[Stevo]

Thanks for the heads up guys I'll tell em where to go if I get a sales call.
Bar Stewards.

[karmafunk]

MandyNo12, on 02 December 2009 - 11:03 AM, said:

Hi

Exactly the same has happened to me only yesterday. They called me asking if I wanted to try it for 6-8 weeks. The rep even said to me, we will not be taking any bank details, so you won't be charged. Thats the only reason I went for it, lulled into a false sense of security that they didn't have my account details. At no point was 12 months ocntract discussed either. Again, he sent me through a dummy ad, to show me what it could look like, and quickly asked me to go straight to that page and sign it off. So I did. Not realising I had entered into a contract.

I received an invoice for £960 yesterday and was shocked. When I called up customer services they just kept saying I signed the contract. I am not denying I did, but I was unfairly mis-led. I then spoke directly to the sales rep who said he said nothing of the sort about a free trial. I explained the situation to him again, at which point he said he got our wires crossed and that he would see what he could sort out with Customer Services.

I called up again this morning and he told me that he will be sending them an email so that they could set up a direct debit payment scheme so I would not have to pay the full amount. I told him I even refuse to pay that. This matter he said, had to be dealt with with customer services. I then emailed him and copied in customer services saying I want this matte dealt with as I was mis-led and mis-sold, else I would go to head office. He replied back saying: "As per conversation, i am a bit confused as to how yesterday you mentioned that we seemed to of got our wires crossed and now you seem to imply I have mis lead and mis sold you, all the calls are recorded which is why I know I didn't mention and don't mention as there is no trial period. I have sent an email across to head office to give you a call today."

I have also called up trading standards and they have given me two options:
1: Pay under protest. Then claim the money back from them
2: Send a recorded letter outlining in detail why you were mis-led and the all events. Also ask for telephone transcripts.

I think I am going for option 2. Once I hear the transcripts I will know whether or not he mentioned anything about a 12 month contract or not.

It all happened so fast, I feel like such an idiot for agreeing in the first place.

I have never paid them a penny! I haven't heard a word from them about claiming the money either. I think that they use this trick to get people to pay and those who don't and make a fuss they simply write off.

Mine invoice was in January and they still haven't threatened me with court action.

[taylor223]

MandyNo12, on 02 December 2009 - 11:03 AM, said:

I have also called up trading standards and they have given me two options:
1: Pay under protest. Then claim the money back from them
2: Send a recorded letter outlining in detail why you were mis-led and the all events. Also ask for telephone transcripts.

I think I am going for option 2. Once I hear the transcripts I will know whether or not he mentioned anything about a 12 month contract or not.

It all happened so fast, I feel like such an idiot for agreeing in the first place.

You'll probably find they buckle if you persevere, especially when you ask for a phone transcript. They'll try all kinds of intimidating behaviour to convince you to pay. All you have on your side is the transcipt, which hopefully shows them to be less than honourable.

I have a deep hatred of telesales and there borderline fraudulent methods. It's quite surprising the lengths some people will go to for a sale. The board probably have no idea what affect some of these people are having on the reputation of there company.

It's like those annoying people that try and get you to switch energy suppliers and continue to talk when you say no. Shut the f*** up and go away, it's 6.30 and I'm trying to eat my dinner!

Have you been given a deadline to pay? They will probably threaten the use of debt collectors if you miss it.

[Hado]

Hi,

Haven't posted for a while but here is the latest update on my yell scam.

First of all they don't keep transcripts of their telephone call so there is no proof of what was said to whome (according to Yell).

Secondly, I have passed all details over to Consumer Direct who passed on my case to Trading Standards and the kind lady there agrees that it looks very much like I have been misled and missold and she is contacting their legal team and I have a very strong case.

Hopefully, we can get it sorted.

She did say that she hopes I have not been put off by yell lol!

Unfortunately yell is a very large organisation and some sales people do try to get business by hook or by crook and its unfortunate that this has happened yet again given the numbers of others scammed.

SO IF YOU FEEL YOU HAVE BEEN MIS SOLD CONTACT CONSUMER DIRECT WHO WILL PASS DETAILS TO TRADING STANDARDS!!

[pea]

I'm trying the PPC service for myself and their system is terrible. It's user-unfriendly - login forms everywhere for different things, no regard for security - you're not allowed to enter passwords with punctuation and they email it to you, and obviously not written by someone that knows English - money spelled 'monies', lazy - their PPC service covers the whole of the UK. Google can target ads much more accurately than that so it's not like it's not possible.

Sloppy website. They should have got me to do it.

[coolblue]

yellow pages or yell.com as they call themselves online is a useless service who charge too much for advertising and exagerate amount of hit they get for your services
i once paid over £1000 for a years add to be at the top and i got hardly any business
your better off using google adwords .. at least your not in a long contract

[pea]

I don't think I'm in a contract with Yell, just PPC. I'm trying Adwords as well though.

[bocaj]

@pea

mon⋅ies [muhn-eez] –noun
a pl. of MONEY.

It's a real English word

[myWorldinFocus]

I wouldn't touch Yell again....I went for their free listing - didn't get any leads from it but did fill up my in tray with piles and piles of junk mail every day.

[dave3009]

Hi, first post and I am sorry if this is a discussion that is elsewhere but I came here from a Google search.

I note yell.com are heavily pushing their web design/template or whatever it's called. £345 for 3 pages that the buyer appears to have no control over plus £45 per page there after. Apart from being daylight robbery this is quickly filling the search engines with hundreds of pages of exactly the same content. Is this not spamming on a biblical scale.

To test the theory please google - Your wedding dress is a crucial element of your wedding day - And see the repetition. Am I wrong in pointing out that this is spam or is there a case to report it to the major search engines.

All the very best


D

[Sinero Web Design]

See my post about Yell.com. They are charging customers over £400 a year for very basic html pages , also £45 for a domain name and recurring fees each year of £400.

[westmill]

Helen, on 19 December 2008 - 03:47 PM, said:

Steer clear of Yell.com, they may miss-sell you advertising products!

I was cold called by a saleswomen from yell who sold me a try before you buy listing- where you get to have a listing for 2 months, and if you want to you can cancel and not pay a penny (I had just set the business, so a bit of free advertising was what I needed)

The next thing I know I got a letter stating I owe them £235.

So after many, many, maaaany letters from yell, and phone calls from me to them, they have now passed the matter on to a debt recovery company. GRRRR!

Needless to say, I am one very P***ed off Helen and I'm now seeking help through my solicitor.

Rant over - I just wanted to warn people if they get a call from Yell.com - be careful you actually get what you asked for!

I too have just been scammed by yell.com FREE TRIAL SCAM !
I believe after many emails and phone calls that yell.com are fully aware of the scam and actualy
openly support it. They are now threatning to put it in the hands of a debt collecting agency.
Its Incredable that they are still allowed to trade in the uk.
People are falling victim to them because everyone automaticly expects them to be reputable company
because of the links with yellow pages. Instead you find yourself dealing with a cowboy firm using its
size and power to scam people. Judging by the hundreds of victims that I have found on the net, Im starting
to wonder if they truly are above the law !

[westmill]

Helen, on 19 December 2008 - 03:47 PM, said:

Steer clear of Yell.com, they may miss-sell you advertising products!

I was cold called by a saleswomen from yell who sold me a try before you buy listing- where you get to have a listing for 2 months, and if you want to you can cancel and not pay a penny (I had just set the business, so a bit of free advertising was what I needed)

The next thing I know I got a letter stating I owe them £235.

So after many, many, maaaany letters from yell, and phone calls from me to them, they have now passed the matter on to a debt recovery company. GRRRR!

Needless to say, I am one very P***ed off Helen and I'm now seeking help through my solicitor.

Rant over - I just wanted to warn people if they get a call from Yell.com - be careful you actually get what you asked for!

Im also a victim of this scam !
There is no doubt in my mind that this is a huge scale scam run by yell.com
Im more than happy to provide anyone with my case details to anyone taking yell.com to court !
yell.com are using the respected yellow pages as a referance to their being a respectable company.
These people are scumbags ! and Why has Yellow Pages not stepped in to end this ?
This has got to affect yellow pages sales ! Has the most respected name in addvertising realy become
so desperate as they have resorted to scams ?

[Craddock]

Did you get any clients from it?

[Frost Tear]

Holy hell this is a shock to me. I used to work at 118 24 7 (I'm sure you all know who they are), and the Yell sales team used to conference call us with a client (the business owner) to show the client what our service was like. They were always based up in Scotland and it was so obvious when it was a sales call; all us advisors could tell straight away, and would suddenly make sure we do everything to procedure.

Sorry to hear so many of you got scammed by them, luckily down here in Bristol we only take calls for directory enquiries and have nothing to do with the sales team.

[TylerCollins]

serpico, on 02 November 2009 - 10:46 AM, said:

@ Hado, I am in exactly the same boat. However my bill is for £749. Looks like I should have cancelled at the end of August. I was expecting a phone call to review the service before anything else happened.

Please please please! Has anyone got any advice on this. Is there anyway to get out of this or at least reduce my cost???

Exact same thing happed to me, except I got a bill for something like £300. I would also like to know how to get out of paying this.

They sent me the email, they guy told me reply to the email (not knowing i was signing up)

I asked for him to send me out a letter to explain everything so that I could sign and send back.

I got the letter out, never bothered signing it, as I assumed that if i didnt sign it, then I'm not signing up for a contract with them.

I've been getting the debt collector letters for months now. I think this happened to me about a year ago now.

How can I sort this out, without paying the money?

[westmill]

TylerCollins, on 13 May 2010 - 06:27 PM, said:

Exact same thing happed to me, except I got a bill for something like £300. I would also like to know how to get out of paying this.

They sent me the email, they guy told me reply to the email (not knowing i was signing up)

I asked for him to send me out a letter to explain everything so that I could sign and send back.

I got the letter out, never bothered signing it, as I assumed that if i didnt sign it, then I'm not signing up for a contract with them.

I've been getting the debt collector letters for months now. I think this happened to me about a year ago now.

How can I sort this out, without paying the money?

Further developmeants to my case.....
Yell.com have now dropped the case and have sent me it in the form of a credit note !
This happned because I got the trading standards involved. Trading standards simply asked them to
send the evidence of the contract. Of course, They couldnt do this because it didnt exist !
Yell.com has tormented and threatned me with alsorts for over 12 months.
There has been no appology or anything from this scum.
My next move is to see if I have a case for suing them. I cant tell you how grateful i am to the
trading standards oficer that dealt with my case. Having said this, Im also dismayed by the fact they
are still allowed to trade ! You would expect that when a company is caught running scams that trading
standards would swiftly move in and shut them down. It would seem yell.com must have a superb leagal team.
If your being scammed by yell.com...... Please let trading standards know about it !
The more evidence they can colect, the easier it will be for them to shut them down.

[TylerCollins]

Who did you get in contact with? I want to get mine sorted out as well?

[Coltan Solutions]

Just got an invoice for £587.50. I don't recall signing a contract and will not be paying out a penny.
Anyone got any advice?

I've just sent them an email saying that I will be unable to pay the invoice as I have not used the service or signed a 12 month contract.

[stevet]

ngillard, on 01 April 2009 - 08:51 PM, said:

If my experience is anything to go by DON'T USE YELL.COM. They signed me up but the service went live, it just did not work as it should (won't go into that now as it's complex but suffice as to say that their search engine logic sucks!). I discussed this several times on the phone but no-one ever got back to me. I refused to pay the initial invoice as it had never worked and I had requested it cancelled almost as soon as it went live but they refused to cancel the contract and got a debt collection agency onto me! Nice one Yell! Great way to get a good reputation. This debt agency was actually very reasonable and when I detailed the case in great length to them by letter, they said they would get back to Yell and I never heard from them again. Some months later I then get a letter from a different debt agency announcing they are proceeding with court proceedings. In all my days in business I have never dealt with a company as heavy handed and threatening as yell.com. I'm sure many people are lucky and never have the need to cross them but I can only offer my caution to look at other alternatives. Whatever they say, Google utterly dominates the internet search market and I would always suggest putting advertising budget there. Unlike Yell.com with Google you only pay for results!

Do you still have the letter you sent to the debt collection agency? It would be useful if it was so effective.

[A.S.M]

I've had the same problem, "respond to this email & see what your add will look like". I didn't realize I had a contract with Yell until I received a bill for £928. I've contacted customer services on numerous occasions both by phone & recorded delivery and got nowhere, they also claim that they only record 50% of phone conversations (very convenient!!!). This started in May by October I'd been contacted by NCO (debt recovery agency). Each time they called they asked me to verify my address for security reasons, each time they were told to F**K OFF as I don't give out that sort of info over the phone (they have now stopped pestering me). I've spoken with a solicitor as I was worried about my credit rating, he advised me to ignore any communication from both companies as I hadn't entered into a credit agreement & that the only way they can affect my credit rating is by obtaining a CCJ it's highly unlikely that they'd have the nerve to bring it to court. IT'S JUST SCARE TACTICS DON'T PAY THEM

[kingy da killa]

i think we need terroists to pay a visit to yell hq

[rallport]

Got a call of these jokers a few weeks ago.

He took my ciompany details asked me what category I wanted to appear in, tried to sell me a £450 per year listing using some SEO terms that are total bs - the guy was clearly reading of a script. He told me to search for a few terms that our site actually out ranks or is very close to for yell.com - insane.

I said to them, "we get most of our conversions through longer tail terms anyway", their response - "yell.com will allow you target all types of tails" - rofl!

Anyways, after been on the phgoine for a good 15 minutes and assuming this was a simple free listing, he suddently asks how I would like to pay! I said I wouldn't like to pay at all. He then says, "so you're ok to miss out on the thousands of pounds worth of leads you get from yell.com listings". I lol'd and hung up.

Wish they'd have said at the start of the call they wanted £450 off me

[Peter Avey]

Did you have any luck with Yell?