Yelp internet advertising Advertising rip-off Roseville CALIFORNIA

I had been hounded by Yelp to advertise my company for years.  I reluctantly agreed to a "Per lead" advertising campaign in July, using Yelp site and adding video, photos and a lot of information. They assured me i would only be charged for leads that called my number and spoke with me. 

Astonishingly, during the months of July, August & September Yelp showed my stats (Calls for service) as being really high. Unfortunately the calls were not coming to me!  They (Yelp) claimed I was getting several calls per week, sometimes per day. Funny thing was I was the only one answering the phone and no such calls were coming in!  I contacted them and tried to tell them their stats were not accurate and they said I would be charged for all the calls anyway. I explained I had a significant increase in HANG-UP CALLS.  How interesting.  

I canceled the subscription and was charge over $3500 in lead generation fees. I got one verified call for a inspection from the 4 months of advertising and my ad is stil up as a "Free Ad".  $3500.00 for one call!!  They did not even use me!

WHAT'S FUNNY? The ad is still the same, but since I no longer pay for lone call!?eads the "Activity" they claimed I was getting has dropped off the map! How Funny is that!??!

I got to thinking. Shortly after I canceled my ad service the HANG-UP CALLS NEARLY STOPPED!  I get a few from time to time, but it's about 10% of what they were.  I realized that Yelp must have had a bank of callers hitting the phone lines, calling the ads they had placed and the "Phony (phone) Callers" would hang up when the ad company answered! SO THE CALLS WERE PLACED THROUGH YELP ADS, THE CALlERS KNEW TO HANG UP RIGHT WHEN THE COMPANY ANSWERED AND THE COMPANY IS CHARGED FOR THE LEAD!  BRILLIANT! RIGHT!  How would you disprove it.

Well I bet Yelp has to keep the log of calls that come in and I would love to get a few of these businesses like mine that were burnt by Yelp to file an claim, request (subpoena) the records and see where those calls came from.  I have a feeling those who made the calls are on Yelp Payroll or are contracted to make calls on their behalf.

Anyone interested in pursuing this?