The Bear Cave issues cautious report on Yelp

While Yelp (YELP) claims to “help businesses of all sizes reach a large audience, advertise their products and drive conversion of their services,” The Bear Cave says it has obtained hundreds of consumer complaints “alleging a pattern of misleading and fraudulent billing by Yelp, deceptive free trials and cancellation notices, and excessive, harassing, or misleading telemarketing by the platform.” The Bear Cave says that many of the complaints allege that Yelp’s remote sales reps push small businesses into “free” ad campaign trials, and after merchants believe they have successfully cancelled trial campaigns, they are surprised months later with hundreds or thousands of dollars in unexpected charges from Yelp or a collection agency representing Yelp.