Comments for Yelp Sucks

Comment on Yelp’s IPO Update by Erica

Erica — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 01:29:12 +0000

Oh yes… they never remove the negatives… The FILTER out only the good see the site.

Comment on Yelp’s IPO Update by Erica

Erica — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 01:27:54 +0000

New business owner.. The first time I heard of Yelp It was after my first negative comment went live on there site. Within about half hour from the actual post, I was contacted. I was questioned .” Did you know we can fix all your Negative reports, even delete them permanently from Yelp. For a SMALL FEE of $299 per month (which is detrimental to your business) We can even post positives to bring you new clients. I was offered with the $299 fee ” Your positive posts which are currently FILTERED will be visual vs filtered. We will even include ad Advertisement of your own and include a video on your Ad.” I was asked to enter into Yelp and view my reviews. I was advised that Yelp will place my competitors Ads on my page, adjacent to my reviews, unless I join and pay the $299 per month. As of today I have 6 total reviews, They filtered my positives.Only post live the 3 negative reviews. And because i didn’t like how Yelp does business I have all my competitors promotional ads on my page. This is a horrible thing to do to people and it is all about the money. If you pay the fee you will always have great ratings. I did ask if I tried it and carried it for 6 months and could not afford it would those negatives still stay off my reviews.. I was told we would just have to wait and see, but there is no promises made to keep negatives off your review page unless you JOIN. My opinion is: This is call Blackmail….by Slander UNLESS YOU PAY,, That’s what it is… I can’t wait for Yelp to crumble.

Comment on Tell Your Yelp Story by Marche

Marche — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 00:32:58 +0000

Another story of filtered reviews. We are a new business with all 5 star reviews. 6 of the 8 have been filtered. I know these customers by name. One of my customers actually contacted yelp after their review was filtered several months ago, it was placed back on our page and now its filtered again. There really is not rhyme or reason to their filtering. I find it interesting that they feel they have the authority to determine the authenticity of a review, they obviously need a new formula.

Additionally I was accosted by a Yelp sales person. He was demanding and became verbally aggressive during our conversation. I called him out on it saying that he was brusk and rude. He tried to backtrack. It was very uncomfortable and I felt bullied. Needless to say I did not even consider advertising after that encounter.

Prior to opening a business I regularly used yelp. I will now take all yelp reviews with a GIANT grain of salt, maybe an entire container. I don’t trust Yelp, they do not have my best interest, or any other small business, in mind.

Comment on Yelp’s Review Filter by Adryenn Ashley

Adryenn Ashley — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 23:37:06 +0000

Unfortunately it’s not as clean cut as pay for advertising and get your filtered reviews back. Based on a lot of experiments, it does appear that if you complain, you get penalized. It does look like if you piss off an elite or someone who works there, your reviews get whacked. No solid proof, but tons of anecdotal. Like the tattoo parlor with all positive reviews from real people are filtered and two negatives (one who claimed to be a Yelp employee) is unfiltered.

Based on how I have seen certain businesses profiles handled, I can safely bet there is a manual feature to the filter, it’s not random, and it’s not evenly applied. Kind of like a credit score (I used to work at Fair, Isaac doing the validation studies on the behavior scorecards my department built), there are factors that can lower your score, and factors that can raise it. Long time avid yelpers have more power, obviously, because they spend more time on the site, contributing to the community. I’m less concerned with that, than I am with the in-house factors that affect the score. That’s the black box. That’s where the magic happens and since it doesn’t happen the same across the board to equally situated businesses, either there is a major flaw (making the filtered results statistically irrelevant), or there is a way to manually manipulate the results.

Since my business is manually suppressed, I know for a fact that they can manipulate the results. How far that power goes is where the lawyers will find their smoking gun. But it isn’t a payola scheme anymore, and the advertising department doesn’t have the power to unfilter reviews, so don’t bother paying them.

Comment on Yelp’s Review Filter by C

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 22:28:54 +0000

Same thing has happened to me, they keep filtering all of my reviews from actual real clients. There is no rhyme or reason as to why they keep doing this. Meanwhile my competitors who are advertising with them have their reviews (less than my filtered ones) up and running. It seems to me like the filter chooses to filter reviews for people who refuse to give them money. I guess it is the age of cyber-extorsion.

Comment on Tell Your Yelp Story by Ruben

Ruben — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 21:13:51 +0000

So I own a small computer/game console repair shop and started using YELP because I was trying to get online exposure and get my business name on the internet. I signed up got a few reviews after about 10 or so I get a call from yelp saying they can help my business that there is 1000 searches for my category in my area and last month I only got 100 views so Im missing out on customers. I declined to sign up with them because I have used all my advertising money on other websites and printed material. Well the day after my conversation with them I noticed my reviews were being filtered I thought it might be because most of those filtered reviews where from people who have just signed up so didnt really think anything of it. Then I noticed a competitor’s ad was being displayed right above my page when a search was done (obviously paid ad) and I click on his reviews lo an be hold only a couple of his reviews are filtered and none of the reviews from new users are being filtered? As of today 10 of my 13 reviews have been filtered out and only 5 of his 12 reviews are filtered. I guess I am lucky that I have no bad reviews otherwise Im sure new user or not that one would stay up until I pay up.

Comment on Outsmarting Bad Reviews on Yelp! by Stewart Patey

Stewart Patey — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 03:02:45 +0000

Im very upset with yelps sabbatouge tactics. Would love to talk with someone. I thought I was alone here. Was about to contact an attorney over this and found you online. If anyone cares to call me my cell number is 425-750-4166.

Thanks,

Stewart

Comment on Tell Your Yelp Story by Iam Marshal

Iam Marshal — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 22:41:51 +0000

My beef with Yelp is much different then most. I had Lasik at at a place and they destroyed my eyes. It has cost me in excess of 10k to have this fixed and I still my be looking at a trip to London for additional surgery.That will run me another 15k. I have a legitimate beef with the lasik center that did this to me. So I wrote a bad review of them and soon other people came forward and this place has no decent reviews. They haved maimed many people. I backed my review with facts and hyperlinks,as a matter of fact my surgeon is being sued for 10 million dollars. I cannot sue as where this happened to me, simpy you cant. To cut to the chase I figured that they would remove my review or filter it. Then people started voting and I got 72 Useful votes and people started contacting me about what to do about their maimed eyes. I was helping people. My review was not of a business that had bad service, it was about a place that was blinding people. It was legit and not like so many BS reviews or good reviews that were filtered. Do you know what did me in? One of the people who contacted me said that I should be a more active participant in yelp talk. On Sunday a troll attacked me and made nasty comments about my parents. I fired back and put the guy in his place. After saying what I had to say I finished with I’m done with this guy. Yesterday I sign in and it says that my account has been closed for having mutiple accounts. I had one. Evidently the troll flagged everyone who got the best of him. I guess my flag was for having more then one account which is BS. I have contacted yelp and they refuse to get back to me. So why they extorting legitimate businesses, the BS is a two way street. I pretty much told the guy to grow up and move out of parents basement. The thread had more more profane stuff about this guy from other people and since it was not flagged it stays. This guy went looking for trouble and I fell for the bait. Now I kicked of yelp forever and I didn’t do anything except defend myself. I know this way diferent then businesses that have a beef because they wont pay yelps extortion. I will start my own website and continue helping people. This may be way different then what most of you have gone through. I went through something else and it was just as wrong as what they did to all of you. They want you to be part of their “social network” and when you do they close your account for a BS reason. If this place hadn’t maimed me I would have never even thought of posting on yelp. Moral of the story, they screw everyone.

Comment on Tell Your Yelp Story by Karen Chapon

Karen Chapon — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:53:49 +0000

Our company wound up on Yelp! with no initiation on my part. The first review was posted 8/2011 by a person who never even did business with us! I contacted Yelp! who told me to contact the reviewer. I did so and she never bothered to respond. I then recontacted Yelp! who told me that the review would stand, referenced some congressional ruling from 1996 that pertained to 3rd party and internet providers and blew me off. I then asked a few of our past guests to provide reviews which they did. On 2/8 I contacted Yelp! again about the reviewer who never did business with me, again asking them to remove it or at least provide some assistance on how to correct it. Soon after I got yet another boiler plate response. I responded that this was ridiculous and I was going to contact the Attorney General, the Better Business Bureau and our personal attorney. That was on 2/8 and shortly after that all my positive reviews were deleted!! My customers that left the reviews contacted me asking why Yelp! closed their account!! I can’t believe this place!! Its a goddamn racket that hides behind a outdated law passed decades ago. They need to be shut down permanently.

Comment on Tell Your Yelp Story by Vitaly

Vitaly — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 15:16:12 +0000

We have over 60 positive reviews, only 2 good and 2 bad showing giving us 3 stars. When based on the simple math of 60 5 star reviews we should have 5 right? we’ve written 3 times to BBB, 4 times to Yelp and to our NY Senators and Federal Trade Comm. No help whatsoever. The joke is Yelp calls us to buy advertising!?!?!? We use to pay when we started 2 years ago but stopped. We have emailed so many complaints that we now tell our customers to only post or LIKE US on Facebook (which is more legit as you see the customer) and Google Maps or twitter. Yelp should be shut down or at least a business should be able to remove itself (permanently unlist themselves to this service). We don’t want to be listed on Yelp. Two crappy customers over 2 years in business and they hold more sway than dozens of happy ones. BS