Suckered into believing that Yelp was a bona-fide marketing tool for a professional services company like Panoptic Media, I was had.

They initially wanted a full year commitment, which I refused, and we finally agreed to a 3 month commitment. I was led to expect that touches and leads would show up ‘on a regular’, several per week. Well, if that were anywhere close to the case I wouldn’t be blogging about how they suck.

So, after three months and no leads, I went out of my way to make them aware that I didn’t want to continue with them, and to please remove me from any further advertising. Well, that didn’t work either. Ads started running on 1/9/17, and now they tell me the ‘contract’ ends on 5/12/17 and that they’ll still have to bill me some more…

Your request to stop advertising has been processed. We’ll be sorry to see you go! Your ads will be stopped on 5/12. If you’ve changed your mind about canceling your advertising, please contact Yelp Account Management: (888) 966-9357 or [email protected] Please note that this email does not represent your final statement. Most of our programs are billed in arrears (after services are rendered), depending on your program type there may be final payments still due after your program ends. Original Agreement Terms: Original Term Length: 3 months Monthly Fixed Profile Fee: $125 Total Monthly Click Budget: $475

So they’re turning my 3 month commitment into five months, won’t stop charging my card. If the funds are unavailable they’re right back the next day or two aggressively trying to pull funds. You can bet I’ll never use Yelp again for any reason, and I highly encourage you to do the same.

https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.yelp.com#569

http://www.39celsius.com/advertising-on-yelp-what-you-should-consider/

Yelp Sucks

Yelp Sucks… (image from Brian Reich)