Yelp for Business Owners

We were hounded to the point of harassment by a Yelp salesman to purchase pay per click. I mean it was literally non-stop. He even got nasty with us a few times. He kept calling from different numbers after we blocked him. Just to shut him up, we decided to give Yelp ads a try. We set up the account and he did most of it over the phone with us.

I get our bank statement today and I'm in shock that we are hit with a $3,000 charge from Yelp for pay per click ads. $3,000! We are just a small business and that was our rent money. The Yelp ads resulted in ZERO calls and ZERO new customers.

This is so disgusting it should be illegal.

I have a business with 4 real people that have done business with me. 4 five star reviews! I worked hard for those, I earned them. Yet Yelp Blocks them and does not recommend them. 1st time I contacted them no response. Sent a snail mail letter. Got a long b. S. explanation about computer filters etc. I won't use them or recommend them. NO wonder they get their butt kicked by other tech companies.

Where do I begin with ALL the issues of being detrimental to my business? If you pay to advertise they list you as #1 in your area, even though you have zero review because you are a new business. I got clients to write reviews and they allowed one to be published, stating that it was inorganic. They allowed some idiots review to be posted that was not a client yet advertising his service on my page. I had to ask to get this taken off! Then when I quit advertising with them they removed my one review that they allowed. This is the most detrimental and vindictive platform one could use!

The sales rep was a total liar. They told my minor son that because it was the end of the month his bill would not exceed $28 to try out the marketing service. Of course, we were charged well over $100 for a few days. Don't do it!

I signed up for 6 months only. During several phone calls with the sales person I told her my business is only open 6 months a year and I will not sign a contract for over 6 months. She verbally convinced me that she will give me 12 month pricing with a 6 month commitment period but in order to do it she will set it up as "auto renewal" for these first 6 months. They kept withdrawing from me after the 6 months ended, while my business is closed. Several people in their corp finance basically told me "tough luck, you signed the contract". I told that their sales calls are recorded so listen to what their sales person told me on specific dates. They have attitudes and said, sure, we'll call you back. Never received calls back. Extremely pure service. SCAM.

They don't work and they try so hard to convince you otherwise. They'll be prompt and harass you just try to sell you on their product up until they have your credit card information. Small businesses, please don't pay for these ads. If they don't work it'll just be coming out of your pocket. To begin to describe my frustrations with yelp and this program would result in this review being taken down..

I was contacted by a Yelp associate to set up an advertisement for my business. The man said that they can guarantee 5-6 customers per day for around a $400 package. I told him I wanted to wait until the beginning of 2021 before starting advertisements, but he told me to give him my credit card information as a "place holder". When I found out the charges came through, I never received a confirmation or any details for what I was getting charged for. When I tried to cancel the monthly payments, we were still charged a hidden cost of $180 for Yelp connect, which we never set up, along with page enhancements, which I was never told about before being charged. When I found out I was still being charged on my credit card statements, I cancelled the whole account. Very unsatisfied and beware of associates calling to set up an account and asking for your credit card info. I would give zero stars if I could.

We were offered $600.00 in free advertising. We were told that we would only have to pay $75.00 a month for enhanced profile. We asked few times if that would be the only charge and were reassured by sales rep that there would be no other charges. How shocked we were to see $375.00 charge on our credit card. Sales rep refuses to speak with us and customer service actually tried to sell us more services while we were on the phone! Dont give them your card information. Its a money grab. They are dishonest and misleading. Stay away!

Got a call from Stephen and he assured me saying I got $300 new business credit and I can run ad until it runs out and if I want to keep it I can just continue later.
But when I called back to cancel they already charged me $35.31&25.31 for so called balance. They tricked me to sign up for free and get card info and charge whatever amount they want. When I tried to contact them they simply refused to refund but wanted me to sign up again. What a scam. I cant believe I fell into this. Just made a mistake by not looking at their reviews ahead. Please save your time. Dont fall into their free ads scam. Its not free when you are charged a so called fee. They will make you wait like 20 plus mins to talk w someone for service and then say they cant so anything because its self managed. Stay away.

Our Google has almost 2,000 reviews and average 4.4 stars. Yelp has 32 reviews and at a 1.5 star rating. Only the negative ones appear on the heading and not one positive. Apparently if you sign up with them, they will rotate the reviews, if not then what is shown stays. They cannot email or send any pricing information, all over the phone. If this is not a SCAM, I don't know what is.

Unless you already have positive reviews don't bother with advertising on Yelp. I started with 0 reviews for my new business. Spent $1500. 00 on ads. I received ZERO customers from this advertising. It was a complete waste of money.

I often get "customers" asking for quotes and product questions via Yelp. Most often than not they never respond to the price we give them, or the product information they are looking for. After looking deeper into the issue, the "customers" are ghosts, zero friends, zero reviews given on the Yelp platform. It is obviously their way to say look... users are messaging you from Yelp. Well a lot of good that does, if they never respond, and are literally non existent.

I've had a very bad experience with yelp. I wish I never signed up for service. This is a scam. They will take your money for advertising and allow unfair reviews to remain on your profile. I have tried to dispute negative reviews that I can prove was not fair and they never give me the opportunity to provide the details. They filter out good reviews and leave the bass ones up. If you're not paying for their advertising services they will not assist you. Please be aware!