Yelp for Business Owners

I received a call from a unusually capable saleswoman who told me that Yelp had great visitibility and that large number of prospects would be viewing my ad for residential rentals. There was not cost of their viewing my ad but if they clicked on it, I would pay $15/click. She suggested that with 3 or 4 people intentionally viewing my website, at least one should contact me and set up a showing. They billed me for 50 clicks - NOONE CONTACTED ME! It's a scam. Do not contract on a per click basis. COntract only on a per contact basis.

I have several reviews on Yelp by happy customers, yet ALL of them were flagged as "not recommended" by Yelp. I called Yelp and they told me that it's based on an algorithm that applies to everyone so that business owners can't solicit reviews from clients. I told them my clients asked me where they can write me reviews and I told them one of the places were yelp. They said I can't recommend yelp to my clients to write my business a review. I believe they started penalizing me once I stopped paying for my Yelp ads. All the reviews were there when I was paying the app when I canceled the app they were flagged as "not recommended". This is not a fair policy and I will never use Yelp ads again.

I was contacted by an individual from YELP stating they wanted tp help me increase my advertisement. I did inform him that I was a small business that could not accept anymore debt. We went over my free yelp account (that I do not use at all) and he informed me he was going to give me a $350.00 credit but he needed a card to apply the credit. I informed him that I did NOT want to be charged. He told me I would not be charged without notification. I NEVER received a notification and now have a $933.34 charge on my account from Yelp. I contacted a "customer success manager" and they stated that all notifications would have gone through my Yelp account (which I do not use). I informed him that that information was not what I was told. He continued to state there was nothing they could do and was rather non chalant about what I was stating. This is false advertising and manipulative business practices!

I am a small business owner. First of all, i was just told that i would get $300 of free ads from a call. This lady was like... your business is getting worse. We can help you by updating our searches so your business can show up during the summer. I agreed to the free ands and updating the search. I never agreed to getting charged 400 twice for advertising. NO ONE TOLD ME IT WAS THAT EXPENSIVE! Seriously, what is wrong with this company for not disclosing what you are being charged for? Would get a lawyer if they keep charging me monthly for the services I never asked for.

They say there is a computer that chooses which reviews get filtered. Hummmm I guess the computer knows if you pay Yelp or not. Consumers should know there is a fee for Yelp... you do not have to pay it, but if you do not... get ready for "filtered reviews". Case and point... look at the bottom left corner for the very pale words "filtered reviews"... then get ready to prove you are not a robot, and read the filtered reviews. If there are a lot of 5 stars reviews, call the business and see if they pay Yelp.

About 1.5 months ago I created a yelp account for free, got called literally an hour later by a lady who works for yelp and told her I could not pay more then $20 a month. She continued go on with a "code for $300 worth of free ads". I said sure! Because I did this on Facebook for a $15 free ad code and it worked just fine. Anyway about 20 days into the ad I saw no extra business coming in so I canceled the ad and deleted my yelp account. I got an email today (11/04/19) for a bill of $270 EFFING DOLLARS! I called them up and they sent me to their customer service line where they could help. I told them my story and they go to say "well sorry since YOU agreed to accept the ad agreement there's nothing we can do to help." I told them then that there was nothing I could do either because I do NOT have the money and that amount is rediculous for a stupid ad! Then I hung up. Never ever reccomending yelp. Wish I could rate 0 stars. 1 star is being too nice.

They did a good job collecting my c/c number but terrible instruction on how to use or set up my account. The salesperson or customer don't return your calls, even after I emailed customer to canceling my service 3 weeks ago and still charge my c/c $600. I called customer service now they telling me it could take up 10 days to review my refund even asked for a customer service manager to call and no callback but they send me a form to explain why I should get a refund. That's crazy!

Anyone with a legit business knows YELP is bullcrap. They essentially try to extort money from you to keep your business presented positively on their platform. They don't really try to help you with errors on their site regarding your business listing and all the while they are trying to sell you advertising that doesnt work. Also nothing is ever FREE as they advertise regarding business ads. Also they will take away positive reviews and show negative ones if they don't like you because you are no longer paying them anything or returning their messages. This company needs to be investigated and SHUT DOWN once and for all.

If you get a call from a Yelp representative hang up and block their number immediately or you will be sorry. They will take your credit card number and continue to charge it if you dispute it you will lose due to them knowing how to manipulate the credit card dispute system. I lost thousands due to them because they tricked me into giving them my credit card information. Once they have your information they will not stop until the card maxes out. They are relentless and have no soul. They will continue to call you even when you tell them to stop calling you after you're no longer interested. You will be sorry if you deal with Yelp they are major scam artist.

Yelp's sales rep harassed my customer service staff for months. My staff explained over and over again that the phone number listed in our Yelp profile is a customer service number ONLY. The people who answer this phone number ONLY schedule appointments and answer questions for customers. They DO NOT make advertising decisions. The Yelp sales rep called my office manager a liar. After I called Yelp to demand that they stop harassing my employees, they removed the positive reviews from our profile and now only display the one negative review that was posted on our profile.

Trying to cancel ads is difficult. I was billed for a closed account. I had to talk to five people before reaching the billing department. Once there, I was told I had restarted my account after canceling the month before. I was told to fill out a form sent to my email to try and get a refund of money for something I had not authorized. I was told that I had to wait two weeks to talk with a supervisor: I asked to be scheduled and was told I would be contacted with a calender date for the call. Never received it. The entire process was to make a refund impossible to address. They steal from customers every month, making it impossible to get a refund after doing it. Total unaccountability.

I was told by an extremely pushy salesman that I would not receive a bill for 3 months. Lie. I was told that I had promo money when I did get a bill. Lie. I was charged over $300 after 2 months and I didn't get anymore jobs than with free Yelp. Then 1 month later I, after I canceled I was charged again, within a 2 week period over $600. I called and was told that the charges were valid and I should have been watching the clicks. I canceled over a month before. Beware of yelp biz

I was solicited by Yelp for a free month trial and $300 in free credits. I was told I had to put in my credit card number to receive the free month. I made sure to cancel in the allotted time frame (in order to be sure I wouldn't be billed). I was then charged over $80 for my "free month". I apparently went over my $300 credit - even though I did not get any business from their site. I can't imagine how they stay in business (unless it's from fraudulent charges on unknowing business owner's credit cards)! THE WORST - AVOID!

While being told I would get 300.00 in free advertising at the end of the month not only did I not make a sale but had my account charged for over $500.00 in advertising. No phone calls no web and a total waste of my money.
TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY!