Has anyone else had problems with Yell/ Yell.com? Going to court?

Thank you everyone for sharing your experiences with Yell. I am disgusted by how many people has sadly experienced similar problems with Yell and why they are still able to practice.

I took out a 'Social Advertising Monthly Fee - Monthly Rolling Contract' and 'Reputation Manager - Monthly Rolling Contract' with Yell in March 2019 as recommended by Yell’s sales representative when I had hit a financially low point in my business and was in a place of desperation.

Before I signed, I explained to the sales representative my situation which in quick terms were - 'The first 2 years my business was doing well but for some reason in the 3rd year, business had declined massively (which I believe was a result of marketing issue since Instagram introduced the algorithm which affected my account as my content was now only reaching about 3% of my followers). I explained and stressed on the fact that I have just had a daughter and have a home to pay for but I can literally ONLY afford to pay the fees if I am guaranteed to make sales.’

The sales representative used his words very wisely just to get me to sign. I felt like I was promised that I would make sales as he gave me success stories (which may be a lie now I think about it) of Yell's past customers who had gone ahead with their social Facebook campaign advertising and had tuned over thousands-millions. He failed to inform me of the many unhappy customers and that there may be a big chance of it not working, despite me stressing that I can ONLY afford it if I made sales. He also decided to elaborate, after seeing my business website and services, that he believes that I would make a lot of sales and that Yell can really help me as he thought my work is really good.

As you can imagine, this was NOT the case at all. I was unaware that the campaign had been live when I got the first monthly bill of £288 because I had not got any engagement from it. When I found out, I called up Yell to express my concerns. I then emailed them requesting for a cancellation of my contact as I had NOT received the results I was promised.

So not only did my sales representative ask me for my budget and advised me that £200 at least monthly will be a good place to start, we agreed on £240 monthly [AGAIN AS LONG I WAS MAKING SALES WHICH I DEEPLY STRESSED ON]. Only to find out that it was in fact £288 monthly with Tax, which again he FAILED to communicate this with me. I obviously never made 1 sale or even had 1 engagement from their campaign despite it "reaching" thousands of people.

The last conversation I had with them was to request for my account to be cancelled, but they would not listen to my request which became very stressful (considering I was trying to find ways to bring significant business to my brand as it is my bread and butter). I then made the decision to stop responding to their calls so I can focus on building my business - as the only calls I would get from them was to make a monthly payment for a service I was NOT receiving.

As you can imagine, the bills accumulated and I received a letter from a dept collectors company requesting for a payment of almost £2000 (and accumulating interest) and if I failed to pay in 7 days they will take me to court and now I have also been issued a warrant to my name.

I called Yell today to once again express all my concerns with them and the manager said to me that "obviously with ANY sales company, they can only guarantee reaching people, but they can't guarantee it will brings sales to the company." My question to him was why in the earth will ANYONE practically sign their life away if all they are being guaranteed is dept to your name?

I will be going to court for this, but I will be fighting my case hard. I would therefore like to request that Please, anyone who can to contribute as a witness to my case would please kindly contact me by leaving a comment under this post.

At this point I am very stressed out and feel like I am unable to move forward with growing my business with a peace of mind knowing that I am in dept to Yell and they are about to try to take money that I do not have from me for a service they have NOT provided. I feel the sales representative sold me a dream and that Yell is falsely advertising for a service that they clearly have NO proper expertise in.

I am a hair artist (@eahair on Instagram) specialising in high quality wigs. I could never claim that I would provide these services if I didn't know how to and I could not take money or even a full payment from a customer if I do not give their product or if I gave a poor service. Never. That would be practically stealing.

I feel like the people that work for yell (specifically the sales representatives) have no heart or morals. It is unfair and sad to trust in such a well-known company only to be highly disappointed with the results.

Please if anyone of you can be a witness at my hearing [even if it's by writing a statement of your experience with Yell’s false advertising] then please contact me ASAP by dropping a comment under this post.

Thank you so much for your time.
I look forward to hearing from you.

Ese Abigail.