Tell Your Yelp Story
Everyone wants to be heard. That seems to be the #1 complaint on Yelp is the lack of transparency in the filter, the lack of response to real business issues, and the seeming lack of care that real businesses are being destroyed by fake reviews while real good reviews are filtered out.
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.
My phone call with a YELP rep was really amazing.
Yelp called my restaurant for weeks and finally got in touch with me.
I refuse to give YELP a dime of my money.
My reviews are actually pretty good on Yelp – but there are some bad ones on there too – and I am not going to pay money to Yelp to push people to my Yelp site – why would I push people to my YELP site if there is a chance that the people can read 1 Bad review ? I do not want anyone to read 1 thing bad about me – who would want that? Even if we made an honest mistake, I still do not want someone reading about it? Who in their right mind would want someone to read something negative about their business, which is their livelihood?
If we make a mistake, we accept it, apologize to the customer, learn from it, improve, and move on – we definitely do not want the mistake to be broadcasted all over the world.
the sales rep from YELP told me –
QUOTE"All my clients that buy from me, HATE YELP!!!"
She flat out told me this,She Said "I deal with hating businesses on a day to day business."
And further explained to me "The businesses are tired of the negative reviews and realize that they must become a partner with YELP to work together in hopes that their YELP page will improve"
She was very high pressure and aggressive in her approach to sell me YELP service for my restaurant.
I told her I will never become a YELP customer in the way that YELP runs itself in its current state (continued)
In addition, there are customers that are out there that threaten things with YELP.
If you do not give me better service, meaning a discount on my bill, I am going to talk about this on YELP.
Customers bring up YELP all the time to try and get more things than what they pay for.
They also are hoping the owner emails them through their bad review and offers more free things, whether it is a coupon or discount on a future visit.
We have had so many LIE reviews on our page from other competitor restaurants within our same cuisines type – sometimes placing reviews and talking about menu items that we never had – and these reviews stick.
Another challenge with YELP – is when YELP started to become popular was roughly around 2006 to 2008 is when it started to become known.
There was a distinct advantage to businesses that started before the existence of Yelp – because these businesses already had a base of customers that never read YELP reviews to sway their opinions of anything. They simply went to patron a business because they wanted to make that decision on their own.
When a new restaurant opens in the ERA of YELP – immediately it is on a PUBLIC platform of scrutiny. The business is not even given a CHANCE to start and learn from their mistakes because you have HORRIBLE PEOPLE that say VERY MEAN THINGS and not think that there are family's really working super hard to make the business work.
When a new restaurant opens in the ERA of YELP – immediately it is on a PUBLIC platform of scrutiny. The business is not even given a CHANCE to start and learn from their mistakes because you have HORRIBLE PEOPLE that say VERY MEAN THINGS and not think that there are family's really working super hard to make the business work.
All businesses should be able to choose to either be on YELP or not be on YELP, especially at the beginning of their existence. You want to see a bunch of fake YELP reviews, go to a new restaurants new YELP page, most of those reviews are fake. Before the restaurant opens they are already warning people and asking them to put up 5 star reviews the moment they open in the first week. So they can get people seeing their great news immediately upon opening – some of them YELP will catch and throw them into the filter and many of them YELP will not catch and the fake review sticks.
let me tell you something about the mind(your brain).
if I am standing in front of a restaurant with you, and I, in an excited passionate voice say to you, you are about to walk into one of my favorite burger restaurants, you are going to LOVE this burger – the chances are pretty good – that you are going to like the burger – because those excited thoughts were implanted in your mind beforehand.
but in this day and age, there is a change that has happened – SURE – you still have that great passionate word of mouth – but now you have this growing group of FOOD YELP ANALYSTS – that think they are on TV – reporting to the world their news report through YELP – and they go to your restaurant thinking about how cool their YELP review is going to sound – so instead of enjoying your restaurant from the great passionate word of mouth – they analyze you to death while they are eating and then go and write about it on YELP.
Nobody used to go to restaurants thinking about how they were going to review it? people would go to eat, period!! NOW, people go to see how many tastebuds are perking on their toungue – so they can make some fancy comments about a burst full of flavors and use some other fancy cliche – it is absolutely not an ERA of HEY – just sit down, relax, and ENJOY!!!!
one mindset you are completely enjoying an experience; the other mindset is wondering how some people will react to your YELP review by clicking FUNNY – and that click of being FUNNY is more important to you than anything – even if it is costly to the family that is working their butt off to make their business better.
Fortunately for my restaurant, we are super blessed, and really really successful – and our word of mouth is excellent. I really do not need to focus on YELP for anything – but I have experienced first hand the unfairness of that site – and I know without question, we have lost potential new customers because of YELP.
It has damaged our sales, NO DOUBT – because people do read the reviews.
To start a business is so much harder because of YELP – they are killing new businesses.
THE era of having a business dealing with the YELP review site – VERSUS – owing your own business with no review sites, only word of mouth reviews.
Here's where to post messages about what a scam YELP is, on the finance boards, destroy their stock value! http://finance.yahoo.com/mb/forumview/?&v=m&a… Let investors bring their stock down and destroy YELP!!!!!
That's why you need to start a petition like this one. You are being extorted because you have no rights. You live in what is suppose to be a free and democratic society but when it comes to large corporate monopolies you don't as your rights are being violated. See my petition. It is time we stand together and US citizens begin your own petition for your government. Please join this campaign: https://www.change.org/en-CA/petitions/stop-viola…
I also explained that the only businesses that are getting hurt by YELP are the small business owner.
For example, go on Yelp and look up an Airlines, like United Airlines for example. Or American Airlines, or Southwest Airlines.
Go on Yelp and look up Hewlet Packard, or Microsoft, or McDonalds, or Dunkin Donuts.
Who cares what people are saying about these companies on YELP. In fact, many times the reviews about these bigger companies are bad. How does that impact their sales? it doesnt
So, it is really simple,
the small business owner is the ONLY BUSINESS that is feeling the most squeezed by this ridiculous site. The small business owner is getting blackmailed to do business with YELP. There is no other way to look at it – I was on the phone with this sales rep for about an hour, she would not let me off the phone – finally I told her that I do not want to be rude and hang up on you but the conversation is not going anywhere – I will never give YELP money unless it changes the way it does its business to be fair my exposing all the details of the reviewer.
YELP is pitiful and it is not FREEDOM OF SPEECH – when you cannot see the person giving the speech – it is definitely NOT freedom of speech.
I told the rep that one day I feel YELP is going down because their site is not constitutional and is hurting small business and she said that is impossible because it is FREEDOM OF SPEECH!!!
IT IS NOT freedom of speech – when you cannot see the reviewers full information!!!
I hope all of you keep fighting for this – YELP needs to change or be SHUT DOWN!!!!
Start a petition I agree with you 100 percent and that is why I started this petition. I feel exactly the way you do. I would really like to connect with you and others thinking like you. The only person's who's rights are being affected are small business owners.
Please join this campaign: https://www.change.org/en-CA/petitions/stop-viola…
All businesses should be able to choose to either be on YELP or not be on YELP, especially at the beginning of their existence. You want to see a bunch of fake YELP reviews, go to a new restaurants new YELP page, most of those reviews are fake. Before the restaurant opens they are already warning people and asking them to put up 5 star reviews the moment they open in the first week. So they can get people seeing their great news immediately upon opening – some of them YELP will catch and throw them into the filter and many of them YELP will not catch and the fake review sticks.
let me tell you something about the mind(your brain).
if I am standing in front of a restaurant with you, and I, in an excited passionate voice say to you, you are about to walk into one of my favorite burger restaurants, you are going to LOVE this burger – the chances are pretty good – that you are going to like the burger – because those excited thoughts were implanted in your mind beforehand.
but in this day and age, there is a change that has happened – SURE – you still have that great passionate word of mouth – but now you have this growing group of FOOD YELP ANALYSTS – that think they are on TV – reporting to the world their news report through YELP – and they go to your restaurant thinking about how cool their YELP review is going to sound – so instead of enjoying your restaurant from the great passionate word of mouth – they analyze you to death while they are eating and then go and write about it on YELP.
Nobody used to go to restaurants thinking about how they were going to review it? people would go to eat, period!! NOW, people go to see how many tastebuds are perking on their toungue – so they can make some fancy comments about a burst full of flavors and use some other fancy cliche – it is absolutely not an ERA of HEY – just sit down, relax, and ENJOY!!!!
one mindset you are completely enjoying an experience; the other mindset is wondering how some people will react to your YELP review by clicking FUNNY – and that click of being FUNNY is more important to you than anything – even if it is costly to the family that is working their butt off to make their business better.
Fortunately for my restaurant, we are super blessed, and really really successful – and our word of mouth is excellent. I really do not need to focus on YELP for anything – but I have experienced first hand the unfairness of that site – and I know without question, we have lost potential new customers because of YELP.
It has damaged our sales, NO DOUBT – because people do read the reviews.
To start a business is so much harder because of YELP – they are killing new businesses.
THE era of having a business dealing with the YELP review site – VERSUS – owing your own business with no review sites, only word of mouth reviews.
I explained all this perspective to the sales rep from YELP, and all she could keep saying is to make your YELP site experience better, that is why you want to be in partnership with YELP and purchase our services.
That's why you need to start a petition like this one. You are being extorted because you have no rights. You live in what is suppose to be a free and democratic society but when it comes to large corporate monopolies you don't as your rights are being violated. See my petition. It is time we stand together and US citizens begin your own petition for your government.
Glad I found a blog that exposes the fraud behind YELP!
I've been posting several honest reviews of local restaurants/businesses and every review has been sent to the "unreliable" section. Why? YELP! claims I was either a competitor or I owned the business as an excuse to bar my reviews. I even re-worded the reviews, but they still denied them.
Last year, I wrote a critical review of a local plumbing company who talked us into buying additional faucets we didn't need after repairing a line burst and again, YELP! discredited my review. This scamming plumber still holds a 5 star rating on the website!
Pretty obvious YELP! is very biased and only cater to those who contract with them, even if they are dishonest businesses.
YELP! should definitely be prosecuted for all this shilling they do. I sincerely hope your blog will ultimately lead to it.
Here's where to post messages about what a scam YELP is, on the finance boards, destroy their stock value! http://finance.yahoo.com/mb/forumview/?&v=m&a… Let investors bring their stock down and destroy YELP!!!!!
This appears to be a pretty old thread. Time for a class action law suite against YELP. My sister's firm was attacked by a "Social media professor" from a local college who refused to pay her bill. What's more, she threatened to use YELP to do so. Six months later, a coordinated attack of 3 or 4 individuals along with open manipulation of YELP's rating system has left business plummeting, with a 1 STAR rating. They have 10 positive, legitimate reviews going back 3 years, versus the 6 (2 from one account pretending to be two different people) reviews in the past six months. Guess what: ALL 10 POSITIVE REVIEWS, from 2011 to 2014, ARE LISTED BY YELP AS "NOT RECOMMENDED". All six new reviews are displayed on the company's page. What's the likelihood of 100% of the company's positive reviews being channeled as "not recommend", absent complicity by YELP and manipulation of the rating system by this college professor plus a second person (57 review history) who lost a court judgment?
Class action time!
Yes this is a problem and it is not right. I have the same thing on my business. I have a lot of five star reviews and the only two that appear are the two negative reviews.
All of my good ones are listed as "Not recommended" This is B.S. they are a extorting firm. Something should and needs to be done about them.
Count me in. These idiots are terrible. I got a call from one yesterday and let it rip. He was a real smart A//. I told him they suck and to just look on the internet. Type in ,Yelp sucks and watch what comes up. Why are they allowed to bully like they do? I don't get it. I am sure they have place more bad fake reviews today. Scum!
I really like what you're saying here. That is why I found this site. I'm not a business owner perse' but boy I can see how a lot of people and their business can get killed from this. A friend of mine however, was attacked by one person (his business that is) and it was very difficult for him. Let's face it even the word yelp is more of a shout out for B*llSh*t reviews. Go away Yelp!
Class action law attorney- Cliff Cantor Bellevue/Kirkland. Google it.
I've been there too. Yelp is only showing 1-1 star review on my business and has hidden or deleted all the positive reviews. I feel this is a prime example of character assassination by Yelp which is a form of defamation. I recently began a petition to fight for the right of businesses to remove their listing. it's like cutting off the head of the snake, if there are no listings there is no site.
Please join this campaign: https://www.change.org/en-CA/petitions/stop-viola…
Defammatory post: I bought the brazillian wax deal from Groupon a few weeks ago. I promptly got in for an appointment. When I arrived there was a small room with a chair and the waxing table. The owner was very friendly and I felt very comfortable.. at first. I've had bikini waxes many times but this is the first time I've seen a technician alternate hard and then soft wax over the same area multiple times. First she tried hard wax but only about half of the hair came off. She then applied soft wax over the same area and ripped again with not much better results. The owner assured me that the hair was long enough, just that she maybe needed to turn up the heat on the wax. After attempting this a few times I was in a lot of pain and pretty concerned that the technician kept rewaxing the same areas over and over. I just felt that something was not right and half way through I told her I was done. The owner got something to wipe me with and apologized because she "just ran out of gloves" as she was cleaning me already. She then told me if the hairs that didn't come off bother me that I could tweeze them when I get home. So I left with still quite a bit of hair even on the "waxed" areas and dried up wax still all over. I will never go back.
YELP
MAR 31, 2014 | 03:48PM UTC
We love hearing from you, whether you're sharing an awesome idea or have a problem to report. We want to make sure your Yelp experience is great, and we're looking forward to doing what we can to help! For now, we just wanted to let you know that we've received your email. One of our agents will take a look and respond to your inquiry, typically within 5 business days.
Please do not send multiple emails about the same issue. This will slow down our ability to respond. If you've written in to request a simple listing update and we agree with the change, we will most likely make the change live without getting back to you.
-The Yelp Support Team
Original Message:
Comments:
——————————–
Why did Yelp take down my positive reviews and only kept up the negative review? Could it be due to the fact that I wouldn't sign up to advertise with Yelp and the Ad Rep was pushy and nasty with her email comments after I hung up on her because she didn't seem to quit get the message that my business was a new one and did not allow for an advertising budget, no matter how much she insisted on giving me one??? This seems very fishy to me and may require legal action on my behalf!!!
APR 02, 2014 | 04:26PM PDT
Hi Marcella,
Thank you for contacting us with your concerns. I wanted to assure you with 100% certainty that Yelp treats advertisers and non-advertisers exactly alike with respect to reviews. We hope you will take the time to read about some common misconceptions about our practices here: http://www.yelp.com/myths.
If a review isn’t showing up under Recommended Reviews in your business’s Yelp listing, it isn’t one of the reviews we are showcasing today. It’s important to note that even if this review isn’t one of the millions we currently recommend, folks can still find it at the bottom of your Yelp listing or on the user’s profile page, and it might be recommended on another day.
Please see our FAQ for a complete explanation: http://www.yelp.com/faq#recommended_reviews
And finally, we appreciate you bringing your experience with a representative of Yelp to our attention. We'll be sure to forward your note along to the appropriate parties.
Regards,
Brooks
Yelp User Support
San Francisco, California
Defammatory post: I bought the brazillian wax deal from Groupon a few weeks ago. I promptly got in for an appointment. When I arrived there was a small room with a chair and the waxing table. The owner was very friendly and I felt very comfortable.. at first. I've had bikini waxes many times but this is the first time I've seen a technician alternate hard and then soft wax over the same area multiple times. First she tried hard wax but only about half of the hair came off. She then applied soft wax over the same area and ripped again with not much better results. The owner assured me that the hair was long enough, just that she maybe needed to turn up the heat on the wax. After attempting this a few times I was in a lot of pain and pretty concerned that the technician kept rewaxing the same areas over and over. I just felt that something was not right and half way through I told her I was done. The owner got something to wipe me with and apologized because she "just ran out of gloves" as she was cleaning me already. She then told me if the hairs that didn't come off bother me that I could tweeze them when I get home. So I left with still quite a bit of hair even on the "waxed" areas and dried up wax still all over. I will never go back.
Subject: Message from Yelp HQ [ 2371137 ]
APR 23, 2014 | 12:27PM PDT
Hi Marcella,
We wanted to let you know that we've removed your review of Bare Wolf Wax Studio. Our Support team has determined that it falls outside our Content Guidelines (http://www.yelp.com/guidelines) because it appears to represent a conflict of interest.
We hope you will continue to participate on Yelp while keeping our Content Guidelines in mind.
Removed Review:
As the owner of Bare Wolf Wax Studio, I would like to make mention of the comment submitted by a disgruntled client…..all my clients mean something to me. It is never okay for me to have a client that's dissatisfied and unfortunately everyone cannot be pleased no matter how hard one may try. My goal is to remove all unwanted hair and not to have my client(s) go home with strips of hair that was left behind because the first application of wax didn't remove everything and thus the reason why the switching up between the 2 waxes (hard – no strip and soft – with strip). The soft wax adheres to the skin and hair which can cause skin removal if used in the same area to many times (1no more than 2 times is the goal), however that application may not remove everything, so I go over the hair that's left behind with the hard wax which adheres to the hair only and does not damage the skin which means I can apply it multiple times over the same area. I have found switching between has gotten much better results. I always, always use gloves, not just for my safety but for my client's safety as well.
Now that I've explained my technique and I have no problem walking a client thru what I do step by step (which is something I offer at time of service), it saddens me that a client would take to Web and write up such a potentially harmful statement and not reach out to me with their dissatisfaction even if it stems from lack of knowledge regarding my technique.
I'm not opposed to hearing my clients complements or complaints because they do go hand in hand and will only strengthen my business down the road as I do take everything my clients say into consideration. I only ask that they bring it to me instead of holding their tongue while in front of me and waiting to post such negativity on the Web.
Thank you for taking out time in your day to read this!
Sincerely,
Marcella Teasley Owner/Wax Specialist of Bare Wolf Wax Studio
Regards,
Pam
Yelp User Support
San Francisco, California
How is me defending my business against a defaming characterzation a conflict of interest? What happened to freedom of speech? Someone can speak ill of my business but I can't offer a retort? What is your sight really trying to do besides bringing harm to businesses????
At least they are including the review they are removing now! That was #74 on my list of demands from 2008 and they JUST NOW started to do it! They removed one of my reviews for Mt Rose Ski Resort and I have no idea what it was I said that they didn't like, nor did I have the review to edit and resubmit. Very frustrating. I hope they do this for everyone noe.
I have the same situation. You are absolutely right. In fact you can respond to the defamatory review. The issue I have is your response falls at the bottom on the fake nasty reviewer. In my case this person's review is so long it trumps all SEO and consumes my listing so everyone reads it when they search for my business. Try responding by hitting the respond to review. It will ask you if you want to contact this person. Yelp tries to engage you in a discussion. Frankly I think it is pointless as if someone is going to write a fake nasty review about you chances are they are some sociopath or psychopath and in that case you will just be feeding them. It is a stupid option. I think Yelp was designed by some very and young and childish individuals that although good in theory, the policies and it's delivery and treatment of businesses shows these individuals do not have much life experience and are relatively naïve. I would suggest joining a class action lawsuit. They need to learn.
They didn't take down the defamming post, they took down my post of me defending my business.
Yelp in and of itself is enough of a problem to deal with. I am in the South Florida area and a small business owner. I recently began a quest to try to correct all of the web pages that keep popping up in my honor with incorrect information. Last count was 48 local listings that I did not request. Most of them are impossible to correct without paying someone. The kicker is that many of them refer to Yelp. "There are 2 reviews on Yelp!". At the click of a button a potential customer gets one crazy guy going off on us and one really nice review. So Yelp's reach is way beyond their own domain. It is a virus that is way out of control.
yelp is a scam if you have 5 stars and about 4 good comments and just 1 bad one they will but you down to 3 stars all they want is money and if you call they dont care about what you think .
I could not find my previous review, but just an idea: why not to change fighting strategy with yelp? This obviously doesn't work. I mean pressuring them with endless lawsuits. If they do much money paying for those suits is nothing for them.
How about affecting directly their. "Oxygen supply"? Meaning money businesses spent on yelp? How? Finding out what businesses spend money with yelp and asking all yelp haters like us not to do business with them and spread the word via social media and such? In addition which can be much more useful call professionals and ask their professional opinion posted about this business. Like i am in pest control business , and there are tons of scammers who are rated five star here since know how to ask people to put good stuff about them. I have all their data, fraud , etc. it,s not enough people get scammed but I return they go and promote these clowns since have no idea that wasted their money and think are getting like $50 discount while wasted already 40 times than it. How? You think people know if the service they got was professional or good? Hell no! Only a pro will know.
I was just reading reviews of these scammers and see that 80 percent are praising those who steal money from them and create illusion as if got a good service. If I reveal in couple of paragraphs the secrets of my professions and put this info about them, it will open people,s eyes. But this is what yelp does not want.
Imagine a top notch lawyer who has 2 star since refused service or just wanted to go by contract or did not want to violate professional ethics just to please the customer. Now imagine he joins us and bashes his 5-star competitor without revealing who he is I our site by telling people that this "cute lawyer" who always gives fee advise, buys candies for kids when they come with mom for consultation and got 5-star rating from yelp due to that is actually banned for practicing law for 6 months or has a success rate 1/3 of regular success rate in that type of practice.
Now whose review Google will show higher? Sugar coating stupid yelp reviews even though they might be 100s or professional review in our site from a pro? I don't even read much yelp reviews because people talk BS and it's obvious they don't know what they got. Even in restaurants. Do you know what they put in the food that you praise it? They don't give you chemical sheet like products have in supermarket, right? So you may be eating tons of Msg , waiter can smile and come to you every second, do other monkey stuff, you can get cancer because of them but go and write 5-star review for your neighbors and friends to get it too.
Ok if this interests you , let this lady send me an email or anyone who is Interested I idea. Instead of talking, Act. True businessmen act instead of talking.
We can create some voluntary organization and take to from there.
Are you a lawyer?
I have started a petition perhaps you would be interested in signing?
Please join this campaign: https://www.change.org/en-CA/petitions/stop-viola…
the best way to hurt Yelp financially is to go to Yahoo finance section : http://finance.yahoo.com/mb/forumview/?&v=m&a…
and post on the message board all the comments and articles are posted on this site.__All the hedge fund mangers, investors, stock-holders retail traders and even big bank intuitional analysts, read this section to get the investors sentiment on this stock before investing in it… kick them where it hurt, their stock price or financially like they hurt small Business. …. .http://finance.yahoo.com/mb/forumview/?&v=m&bn=a8692f6d-2848-3edd-abd3-17d1bc0939a4
I would like to alert people to the Federal Trade Commission. File a complaint here 877-382-4357. It takes a few minutes. I just did it. or go on line and file a complain against YELP. Go to FTC.gov. If the ftc gets enough complaints they will shut down YELP. the better business buerau had been filing complaints against yelp for 5 years. Please help shut yelp down and file a complain now go to ftc.gov. it takes 3 minutes.
Yelp is definitely biased. I know of a few instances where business owners who are friends with yelp "higher ups" in their respective cities ask to have bad reviews removed or filtered to where they cannot be read, to which said higher ups are willing to oblige. On the other side of that, I do feel for small business owners who are at the mercy of yelp, I myself am a yelp user and have seen countless fake reviews, bad or good. To the best of my judgement I try to flag these types of reviews but have never succeeded only to be given an email response by yelp representatives stating that from their research, the reviews seem legit. My criteria for weeding out fake reviews are: 1 or no friends, only 1 review, no profile pictures. The only existing review seems to contradict what the majority writes about a business. I have no clue how Yelp wouldn't think these factors all point to a fake review/user?
As for elites, they only seem to give elites to either attractive young women or friends of yelp representatives. My previous account had over 100 reviews, numerous compliments and "useful, funny, cool" votes, yet I was unable to achieve an elite title. Yet I look through many different profiles which have less than 30 reviews… those of which are written poorly, no lists compiled and hardly any pictures posted, yet they have an elite ranking. Do I detect BS? I think so.
horrible website. I am a small business owner that had been falsely defamed. I only hope the Yelp's stock goes to zero.
[…] online reviews, and it isn’t just genuine customers who are losing out. The Internet is full of terrible stories of destroyed businesses and it seems that there’s a pattern […]
Here's where to post messages about what a scam YELP is, on the finance boards, destroy their stock value! http://finance.yahoo.com/mb/forumview/?&v=m&a… Let investors bring their stock down and destroy YELP!!!!!
Yelp is biased. They hide all our good reviews and harm our business.
I am the new website designer for Bob Haynes Piano Moving. They are an excellent company that has been cheated out of their positive reviews on Yelp. On their Yelp page it only shows negative reviews, then the eleven 5-star reviews and two 4-star reviews are all hidden on the "unhelpful review page" and are not factored into the overall score. I have heard that Yelp has been calling, asking them to advertise, and mentioning that they can help them with the negative reviews after pay money. This sounds like extortion and it has really hurt their business. There doesn't seem to be any way of combating their review system.
Let me start off by saying how much I love this site. It's at least comforting to know, that I am not the only business owner who is distraught about the helplessness I feel when deling with Yelp.
I recently, just got a review from Mel A. who starts off his review with the word
Horrific", like we were so awful to deal with it was disturbing in nature. He goes on to write an entire review about how he requested an estimate, but we did a repair and charged him, like we are a criminal organization.
He should be aware, that we have a separate estimate division. So, if he requested an estimate, he would have been transfered. He should also be aware, that we call ahead, before sending out a technician, to make sure it is a good time for him to come and do the work. That means it's our fault he was in a meeting?
So his secretary tells us to fix the door. We look at it and tell her, we can try but it's badly worn and needs to be replaced. She says to fix it. So we do. Naturally, it doesn't like long, becuae it needs to be replaced and he blames it on us.
I just don't understand WHY he would complain that we are trying to rip him off and think this should be flagged for complete bullsquat. This guy is just upset that he is out of options and no amount of duct tape is going to fix the issue. Get over it and buy a new one and stop complaining we are out to get you.
We are more than capable of establishing between an estimate and a repair. Don't blame us if you weren't sure what you wanted on the phone, or changed your mind after the fact.
Can you guys help me flag this review? I'm so sick of self entitled people thinking we are just a bunch of stupid repairmen. If we come out in a truck, it is going to cost money because gas is not free. It's that simple.
Help me flag this review. This guy has no right to complain about a bill, after he signed off on it and had to go to a meeting and left us with the secretary.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-flying-locksmiths-inc…
Has not helped me at any point ever! All I see when I go on yelp is bad things about restaurants and things that are not helpful in my actually finding something to do or a place to go. All I know after checking out yelp is where NOT to go! I am so glad this forum exists so I can tell this story!
I also hate seeing companies getting really bad reviews on yelp by like ONE customer who had a bad time and that destroys there business. Yelp is running a monopoly by controlling how people see restaurants. Now, instead of people checking places out for themselves, they base how they feel about a place and whether they go based on the opinion of someone WHO THE PROBABLY HAVE NEVER MET! I really hate that this is the case and I seriously think its such a bad way to look at things!
I have owned a Brazilian waxing spa for 5+ years. No employees – it's just me. I immediately posted my business on Yelp when I opened & began receiving annoying sales calls from Yelp as soon as good reviews were posted. I let them give me their pitch & politely declined spending $1500/month for whatever it is they do. Then they began calling me constantly. I noticed my good reviews had been deleted after I declined them. I emailed them & received some BS response that they think I asked my clients to post a review. I began noticing that I would receive a sales call each time a review was posted. Each time I declined, the review disappeared. The good news is that I do not have nor ever had a bad review written about me.
About a month ago I received a call from a new client who found me on Yelp. He told me he was concerned as to why I have been in business so long & have no reviews. I told him my story as I am here. I have spoken with other small business owners & they all said the same thing happened to them. One of them told me about this website.
Yelp is the worst business I have worked with. There sales people will try to get you to believe their advertising is the best and will lie about what results you will get, next they will get you to sign a contract with a $1400 dollar cancellation fee, and if you disagree with anything there is no one to talk to, they will not send you to a manager to talk to they will tell you there is no one else to talk to and this is our policy! They will purposely put your business last on the list if you get angry at them as there way of saying don't mess with us. They have been sued multiple times for poor business practices. Do not work with yelp their idea of running a business is to keep everything contained and not let you discuss real business concerns, with someone higher on the latter like any other legitimate business. ANY OTHER BUSINESS i HAVE WORKED WITH HAD SOMEONE WHO UNDERSTOOD MY CONCERN AND TOOK CARE OF IT, HENCE THE SAYING "THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT. Yelp NEEDS TO BE SHUT DOWN!
Yelp is the worst business I have worked with. Their sales people will try to get you to believe their advertising is the best and will lie about what results you will get, next they will get you to sign a contract with a $1400 dollar cancellation fee, and if you disagree with anything there is no one to talk to, they will not refer you to a manager to in order to disuses your concern. They will say there is no one else to talk to and this is our policy! They will purposely put your business last on the list if you get angry at them as their way of saying don't mess with us. They have been sued multiple times for poor business practices. Do not work with yelp their idea of running a business is to keep everything contained and not let you discuss real business concerns, with someone higher on the latter like any other legitimate business. ANY OTHER BUSINESS i HAVE WORKED WITH HAD SOMEONE WHO UNDERSTOOD MY CONCERN AND TOOK CARE OF IT, HENCE THE SAYING "THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT. Yelp NEEDS TO BE SHUT DOWN!
If you will search my business on Yelp, you will find 2 bad reviews. If you will look deeper you will find 6 positive HIDDEN reviews.
Yelp has contacted me on several occasions telling me that IF I will pay them they will be able to make my HIDDEN reviews viewable.
They mentioned at one point that if someone is reviewing something for the first time, they do not post his review. I checked the reviewers on my site and all the positive ones have more then 2 or 3 reviews. But Yelp did not list them on the other hand the negative ones have 2 and 4 and they have published those.
I even called Yelp and asked them to remove my listing all together from their site and they said they will not do it.
ex·tor·tion
ikˈstôrSHÉ™n/Submit
noun
noun: extortion; plural noun: extortions
the practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats.
It seems as if this is their practice.
I am even willing to work with someone who can document it and prove this, by paying them their ransom Ad money and then show how my hidden reviews suddenly magically appear on my listing.
Yelp Sucks, they are guilty of the very thing that they wanting to hear about, shaking down businesses for money and bad service. Possible they served a purpose at one time but now it is a corporation and corporations thrive on making money and they can only make money if they force businesses to bow down to their wishes. It's time for them to go away.
Yelp needs to be shut down as they are participating in the very activity that they claim to be against, poor service and rip offs. They are a corporation and a corporation needs money to operate and they get theirs by blackmail.
we have 20 reviews
all the bad are on the front
the good are NON recommended by yelp!
We have Racist reviews and they dont want to remove them
I was sold by a savvy Yelp rep (Lacy) into doing some advertising. They tried to lure me into signing up for a 12 month contract with a company coming in to do a video. Thankfully, I got cold feet and decided to do 6 mos without the video. As soon as I signed the contract, my 3 1/2 stars immediately turned to 4 stars. Sadly, I only got 1 patient in 3 months and had to pay$1,100 per month. I had to cancel by the 4th month and paid a prepayment penalty (1 month). As soon as I cancelled, my 4 stars immediately returned to 3 stars. An old filtered bad review suddenly got unfiltered. So that's my story. Yelp will filter good reviews for as long as they don't appear to be bonafide Yelpers but will readily post a bad review even if they don't qualify as a real "Yelper" . We are up against a formidable foe and unless business owners relentlessly sue them, they will not be stopped. It has to be nonstop class action after class action.
Hello:; we have a suggestion to render yelps recommended feature usless…. have all your positive reviews converted to 1 star.. and tell any future persons that are willing to yelp for you to only check 1 star.. positive or negative.. then all reviews will show up for people to read if you are not a yelp subscriber and extorted to pay their $300 a month blood fee.
hope this helps.
Interesting Statistics about Yelp's home page (you can write a review about Yelp):
Yelp displays 6082 reviews (average 2.5 stars – OUCH!)
Yelp HIDES 6297 reviews ("not recommended" ..page after page of 1 star reviews – OUCH!)
Yelp REMOVED 1589 reviews ("TOS violations"… hmm wonder how many stars??)
Yelp proudly displays the message: "Your trust is our top concern, so businesses can't pay to alter or remove their reviews"…… (Unless you are YELP).
13,968 reviews written about Yelp. 7886 reviews hidden or deleted (56%)… leaving only 44% of all reviews written to be "available". Do you think these Filtered/Removed reviews were Yelp Employees?? Of course not! Do you think these reviews were competitors (Urbanspoon, Google, Trip Advisor, etc)?? Of course not! These are people upset with Yelp… and the Yelp Algorithm CONVENIENTLY hid or removed 7886 reviews??
Come on….. this isn't an Algorithm.. it's called "trying to protect the corporate image".
I would suggest a NEW message, Yelp: "Do as we say…NOT as we do".
A few years ago, I received a phone call from Yelp and turned down their offer, they called again and again, but I am always working hard and rarely have the time to chit chat with salespeople. That week, all my good reviews were gone, and only one negative one remains to this day. Last week, this one appeared. http://www.yelp.com/biz/herberts-dent-express-san…
Iv been trying to email Yelp for two weeks to have this defamatory and vicious review removed, but to no avail. To make matters worse, the picture of the man next to the meth is Amy nephew, who has never done a drug in his life. The person who posted this was definitely not one of my many hundreds of satisfied customers ( I've painted cars in Santa Cruz all of my life and have a great reputation) Whoever did this to me is a bottom feeder, but Yelp has yet to do anything about it . Pulling my hair out.
We just finished this video called YELP EXPERIMENT – IF YELP WERE IN THE REAL WORLD. It shows what Yelp would look like right at your front door. http://youtu.be/fYpmJHlXuVc
I wanted to post something in reference to Yelp's review guidelines.
They clearly state they do not support "defamatory" reviews and yet so many businesses complain of personal attacks and defamatory reviews to which Yelp will often write back and respond it is "not defamatory".
I also just read a "freeadvice" lawyer site and the lawyer said a particular review wasn't defamatory. Well I'm afraid Character Assassination is a form of defamation and many of these negative reviews I think everyone needs to take a look at this site and the definition. http://definitions.uslegal.com/c/character-assass…
I have yet to see a review on Yelp that is negative doesn't represent some form of character assassination. Providing misleading half truths, making viscious personal verbal attacks, criticising someone in some way when they are not present, and the response Yelp provides does not allow someone to truly defend themselves. It is an interesting read and I strongly encourage everyone and anyone to check out this and arm yourself with it when you confront Yelp about a fake and negative review.
If Yelp is hiding your positive reviews and by action only showing your negative reviews that may be targeted at you or an employee is that not "character assassination" by definition and therefore defamation by Yelp itself? Hmm…
I have started a petition, perhaps some of view would like to read it and would be kind enough to sign it if you agree. Please join this campaign: https://www.change.org/en-CA/petitions/stop-viola…
I think this is the best route to consider as at the end of the day, if businesses got tired of the abuse and were allowed to leave the site there would be no Yelp.
Right now Yelp and some consumers are behaving like extortion rackets and the problem is these types of crimes are rampant in areas where there are few laws and police enforcement which for Yelp there doesn't appear to be.
I think we need to force legislation to ensure we do not continue to be victimized.
Hi Adryenne Ashley, I think you should post this link to a video that perfectly summarizes what yelp does in real life and what it truly means to small businesses. This video will resonate with most small businesses. Please see video. http://youtu.be/fYpmJHlXuVc
Forget your video. How about a customer service department from a entity that demands it of other business. Quite hypocritical, yes? DEFINTELY. There is NOTHING people at Yelp and their 5-7% increase of revenue research they swear up and down over can do to get me to pay a single nickel for their services. They are liars, hypocrites, scammers, and hire kids to buy into their cult-like BS lies. There is no real response that can be given for hypocrisy, lies, and the violation of peoples First Amendment rights. How does one get onto the lawsuit bandwagon? I am SOOOOO IN! Oh and yes, I do hate Yelp. I don't like using that word, but I would LOVE to see them squirm and get what they deserve. Scumbags.
I continue to be amazed at the unfairness of the reviews that Yelp chooses to post over the 'not recommended' reviews. The folks behind yelp seem to have no integrity or concern for the lives and livelihood of others. Let us all hope they are added to the internet junk heap soon…. We can assist by using other sites and asking all those who we know not to ever, ever, go on the yelp site.
DISHONEST!!!
I work for Wilde Honda, a dealership here in Waukesha, WI and I cannot believe the kind of Ponzi Scheme they are running at this website called yelp.
There are 60 reviews on yelp about Wilde Honda, however they choose to show only 12. At the bottom of the screen you find a link saying:
48 other reviews that are not currently recommended
They show 12 reviews. 4 of the reviews are 5 stars, one 4 star review, two 3 stars, one 2 stars and five 1star.
If you know how to do math, it is a total of 60 possible stars and the total of the 12 reviews is 37 stars.
37 stars is exactly 62%
62% of 5 stars is 3.1 so we should have a scoring of 3 stars. Why do they show only 2 stars??????
On top of the miscalculation, Wilde Honda has 33 reviews alone that are 5 star reviews. Why select only 12? Then, they base the star rating solely on the 12 reviews they cherry picked? WOW!!!!
Maybe it is just me but this sounds beyond crazy. But what do I know?
So how does one going about writing reviews on Yelp ABOUT YELP? Maybe that would be a good payback. They're a business and should be subject to the same.
Rob,
We just had our highest ever month in sales. I own a Web Design / Internet Marketing company in Phx.
I saw right through their BS when I got this notice from I guess it was either manta, or Yext. Can't remember.
Anyway the alert was saying that I had errors on my business listings! Really? I am a managing partner of a very successful Web Design / SEO company and I have errors on my business listings? LOL. I created all of them. I double triple and quadruple checked every one. Don't you think I might now how a little about how to create a correct business listing as an owner of an SEO company? LOL. Seriously? I told them straight up: "I was born at night….just not last night".
I found this former employee through a friend who worked in Yelp management. he said that the reason he quit was because he couldn't sleep knowing what he'd done to business owners; how he lied to get numbers up. What does that tell you? I understand that it's hard to trust anyone these days, but this guy had no reason to lie. And he resigned. He wasn't fired.
I really believe this company is crooked in more than a couple ways. But what is the recourse? And what's this s**t where now I have to change my frickin password EVERY time I login? WTF is that? And you can't reach anyone there that I know of. The fact that my changed password NEVER works for more than ONE login is f*****g ridiculous!!!! I feel like getting a bunch of unhappy Yelp customers together and doing some type of black propaganda campaign on this company. If I had the time I'd strongly consider it.
Yelp ruined my business. We had always had 5 stars and worked from the ground up to get where we are. Long story short, I had to miss one event (which we had offered to do for free–the SECOND free event for this group in a month, which is how they found us). I had to cancel due to a severe family emergency. I found out a few days later that the entire community blasted 18 negative Yelp reviews, attacking me personally as well as my business, and on my business's FB page. Our bookings have dropped since, I have had to let people go because I haven't had work for them. I am now filing for bankruptcy and closing down my entire business. Yelp has since taking down a few of the reviews (after REPEATED requests from my perfumers–absolutely no calls returned to myself) but they've also taken down several LEGITIMATE 5 star reviews as well. I'm a very small localized business, how am I supposed to fight back Yelp? They completely ruined everything I worked for in the past 5 years.
Kari,
You should write your story up to the attorney General. Just the facts. Give it at least two letters to get attention and you should see some results. This company can't hide forever. Eventually they will get what's coming to them. So sorry to hear that news. I work on the opposite side and help business owners with no money out of pocket. I spend hundreds of hours of my time to help small business owners in need. The response is overwhelming and we are expanding with absolutely NO MARKETING. How, you might ask? We just help the community, one business at a time and the good karma comes. We are in line to have the best Christmas ever. I'll bet I could do something to help you if you weren't filing for BK. Respond to me if you are still willing to get help. I'll do whatever I can for you. No tricks.
u have 4 stars…
I've noticed something I haven't seen around here… Yelp will basically Black List your business!!
Meaning that they will automatically filter any review you get, real or not.
Okay, okay, I know the filter is old news.
But what I'm trying to say is that we have positive reviews filtered from some fairly established Yelp users.
The thing is, their reviews are ONLY filtered on our page. NONE of their other reviews are filtered on other business pages.
Oh, and just for the record, we have One, 1 star "recommended review". and 8 filtered positive reviews with another negative review filtered. Leaving us with a ONE STAR rating….
Does anyone have any reason behind this?
Yelp is simply the most recent form of legalized extortion. I own a small business and never asked to be part of Yelp, because I'm aware of it's shady business practices. I told the sales agent, who called us to ask us to join, no thank you. But, unknowingly, our store was added to the site and several bad reviews dominate the responses. However, our many good and valid customers are nowhere to be found. I've learned that if I sign up for a paid Yelp account, then I can either contest the bad reviews or get the good reviews seen by the public.
F U Yelp..!
Does anyone know how I can join a class action lawsuit against Yelp?
I have known pleasant success in my small dog grooming business, that I built myself with long work hours and honest labor. When reviews of my business starting showing up on Yelp a couple years ago I was flattered that my clients thought highly enough of me to put the word out for me and toot my horn. A month ago a sales rep from Yelp began calling me on a daily basis and emailing me frequently to buy advertising with them "due to my high ratings". I refused repeatedly and finally told the rep (Kevin) not to call me again flat out NO. Within 48 hrs the several of my good reviews just flew off the page into Yelp's "Not Recommended Reviews". The good reviews continue to move from freshly posted to the not recommended nearly as fast as they are posted. One of my clients told me today she found us on Yelp and wrote a review I should "check it out"…. 2 HOURS later when I had the time I tried to pull it up… what do you know it's ALREADY in the not recommended!!! I appreciate my clients reviews good and bad. I have even reviewed my shop myself at a 1 star and told my story as a review of my business. I wish I could keep people from reviewing my shop at all on that SHADY SITE!
Wow, I just came across this article by accident. I never knew this one this big of an issue, it really got me thinking. Do you think a lot of these bad reviewer are just Scammers trying to make their business look good?
I'm not an advertiser on Yelp, and our customers overwhelmingly come from personal referrals and other advertising. We occasionally get a customer who found us through Yelp, but most likely it was just a geographical match.
So last month, I received a call from a Yelp sales rep who asked if I had a "few minutes". I let him give his spiel and then politely told him we didn't feel the need for additional advertising from Yelp. But like a dog with a bone, he wanted to argue/debate me endlessly, including telling me he knew more about my customers' habits than I did. I finally hung up on him mid-sentence.
Today, I got a call from the same rep. I politely tell him I'm too busy to talk, but he launches ahead anyway, wanting to restart the same argument from a month ago. Amazing. If there was the tiniest chance I'd ever advertise with Yelp after his tirade last month, that door is now closed, locked, and bolted. What kind of sales rep goes out of their way to annoy a prospect that thoroughly?
And Yelp's filtering algorithm is definitely a joke. I know a couple who run two franchise locations locally, and they are absolutely the nicest people I've ever done business with. They would do just about anything to make their customers happy, even if the customer was at fault. Yet many of the positive reviews about their business are buried, while there is an extremely negative review shown. Now I consider myself to be good at reading between the lines of reviews and separating the straightforward reviews from the shill reviews and dummy reviews, and the negative review is clearly from a lunatic (every business gets them once in awhile) with bizarre expectations, who has exaggerated his experience as if it was the end of the world. But that's the Yelp review that sticks, while most of the normal reviews are buried. I wonder if those owners turned down a sales rep and are being punished?
I work at a small private veterinary practice. Our last positive review to make it to make into the "Recommended Reviews" category was 3/29/2012 – 2012! It has been 2 years since a positive review has been factored into our overall rating. All of the not-so-favorable reviews since then have made to the front page, but none of the positive. It's frustrating because we have so many good reviews that are not even being considered! We tried contacting Yelp, but they are say there is nothing they can do, it's all automatic, etc. The interesting thing is that this all started around the same time we told Yelp we did not want to advertise through them…coincidence? Either way, this does not paint an accurate picture of our practice, and is potentially hurting our business.
Our business has 17 reviews posted, but 139 posts that are not live! of the 139 reviews that are being blocked, 95% of them are positive.
Our business profile is http://www.yelp.com/biz/airsplat-irwindale
There are obviously many happy customers, but yelp is blocking all of them. http://www.airsplat.com/
If you want a true test of yelp, try frequenting the businesses that have a 5 star ratings on Yelp. You will find that they are actually some of the worst places to spend your money so I now use Yelp as the anti rating. If you have a 5 star score on Yelp, I avoid you at all costs.
YELP ruins small businesses by hiding their 5 star reviews unless you pay for advertising.!!!!!..We own a wheel shop in Santa Clara called Wheel Techniques. We just set up a web page called HATEYELP.com. My husband and I are part of the class action law suit here in CA. He was on NBC news last week and will possibly be going to NY to be on Inside Edition. Business owners need to get together and change what YELP is doing to our futures.