay away from Yelp!

It's a complete disgrace that this platform exists. The fact that anyone from anywhere with anything to say can write a disparaging review of your business - regardless of factual standing - and therefore create a perception of your institution that isn't correct is appalling. My organization has worked hard for over 40 years to craft a valid, credentialed and respectable brand - and our good name can be dragged through the mud bay anyone who doesn't want to pay their bill, or pay our rates, or has a disagreement with our staff. And we have zero recourse against those that post blatant lies about our business, staff and policies. How you get away with zero accountability for the damage you allow to happen on your site is beyond me. Do not pay the extra fee for a "business" account - it will only do you harm.

I signed up to yelp thinking it would help my business grow. They charged me 300 hundred dollars to sign up but they only produced 1 lead. The funny thing is that the lead was a free. So in reality they produced no leads for me. Now had I not been on other sites they would have got me but I'm producing a full time income off of that same 300 from other sites. Then I call them and they say that's not how we do it. If you don't deliver then you should not get paid point black. I so can't stand yelp. I will not use it nor will I be doing anymore marketing with them.

In September I received an email to receive a free $300 Credit of ads for yelp business. There was no time limit. It said after you use your $300 in credits and you don't cancel your will receive a bill next month of acquiring changes. I signed up in mid September and in Mid October I received an email saying I'm close to using my ad credit. So frequently checked my app to see what amount was left. So when it reached about $288 I discontinued the ads. I only received a bunch of false leeds and robotic calls no dates were booked.

So I checked my bank account I saw this charge for $153.06 from Yelp! I called today the the first person who told me it's based on clicks and I went over my credit. I explained many different times that I did not because I checked frequently because I didn't want to be charge. She's telling me I don't understand. I said so your app lied or is delayed telling me different. She said no I was wrong. I asked to speak to another person.

So the next person said, No you did not use all your $300 credit but your used clicks which is $5.50 per click. So this doesn't make sure. Why give me a credit to use and charge me? Then she went on and on about advertising. Which had nothing to do with my lost money. I told her to cancel my ad all together and she did not. I want my hard earned money back!