TLDR: The F rating and reviews on the BBB website say it clearly – they’re ripping you off!
Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt, commonly referred to as FUD, is a dubious disinformation strategy used to influence the perception of victims for selfish reasons. FUD is widely used in marketing, politics, public relations, propaganda, and the list goes on. Funny enough, many of us have been victims of these shady tactics without knowing it. Our goal is to enlighten the public to detect this type of ploy, which is used to deceive and defraud people around the world. Yellow Pages (YP) is one of the organizations that still actively perpetrates FUD today.
The information in this post first came to light in 2010. However, people still complain about Yellow Pages, and hundreds have taken the initiative to seek redress in the court of law. In fact, a Quebec court authorized a class action against Yellow Pages back in 2019. Thousands of YP customers are expected to sign-on the lawsuit to seek compensation from the company over shady billing practices.
During a chat with the press, Jean-Philippe Caron, founder of Calex Legal Inc., which is standing for the plaintiffs, revealed a possible trial timeline. Caron said he hopes to conclude the preparation for the class trial by 2020 and may obtain a trial date sometime in 2021.
The Unethical business dealings of Yellow Pages are numerous. It’s not just about selling overpriced worthless services that yield next to nothing in returns, they deceive their customers outrightly. Their ploy includes calling customers on the phone and misleading them to make verbal agreements unwittingly. Other customers who sign contracts are unaware of the auto-renewal clause hidden within the fine lines of the Terms and Conditions document.
Many users express their shock when they receive bills ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars from Yellow Pages. Worse still, the Yellow Pages customer service lines are often unreachable. When the line finally goes through, the YP rep replies to the fellow that the bill cannot be reversed. YP would claim that a contract has been made with the company’s rep at some point, either verbally or in writing. The YP schemes are so notorious that they’ll go out of the way to charge victims through telephone companies such as Bell and Telus.
Records from Better Business Bureau shows that people complain about recurrent charges, even after requesting for cancellation.
We see no logical reason to use any YP service besides the free listing, even if the company is not guilty of shady business practices. To be candid, spending your advertising budget on YP is more or less a waste of resources, even for a small company. Other options out there can yield better ROI. Even if you cannot afford to use our service, we can still help. Simply get in touch with us, and we will link you with a reliable person who can help you drive business growth.
Here Are Some of The Lies Yellow Pages Tell Prospects and Customers.
Through 2011, YP still tried to convince people to buy print ads. Over the years, they have switched their strategy to peddling their terrible online ad and the worse Yellow Pages Classified ads option. Funny enough, YP continues to repeat the same absurd narration over the years. The only difference is that they are becoming more desperate these days.
Here us a brief overview of some of the FUD ploys of Yellow Pages:
“Google Has Appointed Us as the Only Authorized Google Ads Reseller.”
First of All, Yellow Pages is not the only authorized Google Ads Reseller. Secondly, the statement somewhat implies that you are better off working with a Google Ads reseller rather than a Google Ads partner. This statement is false. Perhaps, the only difference is that working with a reseller will cost you more money in exchange for a lesser value.
A Paid Listing in Yellow Pages Improves Your Google Ranking
Yellow Pages reps seem to be fond of peddling this false statement to unsuspecting victims. The company does not provide any link value to your site; to prove this claim, check the links on Yellow Pages. You will realize the hyperlinks look like this https:// www.yellowpages.ca/gourl/https://www.yourcompany.com . This type of link simply redirects the visitor from the YP website to another site. It provides little or no SEO value to the website owner. Although a free listing may boost your local SEO, the premium listing does not provide additional SEO value.
The Traffic to Yellow Pages Website is Higher Than Google!
The claim that YP gets more traffic than Google is false, and we can prove it easily. Just head on to Alexa.com, the global leader in website statistics, and make an analysis of the two websites. You will realize that the traffic is not even close!
We Use Unique Ways Nobody Knows to Rank You on Google.
Yellow Pages are trying to make a fool of you with mere words here. There are merely referring to Google Pay Per Click advertising. What they do is leverage the local business option on the Google Ads platform. The procedure is so simple that anyone who can click a mouse would do it!
This is arguably the worst BS Yellow Pages reps try to sell to their unsuspecting victims. Over the years, we have seen many clients cancel, and others downgraded their listing on Yellow Pages, without any negative SEO repercussions. In fact, you have lots to gain by withdrawing your ads with Yellow Pages. You can channel such funds to other advertising schemes that earn you a better ROI.
If you decided to do yourself a favor and cancel your Yellow Page subscription, follow the steps below.
Procedure for canceling a Yellow Pages subscription
- Review your contract
- After reading through the fine lines of the Yellow Pages contract and terms and conditions, we found the auto-renew clause. It requires that you give notice of cancellation three months before the end of your subscription.
- You can call this number: 1-877-909-9356
- Send a Complaint to the Better Business Bureau
Once you see a strange charge from Yellow Pages, do not keep mute. Contact someone from Yellow Pages to cancel the service you did not subscribe to. Also, a debt collector representing the company may be pestering you, just file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. There are indications that Yellow Pages is responding to complaints on BBB. However, one cannot be sure if the company takes the appropriate steps to rectify such complaints.
