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.
I have been open for a little less than 3 months, trying to build a good name for my business so I am directing happy customers to Yelp to give their opinions. The only problem is each of the 6 reviews that my customers have given in good faith about our products haven't lasted more than a day against Yelp's Nazi-like filtering system. There is a major glitch in their logarithms or they are running a scam. Where can you go to place a review about Yelp!???
If you find help please let me know
I own a restaurant in Grass Valley, we open 6 weeks ago, Yelp is systematically deleting good reviews and just bar reviews are there, we are asking our client do not write any review to yelp, we think that there is something wrong on the site, trip advisor is much better, they respect the opinions of the people.
you are right, yelp is a son of bitch, like being fucked no respect, fuck yelp.com
yelp seems to "flag" reviews that come from people who don't review a lot. its complete horse shit if you ask me. We have has dozens of positive reviews deleted for no reason
Yelp is the "New' BBB !!!! I figured it out! Yeah!!! Pay for an 'A'.
The problem with Yelp is their filtering system. They claim their reviews are real but there is no authentication of who is writing the reviews, yet they allow negatives more than positives. When a business can get a customer to 1) go to the trouble to log on the computer, 2) open an account with Yelp (since most customers don't have one already) 3) write a review and post it…. well, it can very well be that person's first review on Yelp. Then, Yelp automatically filters it because it is the first review! Sorry, my customers (the few a year that I have) are not 'yelpers'. But one angry customer goes onto Yelp to give a 1 star review and it posts. If they are going to filter fake reviews, then allow us, the business, to show them that these are REAL people, through some sort of authentication.
I've told them that. and I've said it in a number of interviews. It would be a fast, revenue increasing process for reviewers that wanted their reviews to stick. People would pay for authentication.
We have been trying to have a review written by a fake account removed for weeks. They refuse to do so. We can prove it is a fake account, yet Yelp refuses to do anything about it. We have almost 20 reviews, all 5 stars, but only 2 of the positive reviews show on our site, and the one negative. Hardly a credible way to review a company.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/right-to-the-nitty-gritty… This client stated very personal statement about me and my business as well as my non profit that she has never had any association to there are two negative reviews by the same user. She not only made these comments about my company but also myself personally. She was upset because we provided 3 people to go clean her house and only would have very limited to availability for future services.She had purchased a Groupon for 5, 2 hr cleanings which had to be redeemed in one session. She wanted a refund when we would not come back and I would not allow it. Then she posted the same reviews all over including the Rip Off Report
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!!!!!
I own a mobile dog grooming business and got involved with
yelp around 3 years ago. Signed up and began getting reviews.
Over the years I have received approximately 13 good reviews. Always 5
star because I love my job (not everybody can do it well) and I am a
people person, especially when it has anything to do with pets and their care.
Over 3 years and thousands of dog grooms I have encountered problems forcing
me to cancel appointments at the last minute due to illness in the family, vehicle
breakdowns, or plain exhaustion. Like the airlines I have to book pretty tight to make
and money.
One time I signed up with an online scheduling program which I didn't know how
to negotiate and I upset a potential client by not calling to confirm the appointment
and of course I didn't show up. I received the online confirmation/inquiry the same day
they wished me to groom the pup and needless to say I was off grooming
and couldn't get back to him.
For the first 2 years or so I kept at least a decent amount of good reviews via yelp.
Never all of them at the same time, but they would come and go and I still maintained a
4 star rating.
The last year or so my good reviews have disappeared all except 2 and the 3 bad reviews (which
are the only bad reviews I have ever gotten) are
still on the site. My overall rating is 2.5. I keep getting good reviews and they keep taking them off.
Upon calling yelp I would receive explainations. 1) The good reviews were written by people who
wrote only 1 review (mine) and so were dropped.
(ok….out of the 3 bad reviews…how come 2 joined to only write my bad review) The algorithm explanation is hard to swallow.
It seems everybody on the internet can write a review but only select people can keep the reviews
on the site. Something sounds fishy don't you think?
What pains me are the bad reviewers never even used my service. Everybody expects good service so they
don't necessarily write a review. People who get emotionally annoyed have the steam to persist and
get their voice heard. (one lady was having a dinner party the next day after the groom and since she hadn't
groomed her cat ever…she felt embarrassed the guests would see her poor kitty's neglect…)
I offered 1/2 off on one cancellation; I wrote one reviewer and offered a free groom. Neither had any interest
in my generosity. One was written in 2011, one in 2012.
Anyway, Yelp says offer a discount and the new customer might write a good review. And yelp will only take
a part of the grooming fee. ???
I feel powerless against yelp. Is it extortion? Yelp says they have millions of loyal users and although they do sometimes
get it wrong, most of the time they must be right.
My calls (I get about 40% of my revenue from emergency one time users of service who have an emergency) have dwindled
even though my web site come up on the first page on google.
And there is nothing I can do. You can't withdraw from yelp. Just drown.
Someone from Yelp is always calling me. I have nicely told them I can't afford to pay for their service. I have had some good conversations, being honest about my small business. It got ugly yesterday when I kept telling my new Yelp salesman I can't afford their high fee. He then insulted me, saying in effect, "So you don't want to grow your business…", at which time I said "I love Yelp, however, like I have told you guys, at this time I can't afford it." I also told the man a recent review I saw from one of my first customers was removed. He went through a long explanation why they do that, never offering to restore the review, even though I assured him it was legitimate and offered to give my customer's contact info to clear this up. After the call I was quite upset and thought, I will call them. Ever try that? It is almost impossible to contact Yelp. They flat out do not want anyone calling them. I have left a message with the man who called me inquiring how to terminate my current free account. Watch out for this company, be very wary of dealing with them.
I was told by a YELP sales rep that if I advertised with them, any bad reviews would be harder to locate and the good reviews would all be at the top. OMG
Do you have that in writing or on a voice message?
Is there a pro-bono lawyer in CA who can take this horrible company, YELP, to court? After reading all of the posts on this site, it seems crystal clear that YELP needs to cease. It appears that the only way to do this is through the legal system. If there are any lawyers reading this, could you please help the small business owners of the USA?
Yes, check out the Interviewing Lawyers page, we just found one that has recently won.
On Jan 31, 2013, we, the owners of East Beach Wine Co, closed the business. We shut down everything. The phone is off, the website is down, and there is another business in the space. Since then I have been trying to get Yelp to change the business info, list the business as closed, or remove the business listing from their site. They have refused to do anything. Negative reviews regarding a past business is preventing me from getting another job.
Yelp sucks. There have been over 15 positive reviews from my clients and all of the reviews have been filtered by Yelp.
I closed East Beach Wine Co Jan 31. 2013. We had been in business for 13 years. Since then, Yelp refuses to delete this business listing. Bad reviews are still there, some from several years ago. Why won't they let a dead horse alone?
I am a chef/owner of a restaurant in Southern California, been in business for 15 years, and I have a 4.5 star rating on yelp, recently a barrage of one star reviews posted on yelp attacking the owner personally for something that didn't even take place, I contacted yelp and told them that the reviews were false and lies, they respond by saying we cannot remove them…..I don't understand the legal concept of trying to destroy somebody's business based on inaccurate facts….can anybody with legal knowledge help me with that.
Yelp changed. They didn't use to be like this when I first added our listing. We use to show up with a whole list of other contractor in our line of work. But recently I've noticed a big difference; it seems more like a social network. I also have one very rude review, that resorted to name calling. One 5 star review 'filtered', however Yelp allows you, as the business owner, to see your filtered reviews; why is that? Why do they want us to see the good reviews they removed and allow negative reviews calling people names, to stay put so that they show up in search engines? Be aware, however, yelp is not the only one making good reviews disappear. We had 16 good reviews on Google Places….and they are all 'finally' gone. No matter what we did to fix it, someone just reported false information again. There should be a way to protect the businesses that are trying to make a living and provide jobs, vs the 'individuals' that are out to destroy others for whatever their personal reasons are. It's hard enough in the economy, let alone others helping to shut you down.
Hi I am a small restaurant manager who is very stressed and upset about how Yelp works. To be honest I like the idea of Yelp, however I hate most of the reviews and how to the filter system works on Yelp. My Maryland location used to have about 40 reviews on Yelp page. But 80% of the reviews being filtered were 4-5 star reviews which resulted my restaurant being a 3 star restaurant. I contacted Yelp to see how did the filter system worked but sadly none of the representatives on Yelp could provide such information. I really sometimes think that Yelp is more favored towards the restaurant who does business with Yelp. I been contacted from Yelp to do some type of advertisement but I just don't want to trust Yelp after all. My second problem with Yelp is the Yelpers as they call themselves. They never write reviews about what the restaurant is but what a restaurant should be to them. I had one review that claimed my restaurant was not an authentic sushi place and gave one star review. But my restaurant never once advertised authentic but modern and fusion. He also added how the chefs lacked passion and proper training. That line is what really hurt my feelings and anger rushed through my veins. The head chef was trained in Japan and been making sushi for over 30 years in Japan and America. I dedicated my life to this restaurant and I really work hard, Plus they often times complain about somethings that the restaurant has no control over. One time my owner boiled over and tried to sue Yelp. I suggested him to stop because small business against a giant cooperation is never a good idea. Overall there are good customers and good reviews. So much can be learned from good and bad reviews which can really help the restaurant. However the way Yelp works as of today, it is really hard earn trust from the customers seeking new places, and small business owners.
I have business listing posted on yelp sometime back, in which I have posted my personal cell phone number by mistake, I have trying to remove it since last so many months, I am able to change all other information but not cell phone number this column is disabled and I have sent 3-4 mails to them no response at all. Can I file a law suit for that ?
You don't need to file a lawsuit for that, but you might get a faster response having your attorney send a letter asking to change the number. The fact that YOU put it there in the first place is the sticky point. If your client had revealed personal information, like your private cell phone number, then it could be fixed faster. Have you spoken to anyone in ad sales? They seem to be the only ones who answer the phone. 🙂
Yelp is utterly ridiculous. We are a new company online although we've been in the automotive repair business since 1982. At first everything was fine except the ungodly amount of sales calls we received from yelp. After the sixth call I very firmly told them we were not interested in being a sponsored listing and didn't appreciate them calling consistently and wasting our time! The sales guy tried to argue with me about us needing more business, which he has absolutely no information about, until I told him to stop calling or delete my listing completely. Ever since that day practically every review I've received has been filtered. I don't actually believe they have a "filtering system" I think if they don't get what they want (money), you don't get your reviews. If I'm going to pay an internet company for marketing it sure as hell wouldn't be them, it would be google.
Oh another thing, can I copy my only good review left from yelp and paste it on my website? Is that legal or is it copywrite? I'm just going to get them completely out of my hair but i'd still like to have the review on my website. Better yet can I copy paste my filtered reviews as well?
I can't comment on legality, but I do always suggest that you copy them, AND I suggest that you copy and paste their words into the email you send them thanking them for their kind words and telling them that their words have been filtered on Yelp and you'd so appreciate it if they could repost it on Google. 🙂 That way they repost it for you, but it's easy for them.
Also, I advise ordering the reviews on your site in chronological order. If you do post the Yelp reviews, don't just post the good ones, unless the bad ones are fraudulent. And always include a link to your yelp page if they want to see for themselves. It's only fair.
Yes of course, as of right now we have only positive feedback, like I said our company is new to the internet. Thanks for your help!
I had the same thing happen to me, so now I don't even bother with yelp and I tell people what a huge scam it is.
Dear Adryenn Ashley, and Fellow Small Businessmen,
I've got a lot to say about my brief experience advertising with Yelp, starting with the day one of their fast-talking phone ad men called me with their over the top sales pitch. Her name is Mykal White, she worked out of the new Yelp building in Union Square, NYC. She was one of the best phone salesmen I've ever heard—by the time she was finished, I was already putting a down payment on a new house and a Porsche to go with it!! But, alas, every, single word out of her mouth turned out to be a fetid lie. Instead of my advert being seen "above all the other organic listings," I NEVER SAY MY AD IN OVER TWO HUNDRED SEPARATE VISITS TO YELP'S SITE!!! Even four of my business associates reported never having seen my sponsored link showing, "Even once…" I was livid. But after contacting three Yelp ad reps and managers, all they could parrot is, "Oh,
but you get over 1,350 viewings a month! "VIEWINGS OF WHAT??" I inquired, never having seen my advert even a single time. Realizing after one month that my ad visibility wasn't going to improve at all, I immediately began proceedings to terminate my business account, only to be reminded by
my ad rep that: I NOW OWED YELP A $1,500. "EARLY TERMINATION PENALTY FEE" for pulling my ad before an entire year was up. In my entire professional career, I've never even heard of such an unethical and Draconian "penalty, and I refused to pay it. Then the fool had the gall to tell me that I still owed them for a SECOND month of subscription to their dismal online service!! After a full month, I hadn't received even ONE bona fide referral from Yelp, and it was clear by now that things weren't going to improve. Oh, and I nearly forgot to tell you guys the BAD news about Yelp's review policy… In my first, crucial week
of advertising with them, Yelp's computerized system automatically and permanently DELETED ALL FOUR OF MY BUSINESS REVIEWS, ALL
BONA FIDE AND AUTHENTICATED!!! I wondered: If this is how Yelp treats their new advertisers, I wonder how they treat people who DON'T advertise with them? The answer was clear: The first guy on their organic listings, a non-advertiser, had no less than 14 positive reviews posted on his business, without having a single one removed or questioned!! What kind of twisted, sick logic is this??? I get penalized for posting reviews, while a unknown jerk posts "glowing" reviews by the dozen without a single question. I immediately terminated my contract with Yelp, and in desperation discovered this wonderful site for all the victims that Yelp has sought to rip off and extort. The only difference between Yelp and the Mafia is that the mob gives you something for your money. Yelp just steals it. Please join with me in writing formal complaints to McMillian Law Group, and let's help them gather enough evidence to put together a class action suit that will help bury Yelp for good.
Robert K.
NYC
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!!!!!
Thank you!
I filed a report with the California State Attorney General Office. They are opening an investigation. I urge you or anyone who has also been ripped off by Yelp to contact your state attorney General to file a complaint. Good luck everyone!
Yelp should not be allowed to hurt businesses by their unfair practice of editing legitimate reviews. I have 6 real clients who posted great reviews, 5 of which were filtered and are not viewable on Yelp. In 10 years of business, I have only ever received 1 mediocre review on a website, and that review is now up on Yelp and is hurting my business. Just because 1 client thinks my prices are too high (despite the fact that all the costs were communicated prior to her signing a contract with us), now she gets to have her petty revenge on my business, which Yelp is enabling. I'm furious about this.
We are filing a class action lawsuit against Yelp because every reviews must be paid wages by Yelp. With 93 million reviews, this might cut into Yelp's operating expenses. Please let us know if you know any former "Elites" or any former or current writers on Yelp who would be interested in talking about our class action lawsuit against Yelp. http://www.YelpClassAction.info
I had some very good reviews (5 stars)on Yelp then 1 bad review(1 star) that promoted another business in the same industry. I let it go then had more 5 star reviews then another 1 star bad review a few months later that also promoted another business. So I flagged the 2 reviews stating that they may be fake as they were promoting other business. had 18 5stars reviews and 2 1star reviews. After that flags, Yelp hides all of the 5 star reviews but 1 and keeps the 2 bad reviews thus brings my overall rate to 2.5 stars. They called me wanting me to have them promote me for $1000.
The same happened to my business as well. I don't have in my budget the amount to advertise with Yelp! All I want is an honest opportunity to compete for business without being strong-armed by Yelp and their coterie of dishonest employees who see surreptitious ways to persuade a small business into giving them money to "hide" any bad reviews.
I am a small business(private small dental office) And haven been in an outstanding practice for 13 years. I am frustrated with yelp filtering my actual patients reviews( six out of eight!).suggesting that they are not legit. I have tried to contact them several times but have not been successful. On top of that they sold me $500/ month advertising which was supposed to show my business at top of the listing. I just wanted for people to find my office if they are looking for dentist in that area. Now even if they find my bushiness, they would not bother to come because of al their filter reviews. I feel like a fool.
Yelp is also extorting my business, I a small Mobile Detailing Company and Yelp reps call me several times a day, clear harassment asking for monthly fees I cant afford, I have mostly repeat business and many regular customers who have left positve comments and 5 stars, they are completely legitimate reviews and when I told the Yelp rep that I couldnt afford to pay thier high monthly fees because Im a small business and have kids to feed, the next day all my good reviews were gone and I was left with one negative one, it is killing me, and I am a hard working blue coller guy who takes alot of pride in every aspect of my business, this is terrible, they are literally taking food out of my kids mouths, and extorting me, I cant believe they havent been shut down and they get away with this, this is the worst offense you could do to someone, all of us business owners need help not yelp, THEY WONT EVEN LET ME DELETE MY BUSINESS FROM THIER REDICULOUS SITE, SPREAD THE WORD YELP IS A SCAM, SO PPL STOP USING IT, CONTACT AND FILE A COMPLAINT WITH THE FTC AND THE BBB YESTERDAY!!!
My sister opened a restaurant 3 months ago. 20 people have taken the time to write reviews. NINE of them have been filtered out. 18 of the 20 are 5 star reviews. 1 is a 1 star, another is a 3 star. 9 5 star reviews are filtered out. She is still fortunate enough to have a 4.5 average but when you sort restaurant reviews in her town by the number of stars, she comes up 18th and on the 3rd page, despite the fact that only 2 other restaurants have 4.5 stars. I'm hearing more and more about the "shakedown" that people are getting from Yelp regarding advertising. I have to believe that they will get whats coming to them eventually. They can't continue shaking people down, threatening their livelihood and outright destroying legitimate businesses forever, can they?
I called and emailed Yelp because a customer said that if we do not give them a better price that they would trash us on yelp. Of course Yelp did not care and said they are behind the blackmailer? I want to sue Yelp. Please, someone help!
It seems everybody on the internet can write a review but only select people can keep the reviews
on the site. Something sounds fishy don't you think?
Every time someone reviews my restaurant with a positive bent it is filtered out. Only the small number of bad reviews stick on Yelp because I did not advertise with Yelp for $300 a month. What a scam!
I am completely disappointed in using YELP to promote our business. We should have 7 reviews on our YELP page and we only have 2 from a very long time ago. We've been actively promoting our customers to make reviews in Google and YELP and I think it's ridiculous to get all 5, NEW reviews filtered on us?! WTH??
So I went online to see what gives and found all of these forums and articles on this issue and now I don't want to use YELP at all. And to think, I was going to place an AD with them too.
It's a waste of my customer's time to not have their comments published when we are actively trying to promote this practice. And now I don't know where to send my customers for ratings.
Help!
Disappointed Marketing Director and FORMER YELP customer
I gave a fairly bad yelp review of an auto service garage that was scamming customers into paying for unneeded products. I actually got a formal apology from their corporate office because it was so blatant. However, my yelp review has mysteriously disappeared. I guess they paid the ad money to yelp.
I've opened a nail salon business a couple of months ago and it's been doing quite well. Happy customers have posted good ratings. I've had 20 comments on my Yelp, most of them being good comments. However, I received a phone call from Yelp asking me for advertisement and I refused. Awhile later, all of my positive comments were filtered and I was left with my lower rated comments! This is unfair and is hurting my business!
Someone created a fake Yelp personality, including fake photo found on the internet (I reverse-researched it using TinEye) and fake name to attack my business with a false review. They accused me of lying, racism and rudeness. All lies. And libelous.
Yelp did nothing when I contacted them. Zip. Nada. Yelp insists this person who was never a client of mine was *in fact* a client of mine. I don't have the time or resources to sue Yelp for libel, although I should.
I have deleted my 60 Yelp reviews which were written over a 5 year period that I spent a long time on. I am an attorney and will continue to look into legal action. Yelp should be taken down.
They are not reputable and thus their reviews are USELESS.
While going through the Yelp presentation I discovered a single review of my shop which was not only negative but libelous. Yelp is telling me that they won't take it down after I told them it was a deal breaker. I proceeded to write a response to the review which they told me would be filtered out. Years ago, there was an equally negative review on Google Maps and they removed it immediately.
I wrote a rebuttal to the Yelp review and signed it with my full name. The sales rep saw and told me that it would be filtered out. I'm not surprised but it's now another deal breaker – keep mine up or go home. (I think they'll be going home.)
http://www.yelp.com/biz/karens-wigs-new-york
I started a restaurant in Hamilton Mill GA about 8 months ago. We had a 3 star rating until I declined to advertise with Yelp about 4 months ago. Since then the 3,4, and 5 star reviews have been filtered and only a handful of the 40+ reviews that we've garnered since opening will appear. Strangely the ones that appear are 1 and 2 star review. When you pull up Yelp on your mobile device or laptop all you see are the 3 bad reviews. Nothing appears from the 90% good ratings and reviews of the restaurant. You can't even view the "filtered" reviews on your mobile and most people use their cell phones to view this ostensibly transparent business review forum. We have lost approximately 20% of our business since refusing to advertise with Yelp. I don't know how much longer we can last.
See strike-back from our local vet: http://twitpic.com/d58j6z. And the same goes for all the small merchants we know who refuse to buy into Yelp's racketeering tactics, including our hairdresser, mechanic, deli and several local restaurants — all fabulous businesses — as well as several clients.
Why is Yelp able to operate given all the complaints against them? Isn't there any legal mean or class action lawsuit that could take them down for good – or at least to force them to play straight (assuming it's even in their DNA)?
An Update:
I posted last about a year ago my story here. (In full below)
The matter with Yelp is getting worse.
Everywhere you lookup about my business the ONE (1) negative review published by YELP appears. 12 positive reviews are hidden nowhere mentioned, listed or to be found.
As if ONE negative showing is not enough YELP adds to this negative review a blatant lie and false statement: “First to review”, Totally untrue! A complete distortion and deliberate false statement!
Now Yelp and the one rogue reviewer has finally ruined us with evidently false statements and deliberate distortions. No longer can I get any reasonable business as many or most people go to read about us on Yelp. Honestly, I do to from time to time read about other businesses on Yelp.
But now I reached a point where I will soon have to file for bankruptcy as I cannot get any business going despite my good reputation. My revenue have so much declined since Yelp started to hide my positive reviews that I can no longer stay afloat. The decline goes in sync with the Yelp actions.
Lets’ put the cards on the table:
I stand by this and I have no hesitation to reveal that the negative review is from Mr. Uri Lopatin, 1233 Howard St. # 716, San Francisco, CA 94103 who wanted to coerce us to help defraud his insurance by asking us to bill his personal requested remodel modifications to the insurance covered repairs (water damage).
When we told him kindly we don’t do business like that and politely refused to do such, he started to whine around and delayed final payment. Obviously not getting his way to stiff his insurance, he resorted to a “revenge”, writing a negative review on Yelp despite the praise he initially gave for the superb delivery and completion of all work. (Read our reply letter on Yelp to his review, Google: “yelp eucraft.com”)
We tried to have his false review statement corrected with him as well as Yelp’s own but to no avail. All we got was ignorance the arrogance of superiority of power. I only succeeded to manage having in the Google search result a first line in vain mentioning a little truth what Yelp is doing and hiding. (Google as above)
What I don’t understand is:
When an editor in a publishing company writes a false story, the company is held libel. Right?
When a rogue or false reviewer writes a slanderous or false statement about a business and Yelp is the publisher, why can Yelp as the de facto publisher not be held libel? After all they are the publisher, whom without, none would be!
The legal definition I found: Libel is any defamation that can be seen, such as a writing, printing, effigy, movie, or statue that involve the communication of false information about a person, a group, or an entity such as a corporation.
So why is Yelp and its Mafia style racketeering methods “immune” against all?
———————-
Original first post:
I'm a remodeling contractor (European Renaissance Craftsman). I started out in ’06 and have been only a few years in business in San Francisco. I’m registered with the BBB and have received an A rating.
After 2008 I have my hard struggles but nevertheless, as I care much about my clientele the fruits of my labor show. Many of my clients are repeat customers. My entire reputation and most of my business is based on client "Word of mouth" referral.
A few years ago I realized that many people search on Yelp. Thus I asked my clientele if they would be so kind and write a review about their experience with me. A few did and I received 8 appreciative reviews. Some transcribed and posted the actual thank you letter they wrote to me. The clients are all verifiable real and true.
After an architect I work with posted a review about me around August last year (2011) suddenly all the 8 legitimate reviews, originally written and posted by my clients I have done work for, where filtered out by Yelp! To no avail, I no longer appear, if you can find me, on a Yelp listing with reviews. Contacting Yelp about this matter and documenting the above I get a brush off excuse "boiler plate" answer as reply. I offered Yelp all client data so they could verify it themselves. Of course I received no answer and upon several inquires a “bla bla no can do” answer.
Looking at my Yelp statistics provided by Yelp I can see the drop off after the reviews where all hidden. Indeed I experience the Yelp action of filtering and have substantially less business inquiries struggling now more than after the ’08 crash, “courtesy Yelp”.
In my opinion this Yelp action is unjust, discriminatory and a bad faith action bearing no justifiable reasoning whatsoever. The business model of Yelp compares more to a autocratic attitude operation than fair business review representation.
I have a dog boarding/daycare business. We are very serious about promoting safety, and security with the animals in our facility. However, because animals are unpredictable at times, scuffles and even fights resulting in bites happen. It's the nature of our business. We do everything we can to prevent it, and then pay for anything that arises because of it even though we have a very thorough hold-harmless contract. Every boarding facility like ours has these issues, they're lying if they tell you otherwise. Last year I spent $350/mo with Yelp!, for what purpose I'm not entirely sure, they said it would help me get promoted, and stay higher in the rankings in my area when people looked for services like ours. It didn't do much of anything, we've grown organically on our own. I stopped the service after the contract expired, and BOOM almost ALL of the 5 star reviews were hidden, and any bad reviews were at the top. My stars are now 2 because the good ones don't balance the bad ones, and I respond to any bad review. Two reviews were done by disgruntled employees. Yelp! is devastating. It's a public forum to spew hatred, and lies as far as I'm concerned.
Help!! Yelp is ruining my online reputation. I have 14 reviews…and 13 are filtered!!! The day afterYelp called me for advertising, and I declined, they became filtered!!!!! This is crazy!!!! NOBODY calls you back or emails you in response to the issue. It is just awful that they have this much control.
this guys like a MAFIA and the government is not doing anything about it. I sold my thrift store. they wont let me to delete the business info. Still receiving phone calls .I dont want to bothered with anymore. YELP IS A BIG SCAM!!
Yelp Sucks.. I had a person who got a Groupon call and demand we give them over $500 in products for free or they would complain to Groupon and Yelp. When we told her to go take a hike thinking that Yelp would back us up we thought she would just go away. Well no Yelp posted her bogus review and refuses to remove it. Meanwhile we have a handful of 5 star reviews from real clients that have done multiple reviews on Yelp for other business that hit their bogus filter. This company completely sucks.. I was actually paying for advertising with them I have since cancelled my account.
I run a private car service. While I appreciate the referrals from Yelp, there are also members who accuse me of theft, kidnapping, rape, and serial murder which Yelp refuses to remove or force them to edit. To allow them to even attempt to make my female passengers in particular afraid of me is being an accomplice to the slander. You can say I'm not talkative, or that I don't have brand new vehicles, and you'd be right; but to imply that engage in or am even capable of ripping off or hurting/killing my own customers is a crime in itself, and likely the product of diseased minds.
Although not specifically defined by U.S. immigration law, courts have held that "a threat to life or freedom on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group is always persecution." Some categories that may rise to the level of persecution are; severe criminal extortion or robbery, severe brutality and physical harm, coercive and forceful medical treatment (abortion), disproportionate punishment or discriminatory prosecution, severe economic persecution, and much more.
Our church, Doral Vineyard Christian Fellowship, has been horribly slandered on Yelp. For nearly 2 years now, a horrible rant full of misrepresentations and out right lies remains the only unfiltered review! There are 30 positive reviews. All of those are filtered. This, is downright evil. These are evil people – but every month, hundreds view only the unfiltered slander. It has hurt our church and our attendance and has soiled our good reputation in our city and community. When is the FCC going to take away the legal technicality that protects these tyrants?
We are a new restaurant in Illinois, unfortunately YELP posted a few bad reviews posted by a couple terminated employee's, of course we do understand there are a few guests who have legitimate complaints that we wish they would let us know at the time they visited to rectify any issues or concerns, but we do listen and make changes along the way so we can eliminate the issue and improve our operations. We welcome suggestions.
Unfortunately we know of many of our guests enjoy and also comment on Yelp and we don't get to see those. There is definitely something fishy about their business practices, too bad because it could be a benefit to those. But unfortunately its has become a complaint site and we hope they shut them down.
Hello from Dan, at a law firm that is suing Yelp to get writers like you your pay for making Stoppelman and the other stockholders millionaires off your free labors. Could we talk about this? send me your phone number [email protected] http://www.yelpclassaction.info
Dan
Steps to take to go around YELP rating system.
A friend had sent me this. A bit elaborate.
Steps to take to go around YELP rating system.
As the articles suggest that yelp reviews do get filtered and soon after that a Yelp marketing person calls you and tries to sell you a $350.00 marketing package. You can bitch and moan about the price and how your good rating have been filtered. The yelp sales rep will not help you one bit. But if you sing up for a year they might be able to review your account and in some cases the good reviews show up again.
Yelp is a major racketeering site. What this means is that they will forces you to advertise or no good review will ever show up on your account. As a small business owner I hate this kind of business that pushes you around. So I decided to take a look and do some research on how these rating stick or get filtered.
What Yelp does is it looks at your location, your IP address and determines the sounding areas business you are rating. Now if you live in New York City and rate a bunch of business in your 3-5 mile radius then it does not look suspicious or any rig flags go up. If you rate business outside your IP address then REG flag s goes up and you are put in watch list which will filter your ratings. In some cases Yelp will close your account due to violation of their Terms and Condition.
In Yelp account you can see the reach of your rating by click on settings and ratings. This will show you how far away from your location you have reviewed. If this is not in the normal range of Yelp algorithms then your will be filtered.
The good news is that humans have built Yelp algorithms and it has flaws. After 2 years of studying and figuring out how Yelp works I have come up with 5 steps to get around the algorithms on Yelp. Now keep in mind that these steps are not fool proof but out of 10 yelp accounts that I have opened only 1 were flagged and some of the reviews were filtered.
I will show you how to get good rating on Yelp and how to get around Yelp algorithms that has hurt your rating. I have a 5 step program that will guide you on how to setup and rate your business on yelp.
Yelp Algorithms are tough and easily will put good ratings on their filtered and will not show up on your rating panel. However with my 5 steps you can get around their systems.
I have helped over 100 businesses achieve good rating on yelp with my 5 step program.
Step 1:
Create at least 5 email accounts with real sound names. You can get free emails from live.com, google.com, yahoo.com. Make sure these names do not resemble each other in any shape or form.
Step 2:
Get Facebook account to match these emails. Now Facebook is doing Telephone check to see if you’re a real person. Whit a $5.00 or $10.00 prepaid cards you can get verified.
Step 3:
Upload a bunch of pictures that you can obtain for Free from Flicker, Google images.
Step 4:
Open Yelp account from different open Wi-Fi location. Now keep a note that User A’s email is form Location A and always open yelp from that IP WIFI location for at least 1-2 months. When you have Yelp first you must add friends. Make compliments and click on must try location.
Step 5:
Start doing reviews, do not review your own business first, do like 10 but do it every 3-4 days so it does not give any RED Flags Keep reviewing and befriending others. After 4-5 months then review your own business but make sure not to have too much review in one month. Keep your Yelp in good standing and now you can help your other business owners.
Good luck….
This forum is about businesses losing reviews, not reviewers losing reviews.
Well the site is yelp-sucks.com and I do welcome those who feel that Yelps broken filter has silenced their voices. Good or bad, if they are a legitimate reviewer offering a real perspective on an experience, then it should be shown.
Yelp Mafia Elite Nazis
Let’s see how democratic and first amendment true the Internet is…
Some articles (adage.com) Y "Is Yelp the Mafia?" or (dailycaller.com) "FOIA release from FTC outs Yelp as ‘Internet Mafia’ question the business ethics of Yelp.
Well, Maybe YES, Yelp does operate on MAFIA methods..
An Example:
A business has 12 hidden positive reviews, 1 negative and false (vendetta) review showing. As if that is not enough Yelp falsely labels the one negative review as "First to review", a blatant lie ignoring all previous and positive reviews.
Then the call from a Yelp Sales rep. trying to sell advertising with the words "I can make the negative reviews go away and show more positives…"
Another speak for: "I make you an offer you can't refuse…"
You decline: see above results
You call that ethical business practices in advertising?
I call that RICO, Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, the MAFIA style "Protection Money" or else…
I wonder where is the damn FBI not investigating this? Why are they asleep on this? Maybe "in bed" with Yelp?
Perhaps we all should start Mafia style hits at Yelp:
-Firebomb the offices
-Beat up severely some employees
-Kidnapp Mr. Stoppelmann
-Send him a undercover girl who later files rape charges
-Or simply whack him, rub him out. period.
That'll send a message!
Good old effective classic Mafia methods!
Why not? After all Yelp is doing the very same in some way, ruining businesses and lives!
PS Those "Yelp Elites" better "Elitearians", emphasis on "Arian" are likely borderline personalities. Who else then would have the narcissistic need having to review all and everything dumping their view and opinion on all?
Let's call the more appropriately "Elite Nazis"; it seems so much more fitting!
Rob,
This is an excellent summation of how I feel. I have had several positive review deleted and I have no idea why. YELP is a horrible company and truly believe that bad KARMA will come right back to this useless sight!
100% agreed sir. my experience with yelp has been exactly as you have said. got a call from sales. explained my problem with having 11 filtered and low and behold i am now at 14 filtered 1 fake one star and thirteen five star reviews that are real. leaving me with a real two star and a real five star. now i have a three and a half star review. three other companies in town that i personally know have paid are at five stars.
Yelp is A Modern Mafia
Yelp, we understand that you are a business too and looking to make a living. But not this way, please find an honest direct way to do your business, remember that no one is above the law, you will loose and you will pay big, you have created too many enemies and they are not going to sleep until you do.
All of their complains are the same, i do not think they are making up this same story, the same complains are coming from different states, different peoples, sooner or later someone will believed them, you ll end up paying big.
Do you remember Hitler?
Do you remember Gaddafi?
Do you remember Saddam?
All gone, paid big price and took nothing with them.
Do you think it is worth it?
If I were to rate Yelp today I would give it ZERO stars and a VERY BAD review. I am a VERY VERY unhappy customer. Yelp is supposed to help small businesses, but when we get a glowing review from a happy customer (which was not outside Yelps guidelines) Yelp removed it! But the person from hundreds of miles away who we have no knowledge of and don’t believe ever came to our farm in Oregon (plus seems to make a career out of writing nasty reviews on Yelp) is forever associated w/our name. The legitimate review would have been SO easy to validate. Reviewers comments are all over our facebook page and her testimonials are on our website. I am disgusted by Yelp’s unethical business practices & ability to manipulate the market. Yelp is getting a reputation for F-ing with small business people and using its platform to sell advertising. Where is the benefit to customers if reviews are not legit? We are a small socially motivated business trying to provide a public good to our community and help local businesses in our area. What can we collectively do to keep Yelp from playing BIG BROTHER and destroying well intentioned small businesses that are trying to support their families and add value to the community. Thanks for setting up this site, Jump for Joy Farm
I prefer to post as guest for fear that Yelp is trolling. I virtually can not do anything to get good reciews on yelp to counter one bad review because all my customers do not have yelp accounts and go i to filter.
My question is does yelp have the right to have a review website and choose whichw reviews to poat on a business that yelp has signed up, not the business? If they post guidelines and those guidelines are respected, should'nt they have to post all comments? There is no valid method to verify the users review, no requirement, so unless their terms of usage aRe violated a one time reviewer is as authentic as a repeat yelper. They are not playing by the same rules, this is an open review site that should allow all opinions, unless they are obviously fake.
I own a small business and was amazed that my company was rated with Yelp. I have never agree or contacted Yelp for them to publish anything. I an also amazed on how they post the negative comments and fliter the positive comments . Yelp reinforces and encourages people who do not want to pay for a service even after they used the service to voice their displeasure in the company. It is almost impossible to correct the information and bias. Also, I have heard that there is a company that you can pay to eliminate the comments but this is unacceptable because all comments should be investigate to clarify the accurates of said comments not a meeting place for people who agree to pay, enter into an agreement for them to then not want to pay. If there is a pending law suit or class action being formulated, I want to participate.____Kais Infinite Extreme Martial Arts.__
I've been a businessman for 20+ years and recently got back into a hobby business. I'm told I had to be on every online thing under the sun so I did he Yelp thing. I worked hard and got two very happy customers to give me a review. Mind you, I have a lot more than 2 happy customers but people are busy and don't always have the time to do this. Low and behold Yelp decided that my two positive reviews were bogus (based on what) and filtered them. Here's what they base it on: I'm not paying them. This is the exact kind of extortion organized crime used to doll out. I'm not wasting anymore time with them and will use an attorney to get off their damn site.
Same situation, my clients do not use yelp so when i persuaded a cust to post on yelp it got filtered because it was her first post. They do not verify if it is real or not, but expect her now to be an active yelper to unfilter. They need to play be the same rules. And allow us to authenticate a real customer. They readily posted a negative though so i am stuck. I am not in the restaurant business or similar with dozens of young people coming through