Is Yelp Ripping Small Business Owners Off?
From a great candid review by Raymond Fong:
Maybe you know and maybe you don’t… but Yelp (a local search and reviews online service) offers paid advertising for businesses called the “Yelp Sponsorship Program“.
To sum it up, according to the page advertising this opportunity, this Yelp Sponsorship program allows you to:
- Put up a slideshow of the images of your business.
- Highlight a user’s review that you like the most (as the business owner)
- Promote your business as a sponsored search result and on your competitors’ business pages. Target potential clients while they are making decisions about where to spend their money on a business like yours
It sounds all fancy spansy right? Sounds like you get even MORE control over your business listing which will help “put your best foot forward” and sneak attack your competitors, stealing all their would be clients.
But Stop the Music, Do These Yelp Advertising Features Actually Accomplish Anything? Or are They Just Fluff Designed to Lure You in so They can Zap You?
Suck Them in & Then ZAP Them!
Before we proceed, I’d like to first state that my experience and knowledge of this Yelp Sponsorship program comes from dealing with them on behalf of one of my clients. This client signed up with Yelp (despite my warnings – apparently Yelp’s salesman are SMOOOTH) and I got to learn all about this program.
Having said that, that’s only ONE experience which doesn’t make me an expert but it certainly makes me more knowledgeable of this Yelp marketing program than those who’s never experienced it.
Furthermore, in case you are not familiar with how Yelp works, anybody can post a business on Yelp, as long as it falls under one of their categories and is a “fit” per their policies. And the rightful owner can claim that Yelp page by jumping through some hoops and voila, you have a FREE listing about your business.
How Can I join the class action lawsuit against yelp.com? I am a small business hurt by their extortion scheme of paying for advertising to hide negative reviews. They are hiding NINE of my 5 star reviews. Before calling me for advertising two weeks ago, they were only hiding (they call it filtering) 4 of my 5 star reviews. After I didn't call them back, they decided to hide another 5 of my 5 star reviews for a total of 9 filtered 5 star reviews. I have screen shots to prove this and emails. They told me on the phone if I paid for advertising they could move them around to my main page Now they deny it by email (of course, because it is in writing). One of the 5 star reviews was on my main page for over 2 years and suddenly it's filtered? Yeah, right! How can I join the lawsuit against them? I am a small business, open for 5 years and they are hurting my business and online reputation! Please help with any advice you might have. Thank you!!! Super Cali Dog Walker
Unfortunately, there is little you can do to make Yelp play fair. So the best advice is to make them irrelevant to your business. Their review filter is seriously lacking. But you knew that. It isn't intelligent, and it filters real people all the time. That's actually going to be the thing that eventually takes them down. So deep breath, relax. Now go contact all the people who wrote you nice reviews and ask them to post the same thing on Google.
Yes the greed principle destroys it all…..they filtered 9 legit 5 star reviews of mine…….NOW BELIEVE IT, THEY COME TO ME, ASKING FOR $200 per MONTH TO ADVERTISE WIDELY FOR ME……MMMMM….WHAT A BUNCH OF EXTORTIONISTS…..FIRST THEY BACK STAB ME BY FILERING GOID REVIEWS AND THEN THEY WANT MONEY FROM ME…..WHAT A BUNCH OF GARBAGE, CROOKED, UNETHICAL, NO VALUE, NO MORAL BUNCH….THEIR REPUTATION AMONGST SMALL BUS STINKS…..
urban-go.com
Sign up for the Diamond package and you can edit your reviews. We also have a Deals sections, which is similar to groupon and living social, but we do not take any money from the deals you profit.
We also have a free section to list your business.
I hate yelp. I used to love them when I used it for personal use, but now that my business is listed on yelp, I hate them. They have filtered 80% of my legitimate customer reviews out with their filter. They left one really old review – 2 years old and a positive review – along with one bad review from a disgruntled girlfriend of one of my customers.
Why can't I get my listing removed? Don't I have full rights to my Corporation and Trademarked name??? I want it off, but they refuse to take it off.
I have had over 20 positive reviews and and only 1 negative review. All the positvie reviews get filtered or removed all together. The one negative review is the only one they keep. Many of my positive reviews are by long time Yelp users. They can't believe that they get filtered.
This should be against the law!
This Company is real Shady! My Wife and I own Boston Dog Walks and many of our clients wrote great reviews about our company atleast 20 give or take! But only the negative review stay posted and I don't even know the person that wrote that! I'm a small business trying to grow and this company is hurting us bad, if you don't use Yelp as a marketing tool they will hurt your business!! this is Internet extortion! This should be against the Law!
It's been 2 years I wonder how many clients I never met cause of this YELP Bullying !!!
I have the same experience as people above. Positive reviews being removed and negative reviews left on– some not even relevant to the business. The filtered reviews are 5 stars. I don't advertise with them.
Yelp has absolutely no credibility. I personally experienced the same treatment many others have described: after declining to advertise with these crooks, negative review appeared (surprise!) and positive reviews were hidden was promised by Yelp rep this could be remedied, but only if I bought advertising. Extortion, plane and simple. Stoppelman and his crew of nerds have found a way to pad their pockets on the expense of the very people who form the backbone of our economy, small business owners.
I have been reading a little about the YELP issue and I have to say I agree with the claims against Yelp. However, my position against Yelp stems more from an alternate source. Yelp seems to be defending itself much like the company Vision Appraisal did in many of the real estate property tax appeals here in CT. For example, as property owners vigorously pursued the valuation methodologies and demanded the production of their valuation tools, Vision Appraisal defended them as proprietary. In my lawsuits for the property tax appeals, I spent a huge amount of time backing into all their formulas and debunking their "methodologies and proprietary formulas", and that was the end of them; cases won for me. Yelp seems hell bent on the same sort of scheme. With the Court resting on the failure to prove extortion, I lean towards the following: Why filter and why should Yelp, whose guiding principle, as posted on their site, is to help people find great local businesses like dentists, hair stylists and mechanics, have a filter at all? In my humble opinion, the claim against Yelp in its simplest form, is a reckless filter of free speech, which whether they intend it (or not) defames and libels businesses, negatively financially affecting those businesses, altering the choices of customers, and that their alleged fair filter decimates businesses by filtering every good review and posting only negative reviews. It is simply a no-brainer to prove that their filter is filtering all or the largest majority of good reviews. My business has seven reviews showing and fifteen filtered reviews. No filter program could possibly, in its broadest spectrum, fairly filter 2 of every 3 reviews, and for that matter 8 out of 9 five star reviews, and every single review posted after my email correspondence to Yelp confronting them about their filter of all of our great reviews. And why should any business be allowed to apply a filter to the opinions of others? Especially when those filtered opinions damage the pursuit of my life, my liberty and my happiness? Interestingly enough and before I even knew about these cases, Yelp emailed me telling me how they were going to tell me how to drive more business to my company. When I responded by email with my ardent disappointment about Yelp, their email response was:
"This is where the filter comes in. The filter tries to show the most useful and helpful reviews and rather than doing a subjective evaluation about how well the review was written, for instance, it focuses on objective data. While the data being evaluated is intentionally kept a mystery, what I can say is what the engineers tell me, which is that the filter applies the same rules and analysis to all businesses and all reviews. Certainly we understand that legitimate customer reviews can get caught in the filter. While it's unfortunate and proves to be frustrating, it is a byproduct of having to have a system of checks and balances that keeps the overall content of the site helpful and reliable."
I would submit to you that this filter, as they define it, does not show the most useful and helpful reviews, and emphatically can be shown by example after example to be NOT applying the same rules and analysis to all businesses and all reviews, and therefore NOT a byproduct of any system of checks and balances.
In addition, where the rubber meets the road financially is that Yelp is, with and by the use of their sister company, giftrocket.com, presenting themselves and marketing the sale of gift cards for any business; for example, my business, without my explicit consent. For example, when a person buys a gift card to my business at giftrocket, they charge a $1.00 fee, plus 5% of the value of the gift card amount to the purchaser; all without my consent. To me, that is illegal and interfering with the trade at my business without my consent. They do not have my consent to advertise my name or solicit the sale of a gift card to my business on their website. Yet, they are advertising the sale of gift cards to my business. They are extorting a fee and a percent of the value of the gift card when I already offer gift cards without a fee. This is extortion to me.
Yelp, with a reckless disregard for the consequences, is knowingly hampering free speech, interfering in fair trade and unfairly participating in the defamation of our business.
For all of the above reasons, I will pursue a claim against Yelp, and while it may be difficult to prove the value of their interference, it is interference nonetheless.
If I had known how bad Yelp was I would have never put a business listing with them. They are bad for small merchants. They attract complainers, cowards, and people that can't communicate with their merchant. They filter out the good reviews and put the bad at the top. I hope they go out of business. No merchant should sign up with them.
This is insane…….! I'm going thru the exact same thing. And what's worst I have people that never even used my services writing reviews and slandering our name. They hide all of our 5 star reviews and keep e negative. Soe
Me from whom have inky signed on once and that was to leave a bad review. They say the filtered ones are mostly folks that don't use very often, but that's a lie.
Yelp is supposed to be a website where consumers can check out small businesses and read customer review. Yelp prides itself on having filtered reviews. This means they remove customer reviews that their computer algorithm says is suspect. The people at Yelp do not make the decision, the computer program does. The problem with this is: the filtering program is terrible. They remove the positive legitimate customer reviews and leave the false negative reviews left by your competition.
Yelp does not make money on customer reviews they make it by selling advertising space to small businesses. The business that get listed the highest have paid to be there. The Yelp sales team will claim that people search for your business on yelp because they are looking to do business. They claim all sorts of customers will come if you paid for the advertising. The truth is you will get increased traffic…but not from customers but from people trying to market to your business. That's right, if you advertise on Yelp you will pay hundreds of dollars per month to get your business known to telemarketers.
Yelp has a terrible reputation on Yelp! Just go to yelp.com and search for Yelp (in San Francisco) and you will see how bad they are rated and review by customers. Yelp is a huge hypocrite and it exists by taking the small businesses' advertising dollars and delivers nothing in return.
I have spent several hours this week speaking with Yelp folks over the phone. I started with a general email inquiring about our significant drop in their listings. We went from #1 to #45 in one day! So you might be thinking we received several negative reviews but this was not the case. As a matter of fact all of our reviews were filtered and not viewable during this same 24-hour period. The reviews had been viewable for over a 6 months to a year, so it's not like they were new and got filtered.
So the answers I got were very vague and standard. Yelp says that they’re an honest listing site, which is based on listings and user-generated reviews. I was sent a list of suggestions that would enhance my ranking after the "honest listing site" answer. If its so honest then why will adding more photos and deals increase my ranking?
These are the answers I got which in turn created more questions. I never received a straight answer as to why my reviews were filtered and disappeared. I never received a straight answer as to my significant drop in their listing rank.
Here is the kicker…The day before all this happened I spent an hour with one of their salesman who took me through a presentation on paid advertising on Yelp. I turned it down after listening to the salesman for over an hour. Our conversation ended with him saying "Good luck with your free listing." Did you guys know that Yelp will insert your add inside of your competitors listing? I don't mean on the same page, I mean actually inside of their listing! I'm not sure how Yelp is any different than every other listing site who generate sales through advertising. You can pay money to get listed just like everywhere else.
Does anyone see a connection between my decline in the listing and my refusal to pay him or her for advertising? One day I'm #1 and the next I'm #45 with no change by me or by user reviews. No straight answers from Yelp on this, just the generic answer that sounds as if it’s being read from a cue card. What are your thoughts?
Billy,
Can you send me your website or yelp link? I have a lead for you!
I read the business owners comments. Let me speak from a Yelp users perspective if you don't mind; most of what I am reading seem like disgruntled business owners.
Reading the class action lawsuits claims it was obvious the lawyers and people that made the claims were complete idiots. Yelp does not do any of what what was in the statements from the plaintiffs and the lawyers didn't do any research to see that it was mostly bogus information that the plaintiffs accused Yelp of doing; which obviously caused the whole lawsuit to get thrown out. Yelp doesn't put out fake reviews; business owners and their friends do. Also competitors try to. If they think Yelp is doing that, then they are obviously not paying attention and also don't realize they got caught in a lie.
Here is what yelp does do that I disagree with, I am not a business owner. If I were; these would be legitimate grievances.
If you want to go after Yelp here is what you need to complain about:
1. Having competitors business ads on your business profile.
2. Paying Yelp money to have the competitors ads removed
3. Yelp will not remove your business from their website.
4. If you can prove that you had positive legitimate (more about that later) reviews prior to Yelp calling you to "market you " and then your rating went from positive to negative; that should be very easy and a document-able thing to prove. I haven't seen any of that yet since I am not a business owner.
Super cali dog walk company were kind enough to leave the business name.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/super-cali-dog-walker-and…
She got a 1 star very well written review from a Yelp Elite. They really pissed someone off; legit review end of story. There are 3 other negative reviews that look pretty real to me. Then there is a 1 star review from a Michael B who is Elite, then he turns around and gives her four stars because she wrote back and then admits that he hasn't used her services. His review actually sticks because he is Elite but if you ask me; he is violating the terms of service because he has never used her services.
Does any of this make sense?
Looking at the filtered reviews. Boy does she have a lot. I see most of them would have been flagged and don't feel like getting into it why. I do see a couple that seem like real legit reviews and have a theory why they are filtered. Of course the very last one; a clear violation of Yelp's policy which also means the Yelper lost their Yelping privileges. Was that possibly the business owner trying to give herself a glowing review?
I would be happy to take this conversation offline with you and we can discuss in more detail. The points I have a problem with were the 3 I pointed out. Business owners need to read the reviews carefully, they may learn something:they either don't know how to run a business well or don't give the best service and are obviously pissing people off, don't have friends write fake reviews, and don't try to right a fake review about your own business; why would you do that? When the first review is from the business owner what does that tell you about the business? There are ads on craigslist asking Yelpers to right reviews in exchange for money, isn't that lying and trying to cheat the system?
I would love to know the business name for Billy because maybe, just maybe this is the one person that option 4 above may apply to.
My advice; give great service and don't worry about Yelp. If you are that good then it doesn't matter what reviews you get on yelp because you won't be getting negative reviews. Walmart is the biggest company in the world and everyone hates them yet people still shop there…..They don't focus on all the negative websites and reviews.
I second the "give great service and don't worry about Yelp". You have to make them irrelevant to your bottom line if you want to take their power away.
I don't agree with the Walmart statement though. A big company can withstand a lot more punishment than a small business.
And yes, Yelp Elite, and Yelp area managers do write reviews, especially in new areas. I think one point you made is key. EVERYONE should be taking screenshots of their accounts daily. When you get the call and can show the decrease in star rating and the increase in filtered reviews, that will be the smoking gun. Thank you for that!
I guess the possibility that the reviewer is absolutely lying about events or services performed, is out of the question ?
Yelp ruined my profitable buisness of ten years 5 star reviews .told me just under $200 a month and a small fee for clicks .yah right $1000 a month cant afford it its a mortage payment for the love of god .from free doing well signed on and diasater.please (class action law suit) im in
Yelp is hurting small business. They love bad reviews. They filter good reviews.
My experience with Yelp has been the opposite of most of the people who have commented. I have found that my negative comments on a business were quickly "filtered" out by Yelp and according to its website are not used in its calculations of the 5 star rating. I find this to be totally deceptive. Based on the personal experiance I had with a particular business, it is not possible that it has such glowing comments as I see on Yelp's site. This leads me to believe that most of the comments are being written by the employees of the business to pump up its ratings.
One thing I think we all agree on is that Yelp has no credibility.
I would say the best thing to do about Yelp is to completely ignore it. First two reviews I wrote for Yelp were immediately filtered. Oddly, both were mixed reviews explaining the pros and cons of each business as I saw them. I learned very quickly that Yelp readily will tamper with the testimony of its reviewers. I figure my experience cannot be that different than that of others. In short, you'd have to be nuts to believe anything from Yelp. I think most consumers have already figured out thta Yelp is a scam.
If you've gotten a bad rap from Yelp, I'd suggest that you fight with some good old fashion adverstising in the paper, radio or TV. As more and more people disover Yelp is just a "shake down" racket it will eventually fade away.
Have you seen the pictures on Yelp's listing on Yelp? Just saw a few, pictures of employees you can tell they were hand picked, I don't think normal good people would want to work for Yelp! There is one picture of this "Yelps Rules" wrote in the sands! This alone shows the mind set of these inhuman people! They believe they have they are ruling our lives! They are aware of destroying lives and they are proud of it! Hoe creepy is that!
People in over seas pull down dictators by putting their lives on the line, why can't we have a organized demonstration to bring light and attention to this?
I agree with everyone. I had a negative review from someone who was not even a customer and not only that- they wrote the worst things calling our rep a "douc*e bag". I told Yelp but they refused to do nothing.
This was very similar to what happened to one of my previous business that I had. BBB ran it under the water with an F… and I cought them and had PROOF that they gave me an F rating right after I discountinued paying my "Accredited Membership Dues". There was a huge scandal that ABC Dateline exposed 3 years ago.
Read this link… I am telling you these websites BBB, Yelp are stronger than you can believe and they are bringing Good Working Small business' down.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/business-bureau-bes…
Anyways, I am one of those business' that they brought down to their knees because I did not have the money to purchase my Accredited Membership.
Yelp is doing the same thing, it is a breading ground for negativity and should be stopped.
Classic example of how Yelp has no clue! This could be the best thing I've seen in a while! A fake business listing for Yelp on Yelp. Check it out: http://www.yelp.com/biz/yelp-com-holbrook
I run a non-profit veterinary clinic with an obviously small advertising budget. I am shocked that since I told a Yelp business person our hospital couldn't afford to advertise, the number of negative reviews increased and the filtering of positive reviews began.
This is terrible, I believe in free speech and know you cannot please everyone, however, let all the reviews be posted.
What bullies!
I truly wish there was something we could do as a group.
I would gladly join a class action lawsuit for slander – this company prints anything anybody writes with zero scrutiny. They hide behind the freedom of information act, yet they are not a public forum. They are a paid adv site using other peoples bussiness's to make money.
Yelp has zero credibility. Stoppelman has zero integrity.
This person wants to make money — and doesn't care how they go about it. Like Bernie Madeoff. This action will eventually come back around to him. Hopefully he ends up in jail.
I have the same experience. 7 filtered 5-star reviews. 3 5-star reviews remaining on Yelp, and 2 1-star anomalies — one perhaps fake.
The good ones are routinely removed, sometimes after a few days. The bad (anomaly ones) kept up forever– perhaps to keep the paid advertisers looking good.
I worked a long time to build a good practice. Now I'm subject to this… and it's unregulated.
Everyone who has a business on yelp has negative reviews, funny how yelp itself is not listed so people can list a review for them. Here is what I did to get the negative reviews of yelp FOR FREE!!! 1.) File a complaint with the Better Business Bureau over the sales practice and request to get your business removed from yelp. 2.) On EVERY review you have for yelp put a public comment like this.. "Yelp called us and wants $450 to post positive reviews now… WE HAVE NO BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP WITH YELP NOR DO WE WANT ONE…. Sounds like extortion or blackmail to us. We filed a claim against Yelp with the better business bureau and contacted an attorney in CA. to get our site removed from Yelp. Really hope http://Yelp.com goes out of business A.S.A.P." or this for negative reviews…"Yelp called us and wants $450 to remove bogus negative reviews… WE HAVE NO BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP WITH YELP NOR DO WE WANT ONE…. Sounds like extortion or blackmail to us. We filed a claim against Yelp with the better business bureau and contacted an attorney in CA. to get our site removed from Yelp. Really hope http://Yelp.com goes out of business A.S.A.P."… doing these things worked for me.
I wonder why Reseller ratings would be different. they are the same Crooks. they should be exposed as well. Google them and you will see.
1st they will call you 100 times to say how great it will be for your business! Then they make u sigh an expensive LONG TERM contract of at least 6 months! Then after you get absolutely NO results for the 1000's of dollars you GAVE YELP FOR NOTHING, & honor your contract, YELP then puts you on a MONTH to MONTH contract to get more of your money!!! They will not call you to ask if you'd like to go month to month, they just quietly TAKE MORE of YOU MONEY & Give no results! DO NOT ADVERTISE WITH YELP, IT'S A RIP OFF. TRUST ME I MADE THAT MISTAKE! BEWARE!!!
I signed a contract with Yelp stating only 3 months. They put it in writing, 3 month contract. Yelp took $$$ for 6 months. I called and complained and stated that my contract said three months. They told me I had to notify them in writing to cancel it. My business closes in a few days, so their bad reviews won't effect me. I am mad as hell, they feel they are above the contract and they do not have to honor the three months. Small businesses do not usually have dollars for advertising, ripping businesses off is just wrong.
Thank you for the Better Business idea, will do that for sure. I will do what I need to try to get my money back. Already have stopped Yelp from charging my card by cancelling it. Working with my bank to file a complaint for the charges and will let my bank battle with Yelp. I am not planning on getting my money back, but I sure as hell can make sure the drama will cost them money. They have to pay someone to respond to the bank and me!
If only the public knew how being a small business is like being your own army!
DMH
The public is slowly starting to learn about this horrible company.
DMH.
Having the same issue. They claim to record only their side of the conversation. I told them the same thing. I wanted it stopped after 3 months ONLY and sure enough, they took more out this month. I've complained and they say that I have to have something in writting showing I only wanted 3 months. What!? I've asked for the recorded conversation and will probably not get it. I'll try and keep you all updated. Maybe there is some kind of lawsuit everyone can be a part of.
I am in the same boat. I am about to change my bank info… They were supposed to take $133, but somehow stole $299.43…. There is supposed to be a $275 ceiling… They lie… Class Action Suit is NEEDED against yelp..
I'd like to sue their asses too. Here is a company that sucks and I will try whatever means possible to get my business off their piece of sh** website. Today I entered m 20 year of business in the restaurant business and have been working hard for a long time to earn a good reputation. In recent years lets say the last 5 I've noticed more and more negatives popping up the more I tell Yelp to shove it when they call. I have also had some disgruntled ex employees set out on a mission to tarnish my reputation. And then theres the lady from outta town who tried my food once at a motel and may have not had a bad experience at all. Who knows maybe she didn't get Side or she realized there is a delivery fee so she has a tif for a minute, but her negative comment will be there forever to tarnish my rep and hurt my business. Some very smart attorney somewhere will eventually roll the dice against these pricks. Can you imagine what these bastards are scheeming up next to extort money from small business in America. I'd love to get my hands on them anyway for now I'm gonna do what one person did file with the BBB and respond to ever bad comment the same way they did to get the comment removed. This is such BS, anyone want to storm the headquarters with me, I'd love to scare the sh** out of them. Im all in on a class action suit.
Yelp is really disgusting the way they try and rip u off…..I have had genuine 5 star reviews…they filtered 75% of them as they, the stalwarts of truth! said they were fake….they are all genuine. NOW….NOTE, THEY CALL ME SND WANT $$$250 A MONTH TO GIVE ME MORE COVERAGE AND THEY WILL UNFILTERED MY FILTERED REVIEWS OF 5 STARS…….IWHAT AUDACITY, CHUTZPAH…FIRST THEY STAB U IN THE BACK AND THEN ALL OF A SUDDEN THEY ARE YOUR FRIEND CAUSE THEY WANT YOUR CASH……SOOOO DUMB TO FALL FOR THAT AND WHAT PROOF DO U HAVE THEY WILL DO BETYER FOR YOU….BUNCH OF SCUMBAGS, GREEDY PIGS……EVERYTHING HETE IN THE US IS ABOUT GREED AND MONEY, NO VALUES AND DONT CATE ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS ONLY WHAT YHEY CAN EXTORT FROM YOU…..NO WONDER AMERICA IS GOING TO HELL.
urban-go.com
Better than yelp. Similar in ever aspect except able to edit comments and reviews. Section for Deals as well similar to groupon and living social except no money is taken from the deals you profit.
Free section as well.
Someone who was not even my customer wrote me a bad review. Don't know why. Yelp has filtered my good reviews. Less than 2% of my clicks come from yelp. So I am not worried. Yelp has a inflated sense of its worth. Google+ reviews is a better option
Yelp is ripping me off!!! How do I get totally away from them?? I am sick of their crap. They have not brought a single new customer to my small business!! I wish I had seen these reviews before I signed on with them! I want out of my contract with them without paying the exorbitant fee they are requesting to get away from them.
I am in the same situation as you.
Have you found a solution?
just to second everyone, be very careful with Yelp PLEASE NEVER NEVER NEVER ENTER YOUR BUSINESS INFO
OR YOUR INFO ON THIS WEBSITE IT CAN NEVER BE DELETED!!! THEY WILL LOCK YOUR ACCOUNT AND CLAIM TO BE CITY HALL AND POST YOUR INFORMATION TO THE WORLD AS PUBLIC INFORMATION!!!
i will help finance a class action lawsuit contact me.
I would like to join this… They lied to me badly…
Me too, yelp marketing personnel contacted me. They put my business information online. I didn't like their service after finding out their so called advertising is a bluff! I stop my account and change my credit card. Yelp become my enemy, I received negative comments intended to kills and wipe out my small business. Yelp did not give me a chance to respond to those clients. My company has completed successfully more than a thousand service calls, with happy customers, but we had only 4 unhappy customers that yelp use to hammer my business.
I don't advice anyone to join yelp.
Exactly what happened to me. Now I'm stuck with a $250 bill for absolutely nothing.
Yelp is just trying to push us small business owner advertising by hidding good reviews and posting only negative ones! This is a shady company without any future!
Yelp is so misleading made me think i was signing up for a program for just under $200 a month and it turns out to be about $1000 a month im so pissed now they are screwing me wow wow wow i hate yelp
Someone needs to start a website in the same. It would be to rate consumer help sites such as Angie's List, FaceBook, FourSquare, GoodSnitch, Google Reviews, Manta, Merchant Circle.com, and especially the phoniest BS, thieving, lying, deceptive, criminal, slandering one of them all YELP !!!!!
I hear you. They to get me to sign up. They just hit my bank account for 2x what i had expected…. They lie!! They suck!#
I paid for a three month agreement with YELP , gave them a 30 day notice and they still charged me an extra month. They brought me nothing for a $1600 investment. They talk a good talk but bring NOTHING to the table then they play the 30 day notice for as long as they can. Do not invest with these people.
What is terrible is that I pulled funds from another advertising tool that was working to give them a try based on their promises and therefore took a double hit because I got nothing from them and lost the leads I was getting from the other source.
They are a leach to small businesses that need their help the most.
Something is inherently wrong with Yelp reviews! Google is accurate Yelp has bogus reviews! From what I have read they use bullying tactics to get businesses to advertise with them!
I wish I found this page before I signed up for Yelp Advertisement…… Misleading liars and crooks. So very terrible how big companies have the power to take money under false advertisement and when discovered they keep taking it. I cancelled the very next day I signed up and they would not accept my cancellation and took money for 3 months. I even went to my bank and blocked them and they got around that! Disgusting.
I would highly recommend that people NOT talk to any of Yelp's telemarketers calling and enticing you to set up a free trial account. What they don't tell you is that your ad will keep running after the credits have run out and you'll wind up paying for the last month. I was billed $270 for a listing that did not bring me a single lead in three months time. When I called for a refund I was referred to fine print I'd never seen, since I signed up on the phone. Obviously the company's culture is that of slick scammers.
Yelp totally sucks
Sign on with yelp through Parker Young an unscrupulous advertising guy.
Told me everything I wanted to hear essentially guaranteeing our business would benefit dramatically from Yelp advertising.
In thirty days not one client has mentioned Yelp when we ask EVERY new client how they heard of us.
131 odd hits in 30 days compared to our websites 1000+ hits during the same period.
My bank account has been charged $775 (the maximum) and we are unable to get out of the next two months trial amounting to a further $1550!
BIG SCAM.
I could have continued our TV ads and received 900 additional 30 sec spots for the same price.
Watch Out Parker Young… Karmas a bitch.
I'm a business owner for 2yrs and I did accumalate 594 review over the 2 yrs course , 500 of them posted (6months to 2yrs) and when I got in argument with them over the amount of money they take out of my account and for sure they refuse to return , I start seeing my 5 star review getting filtered , they filtered 536 reviews and left me with 48 reviews and I'm sure this going to be filtered overtime which they are going to leave you with the 1 start reviews.
For sure I called and compalained but no one cares and they always have no answer for you.
We all as small business owner getting hurt with their mafia rip off and we all must get together and joint the class action lawsuit .Any idea how to join.