Business ProfileforYelp Inc.

Yelp came to BBB’s attention in January 2013. A review of the company was done in April 2023. Based on BBB files this company continues to have a pattern of complaints. Complainants on file state that information related to them by sales representatives regarding offers of “credit applied to account” and how they would be billed was not accurate.

Yelp responded to BBB with the following:

By way of background, Yelp Inc. owns and operates Yelp, a website and mobile app where consumers can read and write reviews of local businesses and services. Business owners, in turn, can use Yelp to post information about their business and engage with their customers. While there is no cost to use many features of Yelp, Yelp does give businesses the opportunity to advertise.

When signing up for Yelp Ads, a business owner will typically go through an online checkout system, where the pricing of the advertising program is prominently displayed. The pricing may be displayed as a per day average (for example, $10.00 per day average) and/or a per month maximum (for example, $300 per month maximum). The business has the opportunity to review their order before making their purchase, and by clicking Start Advertising they agree to the Order Form and the Yelp Master Advertising Terms.

Additionally, Yelp offers a variety of credits and promotions to new and existing advertisers. The terms of the particular offer can be seen at signup, and general information about the different types of credits and promotions can be found in our Support Center: https://www.yelp-support.com/article/How-are-promotional-credits-boosts-and-bonuses-applied?l=en_US. Please note that a business can view the status of any credit or promotion in their Yelp for Business account.

While our sales reps are able to walk the business through the steps of the signup, our program is designed to be self-service. Therefore all information is available to the business owner before the business owner selects to start advertising. The displayed information includes a full description of the promotion, cost per click estimate, daily average budget, monthly maximum budget and first expected billing date.

After the business signs up for an advertising program, we send them an email which recaps the services they signed up for and restates the monthly maximum cost of the program. The email also explains that the programs will continue until canceled, and how the business can cancel their program. Additionally, a link to Yelp's Master Advertising Terms is provided in the email. Yelp's current Master Advertising Terms can be found here: https://biz.yelp.com/tos/master_advertising_terms_en_us_20200402.