Yell.com

[supasparxs]

Hi guys,
I got a cold call from Yell, selling "free" listing, and can do adwords campaign etc
what sort of response have you guys got from Yell?

 

[1shortcircuit]

You should have used the forum search function

:thumbsup

 

[Spazz]

The free listing from Yell is a must - but do it yourself through their website and not on the phone.

The Paid for advertising is a waste of time - I had yell on the phone this morning trying to sell me advertisement are my area - covering over 12 towns (what I needed) at over £4,000.00 per year with no guarantee that I will be on the 1st page when someone searches - you can guess my response!

I am using Thomson Local - £450 ish (£35 per month - 1st Payment 1 month after service has been activated) - so with the cooling off period of 14 days - I can test it for 2 weeks and if it does not deliver in those 2 weeks with a min of 1 call as a result of the advert then I will be cancelling it on day 13 of the contract - full refund and no payments go out.


The best place to advertise by far is Google Places as only 10% of people searching use Yell, Thomson Local, BT, etc.
The other 90% use Google, and Google Places is always right at the top and its FREE!!!

 

[D80]

4 grand a year! You'd need to be be VAT registered for it to pay off, and if not then that's 20% more charge. Main ones I see as likely to use yell are domestic, could be well wide of the mark though. 4k a year is staggering!

 

[Frosty69]

i paid £700 last year with yell, that was to go int the book and website and to date I've made about £100 from it! this was also confirmed yesterday when I took my overalls to the laundrette and the bin outside was full of brand new yellow pages books! Ive also wasted a lot of money on google as there is always some muppet that will be half as cheap as you and totally degrade our skills!

 

[sparkdog]

I had a basic ad with Yell for one year and got only one small job out of it.Changing a light fitting.

 

[TJS]

I had a meeting with a Yell rep on Thursday, she is going away to come up with a marketing plan for me, looks like its a waste of time going by what I read here

TJ

 

[Ricen'easy]

Yell have basically lost it. most people just do a google search covering their area. Apply for the FREE Yell insertion and then get a good website. Also enter your details on as many free local registries as possible. To find them just google your competitors. Finally whatever you do don't get a website from Yell as they are expensive, not very good and will tie you into a contract.

 

[highspark]

Word of mouth - end of story

 

[supasparxs]

I had a meeting with a Yell rep on Thursday, she is going away to come up with a marketing plan for me, looks like its a waste of time going by what I read here

TJ

If the meeting goes ahead, why don't you show the rep this thread?

 

[Spazz]

I have had so many problems with Thomson Local over the past week.
They gave my personal details:
Name, Address, Telephone number, personal mobile (not work mind), DOB, NI number, email address, etc to several energy suppliers, I have had over 100 phone calls and over 50 emails asking me if I want to change my electric over to them as I am breaking the law with having a domestic meter in a domestic house - how on earth does that work???

So the ICO are now dealing with them, got 50% off my ad now, because they agreed they went behind my back and broke the Data Protection Act by providing my personal details to these companies - I think it was more of a way to soften me up with not taking them to court, and to cancel the complaint with ICO.

They also extended my cancellation period where I can cancel the ad to 2 months instead of 2 weeks and I don't pay anything for those 2 months, so free advertising (top of Thomson local) for 2 months then cancel it.

They have now sorted their mess up and all calls have stopped, thank god!

 

[Goody]

Forget about Yell or Thomson Local and go to Gumtree; it really worked for me. People tend to use Gumtree if they want to find someone local to resolve their issues.

 

[needasparks]

I would never recommend yell, the only calls you get from it are from people trying to sell YOU something and you pay for the privilege. Any cold calls you do get are problem people trolling the book getting 20 quotes to change a light switch.
when i think of the money i've wasted on book adverts over the years. Can't beat good ole word of mouth, best by far.

 

[supasparxs]

Forget about Yell or Thomson Local and go to Gumtree; it really worked for me. People tend to use Gumtree if they want to find someone local to resolve their issues.

Yep gumtree is useful

Do you pay for the features section?
Or like be, a skin Flint and just go for the free adds?

 

[hercule]

I'd avoid yell.com, they've massively increased theit prices (they weren't making enough from it), so now you have to pay for each individual town you want to show up in. It used to cover the whole yellow pages book area. So last year whol phone book area = £300ish, this year either have 10% of the coverage for the same price or pay about £5000. No thanks! Hardly get anything from it.

Was on 118247 also, 2 jobs in 8 months!

 

[Goody]

Yep gumtree is useful

Do you pay for the features section?
Or like be, a skin Flint and just go for the free adds?

I paid once or twice but most of the time I am happy with free ads!

 

[dansk]

as everyone has said yell is crap these days, i cancelled my monthly with yell and bought a van!

 

[supasparxs]

hmmmmmmmmm

I take it Yell are not very happy with me

 

[needasparks]

hmmmmmmmmm

I take it Yell are not very happy with me

They are when they take your money and selling your email to all and sundry

 

[Plonker 3]

Just had a cold call from Yell.Com after reading this thread and others on the web I was against using them so told the rep I was a new start up but had a reasonable client base to get rid, but he started to tell me how that doesn't work and I need to list with them. I ended up hanging up in the end as he wouldn't take no for a answer, very pushy sales always says to me someone is desperate for custom or commission.