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Delete Yelp Account

This is the number one question I get asked, and while there is no definitive answer, a number of community members have been successful!

Remember, there is a difference between deleting your personal Yelp account, and deleting your business listing. If you want to remove your personal account, there are step by step instructions here. Even that requires a human to approve your request and a majority of the time they will say, “No”!

If you just want to automagically have negative reviews removed, just sign up for this new service, free, no credit card required:

I’ve been asked by a member of our community to keep his identity a secret, but he has confirmed that he has had 10 negative reviews removed using the following tactic AND that one of the reviews was in fact a competitor and he received a settlement.

  1. 1. Identify a prospective defendant that posted a negative review. This is important because, in CA, Doe defendants may not be sued in Small Claims court (step 2)
  2. 2. File an action for defamation in Small Claims court.
    (Questions below are from CA Small Claims forms)
    Q: Why does the Defendant owe the plaintiff money?
    A: I request $1.00 in nominal damages and injunctive relief requiring the defendant to remove all comments/reviews posted online and preventing posting of additional review(s) about plaintiff.
  3. Upon acceptance of your case by the Small Claims Court, complete and submit a Small Claims Subpoena as follows:
    1. Ordered to appear as a witness: Yelp, Inc.
      760 Mission St., 7th Floor
      San Francisco, CA 94105
    2. For the Production of Documents – Not required to appear in person….
    3. The witness (Yelp) shall produce…: All user information including I.P. (internet protocol) addresses for every user that has posted a review of 2 stars or fewer about (your business).
    4. Good cause exists for the production of documents…: This information is required to determine and/or confirm the defendant is the user that posted the defamatory statements at issue and only the witness company is in possession of this information.
    5. These documents are material…: This information is required to determine and/or confirm the defendant is the user that posted the defamatory statements at issue and only the witness company is in possession of this information.
  4. Submit the Small Claims Subpoena to the Small Claims court.
  5. Upon acceptance by the court of your subpoena, you must serve Yelp. Do a Google search to find a process server in San Francisco. The entire transaction can be handled electronically.
  6. Once served, Yelp will notify the user/defendant. This may be all that’s needed for the user/defendant to take the review down.

If that all sounds arduous and a lot of heavy lifting it is. And sometimes it’s worth it. If you watched the video above, you see that challenging a negative review just got a whole lot easier. Objection.co has developed an AI that has a knack for knowing just what to say that will result in a flagged review getting removed. It’s smart, and the best part, it’s like the terminator and just keeps going and going and going. Imagine having the smartest lawyer on call 24/7 who jumps when you call at 2am and gets to work. Yeah, like that. And the best part? You don’t have to take my word for it. You can test it out on your worst review for free, no credit card needed. You’re welcome!

And while researching how to do it, I ran across a great article on how to delete a RipOffReport.com listing from the Google Search Index… it says:

“Here’s what you need to do, in three steps:

First, file a lawsuit against the original author of the report for defamation, business disparagement, false light, or any other claim that is legally appropriate. The big point here is that you have to prove your case in a court of law — you have the burden to prove the report made about you is false.

Be honest with yourself here (otherwise, you’re just wasting time and money). If the report about you is true (or if you can’t prove your case), you do not have a valid claim for defamation, and this option will not work for you. Again, the key here is being able to prove your case in a court of law. If you can’t do that, game over. You’re stuck with one of the other options above.

Also, you should only sue the author of the report—do not sue Google. Your lawsuit will cost a fortune (Google has plenty of good lawyers), fail very quickly, and you will only serve to anger the one company that can help you the most.

Second, obtain a court order declaring the offending report to be false and defamatory (this, of course, assumes you win your case). The specific content of this order can take various forms, but you should make sure to seek an order that refers to the offending report specifically.

Third, present the court order to Google.”

 

77 comments for “Delete Yelp Account”

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  1. Adryenn,

    Has anyone been successful at removing their business account? I'm another victim of my 5 stars being filtered and negative ones not being filtered. Plus, I think the negative ones are fake because people describe situations that have never happened in our office! Specific details that are just not true, and we can't prove that they aren't.

    If anyone has been successful, please share how you did it!!

    1. Yes, several people have had their businesses removed. It took an attorney letter in order to get them blacklisted. If you want the whole account deleted, I would reply to the ficticious review and comment that you believe this is another fake review from a hired reviewer by the Yelp sales team to get you to advertise, and when you didn't all your 5 star reviews were filtered. Tell the readers to go check them out. That outght to get the review filtered at least!

      1. Hello Adryenn,

        Can you elaborate on the nature of the letter and the attorney that can draft such a letter to have the Yelp business page removed or blacklisted? It would be awesome to strong-arm the biggest bullies on the block.

        I appreciate you help/time in advance.

    2. The EXCAT same thing happened to me. I have 9 reviews – 7 of which are 6 5 Star and 1 4 star — and one FRAUDELNT 1 star review and a 3 star review from 2010 (all of the others are from 2013 and later). Yelp has filtered out the 5 and 4 star reviews leaving my business with a 2 star rating. Ic ontacted them many times and they basically told me to kiss off. I hate them!! I am so sick of these creeps!!!!

    3. Yelp is destroying my small business of over 20 yrs. We have many, many great reviews but, they all get filtered. The same 3 bad reviews keep coming to the top. We have even tried buying into the extortion and advertising on Yelp but, nothing changed and it cost us $1000 a month. After surviving the economic downfall over the last 8 yrs. we are going to go down because of Yelp.

    4. Yes, several people I know personally have done it, all differently, so there isn’t a clear cut way. However, Curtis Boyd has been the knight in shinning armor to most visitors to this site and he’s done a lot to fix Yelp problems. Did you see the webinar I did with him?

  2. I would like to alert people to the Federal Trade Commission. File a complaint here 877-382-4357. It takes a few minutes. I just did it. or go on line and file a complain against YELP. Go to FTC.gov. If the ftc gets enough complaints they will shut down YELP. the better business buerau had been filing complaints against yelp for 5 years. Please help shut yelp down and file a complain now go to ftc.gov. it takes 3 minutes.

    1. I've been Yelpped says:

      Thanks for this info. In addition, you can also filed a complain w/ the attorney general of whatever state you live in. I recently did. Them too will look into it if they get enough people complaining about the same company.

    2. Thank you just filed a complaint against yelp. It was painless and highly recommend doing the same.

      Second step is filing with the attorney general phone number. Here is the number in California 800-952-5225

  3. Seems much easier to start over with a new DBA if that's an option. I almost did that but instead just went on a huge campaign of getting my clients to post a review after explaining the yelp situation to them. (BTW Yelp does not like you to ask your clients for reviews) Most are taken down even thought they come from my clients but yelp can't take 100% down and eventually even if one out of ten 5 stars stick that's one more towards a better rating. It was/is an up hill battle but I'm not going to let them beat me.

  4. I had a business listing (my own) listed on Yelp, thinking that it may help drive some business my way. All it did was drive their (Yelp) sales team my way to try to get me to pay for advertising to push me further to the top of the search criteria.
    After a Year + on Yelp, not a single client from them. I think certain types of businesses thrive on Yelp, while others like mine are more like filler for their search pages. Since 0% of my clients were referred from Yelp, I thought it was wise to invest 0% into their advertising.
    I finally was tired of the emails and calls from their sales dept., I tried removing my own business from Yelp. No luck! But what you can do is edit out all the information so that it returns nothing. I changed my listing from my business name to Not Here Buddy with all incorrect information such as the address, contact number (I used (213)555-2121.

    Since they (Yelp) don't want to give me the option to remove m,y own business and cancel my account with them, I will just fill it with garbage, I suggest you do the same!!!

    1. I tried doing this and they locked my business name and phone number so I can't change it!! I'm desperate – like so many on here are. I have only negative showing and all positive reviews hidden. Any other ideas?? Thanks.

    2. Yelp is a SCAM. When I told them I wasn't going to pay them a dime they but some BS on the front page of my listing saying the reviews are bogus. We actually found that some people found us through yelp but that was only because Google let's them be on the top of there search results.

    3. I suggest posting the link to this site on as many Yelp accounts as possible. Even if Yelp starts to delete them, they won't be able to find them all.

      All my positive reviews have been removed by Yelp. I contacted them and offered evidence of legitimacy but they are not interested in truth.

      They are the bully- have you noticed that you cannot Yelp about Yelp.

      Hopefully with enough negative press they can be brought to their knees

    4. We did this as well. Yelp changed back the information and locked us from making changes to the account. Even added a second listing which now also appears on the SERPS. I do not recommend doing this. Change your information very slowly!

    5. Just curious, I also tried changing my business name this about 2 years ago and after a few days, YELP went back on and changed it back! Did yours stay "Not Here Buddy" or do they also go in and override your edit??

  5. Yelp is a bully and an extortion machine. Horrible. They lie and mislead consumers. Disgusting. Their bad karma will get them in the end.

  6. Has anyone here ever taken the reviewer to court for harassment/cyberstalking? I am preparing to do that myself for my small home based salon. Yelp now as filtered all 25 of my reviews except one by an elite and the other by a crazy former client that wrote such a bizarre story no one would come my way. She admitted that she doesn't care if it hurts my business so her threat is the weapon and her damage is hurting my property which is my business so I hope that the judge can help me take action.
    Any advice to me?

    1. I hired an attorney and wrote to three reviewers and threatened them with lawsuits for slander, financial loss and physical and emotional harm. My attorney is Ron Briggs, Lafayette, Ca.

  7. WHAT IF WE JUST TELL PEOPL TO GIVE US A 1 STAR REVIEW AND MAKE THE REVIEW SOUND GOOD FOR THE COMPANY, PEOPL WILL CATCH ON THE NEGATIVE REVIEWS WILL REALLY BE THE GOOD ONES WHAT DO YOU THINK

    1. Yes alot of businesses are asking their customers to do this. we just added it to our website asking for good reviews but only put one star so Yelp won't remove them. If this catches on with 1000s of businesses and reviewers what will Yelp do then. Spread the word on Facebook and to all your customers. We don't get any business from Yelp anyway so one star reviews can't hurt us.

  8. THIS IS YELPS RESPONSE WHEN I FLAG A FAKE REVIEW
    We're writing to let you know that we've evaluated Shanda R's review of Firearms Training Center that you recently flagged. We rely on community engagement to help keep Yelp useful, and although we didn’t agree that this content should come down, we appreciate you bringing it to our attention.

    Business owners can address any concerns or misunderstandings via their Business Account by posting a public comment or sending a private message to the reviewer.

    1. I was told by Yelp the reason they remove my positive reviews was because these people had only ever posted on review and therefore they didn't consider them Yelp reviewers however the 1 negative and only review they will show on my site, it is the only review this woman has ever written. In fact she edited the review and removed all the fake content. Yelp deleted her more honest review and put the fake one back up. It's all about sensationalizing negative reviews.

    2. This is the same exact thing I got from them EXACT there are no people there other than to try and get you to advertise with them.

    3. TOM,

      I used to think Yelp was a solid, trustworthy review source. And then I started managing a Yelp account for a business: Tawkify. It's unbelievable how inappropriately the people at Yelp treat business owners. We provided proof that one of the reviews was submitted by a competitor and Yelp rejected that proof twice. The proof, may I add, was communication directly from the reviewer in which she admitted she was a competitor. HOW COULD YOU PROVIDE BETTER EVIDENCE THAN THAT?? Please, tell me what evidence could be more straightforward than that? Furthermore, only the negative reviews are recommended. Susan O. just wrote a lovely review, but it is NO WHERE to be seen on our page.

      When I call for help, I am treated with blatant distrust and, quite honestly- contempt. There are multiple reviews on our business pages that are written by people that are no where in our records–as in THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN CLIENTS OF TAWKIFY- EVER! When I express this to Yelp employees, I am told there is nothing you can do. In fact, I was told in my last conversation with Yelp that, "that's just the way it is." How dare Yelp face consumers as a trustworthy source of reviews, when you can't even guarantee the reviews listed are even for the business in question? A vast majority of ours aren't, and we CAN'T be the only business who has fraudulent reviews on the account that are ignored.

      We FULLY intend to file for these issues and will not allow our business to be wrongfully and fraudulently reviewed. It is INCREDIBLE that even when your policies are followed and these reviews are reported, YOU DO NOTHING. Yelp is a disgrace and a thorn in the side of business owners. I do not believe in Yelp's ability to treat the businesses that rely on it with the RESPECT they all deserve. I have, MOST CERTAINLY, NOT BEEN TREATED WITH RESPECT.

      I recommend that all business people remove their accounts from Yelp and hire Trustpilot for their reviews. They actually CARE and try to help businesses.

      I WOULD LOVE IT if Yelp could prove me wrong–but we are done and plan to go after Yelp for their horrific treatment of us. See you soon Yelp.

  9. the best way to hurt Yelp financially is to go to Yahoo finance section : http://finance.yahoo.com/mb/forumview/?&v=m&a
    and post on the message board all the comments and articles are posted on this site.__All the hedge fund mangers, investors, stock-holders retail traders and even big bank intuitional analysts, read this section to get the investors sentiment on this stock before investing in it… kick them where it hurt, their stock price or financially like they hurt small Business. …. .http://finance.yahoo.com/mb/forumview/?&v=m&bn=a8692f6d-2848-3edd-abd3-17d1bc0939a4

  10. Yelp and trip advisor are what are called "publishing pirates'. They have made billions from internet content being published by businesses trying to protect themselves by writing their own reviews as well as those that slander and defame. More content is a win win for them. They don't really care if you go to another computer and post your own reviews, it is a win win for them. More content equals higher search rankings and more money in advertising, reservations, etc. for Yelp and Trip advisor.

  11. Yelp and trip advisor are what are called "publishing pirates'. They have made billions from internet content being published by businesses trying to protect themselves by writing their own reviews as well as those that slander and defame. More content is a win win for them. They don't really care if you go to another computer and post your own reviews, it is a win win for them. More content equals higher search rankings and more money in advertising, reservations, etc. for Yelp and Trip advisor.

  12. I appreciate the article but at what point is a business owner suppose to run his/her business and make money rather than investing so much time and money to right a wrong that frankly shouldn't be happening in the first place. The fact is this: there is a major imbalance of power between websites listing small business and the small business themselves and Yelp is only the start of it. Every company that is in the business of posting online consumer reviews is following the Yelp business model: Google, HomeStars, and Yellowpages just to name a few. I would prefer to bring the balance of power back to the small business and I have just created a petition for Canada that does just that. Small businesses need to stand together on this because at the end of the day you should be allowed to remove your listing and be allowed to choose where you advertise. The freedom choose to decide where and with whom you want to advertise is a part of your basic freedoms and part of living in a country that claims to be free and a true democracy. Since fighting "freedom of speech" isn't working take back your basic rights, see my petition.__Please join this campaign: https://www.change.org/en-CA/petitions/stop-viola

  13. I had ONE single instance where i was attacked by 18 people at once time, and it brought my 5 stars down all at once–my business has suffered so badly that I am now filing for bankruptcy and having to shut business down altogether. I am so angry and upset but don't have the money or strength at this point to try and fight them all.

  14. My business has been shut down over 2 years and now someone ells registered under same type of business under my old business name. Yelp still shows my old address and my name that does not exist and negative feedback 2 only, being posted still posted under my name not only under my old business name I requested Yelp to remove it but refuse to do so. We are not in USA so our laws are different legally without our authorization they are posting this business that does not exists any more . I believe class action should be looked into

  15. My business closed a couple of years ago and moved to a new state under a different name, with a new phone number. When I try to edit the information because the folks who now have the old phone number are still getting calls meant for me Yelp won't allow any changes until they call to verify the info, AT THE OLD NUMBER! There is not any way to contact them and get it fixed without getting a verification call. If anyone has a way to do it. I (and the nice folks who now have the old number!) would like to know what it is…

    1. I am kind of in a similar situation. I work for a new business that is located in the same place (with the same phone # and address) as a business that has now gone out of business. Although we are in the same business (car dealership) I worry people will not find us, or judge us based on the previous business that was here. I have started a new business listing for us, but you can't find it, you only find the old dealerships yelp listing. I have been able to claim the old business (since we have the same phone #) so now I have both the old and new business claimed, I just can't delete the old business!!! It's so darn frustrating!

  16. My business is going down because of Yelp. I have many great reviews from real customers but YELP wont post them or factor them into my rating. My company is called The Bowtie Entertainment Group located in Miami, FL. I have never dealt with a "professsional" company like this that extorts business and completely uses negative reviews on a company to their advantage. I would like to see this algorithim they say they use. Its complete BS and I'm in preperation to file my lawsuit. I have lost tons of business because of YELP! Obsurd company. You cant call them. Customer service sucks monkey balls.

    1. YELP has done the same thing to me, my hair salon. They REMOVE every positive review from my real clients, I have had fabulous positive reviews, YELP REMOVES THEM. Then YELP posts negative reviews from people I have no idea who they are. Then YELP calls you & wants you to SPEND MONEY with them for advertising so you can 'get more business'. Unbelievable!*** I no longer believe any YELP review***. If you want REAL REVIEWS…GO TO GOOGLE.
      They do this to try to EXTORT money from you…how criminal…how is this legal????
      Then they REFUSE to remove your business from their site…WARNING to other business owners.

  17. We, like many businesses have countless great reviews on Yelp that have been flagged as "Not recommended" by Yelp's algorithms. Almost all are from users who have many reviews of other businesses and full vibrant profiles. Yet, several 1 star reviews remain on our page even though the user has no picture, has never rated any other businesses and has absolutely noting on their profile. Whenever we receive a 1star review on Yelp that we know is not legitimate which is most, we respond in the same way. Something to the effect of;

    This
    is a fraudulent review from a competitor. We've reached out to
    Yelp about these on several occasions. Their generic email reply indicates
    there is not actually anyone at the wheel at Yelp. What anyone will
    notice about any of these reviews is that the reviewers have never
    reviewed any other businesses, have no picture, no friends, and no
    legitimate activity what so ever.
    I wish we could review Yelp… ZERO Stars!

    We will continue to use this technique till, as we expect, Yelp removes our responses.

    1. Hey Curtis, I feel your pain…I've had sleepless nights over trying to make an honest living and the sabotage Yelp is causing the innocent! Wanted to share! I comment on the bad review "Check out all my 5 star reviews that Yelp has hidden and please check out my website" (in short)

    2. Dumb. You're better off being diplomatic. Any yelp user reading your reply will likely perceive you a combative business owner and move on to your competitors. Consider instead writing…

      Yikes! As you may already know, dear reader, Yelp filters reviews Curtis Inc. receives using an automated filter. In fact on average about 25% of reviews submitted to Yelp end up being filtered into what's termed "Not Recommended." Well, being an automated filter, you might imagine mistakes are going to occur. This, I am sorry to say, is what we have here.

      Likewise, there have been very supportive reviews Curtis Inc. has received on Yelp, but these too have been mistakenly filtered out. Indeed, if we calculate our Yelp review star rating from known customers who have left reviews here (N having been filtered out by Yelp's automated system) our average comes to 4.5 (out of a total of N+R reviews).

      Well, just as we are optimistic Yelp's automated filter will improve in time, we are likewise optimistic you will appreciate the good word others have said about Curtis Inc. That's why we have taken screen shots of Yelp reviews from known customers, so you can see for yourself.

      Why don't you hop over to our website and check out why Curtis Inc is a leading provider to Yelp users like yourself…

      [link to website page with captured screen shots of Yelp reviews + CTA]

      1. Yelp has unfair business practices. I non-client of mine posted a bad review, made up of defamation and lies. Yelp allowed it to instantly be posted with out vetting and without scrutiny. Later I have 2 great reviews that were blocked, marked as unhelpful, hidden in a tiny hard to find link located all the way at the bottom of the falsified bad review. Yelp discloses on their site that the great reviews we automatically screened by their system and that no star rating was allowed for them. The great reviews they blocked came form actual clients of mine, that 1) I have a written signed contract from them as evidence 2) have copies of canceled checks that they made out to me as payment 3) Have video and pictures form the event 4) have the Banquet Hall as a witness that I worked the vent and that that reviewer was a client of both of us. Yet, the automated algorithm of YELP decided to block these great reviews! However, YELP will just go ahead and allow falsified and malicious review to be posted with absolutely no vetting and instantaneously block 2 great reviews. There isn't any negative review written about me anywhere, as long as I've been in business, except now on YELP. Not only is it negative, it's malicious and deceitful. On top of all this, I get absolutely no help from YELP. I'm going to be contacting the state's Attorney General and also looking into what legal action I can take. I wouldn't doubt that there are enough victim's of this that would allow for a class action law suit. I'm going to also look into media exposure. This is absolutely an unfair practice. Ben Vega, you can't just claim mistakes happen and then do nothing to rectify the mistake.

    3. We're going through the same thing. Competitors listing bogus reviewers and our "real" customers
      who have been loyal to us for five years, are all in non-recommended.
      Is there a class action lawsuit, especially for small business owners?

    4. Yelp has unfair business practices. I non-client of mine posted a bad review, made up of defamation and lies. Yelp allowed it to instantly be posted with out vetting and without scrutiny. Later I have 2 great reviews that were blocked, marked as unhelpful, hidden in a tiny hard to find link located all the way at the bottom of the falsified bad review. Yelp discloses on their site that the great reviews we automatically screened by their system and that no star rating was allowed for them. The great reviews they blocked came form actual clients of mine, that 1) I have a written signed contract from them as evidence 2) have copies of canceled checks that they made out to me as payment 3) Have video and pictures form the event 4) have the Banquet Hall as a witness that I worked the vent and that that reviewer was a client of both of us. Yet, the automated algorithm of YELP decided to block these great reviews! However, YELP will just go ahead and allow falsified and malicious review to be posted with absolutely no vetting and instantaneously block 2 great reviews. There isn't any negative review written about me anywhere, as long as I've been in business, except now on YELP. Not only is it negative, it's malicious and deceitful. On top of all this, I get absolutely no help from YELP. I'm going to be contacting the state's Attorney General and also looking into what legal action I can take. I wouldn't doubt that there are enough victim's of this that would allow for a class action law suit. I'm going to also look into media exposure. This is absolutely an unfair practice. has anyone started a site that we can all rate YELP on?

  18. Kathy
    YELP SUCKS AND CONTRIBUTE FOR YOUR SMALL BUSINESS FALL DOWN AS SOON THE BUSINESS STARTS TO GROW. IT TAKE JUST ONE BAD REVIEW. WHO THIS PEOPLE THINKS THEY ARE? THEY CANNOT STOP PEOPLE TO MAKE THEIR LIVING IT IS ILLEGAL DEFAMATION, SLANDER AND OTHER TYPES OF HARASSMENT. WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING TO STOP FUCKING SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS. SPECIALLY IF YOU DON'T SIGN UP WITH THEM THE $350.00 CONTRACT TO MARKET YOUR SMALL BUSINESS, THEY START TO PLACE REVIEWS IN HOUR PAGE TO PUT YOUR BUSINESS DOWN IN ONLY FEW DAYS. THEM YOU WILL EXPERIENCE YOUR MISERY AND MAY BE FILE BANKRUPTCY AFTER ALL. WHAT A BEAUTIFUL END! IT HAPPEN AGAIN , AT THIS TIME WITH A FRIEND MINE. POOR LADY AFTER SO MUCH EFFORTS TO BUILT HER BUSINESS. I FEEL SORRY FOR HER AND MUCH OTHERS. YOU CAN TRY TO CALL YELP, THAT PHONE DOESN'T GET A HUMAN! YOU CAN EMAIL ASKING TO REMOVE THAT BAD REVIEW, AND YOU NEVER RECEIVE AN ANSWER BACK, YOU CAN DO EVERYTHING TO TALK WITH THE YELP PEOPLE, AND YOU WILL DIE FRUSTRATED BECAUSE NONE WILL HELP YOU.

    1. Ohhh you are wrong! you will get an immediate response if you leave a message for them that you would like advertising….I received my call back within 3 minutes. I then told them the whole story and listened to the bullshit about how their software works. I just keep repeating, I have 25 great reviews….. hidden on the back pages. Bring them forward and i will consider working with them

  19. Is there a place to leave Yelp a negative review? My problem with them is this policy that they have on their website. That they actually attempt to discourage people from protecting themselves through the legal process is horrid and reveals the kind of organization that they really are. But how do you fight it? You fight yelp by deleting any personal profile that you have with them and removing their app and not using them because besides advertising, this is how they make money by selling your information. For business listings, delete everything that you can from your listing, again allowing them to have only the basic information. Next, concetrate on your SEO in search engines, mainly Google depending on the type of business that you have, sites that are friendlier to business owners than Yelp. Lastly, leave Yelp a review on Rip off Report or some other website. ROR has it's own set of problems but hey, a tit for a tat right? Lastly and this is very important, report them to the BBB. Granted the BBB also has it's own set of problems but because they have to answer the complaints which creates red tape for them and costs them money to answer. Actually any agency that governs them you should report them to just for the red tape that it creates.

    Here is a copy and paste of Yelp policy dated today 11/20/15: I’m considering legal action — what are my rights?
    "Nobody likes to get a negative review, and it’s even worse if you think it violates your legal rights. But a good lawyer will tell you the truth: defamation suits are notoriously expensive and difficult to win. Worse, they are very public. We can point to countless examples of ill-advised lawsuits that hurt the business far more than it ever helped. Nor will you get far by bringing Yelp into the dispute since Yelp merely acts as a forum like any other where people can share their views. (The law is well settled on this point, but you are welcome to ask your neighborhood internet attorney to confirm.) There may be rare cases when it’s appropriate to take legal action, but in most cases, you won’t get what you are looking for by suing someone who gives you a bad review."

  20. I read all this comments and is so sad to see that a company like Yelp still exist, how is that possible?
    My feeling about YELP is just an advertising company that wants the small businesses money, they do not realized that as a small business owner we actually don't have money. YELPERs are even worse, they post on your page just when they get something bad and even some of them who post on your page that everything was good and the food was amazing, yet, they give you 4 stars. I will definitely join to the community who want to take YELP out of business since is only helping small business to loose their business. They do no understand that I am not a CEO sitting in a chair waiting to get a bonus check to go on Vacation or to buy a new car, I am only a small business owner who is working really hard to get the sales in order for me to pay my daughter's singing class, or for me to be able to pay my mortgage, but having bad reviews I wont be able to none of those.

  21. I have nothing against Yelp personally, but I would like to close my account. The problem is that I cannot access the link yelp sent to my e-mail to cancel the account. Does anyone know how to fix this issue? I click on the link and it does nothing. It's supposed to direct me to close the account. I want this account closed.

  22. I have had the same issue as other small business owners – my positive reviews get flagged. I am ceryain I have lost so many clients because it says I have been in business since 2009 & people wonder why I have no reviews. I cannot fathom how much Yelp has cost me. And yes, I have been told about the infamous algorithm. How convenient since I haven’t paid Yelp for advertising & all of my reviews are positive & have been flagged. I also get harassing sales calls by Matt E.V.E.R.Y single week. I wish I could file a harassment suit…… I am definitely going to close my acct with Yelp, aka SCAM.

  23. YELP,

    I used to think Yelp was a solid, trustworthy review source. And then I started managing a Yelp account for a business: Tawkify. It's unbelievable how inappropriately the people at Yelp treat business owners. We provided proof that one of the reviews was submitted by a competitor and Yelp rejected that proof twice. The proof, may I add, was communication directly from the reviewer in which she admitted she was a competitor. HOW COULD YOU PROVIDE BETTER EVIDENCE THAN THAT?? Please, tell me what evidence could be more straightforward than that? Furthermore, only the negative reviews are recommended. Susan O. just wrote a lovely review, but it is NO WHERE to be seen on our page.

    When I call for help, I am treated with blatant distrust and, quite honestly- contempt. There are multiple reviews on our business pages that are written by people that are no where in our records–as in THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN CLIENTS OF TAWKIFY- EVER! When I express this to Yelp employees, I am told there is nothing you can do. In fact, I was told in my last conversation with Yelp that, "that's just the way it is." How dare Yelp face consumers as a trustworthy source of reviews, when you can't even guarantee the reviews listed are even for the business in question? A vast majority of ours aren't, and we CAN'T be the only business who has fraudulent reviews on the account that are ignored.

    We FULLY intend to file for these issues and will not allow our business to be wrongfully and fraudulently reviewed. It is INCREDIBLE that even when your policies are followed and these reviews are reported, YOU DO NOTHING. Yelp is a disgrace and a thorn in the side of business owners. I do not believe in Yelp's ability to treat the businesses that rely on it with the RESPECT they all deserve. I have, MOST CERTAINLY, NOT BEEN TREATED WITH RESPECT.

    I recommend that all business people remove their accounts from Yelp and hire Trustpilot for their reviews. They actually CARE and try to help businesses.

    I WOULD LOVE IT if Yelp could prove me wrong–but we are done and plan to go after Yelp for their horrific treatment of us. See you soon Yelp.

  24. I just got screwed by Yelp by working hard to get good reviews from clients. I’ve only picked up 4 reviews in the short time I’ve had the business listing, but all were 5-star. Ain’t that what we’re SUPPOSED TO DO?!?! So yesterday, I check my listing and TWO of my reviews had been filtered out by their freakin’ “recommendation engine!” That is major-league BS and when I complained, all I got was a shitty boilerplate response. You can read the whole story on my blog…it’s also posted on my biz website.

    1. Yelp is doing this exact thing to everyone. If you notice , when a bad review is kept up although you know it is bogus ,yelp will call the next day . This is after you have disputed it and yelp denies your request. The reason yelp calls is because they want money. They extort money from businesses. Ive been researching quite a bit how to beat this, and it seems its easier to sue the person leaving fake reviews. Doesnt help much about yelp throwing our good reviews in the closet ,which is part of their scam. The only thing I can think to do is make sure everyone knows yelp is not a reputable site to trust anymore. They play on businesses putting up fake reviews on each other so they can extort money frok eveybody! Stick with Google and FB

    2. We did a test on yelp and placed 1 star and 5 star reviews on businesses that agreed to let us do it. All 5 businesses refused to pay Yelp for ads. All the 5 star reviews were filtered out but every 1 star review stayed for all 5 businesses. Guess this is a coincidence or there so called filtering system. LOL

  25. http://yelplawsuit.com/

    have two reviews on my Yelp page. One is a three star rating and one is a one star rating. I have seen several of my regular customers put good reviews about my business on Yelp, only for them to get filtered out by their system. I told my customers to look me up on Yelp and they said I couldn't do that. Really? You don't want me to direct traffic to your website? Then I asked them to take my business off of their web page, beings how I didn't start this page anyway. I don't know who did, but it wasn't me. A third party website shouldn't have that much control over the reputation of my business. When you look my business up on Yelp, it has two stars and the positive reviews keep disappearing. Let me also add that Yelp has called my business on several occasions trying to get me to purchase advertising with them. At first I was friendly with the typical "It's just not in my budget" response. Then it was "Stop calling because I'm not interested." Then it was basically me hanging up because they wouldn't stop calling after I asked them not to. I get a feeling that making these legitimate and positive reviews disappear is their way to try to "strong arm" me into buying advertising on their shitty website. I don't believe in Lawsuits and suing people but this has no doubt cost me money in today's society of "info at your fingertips."

  26. Yelp is the WORST to deal with! Don't be fool by their listings. I was told to get my new business name on Yelp. After I paid $400 per month and I search and search, mine did not show up in search. I called and they said to upgrade to $800 – $1200 per month to show up because the type business I am in has so much competitors. Most of my 5 stars were filtered out then yesterday there was a 1 star review got posted and 1 of my 5 stars disappeared. What kind of the business they are doing!
    Please DO NOT USE YELP as your advertising tool and don't throw your money away with Yelp. WHAT A MISTAKE I MADE!!!

  27. vt auto repair and performance need to move my name out of yelp it is bs co revues that customer never been my shop and my good revues are moved from the list this is co just for bs people I did not authorize to use my co name so I am filing this a company to get you bs yelp is to destroy co and people they how give them an authorization to tell how is good and bad ck the co first bs money chasers

  28. I am an independent Home Inspector and my company is based upon reputation. I do not think is right for individuals to place derogatory reviews against you, even if they have never used your services. I have only one review ( 1 star ) and it tells people not to use me. I have never done business with this person and Yelp will not remove it. Now unfortunately its the first thing that pops up when someone googles my company. This happened in May of 2016, since then my online phone calls have dropped at least 75% and I know its because of this review. I want to delete my account but they said it will still be visible online.

  29. I’m a Plumbing Contractor servicing Los Angeles County since 1994. I have been contacted by Yelp for many years but declined the services many times. Since then they have been filtering most of my good reviews and leaving reviews with false and fiction statements. Just last week they have contacted me and assuring me that they have no control over the reviews. As I was on the phone with them I took a look at some of my reviews on Yelp, surprisingly I noticed that some of the filtered reviews were showing and some negative reviews were removed. So I finally agreed to advertise with Yelp. After signing their contract for a One year term and I noticed another surprise. The good reviews that were there were gone. And one of the bad reviews with deformational content that was posted years ago and removed by Yelp suddenly appeared again. I contacted Yelp and told them That I’m canceling the contract due to manipulation of the reviews. They contacted me again and assured me that they have no control of the reviews. So I took another look at the reviews and noticed that the good reviews were back up. So reluctantly agreed to continue with a new contract. The following day I noticed a lot of good reviews literally disappeared and old fictional reviews popped up to the top of my page. I have had enough of that manipulation tactics and canceled the contract. I refuse to be part of Yelps Fraud and extortion tactics. I have contracts to prove that the reviews are ether fiction or contain lies. All my customers have agreed to the flat rate charges but some Irate customers go to Yelp and complain about how they were surprised by the charges when I fact they agreed prior to me starting the work. They are happy that their plumbing is fixed but not so happy that they had to pay to have the work done.

  30. Face it folks.
    No one cares.
    Corruptoration run this country and Yelp is one of the most corrupt.
    Jeremy Stoppelman, their CEO is the biggest jerk around as are most silicon valley CEOs. Arrogant, conceded, and narcissistic. California mentality.
    Harvard's business 101 in three words: Cheat, lie, steal. You don't need four years of ivy business school training to learn this.

  31. Screw Yelp; they are freaking asshole bullies that want nothing but your money – otherwise, they will have your bad reviews showing while filtering the good ones OUT. What the Hell… how is that legal????

    1. I have tried with no luck- Yelp seems to post only negative reviews. I am on this site because I have a negative review from a person that has never been to my business and they won't remove it. I have offered to show them my allof my invoicing to them-

  32. I was just reading on the yelp website where yelp claims the customer (real or fake) has a constitutional right to post negative reviews but owners have no constitutional right to ask for reviews? HOW DOES THAT MAKE ANY SENSE?

  33. I closed my business in large part BECAUSE of negative Yelp reviews and the suppression of all the good ones. Now I'm still listed with a big "CLOSED" across my listing and a negative review and one medium one still there. How can you get a defunct business that is YOURS off the listing? It is FALSE ADVERTISING AS THE BUSINESS NO LONGER EXISTS!

  34. Yes, Yelp customer service is So rude. We are a new business and when our customer ask us if we can write a review for you on yelp platform. Are we mad to say no to our customers and not write a review fo us. So 2 of our reviews got rejected as per their so called algorithm. So When I told yelp that they are genuine customers who asked us and we told them to write. The customer service guy started with a loud tone and said a company can't ask customers to write. Like seriously he said that. WTF to him. Why did they open Yelp just shut down your business then? Is this platform not for reviews. Impossible to understand

  35. Yelp is the SCUM of north America. If all people just stop using YELP, it will kill this monster. Make this viral!!! STOP USING YELP AND TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW. SOON THE WHOLE WORLD WILL KILL THEM!!! HAHAHAHAAH