Yell.com Warning

roderick1st · 10 September 2019 at 4:37PM

Hi All.

I just wanted to post something to warn other small business and one man bands about Yell.com.

We run a small laundry business and were approached by yell.com reference advertising with them. I invited their salesman in and we had a pleasant talk about the business and what we wanted advertising to do for us. In the end I agreed that we would have a go at being on a guaranteed 3rd level listing with them for a trial 3 months. I have the email I sent to my business partner telling him how pleased I was about getting a 3 month deal with yell from the day I signed. The salesman got his ipad out and drew up a contract along the lines of what we had discussed, had me glass past the small print areas and got me to scrawl my signature on the screen.

I thought it strange that after that I had had no contact with them and after the forth month another direct debit payment had left our account that I decided to cancel the DD - thinking they were trying their luck.

It wasn't until today, 5 months later that I have a aggressive phone call with yell saying that I'm in breach of my contract and owe them lots of money. Now I cant find the contract (turns out I never got a hard copy) but once I got them to send me the contract low and behold I'm signed up to a 12 month min rolling contract.

So yes its my fault I signed without reading through the screen of writing and bumf and didn't worry when I didn't get any response or communication from Yell but we're a tiny company which my partner and I run part time as have full time jobs. I know that in business to business is more important to read contract but I must admit you rely on your protection as a consumer and although you don't think anything changes as a small business its important to read those contracts.

So if anyone has any advise on fighting them I'd appreciate it but also if your thinking of using Yell.com, my advise is DON'T or at least do some research on actually what they can do for you and please please please read contracts before signing as I think the salesmen are well trained in the art of deception and convincing you to sign up to advertising that is a lot more expensive than what they have just been promising you. There are no cool off periods and the T&C's have to be read online, don't even come with the contract.

Cheers,

Rod.

Pennywise · 10 September 2019 at 7:42PM

I've had a few run-ins with Yell over the years. Some of their salesmen are nothing but con-merchants. Luckily, my worst run in was in the days of paper contracts - the con artist changed the order on his copy - luckily I kept my copy which clearly showed the lower/smaller order so my challenge/complaint against them was successful. Just had another case of a completely unsolicited email from them confirming our recent phone call (which never happened) and asking for bank details - some small business would get caught out by that if there were more than 1 person involved, but with me, I'm a sole trader so replied to him and Yell complaints directly in no uncertain terms not to try to con me!

[Deleted User] · 22 September 2019 at 10:36PM

There are a lot of scam posts about them. They should not last much longer.

Percy1983 · 23 September 2019 at 12:45AM

They stopping calling me as I kept wasting there time on the phone.

They where talking about listing my business so we went through key words etc they ran my website through a test and while it was scanning the site he was giving the whole 'most sites score below etc...' as it is my site came out above the scores which he couldn't accept I had built it myself.

So he finally gets to it could lead to 15 new leads each month for only £100 and as each job gets you x£s its well worth it, so lets get you signed up and starts asking for the rest of my details and I stopped him and said I just need to check something.

Kept him waiting a couple of minutes, then say 'I got 110 hits from the keys words discussed from google for free, so for you to offer the same value my listing would have to be free, thats my final offer do you accept?' the line went dead.

From the amount of threads in here never sign up to them, but if you want to do a good service for your fellow small businesses waste as much of their time as you can.

roderick1st · 23 September 2019 at 1:22AM

Bit of an update...

The debt reclaim department kept insisting that we owed them over £500. I played hardball assuming the contract was water tight and offered them £115 which would have been the additional cost for 6 month advert over the 4 months already paid. Yell kept threatening saying they had already pushed the claim to their third party and we must pay over £500 immidiatly to stop the process.

I then found written on the contract, we should be advertised on the Lincoln area, I checked and we didn't come up. I informed yell that was the case and they said they had pulled our advert. Fair enough you'd say.... But I had also done a search under our business postcode (not in Lincoln) and low and behold we were in position 2. I informed yell that they were in breach worse than us and I wanted my money back! Yell would not reply to any more of my emails. On Friday a new bill arrived for £115.

Contemplating carrying on the fight now to see if I can get all my money back. Teach them a lesson with regards to weilding dodgy contacts over my head.

I think their bark is worse than their bite at the moment.

Useful points that others in this situation could try. ..

Their small print says that unless requested otherwise all communication from them will be sent to you the customer via the portal. (you'll be lucky to have been given access details - I wasn't) BUT I had told the salesman verbally that I wanted all communication sent to my email address.

Check the search terms on the contract and make sure they are supplying exactly what it says on the contract regarding search term and location.

Im no legal expert but both those items could help you demonstrate that they are in breach as much as you.

Everbox · 23 September 2019 at 8:08AM

assj wrote: »

There are a lot of scam posts about them. They should not last much longer.

Haven't they been successfully trading in the UK for over 50 years?

I have seen critical posts on this site about this company by someone for over 12 years.

Can you be more specific as to when 'soon' may be, in your humble opinion?

roderick1st · 23 September 2019 at 3:56PM

I suppose the issue is we all trust the Yellow pages of old as it was a mainstay in our houses and served a valid purpose.

We all think ourselfs as individuals when we set out as a small business forgetting / not realising we've lost our consumer protection as a business and yell preys on that nieveity. Slowly the bad press will begin to boil ever closer to the surface and more business's will think twice before using them.

susanbraintree · 15 October 2019 at 1:49PM

I can't remember the last time I saw their website in the search results, how they're still conning people into thinking they play a role in the decision-making process is beyond me.

Kaz3591 · 5 January 2020 at 6:03PM

Hello Everyone,
I am another small (tiny) business scammed by the lying Yell.com salespeople.

Today I found these two sites that will help you.

1) Search for 'How to get out of a Yell.com contract

2) Join the Facebook group *** I HATE YELL.COM *** who are bringing a compensation legal action claim for misrepresentation and entrapment again Yell.com or Yell.Limited as I keep getting nasty letters from

ConnorHancorn · 14 January 2020 at 8:21AM

I was browsing about yell warning

lincroft1710 · 14 January 2020 at 4:45PM

ConnorHancorn wrote: »

I was browsing about yell warning

and ?

Yell.com Warning

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