Complaint Review: YP Marketing - Nationwide

 Horrible does not even begin to describe my experience with YP. SHORT VERSION: This company is absolute chaos. On very few occasions did I ever actually speak with the same person twice. Despite paying a monthly fee high enough to be “awarded” a “dedicated account success manager.” They obviously have huge turnover in staff. I had one of the senior sales reps (Kelly Lund) outright lie to me. I have an email from one of the nationally based “success mangers” (Maria Mazzola) detailing and acknowledging extremely poor performance. Yet I am now being threatened with a lawsuit by their attorney Mr. Benjamin Schwartz. One incident actually involved a lower level CSR, SCREAMING at his manager “We have to help these people! This place is ridiculous!” He obviously thought he had placed me on hold. Does this sound like a company you would like to do business with? Be advised this is one of the very few sites you will see a review about YP. YP does not allow reviews on their Facebook page. Be sure to ask them why? I would not fault you at all if you skip the full version of my outrageous experience. Just SKIP TO THE END where I have listed the despicable tactics they employ to get you to sign up, and what you can expect.

FULL VERSION: Let me start by saying we are the dominant player in our area, in what is an extremely popular industry. This not a case of an obscure industry, just trying to get noticed. Our Facebook campaigns (This is where you should spend your money. Don’t waste a nickel on YP) are ALWAYS very successful. We are 5 star rated on all of the major review collecting sites. Our business is very popular. I managed my own Google ad words account for years, and was very successful, acquiring clients through the search engines. Now I only get clients from FB (and lots of referrals.) I ask every single client where they discovered us. YP has completely handtied our small business, by crippling our online (search engine) advertising Let’s begin, the problems started almost immediately. Despite having a detailed conversation with both the local and national reps. The right hand NEVER knows what the left hand is doing. YP could not even get the new landing page and keywords set up correctly for weeks. (I had to repeatedly request information from them. My requests were always ignored. I spent countless amounts of time tracking down the information myself). I was forced to babysit them the entire time. If you think turning over your online ads to YP is going to SAVE YOU TIME. You are SADLY MISTAKEN. You are just a number to them, and they need to be constantly watched over. After set up, comes the “ramp up” it takes weeks for the search engine crawlers to recognize the new landing page. Which means you will have to either go “dark” with your online presence, by pulling your existing ads down. Or as I did, pay for multiple campaigns at the same time to stay in front of potential customers (what small business can afford to not be scene??) Of course YP will strongly encourage you to pull down all other online ads, as to not disrupt the “ramp up” of the new campaign. YP wants you to be completely dependent on them. Next comes being absolutely BOMBARDED with sales calls. Each of which is COUNTED TOWARD OUR lead tally. Our local sales rep (who quit after only ONE month into our contract. Again lots of turnover) was very nice (she actually became one of OUR clients) and said she could get those removed.

Well it became quite a chore, to DROP EVERYTHING in order to log and then call ( the 800 # and then wait on hold, and then be transferred to the appropriate person) to report the sales calls to be removed from the tally. Something else very peculiar that happened on several occasions. We would receive calls at the weirdest times (overnight, very early morning). I always return the call of every missed number. These people would state (usually not very happy) that, they were just returning MY CALL at some ungodly hour. I never made that initial call. Of course I can could never prove anything. But I suspect it was just more shenanigans by YP. That had never happened before, and has not happened since. Well after several months it was quite clear we had made a huge blunder by going with YP. The number of clients that said they found us through a search engine PLUMMETED. I contacted the YP main office (I no longer had a local sales rep) I was usually dismissed in some “used car salesperson” kind of way.

After several calls I finally was put in contact with Maria Mazzola in the national office ( just by chance, again because the “assigned guy” was not available). Ms. Mazzola, was nice enough to actually take my concerns seriously. Ms. Mazzola took the time to go through, and itemize the call log up to that point (5 months). She came up with 45-60 total leads. The lead count was mediocre at best, consider our industry is exploding right now. To be clear, we were “assured” by the local sales reps of 11-21 QUALITY LEADS PER MONTH. But, IT GETS WORSE. Ms. Mazzola was nice enough to FILTER OUT all the “duplicate numbers and very short calls.” Short calls being all the sales calls, I quickly dismissed. The filter whittled that already sad number down by an incredible 2/3rds!!! ONLY 18-20 leads in 5 months!!! That is only 4 leads (not actual paying customers) per month AT A COST OF $1500/MONTH!! I have the emails documenting these numbers.

This brings us to (re)entrance of the most despicable character in this whole nightmarish saga, Kelly Lund. Ms. Lund was present during our initial meeting, turns out our sales rep was just a trainee (again lots of turnover). Ms. Lund contacted me 6 months into the nightmare (Oh, so I was supposed to have a local rep? why did it take so long? I’m sure her true motive was because something finally popped up on her commission report) to tell me YP would be giving us a one month credit (to be applied to NEXT month’s bill). I told her that was not acceptable. My math says they failed miserable for 5 consecutive months? I wanted out of the contract. I had been demanding cancelation for months now, to every rep I spoke with. But again the left hand never knows what righty is doing. During our phone conversation I insisted on explaining my entire situation, Ms. Lund stated I was being rude by not letting her control the conversation with her “used car salesperson” dismissal of my concerns. Once we were able to lower the energy level of the conversation, Ms. Lund stated “It is obvious you are upset, and have not been treated fairly. I wish you would have contacted me earlier.” To be clear I had no way of contacting her. “I’m a big deal around here.” She continued “I cannot cancel the contract now, because the credit has already been issued.” A decision made without my involvement. “If you are still unhappy at the end of the month, after the credit plays out, WE WILL GET THE CONTRACT CANCELLED” One month later I attempted to contact Ms. Lund, It always took about a week to get back to me. During our earlier phone conversation, she SUGGESTED I turn on the phone call recording feature. ”Lets’ figure out what is going on here” This was her backhanded way of suggesting, I was somehow at fault for the lack of success. Again, our business is full of clients from Facebook. I ask each client to give us a call to schedule an appointment. We do not book through the FB page.

Well when Ms. Lund finally decided to get back in touch with me, she informs me that enabling call recording is now a REQUIREMENT for cancellation. I stated that I was through with the games. I would not be jumping through any hoops. When the numbers were clearly showing that the YP campaign was a disaster. I informed Ms. Lund I was terminating my communication her, that I would not waste my time with someone who does not stand by their word. Ms. Lund’s response back was “Unless you have something in writing, the original contract stands”.. Classy Weeks went by, the only contact I had with YP was from their bill collector (I had already cancelled the credit card) each time I explained my side of the story, and stated I would not be paying more. I had already paid for 50% of the contract ($1500 x5) with zero return. At one point I did receive a voicemail from a different “local supervisor” I returned his call, but never got a response back. Now I am being threatened by YP’s attorney Mr. Benjamin Schwartz. Mr. Schwartz stated I have 10 days to pay $4,887.10 or face litigation where I will be subject to additional attorney’s fees and court costs. Mr. Schwartz also informed us, he is prepared to “pierce the corporate veil” and pursue my wife and I on a personal level. DOES THIS SOUND LIKE A COMPANY YOU WOULD LIKE TO DO BUSINESS WITH???

Let’s recap the deception and misinformation YP will use to try and convince you to sign.( Don’t consider it in a million years) 1. They sell themselves as a “Google Preferred Provider” that means absolutely nothing to you as a consumer. They have NO SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP WITH GOOGLE. We were told Google is going through “big changes”. We would be at a distinct disadvantage if we did not use a GPP. 2. The YP contract clearly states that YP is not beholden to ANYTHING THE SALES REP says. Translation the rep can say whatever they want. Keep in mind you will probably not see the rep again. These sales reps are “run and gunners” they will try to pressure you to sign up during the very first meeting. ( a little face saving on my part, I did at least have them come back twice) 3. You will not be offered a written copy of the contract until after you sign. (Mailed to you). Of course you can always read the whole thing on their tiny tablet. DEMAND A WRITTEN COPY UP FRONT. 4. Nowhere in the contract do they quantify exactly how many leads you can expect. 5. Be advised State’s attorneys cannot help you, they only protect individuals, not businesses. 6. We paid enough each month to be “assigned a dedicated account success manager” Well according to an email I received from senior sales rep Kelly Lund, I was out of line for even trying to contact my “success manager” According to Ms. Lund “Account managers DO NOT talk to the public” Translation, they do everything behind the scenes. YOU GET WHAT THEY GIVE YOU. 7. Even when they acknowledge gross mishandling and pathetic performance, YP will still demand payment. 8. YP will have no qualms about sending Mr. Schwartz to contact you. Regardless of their performance. They will hold you responsible for all court and attorney fees.