I had been made redundant from my previous job and decided to start my own business and become self-employed. My wife and I used our savings to set up the business. I initially opted to advertise on Google using their Adwords service and made my own website. Adwords cost me about 50-60 pounds a month and did generate some business for me but not as much I hoped.
In the meantime, I was receiving emails from yell.com (though I don't know where they picked up my email address). The yell.com emails promoted their own online advertising service and indicated that it could be beneficial to my business. There was a telephone number too, so I decided to call it. I spoke to a sales lady who painted a nice rosy picture of how successful I could be if I advertised on yell.com. She told me that it would cost 94 pounds a month by paying monthly. I was concerned that it was too expensive and I may not be able to afford it, bearing in mind that I had only recently started my business and hadn't made much money yet. I recall that she said their service generated huge amounts of business for their customers and gave the impression that the service easily paid for itself. She also told me that my advertisement would appear on all the major search engines, such as Google, Yahoo and Bing, so I didn't need to advertise with anyone else. She finally advised me that it would run for twelve months but did not mention anything about being unable to cancel it if I wasn't happy with the service or it wasn't profitable for me. She compared it to Google and I was aware that I could cancel Google's Adwords service any time I wanted.
I have services from insurance companies and a mobile phone network which run for twelve months and I can cancel them whenever I wish, though I appreciate a cancellation fee may be involved. Therefore I assumed yell.com was no different. Everything after this happened fast. Whilst still on the phone with the sales lady, she sent me an email which opened a link and then she took me through the sign up process. Before I knew it, it was done but I had no idea that by doing this there was no going back. I then stopped the Adwords service.
A few days later, the yell.com service was up and running but I gained no business from it. After a couple of weeks I rang yell.com and expressed my concern that I was getting no enquiries through the advertisement. I understand that yell.com cannot guarantee business but the lady I spoke to this time told me not to worry and that it takes time to pick up momentum. She told me to 'stick with it for a couple more weeks', giving the impression that I could stop after that time. Two more weeks went by and I have still not had any queries coming in. Another concern was that my advertisement did not feature anywhere on Google or Yahoo. I searched using the key words I had been recommended but my advertisement did not show anywhere. I gave up looking after trawling through about six pages (and no potential customer is reasonably going to search beyond that).
The service has now been up and running for a month and during that time I have gained no business and thus no income. To pay 94 pounds is too much under these circumstances and I just cannot afford it, so I figured I had to cancel it and consider other advertising methods. But when I contacted yell.com they said that there was no way I could cancel it and I had to stay with it for the whole twelve months. I told them that nobody advised me of this but they have been no help. There was no trial period or 'cooling off' period and I am faced with a huge payment to them every month, even though I have made no money in over a month. I cannot believe that there is no option to terminate the service. The contract terms are not fair and I was definitely given a false impression of what I was getting myself into, which in my view amounts to mis-selling. It's a case of a sales advisor enticing me with false hope and now I can't get out of it. I can't even afford to advertise elsewhere to actually make money to pay for yell.com!
I have contacted Trading Standards and hope they can help me. Has anyone else had problems with yell.com and has anyone managed to cancel their service with them?
In the meantime, I was receiving emails from yell.com (though I don't know where they picked up my email address). The yell.com emails promoted their own online advertising service and indicated that it could be beneficial to my business. There was a telephone number too, so I decided to call it. I spoke to a sales lady who painted a nice rosy picture of how successful I could be if I advertised on yell.com. She told me that it would cost 94 pounds a month by paying monthly. I was concerned that it was too expensive and I may not be able to afford it, bearing in mind that I had only recently started my business and hadn't made much money yet. I recall that she said their service generated huge amounts of business for their customers and gave the impression that the service easily paid for itself. She also told me that my advertisement would appear on all the major search engines, such as Google, Yahoo and Bing, so I didn't need to advertise with anyone else. She finally advised me that it would run for twelve months but did not mention anything about being unable to cancel it if I wasn't happy with the service or it wasn't profitable for me. She compared it to Google and I was aware that I could cancel Google's Adwords service any time I wanted.
I have services from insurance companies and a mobile phone network which run for twelve months and I can cancel them whenever I wish, though I appreciate a cancellation fee may be involved. Therefore I assumed yell.com was no different. Everything after this happened fast. Whilst still on the phone with the sales lady, she sent me an email which opened a link and then she took me through the sign up process. Before I knew it, it was done but I had no idea that by doing this there was no going back. I then stopped the Adwords service.
A few days later, the yell.com service was up and running but I gained no business from it. After a couple of weeks I rang yell.com and expressed my concern that I was getting no enquiries through the advertisement. I understand that yell.com cannot guarantee business but the lady I spoke to this time told me not to worry and that it takes time to pick up momentum. She told me to 'stick with it for a couple more weeks', giving the impression that I could stop after that time. Two more weeks went by and I have still not had any queries coming in. Another concern was that my advertisement did not feature anywhere on Google or Yahoo. I searched using the key words I had been recommended but my advertisement did not show anywhere. I gave up looking after trawling through about six pages (and no potential customer is reasonably going to search beyond that).
The service has now been up and running for a month and during that time I have gained no business and thus no income. To pay 94 pounds is too much under these circumstances and I just cannot afford it, so I figured I had to cancel it and consider other advertising methods. But when I contacted yell.com they said that there was no way I could cancel it and I had to stay with it for the whole twelve months. I told them that nobody advised me of this but they have been no help. There was no trial period or 'cooling off' period and I am faced with a huge payment to them every month, even though I have made no money in over a month. I cannot believe that there is no option to terminate the service. The contract terms are not fair and I was definitely given a false impression of what I was getting myself into, which in my view amounts to mis-selling. It's a case of a sales advisor enticing me with false hope and now I can't get out of it. I can't even afford to advertise elsewhere to actually make money to pay for yell.com!
I have contacted Trading Standards and hope they can help me. Has anyone else had problems with yell.com and has anyone managed to cancel their service with them?