Yelp for Business Owners

While paying for my granddaughters cell phone bill by phone as we have done the last four months: I was asked some unusual questions. After security code, address, etc. I was asked my birthdate, last four digits in my soc. Sec. Could I answer some questions from my public record. Two men's name I had never heard of to which I asked for a supervisor and told him I have NEVER been asked so many personal questions to ay a bill by phone and had not been questioned the last three times I had paid her bill by phone... why now? All payments went through before. They got CHASE on the phone and I was asked security questions that satisfied BOOST after 45 min... She is changing her service. So invasive. Over $50. Supervisor replied $50 is a lot to some people... REALLY? I've spent $100.'s and never had to bend over.

I will never ever use Yelp ads again! I got just 33 views and 3 leads on my page, and they charged me $162 that is ridiculous! If I'd used that money on Instagram or Facebook ads I would get way more views and profile visits than what I got using Yelp! Ridiculous

They purposely under inform you when they explain the $300 credit. Nowhere on the App or website does it say the $300 credit applies to your other "upgrades" We set up an ad for $10 a day for 30 days thinking the $300 credit would cover it, we would only be paying for our upgrade package. Bill comes to $480 and I so we thought it was a mistake. Filled out a PFF form and once they called about that, that's when they tell you everything about the credit that they failed to explain before hand, whether it be in the app on the website or the real person we talked to on the phone. Its deceiving and they purposely leave out information to steal money from unsuspecting businesses and then basically say we'll "its in the fine print".

The leads start out great, then slowly taper out to the point of getting bad leads or no leads. If you don't advertise with Yelp, they're more likely to "not recommend" your reviews when customers leave you positive reviews, but they have no problem leaving the fake bad reviews posted by competition. Yelp doesn't care about the truth, they just want you to pay for ads. Once you start paying for ads, yelp suddenly stops removing & filtering out your positive reviews, even if it's a fake positive review. As long as they have your credit card number, they don't care about your opinion, your company, nothing. Also, once you stop advertising, they'll be sure to put you on the last page of search results. Once you start, you're kind of stuck if you're dependent on any leads from Yelp at all.

I was called by a sales person to utilize the free $300 in advertising and to complete my page. I asked specifically if I would be charged anything. I was told NO. I reported them to my bank (fraudulent activity). I also contacted them. They refuse to issue a refund. I never received an email with any type of contract or billing information. Nor was I directed during this phone call to locate the information I asked about directly. I was just told NO. This is the worst experience I have ever had with another business. They are liars, cheats, scam artist and down right HORRIBLE. I am a new business owner with a family. I definitely would never had agreed to those charges!

Same story. They told me I was not going to be charged until the following month which was misleading because it implicated that the first month was free, when it was not. $562.00 unexpectedly pulled at the end of my first month as soon as I canceled. I would get a couple messages on which no one ever responds back. Fake leads. This is a scam.

Yelp is being so far the worst place to advertise. Campaigns will not deliver. Positive reviews are being hidden and Yelp will keep your average score close to 3 star by keeping mostly negative reviews. When calling they will say that their algorithm is deciding which review to stay. My Business have more than 60 five star reviews and only 5 are showing. On purpose positive reviews are not showing to create a negative picture for the business.

They use a software program that is suppose to keep things fair for small business. I have reviews from my customers that yelp's software originally deemed "Not recommended" because the clients that left the review weren't very active on Yelp. Today I received notification of a new review. That review was deemed, "Not recommended" because it claims I solicited the review. If I were soliciting reviews I'd have more than six! But the software will allow a bad review from someone I never did business with? What a joke!

Just like many of the reviews below. A company like YELP who's business is to review other businesses doesn't care about scamming small businesses! They had their slick Sr Sales Sales Executive sell me on receiving $300 worth of Free Yelp adds prior to my own card being charged. On my billing page they claim there were 4,819 impressions with 19 actual clicks at $31.56 per click = $600. I got 3 inquiries with no return contact information which I completely believe were made up interested clients! They are clearly scamming small businesses (I am a one man show real estate) to get peoples credit card # and charge away! It's infuriating that I am tring to establish my business and Yelp is out here sucking people dry! I hope somebody sets this up for a class action lawsuit!

I have a premium account for 3 of my business locations and pay per click on another for ads. Overall, customers are using Yelp. My beef is with the review screening software. It's a joke. Just an excuse to say "it's out of our hands".

One of our competitors is reporting all our reviews and non get through the screener now. They don't care about fixing the system, just getting your money. Very sad since it could be so much better...

Yelp hides hundreds of valid reviews and discredits your business purposely to get you to continue to buy their pointless ads that are filled with BOT clicks.-- Once i stopped paying for ads they quickly started unrecommending practically all of my reviews. This "business" that has no customer service line and is essentially operating faceless is a sham/scam and needs to be looked into. --- Some laws need to be changed to wrangle these bad actors / "Yelp owners" more.

Got the sales call and was told he can up my $300 credit to $900. He walked me through my portal and said put credit card info in "as a place holder" for when promotion was over. Somehow I stumbled upon bad Yelp reviews and dug a little deeper. I cancelled everything but still got charged $138.00 for 4 days of advertising. I got off easy but now I can't remove CC from my account. Eff these people, stay away, horrible company, even worse salesmen, rip off...

Yelp is a total scam. I paid over $900 per month on ads and their services which doesn't make a difference.

And now that I've canceled the plan, I am 132nd on the list. And yes, they really do feature your bad ratings if you don't sign up for their services.

It is such bad practice. I just think that every business should just stop using yelp all together and we create a more genuine platform.

Also, I have not been able to comment/reply to reviews because of errors. It asks me to try again. But it's been like this for month. I reached out to yelp to fix this issue so many times and I get no response. None at all!

Yelp is a total joke

Do NOT buy on their $300 ad credit. They promise you'll get leads and they also promise to remind you when the trial end is approaching - BS on both promises. Be aware, this is as useful as shredding your money. 8 website visits and one "attempt to call" in 9 months. Almost $1k burnt for nothing. F. k you very much, Yelp for business