Reviews and Yell.com

[Lincs_Paul]

I have recently come across an issue with yell.com. Like many on here I wish I had read this forum and done more research before signing up with them.

My issue is not with the results though as many on here are but with reviews.
Whenever I got a sale come through yell.com I would always ask the client if they would post a review. Most didn't but a handful did I hoped this would help get more potential clients.

I then got a very bad review. This can happen and if justified then fair enough, my issue is this.
There is no facility at Yell.com to verify the user has actually used my service. In my case I suspect the review was left by an employee I had to let go the day before the bad review appeared.

I contacted yell to see if I could contact the user and see if we could work out a solution to the problem he/she had had with my companies service. But it was not possible to have contact with the reviewer. There is nothing to stop anybody randomly posting a bad review, even your competitors can fill there boots should they feel a need to do so.

Some sites like ebay for example allow users to talk to each other to remove bad feedback and come to a solution.

What I have learnt by all this is to be careful if you take a contract with yell.com as one bad review will stop most traffic heading your way. If you do get a bad review there is nothing you can do to speak to the customer involved in an attempt to come to a resolution.
In my case I am pretty convinced it was a disgruntles ex employee. The timing was just too coincidental.

You can post a reply to the review but I am not sure throwing stones back is the answer.

 

[fisicx]

So stop using yell for reviews. There are plenty more providers who have proper moderation and right to reply.

Even better would be to stop using yell altogether, the sooner this dinosuar of a business goes under the better it will be for everybody.

 

[Daniel HORAN]

WARNING WARNING YELL.COM WILL RENEW YOUR ADVERT WITHOUT ASKING YOU THEN THE CALLS AND EMAILS START DEMAND YOU PAY THEM FOR THE YEARS ADVERTISING THIS IS A DESPERATE COMPANY WHO DO NOT CARE ABOUT THEIR CUSTOMERS AND ARE RELENTLESS ABOUT HARASSING YOU FOR MONEY FOR A ADVERT YOU DIDN'T ASK FOR HARASSMENT IS A CRIME REPORT THEM TO THE POLICE YELL DOES NOT WORK IT IS A COMPLETE WASTE OF YOUR MONEY IN BUSINESS MISTAKES HAPPEN AND MINE WAS GETTING INVOLVED WITH YELL.COM.

 

[stevebrownlie]

I would strongly suggest you reply, ask them to contact you and so on. Appear super helpful and make it sound like you'll move heaven and earth to fix the issue. This actually makes you look good when people look at it - an ignored bad review is WAY worse than one the business owner dealt with promptly and professionally.

Some more detailed advice - http://webmarketingtoday.com/articles/114986-10-Ways-to-Deal-with-Negative-Customer-Reviews/ (no affiliation to me).

 

[Paul Norman]

A quick forage around the internets will confirm that using Yell.com is an error.

 

[Lincs_Paul]

I would strongly suggest you reply, ask them to contact you and so on. Appear super helpful and make it sound like you'll move heaven and earth to fix the issue. This actually makes you look good when people look at it - an ignored bad review is WAY worse than one the business owner dealt with promptly and professionally.

Good idea. I decided to go down this route and see what happens.

 

[bharris]

i can recall a single good report about yell, not even from the people who work there. The only reason they are still going is that they owe far too much money to go bust!

 

[Formations Factory]

Ditch Yell. Use Trustpilot instead.

 

[claus1860]

I'm not a review expert but I feel Google maps reviews pretty helpful from a user point of view. I often search for restaurants but also other stores on maps. Just recently I searched for a travel clinic because we are going to Africa over the summer. If I see a few positive reviews it makes me more comfortable going there. I'm often too lazy to check on other sites...

 

[ProfessoreMD]

Yell have removed every single bad review I have posted on there. So I was posting this fact on trustpilot along with innumerable others on trustpilot so what they have done now is contact trustpilot to finish me with them. So writing this to inform just how corrupt yell is they only allow good reviews about their fee paying customers. Don't forget yellow pages went down amidst it fiddling it's sales forecasting figures.

 

[ProfessoreMD]

Just can't believe how a business can complain about yell not removing bad reviews. The miracle is post an honest bad review and to see it still there a month later. You should read how many on trustpilot have had difficulty posting anything bad said. My reviews were about life threatening issues and I thought trustpilot would publish it but no yell contacted them and they joined them. Both yell and trustpilot equally bad you must be able to read the honest truth about dodgy businesses when there are so many out there.

 

[billy coomber]

AWFUL AWFUL COMPANY TO DEAL WITH ,I cannot believe that this company is still going? have they been under investigation yet? I am admittedly naive when it comes to online advertising and when I was called out of the blue one day by a savvy salesman he promised me the earth, I explained that I am struggling and he pounced, "well this is a small investment that will change your business around, the phone will not stop ringing etc" I have signed up and not one phone call from them! now the friendly demeanor has changed , of course they have my money, and they couldn't care less, I phoned to complain and they send they would investigate the account, I cancelled the DD during the investigation but nothing, no calls back ,no emails just a single letter before xmas from a debt collector for £850.00, wow what a class act yell.com is

 

[aaron web designer]

I have amended this post as not sure how to remove it. But if you have any queries related to Yell then I can help. I worked there so know all the ins and outs.