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Tell Your Yelp Story
It’s time to share your story… stories will be chosen from the comments below to be profiled on the site with the truth of how Yelp has done you wrong.
If you really want to help, read through the comments and thumbs up or down the stories to help the media select the best stories to profile. This is a community to support local businesses, so please help each other, comment, and lend an ear/shoulder when needed.
Hello folks,
I thought this might be interesting for you. Yelp was never big in Germany and some other European countries, where the company Qype (www.qype.de) was big and actually did a good job with the same business – no filtering at all, you could actually TALK to staff on the phone for complaints, which were actually considered – the better Yelp!! We were premium partners there and LOVED it, we had more than 100 reviews from 5 years and were ranked number five amongst hairdressers in Munich, which has 1 million inhabitants. Things were good. One year ago, Yelp acquired Qype, and one month ago, all the content of Qype was integrated into Yelp – and the fabulous company did not adapt the filter for the integration process, so the filter went like a bully through all positive reviews – all gone! Only the few negative are visible now on Yelp. That means, from our 100+ mostly positive, only the three negatibes are visible now. And this happened to virtually any german business listed on Qype, hence ten thousands of places. Now small business owners are furious in germany, and these guys are running into very hard times. I bet there will be a number of legal actions against this import of only negative reviews, and the laws in germany are more strict than in the US, where I saw that people frequently lost in court against Yelp. Wish us luck, and we all will force and change this (oldfashioned but true) evil company into something better…
We own a small business in Round Rock and have so far had a LOT of success with our customers. My hubby is a mechanic and is fantastic at what he does. So much so that when people found out he had a yelp page, they went and gave him great reviews. I know for a fact that every review he got, he earned and deserved! But same with one of the other guys, they wanted to charge him $300+ per month to show all of his reviews and remove other companies' ads from his page! It is so sad to me that yelp can gouge people like that and keep GOOD companies from being fairly reviewed!!!!!!!!!
We are a lice removal service in business since 1996. A woman came in with her child and was infested. She required many hours of service and signed paperwork acknowledging and approving the cost. At the end of the service she threatened to write us up in a negative fashion on Yelp if we did not half the price. We have all the documentation. Yelp removes all our positive reviews and leaves this one negative fake review. There is no one to talk to.
i feel you pain. i too have been negatively impacted by false negative reviews on yelp. its almost as if we were set up so a negative review could be written. one positive thing is this site right here. it shows that there are others and that something is trying to be done. sometimes one just has to be patient and justice will prevail!
Our company, Licenders, has been in the head lice treatment and removal business since 1996. We currently have a contract with Yelp! to help market our company. Yelp! is a search engine that people use to get reviews of companies that are considering doing business with.
Recently a mom brought her daughter in for lice treatment. A quick head check revealed that both mom and daughter had severe head lice infestation. Mom signed our documentation stating she was satisfied with the service and understood the maintenance instructions.She also signed a consent of treatment form, and a credit card authorization form. Upon completion of our service she said if we didn't cut the price drastically she would gives us a negative review on Yelp!. We forwarded the documentation to Yelp! and they refuse to remove the negative review.
That's extortion. Yelp is a site for bullies and bully reviews on business owners. I am having a similar problem.
Yelp is a ridiculous joke. They sent me an e-mail accusing me of writing fake reviews. I was so pissed off at the unfounded accusation that I went out and interviewed business owners who have been extorted by Yelp and wrote this article: http://www.business2community.com/social-media/in…
I normally don't approve comments with links to other sites, but I found your article very informative. Also, I would love a contact to your source who has the recording. There is currently a class action lawsuit forming and they are one step away just need a recording just like that to cinch it. So I hope you can help. Thanks! And I would LOVE to post your article and showcase on this site, and to our 6000 members.
I would like to join the class action lawsuit against Yelp, do you know if they accept companies from Canada? The contents being posted about my company violates the criminal codes of Canada as I am being stalked and harassed by a woman and I have asked them to not post comments by this woman as there is already a police report. I have sent them the information and asked to have my listing removed. So far they have not been willing to accommodate my requests and their response is this is this woman's experience and option but it is not and I have already have judgement from another court case with witness statement and people who testified under oath.
I experienced the same thing
As of today, our business has a 3 star rating. Our TOTAL number of reviews is 244. Of that, they have filtered…….. get ready for it……164 reviews!!! Thats right, 164 reviews out of 244 are filtered. Leaving only 80 reviews to count to our "rating". Of the filtered results, 80% are 5 STARS! Without the filter our company would be the highest rated in our industry. This means that customers don't even click on our company for more information.
We have tried the only thing we can to remedy this problem, asking happy customers to share their positive feedback on Yelp. The result, 6 fresh 5 STAR reviews this week. As of this morning all but one got filtered out.
We are being disproportionately "filtered". Other companies in our industry get about 9%-20% of their total results filtered. Yelp filters around 70% of our results.
I understand the desire to "weed out" the false information but either it's a public forum or it's not. Our customer feedback is honest and fair. We realize we have not pleased every client and we use the negative Yelp reviews to help direct our staff to make those customers happy. I don't know what we have done to Yelp to make them punish us so unfairly? The families of our staff are feeling the financial impact of a poor Yelp rating that is completely undeserved.
[…] anti-Yelp sentiment is rampant on the Internet and social media. Sites like YelpFiction.com,Yelp-Sucks.com and YelpLawsuit.com offer Yelp critics both legal advice and a place to vent their frustrations. […]
I have a small business and I decided to advertise with Yelp. After a year of advertising it was quite clear that there was certainly no benefits to the advertisement. The reviews were going to be there regardless of what I paid. I called and told them that I no longer wanted the Yelp advertisement. I was told, "Well, it's obviously working, yada yada yada." I politely declined and was told, "Well we are sorry to see you go." Fast forward to the next month and BAM – I get charged again for my advertising fee. I called my rep and asked what the deal was – to which he replied, "Well, you need to give Yelp written consent to stop your advertising fees." Of course, considering there was NO mention of this while I was on the phone originally. Fast forward again – all of my recent positive reviews are now being filtered (even though these reviewers are writing reviews for other businesses that are NOT being filtered) right away. To add to it – I have a review on there where the review actually says, "I used this company 2 years ago – this is what I remember" as his opening line. How on earth is that a valid review? I would have trouble remembering what took place 2 weeks ago, let alone what happened two years ago. Apparently Yelp feels differently. The whole website is nothing but a joke.
I own a small dental office in Folsom. We used to be 4.5 star on Yelp, until I kept getting phone calls and emails from this rep. at Yelp. They wanted me to do advertising with them for $2000/month where he would send his camera crew to make a video clip from our office and etc…. I declined the advertising, since my sister advertised with them and did not even get one single patient. After my refusal, some how, all my five star reviews got filtered and all the one star reviews showed up. I have over twenty five star reviews that are actual patients of mine, where I have performed thousands of dollars of dental procedures on them, and I can provide their charts, and all these reviews have been filtered, and instead, reviews of people that have not even been to my office are posted. People who simply got mad because we changed their appointments due to emergencies, or one who wants to make an appointment immediately and doesn't understand the fact that with his HMO insurance, we can't give him an appointment and see him until he is transferred into our roster. Of course he doesn't realize that we don't make the rules, and his insurance makes up these policies, but instead of yelping his insurance, he yelps us. I wished my bad reviews were about my dental work. I'm really fed up with Yelp, and I wished there was a way we could fight this mafia.
Well you conveniently omitted that there are five 1-star and one 2-star reviews also filtered. And how can people be surprised when glowing and misspelled 5-star reviews from people with < 3 friends and even fewer reviews get filtered?
I understand and am currently trying to put togrther a lawsuit 5against yelp as well. Its terrible i have a small business as well and someone wrote a false review and has really hurt my business in folsom as well.
a number of months ago, I posted on Yelp about an experience I had with a retail business in New York. The post was not a rant, nor was it a shameless endorsement of this particular establishment either. My dealings with this vendor was very positive in some respects, and less than positive in some other respects. I believe I reported this accurately, without bias, and with sufficient yet not exhaustive detail.
I was, therefore, surprised to find that, some time later, my post was removed from the main review page for this establishment because "it was not relevant." Well, if a frank and straightforward review of my experience is not relevant in evaluating this vendor, then I would very much like to know what IS relevant.
It's quite simple, and frustrating: YELP is a review site that also tries to earn advertising dollars from the very same people that are being reviewed. That constitutes a flagrant conflict of interest and should be illegal. It is definitely a fact that bad reviews, even old ones, suddenly appear near the top of the first page after a YELP ad sales person has called and been turned down. Besides, their ad people are very aggressive and call at my business, my home, and even got my mobile phone number by lying to my staff about a meeting I supposedly missed.Their "filtered" folder is a tool to soften up potential clients, and the fact that reviews are constantly moved around willy nilly and not kept in the order that they were written makes it extremely difficult for business owners to detect which reviews have been removed by YELP, because YELP actually makes reviews completely disappear as well, with the claim that "the customer must have changed her mind and removed it". I find that very unlikely as it happens regularly. Overall, YELP has a lot of power, some business people advertise out of fear that they'll get punished. No other review site ever had that kind of reputation. Businesses should have the option of removing themselves from the YELP site if they feel unfairly treated.
I have 19 – 5 star reviews all hidden behind the tiny button that says unrecommended reviews. One positive review and one negative on the front page. I contacted yelp and asked them to tell the whole story on the front page, show all my positive reviews along with my negative one. The gave me the bs reviews are sorted by their automated program and had the nerve to tell me this 50/50 review was not ruining my business. It took over 4 weeks to get it pushed to the back page. I am furious and would love to sue them for deformation of business character.
I HAVE MUCH THE SAME PROBLEM. PLEASE ADVISE EXACTLY WHERE TO FIND THIS BUTTON.
WITH YELP WE HAVE LOST OUR FEDERAL CIVIL RIGHT TO "DUE PROCESS" , THE RIGHT TO FACE OR RESPOND TO OUR ACCUSER. THEIR SYSTEM IS TO ALLOW AN ANONYMOUS PERSON TO SAY WE ARE GUILTY OF SOME ACTION, WITHOUT OUR ABILITY ON OUR PART TO RESPOND. ALSO, THEY CONTROL THE REVIEWS UP TO AND INCLUDING IF A POSITIVE REVIEW IS EVEN SHOWN. THANKS, LARRY OLIVER
Our company is another victim of Yelps ridiculous "filtering system", showing our one bad review and hiding our multiple great reviews. We are looking into picketing the San Francisco Yelp office sometime in February 2014. We would like to get other frustrated business owners to join us. If you are interested please email : [email protected]
I had 2 people add reviews in response to this woman's negative review and false review of me and my company. They hid the 2 positive reviews and put this woman's review front and centre, yet this woman's review is fake and false and has already been tried in a court of law.
Id like to ask anyone that could help me some questions on Yelps product/pricing because I am analyzing the online ad market for small business owners and so far I have the lead that Yelp is neither as useful nor as affordable as other options.
However, since I do not own a business myself, I have not been able to get exact products/pricing as they would not disclose that unless you are a business owner owner. My contact information is [email protected]
Would you be willing to answer the following questions if you have the information? I'd be very glad. It be useful also if you could provide something on product/pricing that I am missing.
(1) Regarding the Basic Profile Package and the Enhanced Profile Package, what are the costs to subscribe to these services? Furthermore, regarding the call to action feature, does Yelp charge business on a performance basis for this feature?
(2) Regarding the video feature, is it included in any of the packaged? Do you charge for it separately? Does it come when you buy advertising packages?
(3) Regarding check-in offers, does Yelp charge a fee for this service?
(4) Regarding local advertising, what is the product offering to a potential customer? I am interested in understanding the pricing for display-based ads. vs click-based ads. by number of impressions/month or click (as in $300mo per 500 impressions/mo). I am as well interested in if there are minimum contract periods, how does size/format of ads affect price, etc.
Thank you very much!
We are a small Painting Company . We had several great review on yelp , yp manta and Yelp We had one not so good — YELP filtered out ALL the good reviews and made this one .. not so good review OUR ONLY review . When we called Yelp to say hey this is a problem .. what happened to our other reviews.? The gave us the run around " the filters does this we have no control . " But…. if you advertise with us we can help with getting those other reviews back up and get this one hidden for you ..we love to work with small business .. // :Bingo .. the light went off this pure extortion!! I asked Yelp to remove my listing I would rather have none that this reputation killer. Yelp refused to remove our listing this is all we want – I am ready to sue them for this shady business practices.
I had the same problem, mine gets worse as this woman who posted a nasty review about me on Yelp has been stalking me and sending me harassing emails that I am fat and ugly and a sycophant, each time she reposts her negative comment about me on help she emails me to tell me I have no business. I already took this woman to court and won judgment plus damages for breaching her agreement and steal service. They have refused to remove her review and will not allow me a rebuttal comment. Instead they tell me to go tell my customers about them and post a review about me. I resent promoting their website and spreading the word of Yelp in an effort to overcome being cyberbullied and harassed by this woman.
Let me begin by saying that I hate Yelp. I am not a business owner and just posted a review about a local business. Yelp deleted one of my reviews claiming that "it lacks a firsthand customer experience at this location." I responded to Yelp that it was a firsthand customer experience and I have receipts to back me up. I reposted my review and Yelp deleted it and threatened to delete all of my reviews if I reposted it. I updated my review to clearly indicate that it was a firsthand account and I have receipts to back me up. I communicated this to Yelp but heard nothing. I suspect the Yelp Machine will delete it. Yelp seems more concerned about their bottom line, then posting honest reviews about businesses.
Hi, John.
The same thing happened to me. I am a resident at an apartment complex and during the time of my residence with this property, my experience with the management of this complex and other tenants has been absolutely horrible. After my 1-star posting, the management and other residents of the complex (friends of management) committed acts of retaliation against me. Yelp shortly after removed my posts and my posted images that proved the statements in my post. Yelp left obviously solicited reviews (against their own policy) that referenced MY particular post. These, of course, were all 5-star reviews. Hmmmm…interesting. Come to find out, this apartment complex is a "sponsored Yelp business". I promptly deleted my account and now speak out against this unethically disgusting company.
Check out these screen shots from a 5-year Elite who admitted to writing fake reviews! She confessed on Yelp and 2 of her profiles were immediately taken down, but not before I got screen shots! The first image is of her Elite account. The next 2 are of a secondary account she used to expose her own fraud.
http://ihateyelp.imgur.com/all/
Here are the CORRECT links to the screen shots of the 5-year Elite who confessed to writing fake reviews:
http://i.imgur.com/6MiSBs9.png http://i.imgur.com/noCefP1.png http://i.imgur.com/eBStEFw.png
ELITE Unfairness!!
I wrote 165 reviews and have 295 friends and very active on the site. Most of friends are Elite and when I look at my contributions its significant. At this point I believe that the process is terribly flawed and unfair based on what I have seen. I really wish this process was more transparent and not so dissenting in regards to fairness. I dont really go to alot of events because of my work, training, and international travel but I do enjoy writing the reviews and contributing to this great format. If possible I would appreciate if you can help me in my dilemma. I greatly appreciate your time and willingness to assist… I have sent a number of messages and no one seems to respond its very disappointing giving the nature of what brings us all together on Yelp..
Apparently if someone harasses you on Yelp Talk and you stand up for yourself in anyway after asking for help from HQ it eventually hurts you.. I really hope that this process happens to everyone in a equal format but unfortunately I know it doesn't because the same people who harassed/ bullied me and continually to harass others are still Elites… There is no transparency in the way elites are determined as a result no one really knows how or why and that to me is a major sign of concern. I have been Yelping since 2011 and didn't have a problem ever until I became Elite and it apparently offended a great deal of people. I was suspended from talk thread for 7 days because someone or a group of people Sacramento Troll Patrol decided to derail my path. I really wish you find a way to improve this process and experience because tons of people are being bullied and harassed on your site daily. If making a post is on talk is not appropriate it should be immediately removed and not count as mark against people like myself who really admire this format. At this point being Elite is not the issue its more so the issues and experiences I have faced and yet have not received any assistance. I hope my cry for help does not go unnoticed…
I was bullied and harassed on Yelp Talk for speaking out, but I stuck it out and eventually turned around several of my aggressors, but back then, they didn't suspend people. I steer clear of the talk because that is really where the crazies congregate. I'm sorry you've had to deal with that and yes, Yelp HQ should have a better way of handling issues on their site but the don't have the man power. They are a small crew still running in the red and I believe (IMHO) that they are focused more on revenue generation than on customer service. Unless that customer service is writing a contract. Many times I have proposed solutions that would cost them nothing, but it would require empowering their user base and that seems to be out of the question. Again I'm sorry there isn't more I can do.
To all business: what I have started to do and I suggest that you do it to, is to reply to the negative reviews and in that response write as many words and paragraphs as possible stating what Yelp is doing to small business that do not advertise with them. As many of you, we have many positive reviews that are filtered because we refuse to advertise with Yelp. In my paragraphs I write what Yelp is doing (i.e. favouring business that advertise with them by filtering or removing bad reviews and only showcasing good reviews so that company has a 4-5 star rating. If you do not advertise with Yelp, then they showcase mostly negative reviews, and filter or remove the good reviews). I submit links as well to Yelp extortion cases, reviews, articles etc. This is the only way the general public, that do not know what Yelp is doing, will realize that Yelp is fake and that their review process is sketchy and unfair. Write back to the negative reviews and let the public know what yelp is doing. If every business affected by Yelps extortion tactics responds to the negative review in this manner, and a new customers reads your response to the negative review and reads what Yelp is doing, then we can all spread the word about Yelp.
I also post a link to Yelp reviews of Yelp. If you notice they have 5000+ "recommended" reviews and they are still at 2.5/5 stars. However, if you read the "not recommended" reviews, they have over 5000+ negative reviews that they filter out, leaving them with only 1 star (because you cannot leave 0 stars). Most of the negative reviews are by businesses experiencing Yelps extortion tactics.
Good luck and spread the word!
I also use the, 'Tell us about your business' section to enlighten people of what Yelp is up to. Instead of telling them about my business, I tell how awful it has been for me since somone else put me on Yelp w/o my permission; the pressure coming from Yelp to advertise and how I wouldn't trust any business who HAVE TO advertise on Yelp.
I can prove in court that the negative reviews I received are not from actual patients of records. Yet Yelp will not deal with this kind of fraudulent reviews written with malicious intent and defamatory purposes. I can acknowledge negative criticism without a problem, but when these reviews are written obviously as fake reviews, then Yelp has a fiduciary duty to investigate and bring justice to the forefront. Otherwise it is Yelp as a company that should be shut down. I am more than ready to testify and support my position in any court. No one should deserve to get defamed without a voice to defend his/her integrity. It is absurd that hardworking, honest people like myself has not recourse against this kind of injustice.
My business was ranked 3 of the first page in Yelp.
Than one day I made a mistake of contacting yelp to advertise with them. after I found out that they wanted over $300 per month. I decided not to go through with it. The sales rep would not take no for answer so I stopped taking her calls.
The next thing I know is that my business was moved to the bottom of page 3.
These people are shameless,
A few days ago I go a call from a Yelp sales rep. We talked for over an hour. In that hours time I noticed certain unprofessional attributes from this female representative. See was eating while talking, using such unprofessional taking terms like "kick ass, yeah, yeah, cool", and won't stop calling my cell phone. In one day I received 4 high pressured phone calls and 5 emails. Today I received 2 unanswered calls and two emails. Me as a business owner would never think about a harassing pattern of calls and emails. If I don't answer the phone after a nice long conversation with you, let time pass and see if i call you. For my potential customers I send out emails and or letters and sometimes a phone call. If I have no response I simply repeat the process in 3 months. That is respectful marketing. If a potential customer asked to be take off my list, I do it immediately. Yelp needs to stop calling me and pressuring me to act and respond. One other thing. The fourth call yesterday from Yelp was a bit sneaky. It was from an "unknown number". I usually don't answer unknown numbers but for some reason my curiosity got the better of me. It was the same sales rep I talked to earlier and I told them I was on the other line just to get rid of them. I had another "unknown" call today that I didn't answer and dollars to donuts I bet it was Yelp as well. They just lost an advertiser, sounds like a scam to me.
Recently, all of my reviews, whether they be positive or negative wind up in the not recommended page. The latest has me wondering if there isn't some shenanigans being played by Yelp. Out of the 9 reviews published 2 have been placed in the not recommended page. My review is one of them. The other "not recommended" review was written by someone who only has a single review to their credit.
I invite all those who are interested to read all the reviews (recommended and not recommended) and provide their insights as to why my review didn't make the grade.
Here is the link:
http://www.yelp.com/not_recommended_reviews/NVtej…
several years ago yelp posted a false review of my pet grooming salon. when i contacted them and told them the event that the reviewer posted never happened, they told me that i had to join to be able to do anything about it. i refused and told them to get that false review off their site about my shop. i noticed that there were many positive reviews posted about my shop but they were all "filtered". i decided to ignore the yelp thing and go on with my life as i do have a busy happy shop with a good reputation. recently i went to yelp just to see what was going on there after hearing about all the lawsuits towards them because of their dishonesty and saw that the original bad false review was still there, but now the writer of it was a woman not a man and that there is a second false bad review slandering ME personally because of my inability to take on new clients. this needs to stop and or businesses need to have the ability to address the posters of these reviews and make them responsible for what they write when its just downright fiction that can and does have very negative effects on the businesses and or people they lie about. shame on yelp and its reviewers!!!!! thank goodness i believe in karma and what goes around will most certainly come around for yelp and its lying reviewers! looks like its starting to now with these lawsuits and negative press towards yelp!
Google should ban them! We had lots of good reviews, yelp was calling me to advertise, I told them I already had so much business from my good reviews and great website. Guess what next thing all my reviews disappeared completely. Then a good review was given fresh and then a really bad anonymous review and my business went sour, Yelp called again and I began to advertise because I was intimidated. Its like in the movies, you must pay or your business will fail. EXTORTION IS THE WORD YELPS THAT DESCRIBES YELPS BUSINESS PRACTICES! Its is so frightening they can get away with this! They hurt people's business if they don't pay!
my pet grooming salon has been singled out by yelp and they have posted two very negative reviews of my shop that never even happened! i contacted yelp when i found out about the first review several years ago and they very coldly told me i had to sign up my business with them to do anything about it. i let it go and now years later i find that there's another review on there that also never happened and that there are several good reviews that they keep filtered. i myself know they are known to be liars and hold businesses hostage. why they have singled out my shop i just don't know. i can also tell you that its obvious that there's some funny business going on with them because the first review that was posted about my shop was originally written by a man and now its a woman?
the catagory that my shop is in has also changed from dog/pet groomer to pet sitting/boarding which is way wrong too. if there's an attorney out there willing to take my case on please contact me as i am fed up with yelp's ability to slander people without the affected party being able to to anything about it. my 14 year old business is a successful one, so much so that i have had a waiting list for new clients practically right from the startup. perhaps someone is jealous of this and just feels they have to slam me and my shop? that's almost what it seems like if you read the first review.
there needs to be a law passed where merchants can directly access all reviews and the people who place them. its easy to write lies when you don't have to answer to the people or businesses you claim you dealt with.
shame on yelp!!!
Another business gone, directly because of Yelps defamation.
https://sites.google.com/a/truckeepowersports.com…
My wife has a Nail Salon and the first year she's had 4 and a half start rank come from nowhere. One day the yelp rep called in ask me to check my email that they sent us. we checked then see their package content information how many people visited our website, how many people called in…ect. Then the next day they started to hunting me so crazy for advertising with us. the seventh time I forgot to tell them I am the owner. they insisted me to advertise with them. I asked them what benefit will I got from advertise. they said advertise with them to maintain the grade and rank. I asked them to explain clearly. they said if I do not advertise someday I will got negative reviews that will expose but won't happen if I advertise I thought why they are so powerful to control such things like that. I said NO to them. Now her salon has 2 star rank. All 21 of 4 or 5 stars review from my wife clients who have been enjoy my wife doing their nails and cleaning their feet for years are filtered since other 15 reviews with 12 are 1 star expose. The salon across the street is open several years after us but paying advertise with them and received 40 review of 5 stars but only few of 5 stars are filtered and always on top of search engine at our location. I so regret to said NO to them. we now planning to stay late couple of hours at salon to clean people feet and nails then pay for advertise. My kids will see us home late too. is it possible to ask them to remove our salon from yelp or just list the salon name and phone number but opt out review. Sorry for my English
Yelp pulled all my good reviews and now I'm paying them around $350 a month. The Yelp adv rep calls it reputation management. I've been paying now for I think 3-4 months and my star rating gone up a little I just feel they are being so dishonest removing all my good reviews. It is hurting my small business. DOES ANYONE KNOW if I can delete myself from their site? Also is there a active class action lawsuit I can join? If so is there more class action? Any help would be awesome!
There is a new lawsuit coming up by 24 feb. 2014 in Seattle, that if successful will stop
Yelp from putting there false one star reviews on Google.
Yelp company is all about making money for them selves, i have a restaurant, in the past i was paying them money to be in the top of their page and they were reporting reviews fairly , but since i stopped putting add with them and stopped paying them money ,they now filter every good review i get from my customers, I wish they go out of business and leave us alone
Hi Sam, I had the same experience. I posted details of a horrible experience with a local dry cleaner and they removed my review from the site, well, hid it in the "not recommended reviews" link in small font, translucent grey font near the bottom of the page. I don't understand how they can stand on the defense that they aren't responsible for reviewer's posts due to freedom of speech.. yet they quite easily revoke that same freedom for their reviewers by attempting to silence their reviews. From my own experience and researching the company online, it's very apparent that they are playing dirty for their own advantage.
Same thing happened to me and my business. We paid yelp specifically to see if more reviews would be removed form their filtered area…and they were. When we stopped paying for their useless services 3/4 of all reviews are now filtered. I found a loophole, sort of. On each of the photos posted on my account I used the description area, for the photo, to guide readers to the filtered reviews at the bottom of the page I also added this as the first line in my business description. They might remove it, we'll see. So far so good, it's been posted in this way for about a week now. No way of knowing, though, if readers really did red the filtered reviews or not. Of course out of all the reviews there is only one bad review from a crazy lady, who did not tell the truth about her experience and that one is on the first page. Frustrating. I hate yelp. I'd like to remove my account but it is useful in driving some traffic to our main website, so I hesitate for that reason. But I'll never pay them another dime, even removed the Yelp Deal because I won't share any revenue with them. When writing to them to describe my frustration they write back with a form letter with a bunch of links, it's total bulls%$.
Just as an FYI, there are class action lawsuits taking shape with your claims. Take part and hold Yelp accountable.
Yelp is making me pop a gasket! They suddenly decided my company name cannot possibly be Cats 90210 Los Angeles Cat Sitting on Yelp because it contains the name of the city we serve and they took away our brand identity, renaming us the generic parent company name Just For Cats Pet Sitting. They also said our website didn't support the original name. What? Our website http://www.cats90210.com doesn't support the Cats 90210 name? and our logo containing Cats 90210 Los Angeles Cat Sitting prominently at the top doesn't support the name we've had on our Yelp account for years?? This will confuse people greatly if you ask me when they go to look for Cats 90210 on Yelp and can't find us. Likewise of course our Charlotte branch, http://www.charlottecatsitting.com, cannot be called Charlotte Cat Sitting on Yelp either. I found numerous companies on Yelp that use Charlotte or Los Angeles (and other cities) in their names. Are they all going to be forced to renamed themselves now too?? YELP SUCKS! They need a class action lawsuit. They also refused to remove a comment that was from someone who was stalking me and posted a phony review of our company! yes it's on the "not recommended" reviews but it could roll back to the front page at any time, plus anyone can read it if they want to…
I want to buy a "People hate us on Ylp" sticker… This website should be selling them.
I just received an email from the SBA. The SBA and Yelp are giving a webnnair on how to 'handle reviews'. The SBA and Yelp? What?? I kid you not. When I clicked on the link to the SBA page, I noticed of the 6 comments, 3 were not made public. I bet you anything these 3 came from small businesses not happy with this partnership. The 3 comments that are visible sound like they were paid for. What could the SBA be thinking? http://www.sba.gov/community/blogs/sba-and-yelp-p…
[…] Tell Your Yelp Story | Yelp Sucks – Where Real Businesses Talk … […]
Who and What are THEY…..sounds like a huge bunch of bullies….
Yelp sales people chased me for some months before they convinced me to advertise with them. I foolishly agreed at a cost of $500 per month. This is a heavy sum for small mom and pop business. It took 3 days after the start date for me to realize I had made a big mistake. I could not reach yelp customer service and could not find out how to sign up for online seminars. When I called I would get a voice mail saying they are busy but leave a message and they will return the call within 42 hours which is totally ridiculous. It was at that point that I realized I had to get out of this.
I cancelled my contract after 3 days and and the whole thing cost me $1000 which I consider money wasted.
There are so many other ways to promote your business with products that will have real benefit. I don't understand how Yelp justifies their price. All I got for $500 per month was a small thumbnail slideshow on my page and supposedly no other ads appearing on my page which wasn't true because they did.
I absolutely do not recommend Yelp for advertising. Spend your hard earned money buying cheaper and better products.
I am on the customer side of yelp. I have written both good and bad reviews, only to get all of my reviews filtered.
It's just as frustrating to read reviews that you know are bogus ( read the review, read how great the business/food/staff is…., look at friends of the reviewer, and one of the friends is the business owner/manager).
I see the yelp advertising issues that the owners are faced with, but as the consumer if a business earned a bad review then it should also be factored into their overall rating.
We are having a lot of trouble with Yelp. We listened to a long sales speech by one of their sales managers, and she outlined what seemed to be a super investment in their advertisment with little commitment if we decided to opt out. For a small business, $350 a month to run minimal ads and not get back to you on pertinent search issues, was really just not worth it to us. especailly when the manager in her sales speech made it sound like reviews were the most important thing and for us to reach out and get our members to check out the YELP site and post reviews. NOTHING was posted by them, and when I tried to get some info on how to build our business page we were met with NO information at all. I dont know what we are paying for, and when we tried to get out of this contract with the "30 days notice they said they needed", we were met by a sneeky $1000 early termination fee. This is outrageous, for a small company, we can't afford this, and the lack of transparency of this company.
Guys a new site called http://www.casetreee.com is listing all lawsuit against companies such as Yelp, Amazon, Ebay, Paypal, check it out.. if you got a lawsuit or had a case you can post it and review it on casetree.com. The site is free and a great tool for consumers to use prior making the next big purchase or service. Better than any real, based on lawsuit.
Having to live with yelp, as a small business owner, is like living back in communist China. You have to pay to get good results. In America, you shouldn't have to pay to get results
I've been doing my job for over 10 years without complaint. In fact the compliments have started going to my head. I have customers who move out of state and then would rather skype with me than to find someone else because they know they will never find anyone as good. In yelps world the good doesn't matter. Forget people who are smart and talented and well educated. According to yelp some angry pimple faced kid can lie about you and tarnish your rep even though they have never met you or used your services. Does anyone else see the lack of common sense going on here?
As a consumer, I have stopped using yelp. I don't have any faith that the reviews are truthful. Recent example: I was looking for a moving company. When I did a search on yelp, 30+ companies showed up with avg 5 star reviews. That isn't possible. Nobody likes their moving company that much, and the thought that there were 30 companies in my city alone that were amazingly good. Non-sense. It has become a worthless site, and it sounds like it is their own doing.
YELP IS CORRUPT !!!
I am outraged that Yelp removed the 3 Negative Reviews that were posted for a store that customers are abused by the crazy owner and kicked out permanently.
They removed them from the store page! They also said the were in a different category that was NOT recommended.
Yelp probably gets kickbacks to do this. How much do owners who want to get rid of any negative reviews pay YELP? Why would the negative reviews be chopped out and the 2 positive ones left there? Very fishy indeed.
Also they stated that our ratings will not be affecting this seller's overall scores!
What is the point of this charade? Yelp is not being fair….but very shady!
I thought Yelp was an up and up business…..but it is corrupt!
If people can not tell their experience and have it count…..WHAT IS THE POINT OF YELP?
I posted on another site and it is #2 on Google.
I am disgusted by Yelp . I even made certain that I did not violate their terms. Neither did the other 2 negative posts.
I wrote Yelp and of course never heard from them…..much less be given a rational explanation….which is impossible, since their actions are corrupt.
All three negatives pulled off? Come on! WHY??? No explanation.
I am going to spread the word about this entire incident(s) to all my 27 million contacts who love reading my blogs.
Yelp = Corrupt
PS I wonder how long before they take this opinion out?
The Store is called " Lost and Found Recyclable Fashions" ~ Hillcrest, San Diego, CA
Read my review
YELP is a bunch of jagaloons. I had someone stalking me on YELP, a crazed business owner of course, and they ended up shutting my account down because he kept creating fake reviews and getting his website taken down. He posted my last name, personal photos, my profession, and where I live. YELP did nothing about it, until they deleted his business profile and my account. So now not only do I not get to use YELP (giant blessing in disguise), his business does not get the review it deserves. I had to file a police report to get him to stop harassing me. Yelp is worthless. The worst part is, they are so transparent. NO one answers a phone, no one responds to emails, and they are a bunch of clowns in an office. JOKE JOKE JOKE.
A Yelp sales person tortured me for weeks about how they could make me rich.After constantly saying "NO" they told me it was only $12,000 a year for them to do whatever was going to make me rich.I said no again. WOW! The next day all of our great opinions were gone and only nasty lies remained.HHhhmmmmmm.They claim no responsability. What a mystery. They are a fine example of internet scum. Avoid them. Hang up and get ready for some bad news on the site. A real shame.
Yelp Sucks. They Can Blow Me and Lick My Smegma & Sweaty Ball Sack! MOFOs.
Yelp is destroying my small business! We have been providing service to hundreds of customers for 12 years. 3 negative comments are giving us an image that is simply not true. The comments are lacking facts details and truth.
The negative comments are a result of individuals that are irrational, bitter, and enjoy feeling this "power". In addition, none of the complaints are related to out trade.
Yelp allows lies and libel. I own a Pizza Restaurant, and received a 1 star review from a woman (note I did not say "lady") because we politely asked her to keep her young kids from running and screaming through the bar section of the restaurant. We responded to the 1 star review, citing safety concerns and the fact that customers in the bar were bothered by the running and screaming. She adamantly denied that her kids were making laps through the bar, yet I have surveillance video that clearly shows them making 6 laps before we intervened. Regarding the libel, this woman suggested that my wife, who spoke to the children and then the woman, "interrupted her weeknight drinking" to "lecture her kids". My wife was having soda. The insinuation of alcoholism is libel. Yelp, of course, did not care, citing it is a difference of "opinion" and refused to remove the review. I encourage all of my business owner friends to NOT advertise with yelp. Hopefully they will go the way of pets.com.
YELP needs to get shut down IMMEDIATELY!
I am going to give you an outline of the 1 hour phone call that I had with YELP's sales rep in Jan 2014 on another post – you will be in shock when I explain it to you.
But before I get into that I want to make this point really clear – for those of you out there speaking about YELP – please make this point clear that I am spelling out below:
YELP IS NOT FREEDOM OF SPEECH like they always claim it is.
YELP is the opposite of FREEDOM of SPEECH.
YELP is ABSOLUTELY NOT Freedom of SPEECH!!!!!!!!! I cannot stress this enough.
Yelp could be made into a TRUE FREEDOM OF SPEECH site, HOW?
If reviewers were FORCED to give their:
1)TRUE FACE PICTURE
2)THEIR CONTACT ADDRESS
3)THE EXACT DAY AND EXACT TIME THEY PATRON'ED THE BUSINESS THEY ARE REVIEWING
4) THE EXACT NAME OF THE SERVICE PERSON THAT TOOK CARE OF THEM
5)THEIR CONTACT PHONE NUMBER
6)THEIR CONTACT EMAIL ADDRESS
7) THEIR BIRTHDATE INCLUDING YEAR
IF someone were to GIVE ALL OF THIS INFORMATION
then and ONLY THEN – would their review be considered FREEDOM OF SPEECH
that is TRUE FREEDOM OF YOUR SPEECH – because we can VERIFY that it is TRUELY you.
BuT FREEDOM OF SPEECH – is NOT – hiding behind an online profile account – and complaining and saying things that YOU WOULD NEVER SAY – if you had to IDENTIFY yourself to the world along with YOUR FREEDOM OF SPEECH REVIEW –
please think about this VERY VALID POINT – the REVIEWER MUST be able to BE STRONG ENOUGH ABOUT THEIR OPINION TO EXPOSE THEMSELF TO THE WORLD
IF THEY ARE GOING TO HURT THE BUSINESS THEY ARE REVIEWING – THAN MAN UP!!!! SHOW YOURSELF!!!! STOP HIDING BEHIND YOUR COMPUTER! – and give your LEGITIMATE bad experience with PROOF!!!!
when I think of Freedom of Speech, I think of the old Soapbox example.
On a Soapbox – THE WHOLE WORLD SEES YOU – on YELP – NOBODY knows who you are!!!!!
It is so easy to say something when you know NOBODY is around – but to say something when your own reputation is on the line – is always another story.
if you are standing on a SOAPBOX talking – then EVERYONE should see WHO YOU ARE!!!!!
If I am 65 years old, and I am reading a restaurant review from a 16 year old, Im not sure I even want to listen to that 16 year olds review – but on YELP – it could be anybody leaving that review
REVIEWS MEAN NOTHING – without FULL DISCLOSURE OF THE REVIEWER
so hopefully – the court system FORCES people to identify themselves – otherwise each REVIEWER SHOULD BE OPEN TO BEING SUED –
Oh – if you are worried about your PRIVACY – then DONT get on the soapbox – so do not GIVE me the IDENTITY theft or safety argument –
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO MAKE A REVIEW in the first place – so if you are forced to give up all your information – I wonder how different YOUR review would be????? or would you even leave a review?
so many fake profiles on YELP – its no where near a true indication of ANYTHING!!!
JMAAC2014 made a great point, one that could swiftly and honestly create a fair and balanced playing field to assure that ALL reviews are legitimate. Simply have all reviewers provide all of the necessary information Yelp needs to verify them as legitimate. But the simple plan has a flaw: YELP JUST DOESN'T GIVE A DAMN.
I used to regularly post restaurant reviews on Yelp for years. Until the day a Yelp sales rep by the name of Mykal White called me to offer advertising on Yelp that would help my online business "ten times over," among other false statements and unfulfilled promises. That never seen advert cost me $500. a month for a full year,
and didn't generate even one, single bona fide new job. When I tried to get out of the contract, they tried to screw me for the full year, the "fine print" you think you'll never have to use. I had to retain a lawyer to sue them for false advertising, breach of contract, unethical business practices, and fraud, before they finally let me out.
That's when the removals started… all of my ten glowing customer reviews were suddenly and inexplicably… GONE. When I tried to reach them for explanation, all I received is a computer-generated form letter. When my customers contacted Yelp directly to authenticate themselves, they were treated the same way. Now, after screwing me out of my hard earned money through a bogus telephone pitch that promised me the moon and never delivered, they sought to destroy my reputation with their gambling casino-inspired review "algorithms."
Oddly, the ONLY review to have survived was a phony, negative one. Which proves in bold relief Yelp's utter
disdain for the very advertisers who support them! Once again, it took an attorney to contact the generator of the false complaint, who summarily removed it upon threat of a libel suit. All of customers were requested to include all of the personal information, including a recent photograph to further prove their legitimacy, yet in spite of all my efforts in pleasing Yelp, nine of my ten reviews were summarily removed, then hidden in a box labeled, "These reviews are not currently recommended," creating doubt in the mind of every, single potential new customer who reads the thinly-veiled warning. If Yelp was so concerned about phony reviews, they could even attach a disclaimer, stating, "The authenticity of these reviews cannot be verified," then let the reader simply make up their own minds. Through the use of high-powered attorneys and impossible to understand legalities, Yelp has single handedly created a stifling, unfair, untruthful, unethical atmosphere for small businesses without precedent in the marketplace. They will and must be held in account.
I agree with you 100%. The ability to bash on a business without having to provide any facts or information makes yelp a total joke. Our business has a couple of reviews were the reviewers just bash on our business without stating any facts, and actually only stating lies about our practices. I wonder why in this age of extra sensitivity towards "bullying" , more people do not take action against Yelp. Yelp allows anyone to state anything they like without burden of proof, or without stating any actual facts, it is online Bullying at it's best. The clincher is the fact that Yelp will help you manage your reviews if you become an actual customer of theirs. Is this not a form of extortion? I am ready to join any lawsuit or move to get Yelp removed from the internet.
I just can not agree more with you! We have a little waxing place with my friend. We have 2 negative reviews: one by former employee who my friend had to fire, and one more by the dude that we have never heard of. We have a client data base and his name is not there. We asked him a few times when did he come and he never said. Yelp said that they are not in the position to decide whether it is true that he didn't come and the review is still there. The girl that worked for her before didn't even use her name. Just a nickname.
If you and these other people are interested in another class action lawsuit contact me.
Lauree carlsen
This is right on the money. I couldn't have said any of this better myself. I don't think anyone could have said it better, because every bit of JMAAC2014's comment's make all the sense in the world. "Freedom of Speech" is wonderful, but it does transcend to freedom of slander or freedom of defamation. Take a walk through airport security and mention the word, "Bomb", and see how far "Freedom of Speech" gets you. Too many spineless, gutless cowards use Yelp as a weapon against hard-working individuals and businesses. I can't think of a better way for small businesses to get filtered into non-existence, which trickles down to job losses and economic ruin for a community, county, state and country. Yelp has proven to not care in the least about the absence of respectable or worthwhile credibility. Their website is riddled with phony id's and phony reviews. Anyone who values what they read at Yelp are narrow-minded, brain-deficient suckers.
Or maybe you could try improving your service. People shouldn't have to provide all of this personally identifiable information to give a review. There's a legitimate problem with Yelp manipulating reviews, but it's foolish to suggest your customers should have to provide all of the information you're suggesting just to leave a review – and I'm quite sure you don't object to people leaving positive reviews who don't provide any of that information. Everyone knows that people tend to complain louder than they praise, and it's usually pretty easy to determine whether someone's review is unfairly affected by relatively insignificant factors.
Legitimate reviews, positive or negative, should be provided by legitimate, verifiable customers. Business owners put their face, family and finances on the line every day. Make reviewers do the same or else it is all BS.
I completely agree with you. It is character assassination plain and simple which is nothing short of defamation, something Yelp states in it's review guidelines it does not support.
Check out this definition: http://definitions.uslegal.com/c/character-assass… I think in the case of most businesses it is Yelp that is guilty of character assassination based on how they hide and delete positive reviews and show only negative.
I came across this video that perfectly summarizes what Yelp means to people in business if you are interested please click the link. http://youtu.be/fYpmJHlXuVc
There are valid reasons for anonymous comment. JMAAC2014 seems to agree since they didn't provide their identity in the original post.
JMAAC2014, not addressing the conflict directly with Yelp, but what you ask, all that personal information from a review, I think is way overboard. I'm not sure what the solution is in this digital day and age, but no one is going to give that kind of information out to the world. Even if it is only for Yelp's eyes, I would be very leery to give that much personal information out for privacy reasons. Just not gonna happen. And besides, it seems that these days, it is easy enough for someone to make up an ID with all of the criteria you gave. Like I said, I just don't know what the solution would be.
Really? The business owners and employees are out there every day, no privacy. But cowards should be able to hide?
CAN I repost this? __YELP needs to get shut down IMMEDIATELY! __I am going to give you an outline of the 1 hour phone call that I had with YELP's sales rep in Jan 2014 on another post – you will be in shock when I explain it to you. __But before I get into that I want to make this point really clear – for those of you out there speaking about YELP – please make this point clear that I am spelling out below: __YELP IS NOT FREEDOM OF SPEECH like they always claim it is. __YELP is the opposite of FREEDOM of SPEECH. __YELP is ABSOLUTELY NOT Freedom of SPEECH!!!!!!!!! I cannot stress this enough. __Yelp could be made into a TRUE FREEDOM OF SPEECH site, HOW? __If reviewers were FORCED to give their: __1)TRUE FACE PICTURE _2)THEIR CONTACT ADDRESS _3)THE EXACT DAY AND EXACT TIME THEY PATRON'ED THE BUSINESS THEY ARE REVIEWING _4) THE EXACT NAME OF THE SERVICE PERSON THAT TOOK CARE OF THEM _5)THEIR CONTACT PHONE NUMBER _6)THEIR CONTACT EMAIL ADDRESS _7) THEIR BIRTHDATE INCLUDING YEAR __IF someone were to GIVE ALL OF THIS INFORMATION __then and ONLY THEN – would their review be considered FREEDOM OF SPEECH __that is TRUE FREEDOM OF YOUR SPEECH – because we can VERIFY that it is TRUELY you. __BuT FREEDOM OF SPEECH – is NOT – hiding behind an online profile account – and complaining and saying things that YOU WOULD NEVER SAY – if you had to IDENTIFY yourself to the world along with YOUR FREEDOM OF SPEECH REVIEW – __please think about this VERY VALID POINT – the REVIEWER MUST be able to BE STRONG ENOUGH ABOUT THEIR OPINION TO EXPOSE THEMSELF TO THE WORLD __IF THEY ARE GOING TO HURT THE BUSINESS THEY ARE REVIEWING – THAN MAN UP!!!! SHOW YOURSELF!!!! STOP HIDING BEHIND YOUR COMPUTER! – and give your LEGITIMATE bad experience with PROOF!!!! __when I think of Freedom of Speech, I think of the old Soapbox example. __On a Soapbox – THE WHOLE WORLD SEES YOU – on YELP – NOBODY knows who you are!!!!! __It is so easy to say something when you know NOBODY is around – but to say something when your own reputation is on the line – is always another story. __if you are standing on a SOAPBOX talking – then EVERYONE should see WHO YOU ARE!!!!! __If I am 65 years old, and I am reading a restaurant review from a 16 year old, Im not sure I even want to listen to that 16 year olds review – but on YELP – it could be anybody leaving that review __REVIEWS MEAN NOTHING – without FULL DISCLOSURE OF THE REVIEWER __so hopefully – the court system FORCES people to identify themselves – otherwise each REVIEWER SHOULD BE OPEN TO BEING SUED – __Oh – if you are worried about your PRIVACY – then DONT get on the soapbox – so do not GIVE me the IDENTITY theft or safety argument – __YOU DO NOT HAVE TO MAKE A REVIEW in the first place – so if you are forced to give up all your information – I wonder how different YOUR review would be????? or would you even leave a review? __so many fake profiles on YELP – its no where near a true indication of ANYTHING!!!