Business Owners Raise More Complaints About Yelp

[Scott]

I work at a nice restaurant that opened 2 months ago. The ONLY reviews that show up on Yelp are average/bad submissions, yet I know that several guests have tried to leave positive comments. Interestingly, I've witnessed -- more than once -- my manager taking a call from someone at Yelp saying they can "help him get rid" of some of the negative comments if he would buy a membership. Yelp is a joke. The reviews are filtered. Any time that happens, credibility is lost. By the way, the Better Business Bureau operates the same way.

[Jennifer P]

Same story here. Most of my reviews are all negative, go to the filtered page, and voila!!! 5-star reviews galore. Yes, some are from new Yelp users, but there are plenty that are from people with anywhere from 2-10 prior reviews.

Yelp contacted me for months in regards to advertising, I always declined. In a few last ditch efforts, the "We may be able to help with reviews" line came out.

Anyway, I became so sick of Yelp's extortion like fraudulent practices, I started contacting other people who were having the same problems. Hence the reason I am here. Alone we don't stand a chance, together we have some credibility and power. Please visit my page, http://www.facebook.com/yelpisafraud . Feel free to post anything you like. I have also posted some creative ways to get around Yelp's review filter.

[Jennifer P]

Scott wrote:

I work at a nice restaurant that opened 2 months ago. The ONLY reviews that show up on Yelp are average/bad submissions, yet I know that several guests have tried to leave positive comments. Interestingly, I've witnessed -- more than once -- my manager taking a call from someone at Yelp saying they can "help him get rid" of some of the negative comments if he would buy a membership. Yelp is a joke. The reviews are filtered. Any time that happens, credibility is lost. By the way, the Better Business Bureau operates the same way.

Scott, see my post below. My page might be helpful to you. I have some ideas on how to get around the yelp review filter, places to share you story, and fellow businesses experiencing the same thing as you.

http://www.facebook.com/yelpisafraud

[Jennifer P]

Phil Fisk wrote:

SaveUsFromYelp.com is another outlet for people frustrated with Yelp. Feel free to vent your frustrations there. This company has way too much power and shows way too little responsibility. There needs to be more information about this business available to consumers and business owners. Share this new reviews site with your friends.

I just liked your page. I have a similar page with tips about how to get around yelp's review filters, and members have also been posting great content.

http://www.facebook.com/yelpisafraud

[Lance]

Yelps bs wrote:

I have had yelp remove several positive comments by real people who posted them. When asked about it they gave some BS about only leaving the posts on for a certin amount of time....

IF YOU WANT TO HELP YOURSELF:

1. Stop doing hyperlinks to yelp from any website.
2. Do a hyperlink to another competitor of yelp. citysearch google+ facebook superpages or any other directory (one you think looks nice and lets you manage better. or just seems more professional and fare:)

3.on a search engine either yahoo google bing etc. do a search of your business profile on that competitor directory. If it does not have it on the first five page results forget it.

forget all that lawyer and suing crap. you can sue them by taking their traffic =$$$ or your traffic they want bad!

[Barbi A]

I can't read the story anymore, but Yelp is useless.
We like KFC take out on occasion and pick it up at the restaurant closest to home.
Yeah, I know, but this is not about the greasy chicken.
Anyway, the place is supposed to be open until 10 p.m. The first time we went it was about 9:30 p.m. Out of biscuits. Second time, 9 p.m - out of thighs. And so on and so forth.
Eventually, we'd go in at 8 p.m. and the floors were being mopped and there was little food left. Worse, the personnel were smart-mouthed punks. We finally got mad.
Called the manager; KFC headquarters, and finally wrote a review on Yelp. It disappeared within 24 hours.
Yelp is for the advertisers; not the consumer.

[The Rumor Mill]

You don't need biscuits droopy.

[STOP USING YELP]

Yelp does NOT have any automated filtering programs. They can control that "filtering program" anyway they want. There is a junky business with thief owner next to my shop. They had 17 bad 1 star reviews on Yelp from actual customers slamming this business left and right two weeks ago and not even a single good review (4 or 5 stars)... Just now I saw the same business on "Yelp Ads" (you know, on top of other listings, the paid advertisement section) with 31 five star reviews, so I checked their "filtered reviews... NOT even a single bad review...
How is that's possible?

We used to pay yelp $300 a month almost a year ago. Then I had an argument with the yelp employee because she did not clearly explained to me that I will be paying for 800 "Impressions not clicks". I swear she said clicks... anyways, after canceling and paying cancelation fees, my business disapeared from searches and every single one of my reviews that we had got filtered... All of them were from actual customers from all over the US including Elite members...
Today, if you search for a keyword that describes my business IN MY CITY... You won't find me.. They put me on a 37th page after 125 mile away businesses...

USE TRIPADVISOR INSTEAD OF YELP... Its honest and much better

[Traci_J]

I recently deleted my account with Yelp. I'm not a business owner but I had written a very positive review about a little shop I've been patronizing in downtown toronto. They 'filtered' it twice. Each time I then went to the Talk page and complained and they put it back up. But, the 'serious' yelpers got their backs up and made all kinds of ridiculous accusations. That I and all the others with only 1 or a few yelp reviews under ours belts must be getting some kind of incentive for writting at all. One guy in particular Richie S was just vicious and kept popping up everywhere there was a negative comment about yelp. Seems like if you don't have litteraly hundreds of yelps under your belt, your opinion doesn't count and you must be a fake. Well, I closed my account with only 5 reviews under my belt, but I was there long enough to realize that Yelp is a sham and many of the yelpers, well they really need to find something else to do with their time. Seriously, 100's of reviews for each person??? Not worth it to be a newcomer to yelp, your 1x review will be filtered and hurt the business you're trying to compliment and if you complain, the hardcore yelpers will just attack you and make accusations. I hope yelp is highly exposed, and I hope the Yelp Addicts get some help!

[No longer a Yelpee]

We had a paid account and we did a video. The video was ok, but you don't ever own it and it can only be played on Yelp...unless you pay even more to have it on Youtube and other sites. Our good reviews have all disappeared as well. The other problem we have is Yelp customer service..IT IS HORRIBLE! We have had 3 bad reviews...and I am not kidding about this...2 of them admitted in the very first sentence that they had never done business with us! The other one was regarding a product that we do not have. On all 3 I had to call and email Yelp multiple times before they would remove the review. They still have not removed the 3rd review and I am still emailing and calling them...this is one of the reviewers that says he has never done business with us. I wish there was a Yelp profile on Yelp so that we could post reviews about them on there. They would definitely not have a five star rating!

[Claire]

I had help remove all of reviews and I am not sure why. They all ended up undered "filtered reviews". I am not sure what this is about. I am a real person who contributed real, honest reviews. There is some garbage in their FAQs stating that they have some system for detecting non-real reviews. The only thing that I would not do was post a picture of myself under my user profile and give them a ton of information about myself. I also did not care to chit chat with other users. This should be my perogative. If they only want one type of reviewer than all they will get is people who have too much time on their hands and who use Yelp as a social tool. I do not think these people are honest and I hope they get dinged with all these lawsuits!

[Gema Gamez]

I call for Everyone that has had a bad experience with yelp to come together for a class action suit. Let's take this site down. Every small business is at risk here and we need to get rid of this site ASAP.

[CruzerLori]

We have a General Building Contracting business. We have way fewer clients than a restaurant, etc since a custom home can take many months to complete. We just got our first Yelp review and it was a glowing 5 star. I just went to reread it and it was gone. I finally noticed in very faint letters "one filtered review". We get most clients from either word of mouth or repeat clients, so we will not advertise with Yelp. I had no idea that Yelp was such a scam.

[Amanda P]

We are trying to unify frustrated business owners in a means to an end. We have spoken with several media outlets and are working with a group of lawyers to put an end to Yelp's bad business. Please take a few minutes and sign our petition to better display the number of business owners that are fed up with Yelp's manipulation of reviews for profit.The link is https://www.change.org/petitions/stop-yelp-s-... ..........Sign the Stop Yelp Petition
We need your signature it is a crucial step and we appreciate you taking your time to sign.

[LA Guy]

Just started Yelping, gave several Five star reviews to truly deserving small family restuarants, all filtered. The more I research Yelp, they are a POS oufit. Another thing, I'm not postinbg my pic, since I like my privacy. Yelp at some point will fail, hope it's soon.

[Lee]

Are we talking about a sophisticated protection racket here? I think a very slick attorney could establish a precedent. Just follow all the action and use the evidence that Yelp themselves provide to use against them. It reads like a Hollywood movie. They even have a section in FAQ that speaks to those of us who may wish to contact an attorney, "You may wish to consider the following..." It almost sounds like a veiled threat. Check it out. David vs Goliath.

[Florida]

Yelp.com an unreliable source for reviews.
Yelp.com would not post my good review about a prosthodontist who undertook my complicated dental case and restored the health of my jaw bone, teeth and gums. After the first time I asked for an explanation, they hide my review as a filtered one. When I emailed CEO Jeremy S. to ask why was my review hidden as a filter, and that I would send him my dental records to prove that I am the appreciated dentist’s patient. He ignored my inquiry, even after resending my email three more times. I reported this to my dentist. His response was, his other patients that have good reviews have the same complaint. Yelp.com only posted one good review to make it look fair in contrast to the one bad review that is posted, then their sales people call the doctor to sell advertising with the promise to delete the bad review.

[Mel]

12 reasons why AmericanEateries.com is the best eatery review website:

http://www.americaneateries.com/news.php...

[Matt]

For the record I am affiliated with RateDiary. This I believe is the answer for businesses and consumers to work together in the world of online reviews.

This new online review website called RateDiary. This site helps businesses get reviews from paying customers only and enables them to manage their online reputation. No more reviews from non-paying customers, competitors or anonymous people. This is how it works. The business creates RateDollar vouchers in any denomination they like. Then the business simply hands there customers a RateDollar voucher after a sale or purchase. This RateDollar voucher gives the customer 7 days to leave a review before it expires. Once the customer leaves a review they get rewarded with the RateDollars that is listed on the voucher. Customers then can redeem RateDollars in the form of a VISA/Mastercard gift card they can use anywhere but ATM's. Also consumers can get rewarded 20 RateDollars for referring a business that's signs up to RateDiary. Now there's finally a way to get the satisfied customers to leave reviews. The RateDiary.com mobile app for Android and iphone should be out in a few weeks. Check it out!!!

[Tom self employed]

I just filed a complaint with the BBB in Oakland CA (Yelp's home base) before I found this site. Same story here. A positive review goes missing without notification. Yelp's only response is their "review filter" video and nothing more. Yelp has no valid reason for the removal of this positive review from an actual client, not friend or family. Soon after joinging Yelp, I was early harassed my a sales person pressuring me to pay for some "listing enhancements." I cited to the BBB my suspicion that the removal resulted from my declining to pay for what is commonly known as advertising fees. Then I found out I'm not alone. I have only a few reviews. It's not easy to get clients to take the time and write a positive review (complaints never an issue, right?), and I feel it's not good business to request them. I need every positive review I can get on there to earn a living.