As a small business owner and operator of a tech company, I’ve always recognized the importance of maintaining a strong online presence. Like many others, I turned to Yelp to advertise my business, hoping to gain visibility and grow my customer base. Unfortunately, my experience with Yelp’s advertising platform has been anything but seamless. Instead, it has been a frustrating lesson in how opaque systems and poor customer service can lead to unnecessary financial and emotional stress.
An Opaque and Confusing Billing System
When I signed up for Yelp’s advertising program, I expected a straightforward process: set a budget, monitor the results, and cancel if it didn’t meet expectations. However, Yelp’s system is anything but straightforward. After deciding to cancel the ad campaign, I followed their provided instructions. I went to the billing section of their platform, canceled my campaign, and assumed the matter was resolved. Imagine my surprise when I was hit with another charge the following month.
Upon further investigation, I discovered an infuriating detail: Yelp’s billing system is fragmented into multiple sections. While their interface shows all charges in one place, cancellation must be handled individually for each subsection. This crucial detail is buried within their system, far from obvious to the average user. Worse, there’s no alert or warning to inform you that a partial cancellation leaves other campaigns or subcharges active. It’s a system that almost feels designed to catch users off guard, leading to unauthorized charges and unnecessary frustration.
Unexplained Charges and Escalating Bills
I took additional steps to ensure my payment methods were updated to prevent further rebills. I assumed this would protect me from any additional charges. But the following month, I was billed again—this time for $500. That charge has since ballooned to $700, despite my repeated efforts to cancel and address the issue.
While I know these charges are for advertising services, there’s no evidence that I’ve received any value from this ad spend. After a $700 bill, there should be some tangible results—at the very least, a few phone calls, voicemails, or emails from prospects. Not one potential client has reached out to my business through this campaign. To make matters worse, Yelp provides no proof that these ads were even shown to a relevant audience.
And by prospects, I don’t mean interactions within Yelp’s proprietary internal system. I mean actual, measurable results: people reaching out directly to me by phone, voicemail, or email. A $700 investment in advertising should, at a minimum, result in a couple of leads entering my pipeline. But I have none—zero—and that’s simply unacceptable for an advertising platform that charges this much.
The Cancellation Nightmare
Even if I had seen value from the ads, I actively tried to cancel the service. The process should have been as simple as clicking one button. Instead, I’ve been forced to dig through multiple levels of a fragmented system to cancel each “sub-charge” individually. This process is not only confusing—it’s predatory. The burden should never be on the customer to decipher a convoluted system to avoid unwanted charges.
Slow Response Times Add to the Problem
The billing system isn’t the only issue. Yelp’s response time to emails is painfully slow. By the time they respond to a query, days or even weeks have passed—more than enough time to forget the specifics of what happened or to incur additional charges. This delay makes it nearly impossible to resolve issues efficiently, creating a vicious cycle of confusion and frustration. For a platform that charges small businesses significant sums for advertising, this lack of responsiveness is unacceptable. They are so eager to pull you in and get to buy with their credits but then there is zero customer service after the fact.
Yelp’s Troubling History
This isn’t just a one-off experience. Yelp has long been criticized for its predatory practices, from their questionable review management policies to stories from other business owners who’ve had similar billing issues. The consistency of these complaints paints a troubling picture of a company that prioritizes profits over providing clear, ethical, and user-friendly services.
What Needs to Change
As a tech company, I understand the complexity of building systems that are both functional and intuitive. But Yelp’s system goes beyond being unintuitive—it’s deceptive. Here are a few simple changes that could prevent this kind of experience for others:
- Unified Cancellation System: Allow users to cancel all ad campaigns in one place with a single action.
- Clear Warnings: Notify users if additional charges or campaigns remain active during the cancellation process.
- Faster Customer Support: Respond to inquiries within a reasonable timeframe to resolve disputes before they escalate.
- Proactive Transparency: Provide clear, upfront instructions about how billing works, including details about subsections and recurring charges.
- Prove the Value of Ads: Yelp should provide verifiable evidence that ads were shown to a relevant audience and generated real results for the business.
- Guarantee Lead Generation: After $700 in ad spend, there should be a guarantee of at least a few tangible leads outside the messaging system—warm prospects who directly reach out to the business via phone, voicemail, or email.
A Call to Action for Small Businesses
Yelp’s practices disproportionately affect small businesses that often operate on tight budgets. These businesses can’t afford to lose hundreds or thousands of dollars to unclear systems and poor customer service. As business owners, we must hold companies like Yelp accountable for their practices and demand better.
If you’ve had a similar experience with Yelp or another advertising platform, share your story. The more we bring these issues to light, the more pressure we can put on these companies to treat their customers with fairness and transparency.
Final Thoughts
I’m sharing this story not out of malice, but to shed light on an issue that’s harming small businesses like mine. Transparency and accountability should be the standard for any company, especially one that relies on small business owners to fuel its platform. Yelp has an opportunity to fix these problems and regain the trust of its users, but until then, business owners should approach their services with caution.
For those considering Yelp’s advertising platform, be prepared to dig deep into their billing policies and cancellation processes. Learn from my experience, and don’t hesitate to push back when you feel something isn’t right.
Yelp: the ball is in your court. It’s time to do better.
