Yelp

After I stopped paying Yelp (after completing my agreed upon campaign), Yelp has removed ALL of my positive reviews and Yelp refuse to post positive reviews - Yelp claims that their "automated recommendation software" has rejected the reviews. Is it a coincidence that this automated software did not reject positive reviews when they were being paid during my campaign with Yelp? I don't think so! Yelp is the definition of EXTORTION!

You don't have to look far to find the many claims from other business owners that have stated that Yelp publishes unverified, bogus and ranting reviews from non consumers. You can verify this by going to Google and typing key words such as "Yelp class action law suite", "Yelp rips off customers", "Yelp posts unverified reviews" ect... You can also go to:
http://yelp-sucks.com or http://www.ripoffreport.com

It is a known fact that the Better Business Bureau is a good resource for finding some of the worst companies in America - there is no shortage of complaints filed against Yelp. At last count, there were 1700 Yelp complaints filed with the Better Business Bureau.

A few complaints that you will find repeated over and over again by business owners include:
*** Yelp published ALL negative company reviews from anyone whether they were an actual customer or just a bogus NON consumer ranting on as a competitor or just a cyber Bully!
*** Yelp removed actual customers positive reviews who have signed a valid purchase contracts with our company.
*** Yelp will not return calls or emails from non advertising companies with legitimate complaints about the bogus review published by Yelp.

There are approximately 300 complaints filed on yelp on the ripoffreport.com web site (http://www.ripoffreport.com).
Some of the information found on ripoffreport.com include:

A class action lawsuit against YELP, led by a Yelp investor Joseph Curry, focuses on Yelp's bogus "first-hand" reviews. The suit says Yelp required or coerced businesses "to pay to suppress negative reviews," and then lied about the practice.
Yelp allegedly made its millions by hiding the fact that some of that money came from extorting businesses with bad reviews. And that lack of transparency allegedly allowed company insiders to earn more than $81.5 million from "insider trading proceeds."
The Federal Trade Commission had received more than 6000 complaints about Yelp, many contending that Yelp would solicit businesses to buy advertisements on the Company's website and would retaliate if businesses declined by deleting positive reviews and claiming the deletions were due to an updated "automated algorithm". Does Yelp hurt hard working Americans with excellent business records? YES
Yelp allows anyone to post a review about any business without evaluating the validity. This means any competitor can post a review about your business and hurt your reputation. Yelp literally allows this and trusts that people won't file false reviews.

According to some of the 1700+ complaints filed with the BBB, business owners complain of:
Fake reviews not being removed or accurate.
Truthful reviews being filtered.
The Yelp computer software determines whether reviews are legit.
Yelp claims they do not have the ability to override their software filtering - The humans at yelp are at the mercy of their own software and cannot 'override' its decisions.

Consumer Reports also does not advocate using yelp
Yelp is a rotten and corrupt organization that specializes in extorting small businesses and allowing non-customers to write malicious and slanderous reviews about small businesses.

If Yelp has taken unauthorized funds from you, dispute the charges with your financial institution and have those charges reversed! We work too hard for our money to allow a criminal millionaire to extort us of our money!

The Yelp site should be permanently shut down for engaging in such disgraceful business-bashing practices
You can also add your name to the list of business owners who have been hurt by yelp and would like to be included in a class action lawsuit at:
http://yelplawsuit.com/
If everyone who has had their positive reviews filtered by Yelp files a complaint with the FTC, we WILL see action taken against them.

To contact the FTC to file a complaint against Yelp, Call *******357. You can also file an online complaint at: FTC.gov or IC3.gov to get to the Internet company complaints division.

Yelp allowed a false review to be posted about my legitimate, successful business. I was rudely told by a Yelp representative that it was the person's "experience". Anyone can have an "experience", whether it is real or not. One can have an "experience" while online or sitting at home watching television. However, to allow someone to post a review that is NOT true concerning one's business is unfounded and condones the act of trying to sabotage a business that regularly exceeds expectations regarding customer service. The person who wrote the review of my business was never a client and continued blocking our parking lot with her car, arguing and yelling at us when asked, politely, to move because Yelp were impeding our clients from safely pulling into and out of our lot, and ultimately had to have the police intervene because the Yelp reviewer told us that "we can not make her move her car". Evidence of the issue (video and screenshots from Facebook) would have been gladly shared with Yelp to remove the review. Yet, Yelp did not want me to submit any evidence of the false reviewer. The review was taunting and relied heavily on provocation so that reviewer could post a discreditable and refutable review. UNACCEPTABLE. It begs to question, "Where is the reviewer's evidence"? In fact, the review goes against Yelp's OWN STANDARDS.
Yelp has seemingly and blatantly taken a stance with the those who wish to lie and post untrue reviews of people's livelihood, their business. I implore Yelp to tell us what kind of people they employ. Are these members of society who wish to bash and not assist businesses that are trying to please their customers and place food on the table? Why go to great lengths to allow a review to be posted about a business that is untrue? Why does Yelp allow the degenerative type of mindset to make false claims and "experiences" regarding businesses without evidence? It is time to call into question the overall practices of Yelp. Yelp's metric for allowing reviews is purposely complicated with no plausible explanation other than to allow false reviews and not allow true reviews of actual clients who have visited one's business establishment. The FTC needs to become heavily involved in Yelp's unscrupulous business practices.

I met with Dr. Akindele at the North Park Urgent Care on Monday Sept 1st for an ankle injury from a week prior that was not getting better. My husband took me to have it examined because it was a holiday and we couldn't see our family doctor and I was I a lot of pain. When Dr. Akindele entered the exam room, where an EXAM should took place he only looked at my ankle, asked where it hurt and suggested an X-ray. He did not physically examine me. When he returned from reading the X-ray he said that there was no break or fracture that he could see but that a radiologist would have the final say. He said he did not know why my ankle is hurting and that we should keep it wrapped, take anti inflammatories (which we had knew we had been doing for the past week) and to see our family doc or a podiatrist. When my husband repeated back to him he was advising us to do when we left, he became very confrontational saying that he could "read between the lines" of what my husband was saying and that my husband was insulting him. When my husband reassured him that that was not his intention he only shook his head no and said "Yes you are and I've been in this game for 35 years". When my husband said no one is questioning your experience he stated "yes you are and you it's insulting". The doctor was the one who argumentatively threw out how many years of experience he had. My husband again said he just wanted to be clear and repeated the Dr's advice - wait for X-ray results, stay off of the ankle and see someone else, at which point the Dr agreed. He agreed to the same thing my husband said earlier that OFFENDED HIM SO MUCH in the beginning. So we basically paid for an X-ray, an "I don't know what is wrong with your ankle", see another provider and continue doing what we had already been doing for the past 6 days. I left with no idea when I would get the X-ray results, no attempt at a diagnosis, no treatment and a whole lot of UNPROFESSIONALISM! I had to ask the receptionist for an ace bandage as I was hobbling out. OH and if I wanted 2 bandages that will be an additional $4. Since when does it take 35 years of medical experience to suggest an x-ray and send you to another physician?

I am a small business owner. I believe that the company Yelp.com is violating my civil rights by suppressing my free speech by not allowing me to respond to two false review on their website. I have worked for over two decades years to build my successful business. Two false reviews were posted about my business on Yelp for the first time in over two decades. Yelp's software even flagged them as questionable because Yelp were posted on the same date by two different false names and started out with the same words and the words are very slanderous. Since they refuse to remove them though they still come up in Google searches. These false reviews have done countless damage to my business which is hard to quantify. This false information has been posted for 4 months and I did not even know about it. There is no way for me to respond to these reviews.

Yelp should be required to notify businesses when any review, positive or negative, is posted about them. Not to do so is to suppress the business's right to free speech. Yelp has the business's email addresses so it is very easy for them to notify a business. I would also like my listing removed from their site entirely, but there help section says they will not do that. Is it not my right not to be listed with a company that suppresses the free speech of business owners? To make matters worse I have filed a complaint with the better business bureau everyday for about a week and have received absolutely no response from anyone. I also contacted Yelp directly asking for help and have received no response other than an automated response that they will respond. I understand that lawsuits have been filed against Yelp and they have won based on the fact that customers have the right to free speech. Well so does the business that the customer's, or false customer in our case, free speech is levied against. Free speech was never meant to be one sided. That is tyranny as it is cruel and unreasonable to allow anyone's livelihood to be destroyed and to silence their free speech. Business owners need to file a class action lawsuit!

I am disappointed, and saddened with Finnair's position regarding the companies unilateral cancellation of my return reservation flight to Los Angeles from Riga, Latvia. I hope that you, personally, are never in the same position as to be cancelled and abandoned so far from home with NO notification of such what so ever, as I have had to! I guess in the era of bottom line corporate profits this was a golden opportunity to capitalize collectively on a someone's personal misfortune and suffering. This one instance alone does seem substantial but you times this opportunity by several hundred times a year ( for one reason or another). A passenger misses a connection going one way and Finnair has a golden opportunity to abandon this customer and secure another with no notification, and wow I can see how lucrative this policy must be for Finnair. With only a micro-sized one sentence statement to the effect ( to advise of this bait and swithch policy) at the end of the reservation ( only after you check the terms and condition box before), are you allowed to proceed anyway, so one does not know about this clause in advance. I must commend you and your company as this is a brilliant corporate move, and who would know about such a thing, right?
At any rate you screwed me out 1/2 of my ticket, and further demonstrated what a small airline that you really are when it comes to customer services. So not that it matters to you but obviously I won't be traveling on Finnair ever again and I will tell all family, friends, and patients the same as well, ( not that this matters to you because you are a subsidized entity and do not have to really compete to be a profitable company anyway), so it really doesn't matter to you or your company.
I know that others will read this and be advised on the internet as well. I hope that Yelp do not experience the same misfortune from your unscrupulous, deceptive "airline industry" policy.
Dr Joseph A. Carr

Yelp - not reliable for important things IMO.

(This Yelp review will take a few turns, but I hope it's helpful to someone.)

Doctors can pay to have their bad reviews "hidden" in the "not currently recommended" section. I'm aware of quite a few plastic surgeons who have seriously hurt people I know. It appears that doctors can "manage" their online Yelp profiles through paying for reputation management.

It's upsetting to me to see that a doctor who ruined a dear friend's life, (or who removed an ear or other body parts against a patient's knowledge while Yelp were under anesthesia), have only positive reviews that are "recommended". Shuffling bad medical reviews into a "not currently recommended section" does not allow for transparency IMO. Mind-boggling when you realize the physical harm that can be caused by surgery.

As a business owner, I have recieved calls from services selling "online reputation management services" and one of their pitches is that they can "hide" bad Yelp reviews. My suggestion is to read all of a doctors bad reviews in the "not recommended" section.

Also, in a related note, be aware that doctors take down bad reviews from other sites, and get lawsuits hidden. All is not as it appears online. If you hear the phrase "do your research" used in conjunction with choosing a reconstructive surgeon, be aware that you won't truly be able to learn the truth through research. So, as a side note, I wouldn't recommend surgery at all unless your life truly depends on it. I know too many good people who were disabled and disfigured when they went in for medically-indicated or cosmetic procedures. They didn't "ask" to be harmed, they trusted the stunning online reviews that they subsequently learned were often managed and / or fake. Also they trusted board certifications, but that's another story...

Now, back to the Yelp review -- As a former business owner, I only had five star reviews online. My clients were eager to leave me good reviews, and all of the reviews were legitimate, but Yelp hid most of the reviews in the "not currently recommended" section. Why would "algorithms" hide about 12 five-star reviews from long-term users and show about one? Was it because I wasn't a paying customer of theirs?

Also, I got a five-star review that wasn't even by a client I knew. I didn't want a review, (five-star or not), from someone I didn't know. The review misrepresented me. In response to this erroneous review, I wrote a reply on my Yelp profile, sent an email to Yelp alerting them, and called their corporate office, but Yelp insisted it was a real review (huh, what?) So, in sum: my legitimate reviews were hidden, but an erroneous fishy review stayed on my profile? Totally weird.

Also the fact that Gift Rocket tried to sell gift certificates of my business without my knowledge or consent, via some seeming cooperation with Yelp is disconcerting to me.

I would give Yelp less than two stars, but I find their format readable, and search capacities helpful.

I am a completely honest person with consideration and I do not give any sort of business 1 star because of one petty reason. I weigh both positives and negatives every place I go to. That being said, Yelp has a habit of allowing businesses being put up that people normally do not leave reviews for based on location. Examples would be Lasership where Yelp sent you packages and therefore, you can't technically review their "location". However, Yelp allows that business to stay and course, all the reviews are based on how bad or good their experience was with delivered packages.

Now if this is the case, then why would Yelp be so biased to allow another large corporation such as American Apparel to add their business as the warehouse location and yet delete (yes delete, not "hide") reviews? This company creates garments and are negligent with them during shipping time after time. American Apparel's warehouse has been known to send poorly fitted garments that either are inaccurate wrong sizes or come with no tags and sometimes have holes as if the garment was worn numerous times before shipping off to you.

If this is what the warehouse is sending me, then perhaps I have the right to tell people this and review the warehouse location. However, because my 30 helpful votes review was very detailed, it was removed yet, other reviewers who didn't have a "first-hand experience" at the warehouse were allowed to keep their reviews up and most of them were 1-2 star reviews with no details at all or irrelevant comments. This just goes to SHOW that if you have money, you could simply pay Yelp to remove bad reviews.

If I had to rely on Yelp to give me any sort of information, then I'd be miserable. They also filtered my review for a restaurant I used to go to for reasons I don't even know why. I followed guidelines and was detailed enough about my experience and even had pictures.

There are thousands of complaints by really angry business owners that have advertised with YELP only to find that the sales pitch lacked credibility. Website traffic wasn't better, overcharging took place, and canceling the ads required performing due diligence to avoid another month of billing. Does YELP sound trustworthy for businesses or consumers?

To some, YELP's clever shamrock logo might mean Good Luck. To others, it's just another sham. A closer look at the content makes that more clear.

Since mobile activity accounts for most sales and we're all on the go, we tend to scan things quickly for guidance. As YELP was early to internet advertising, it became a household word and a symbol of trust. The clever "star rating" is a trigger to stay or move on. Since many small businesses don't get many reviews, that type of symbolism is often premature. In fact, many businesses get a lot of legitimate, good reviews that YELP decides are "not recommended". This is often very unfair to the businesses.

Some are reviews from real people with many honest reviews and friends and a real picture. It's well known that many of the reviews not recommended are by people providing their 1st review. That means Yelp were really happy with the service and took the time to register with YELP so that they can express their gratitude about the work somebody did. And how does YELP reward them? For no real valid reason they list them as reviews that "WE DON"T RECOMMEND". That's a slap in the face to the reviewer.

But they believe there exists a method to their madness. YELP craves hyper addicted YELP reviewers, Virgin YELP reviewers with very little under their belt are often overlooked in deference to the compulsive clique of elite reviewers. But this is really madness. These people review more businesses than realistically possible Sometimes the amount exceeds 1000 reviews. Those reviewers should be listed as not recommended since those extremes lack credibility. The result is the review process gets really distorted and unreliable and the YELP ecosystem becomes a rabbit hole.

Lately, as many local businesses have concluded advertising with YELP is a waste of time, when a consumer does a search in YELP they often see businesses located far away. Combine this with all of those people whose reviews are not being counted and what might have started out as a great concept has become increasingly unreliable as a gauge of what is good and what is bad.

So, according to YELP, reviews are handled by an algorithm which in essence is an invisible wizard making decisions that nobody, not even YELP employees, can ever, ever question. So the wizard is really an autocrat who has final say.

Do you trust autocrats? Do you trust the ones that seem to be running our federal government? For most, the answer is NO! And true to form, if businesses challenge YELP sometimes those businesses and any good reviews they have get buried. YELP has to do this otherwise their business model would be questioned, challenged and they would lose credibility.

I thought it might be useful to read what one person had to say about his experience regarding a decision to advertise on YELP:

https://raymondfong.net/a-candid-yelp-advertising-review-is-yelp-ripping-people-...⇄

Wow! Where to start... Seems like a lot of other businesses has had the same issues as I did. When a lot of people say the same thing you know it's an issue and should be fixed.

This may be long but I wanted to give a good insight into what happened to me so others don't fall into the same issue.

Just to start off, I am not only doing this review because it is negative. I give positive reviews as well. So I am not one of those who only gives reviews when it is a negative one.

I was also offered $900 in free ads. I was also told I will not be charged to try out the service since I would be getting $900 towards the ad service.

I was very adamant from the beginning about not wanting to pay to advertise since I already invested money in other options. The sales person told me nothing was going to be charged and this would be a promotion so I can try out the service and see if would like it.

The whole service was explained line by line over the phone while Yelp had me navigate the system. All the limits were set by the salesperson and explained that all of it was going to be under the $900 cap amount. Believe me, I asked to make sure since they needed my credit card information to set up the account. (by the way, you can't even delete your credit card from the system once they have it) I thought the limit amounts were high but I was told to take advantage of the free service and get as much exposure as I could then at the end of the month I would get a call to go over everything and if I liked it they can help me set it up on a reasonable budget I can afford.

I started the service mid-month in March 2018 so I was expecting a call about a month from the start date. On April 2nd, I was charged $567. I did not get any leads from the ads until March 29th, 3 days before the end of the month. To which I felt a little suspicious in not getting a single thing from them until the end of the month. I did not get any sales from those few leads. But that is neither here nor there since it's not Yelps fault on the types of leads we receive. However, the initial sale pitch is and how they get you to sign up with them.

So back to me waiting on the phone call to go over clicks, impressions, and how the service would benefit my business. Of course, It's not mid-April 2018 yet for me to get a call and I understand but already getting charged for something I was not supposed to get charged in the first place is an issue.

I called to get clarification to which I was told I needed to contact the sales person that I spoke with. I was told that they must be away from their desk cause they couldn't reach her to have me transferred. I looked through my past emails and I found the sales person's number and what do you know, I got in touch with her as soon as I called. Once I caught her up on the issue she then changed her pitch and explained herself different than what she had sold me at first. What startup business would agree to a $30 per click service and agreeing to $750 a month budget? I know I didn't! Then she told me that I needed to contact account management so they can assist me further. I see where this was going, typical call center answer to give me the runaround and send me to another person so I can explain everything once again.

Once I contacted account management they told me that they do not give services for free and that I must have misunderstood. By all means, I am not the most experienced business owner, however, I am not stupid to start my business in the negative and agree to give money away without first getting results. They put all the blame on me and took no accountability for the misinformation given to me. They didn't even offer anything to put me at ease and told me they can't give me a refund. I told them that I was going to dispute the charges with my bank and he said to go ahead. Wow!

I want to let you know that the Patient James Olsen, is, disability, cannot walk, so he is living at Wickshire Senior Assisted Living Facility (3501 Hancock Bridge Parkway Fort Myers, FL 33903). What happened he was had normal legs both right and left legs before he went to the Wickshire (previous Gladwell) his healthy was ok. He is not able to walk at all and has all wounds on both legs since he went to Wickshire. Firs time, his legs were a little swilled according to what we communicated every time. May you can look at his both legs and his health totally disastrous what Yelp treated him as only changed dressing routinely by nurses. I left so many times to the director, Heather Betty, nurse Kimberly, nurse aided, Jacky, front desk counter people, Marta, Lora, Beverly. Last Monday, 12/06-2021 the director, Health and nurse Kimberly to me that James fell down, but he's found it just a little bruises. Then the nurse Kimberly called me suddenly they called EMT on Thursday to send him to hospital. However, He refused that the nurse call me, so I talked James to please go to the hospital, but he responded he said he went two 2 times to the hospital, but it just changed the dressing on his legs not treated correctly. I searched the need to see the leg vein doctor for vascular eczema, which is no blood circulation. He has been using the wheelchair setting so long hours and slept in the wheelchair.

He has been frustrated every day for so many months nurses has been changing dressing every day not treat right for him.

Why I report this today? I called his doctor's office and found he had an appointment today 12-13-2021 at 11AM with vein leg doctor. I called to let the Wickshire Senior Assisted Living Fancily to Marta in the evening front desk to put on the calendar to marked, she put the James' doctor's appointment today as I confirmed and I told her it is very important. I also left the same message to the Director of Health's message her phoned. I checked twice last week. I called this morning at 8:30 to 9:15 AM to let them know today 12-13-2021 at 11 AM James needs to go to see the vein leg doctor that they said they will, but they did not do anything to James. I tried to talk to the Director Healthy, but she did not answer my phone even if she was in the office according to the front desk people. I left 3 times my message, I never receive any phone call from her. I tried to contact the nurse Kimberly, Jacky, they said he cannot go because the person come to pick him up to take to the doctor's office. No Transportation Services to disability patients. No accommodated at all. They took the wheelchair from him, he just laid down on the bed inside room. Cannot move.

The nurse Kimberly threaten me if he is moved 45 hours they are going to throw out him. I said where he can go, she said I do not know. I was shocked, my heart pumping with my weak heart. I am taking some medications too, I am 67 years old senior.

They treated him badly, but they threaten him they will take him out from there. How can we help him for assisting to better in there?

I check did James come to the vein leg Dr. Word doctor's office. They said James did not come, so I called Wickshire to them they said they could not take him to the doctor's office. Why do they refuse to help him? I already asked and talked to the doctor's office he did not have transportation, they can help him by the doctor's office, but Wickshire refused to take him to the doctor's office and lied to me. They treat him very badly abuse, neglect.

THE SITE
Yelp.com is a user generated review site whose aim is to provide real and genuine reviews of products and services of businesses around the globe. In theory the site works with only real reviews, negative or positive, being posted and business evaluated on there customers experience.

THE PRODUCT
Upon opening a business account with Yelp.com you are charge a monthly fee to unlock 2 benefits, you are allowed to respond to reviews (a features that is standard among many sites including FB and Google Places/ Plus) and your business is given a limited amount of impressions or to put it simply your business is placed top of the listing within your selected categories under the SPONSORED space. You are also allocated an Account Manager who you can deal with directly regarding your business.

THE PROBLEMS
- Yelps magical filter algorithm that negatively effects you businesses brand and profits. This filter which is "unexplainable" displays reviews it decides are worthy or "real" on your business listing. For us this meant it displayed a 5 year old review for our business, then trading under a different name, and a negative review written by "real user" called Disappointed M. With no profile. Totally unacceptable yet it gets worse, as we have in fact had a total of 9 reviews with four 5 star reviews filtered away from public view, each a one a genuine customer of our business!
- Account Managers unreachable
- No alternative support numbers provided online or via email
- No response to urgent issues (Over 24hrs)
- No call back even after calling sales team (US) and going through a lengthy transfer to leave a message
- Sponsored impressions and ROI is poor
- In house Yelp posters and stickers have still not been received - 2 months after requesting.

Overall we were very disappointed with the service we received and have cancelled our account 2 months into our 6 month contract. We are happy to pay the cancellation if it means we no longer having to fund a website that is negatively affecting our business. It makes no sense to use their services instead focus on Google Places and Facebook your money is better spent here.

I had been on YELP for 12 years. Always taking photos wherever I went, always reviewing the slightest of places. At first YELP seemed like a pretty righteous place. It appeared to be doing a very important public service, by letting consumers know which bad businesses to avoid and giving proper praise to the good ones. It was never a perfect system, Yelp made mistakes but for the part it was usually on track.

They had recommended reviews and non-recommended reviews. The non-recommended reviews could be spotted a mile away. The negative ones were written in such a way that anyone with half a brain could tell that they done by a disgruntled former employee or maybe even an angry competing business. And of course, the fake positive ones that were often written by the business itself. You know the type, 1 review and 0 friends all written on the same day. But over the last few years, I've noticed an ugly trend. It seemed that not only were fake reviews being withheld from the overall score of a business but so were real ones. Including someone like me who had wasted my time on that site for 12 years! There were businesses rated with one star although they had 5-star legitimate reviews in the non-recommended section that YELP refused to release unless they paid YELP off. There are also horrible companies on YELP that have 4 and 5 stars reviews on the surface but all of their one-star reviews are hidden, why? Because they paid YELP off for the favor.

YELP is nothing more than a fraudulent extortion scam. YELP does a disservice to the reviewers, to the public but most of all to businesses! In this age of tech tyranny, I am almost ashamed of myself for ever being naive enough to think that their online reviews were legit. In fact, many online review sites are absolute garbage where the highest bidder can have negative true reviews removed or suppressed. And this becomes a real ethical issue because sometimes this bad review could be an incompetent Doctor who has killed someone or Lawyer who robbed a client, we're just not talking about someone's taco stand. But even if we were talking about that little taco stand, this is still unethical. How is a struggling small business supposed to survive paying off a dirt bag bully like YELP, they don't have the resources. With holding 5 stars reviews for a company like that could be devastating for them.

I reached out to YELP and received a condescending boiler plate email. They tried to blame it on their "software" or "the quality" of the review. There was a company where I gave a very detailed analysis and 4-star review that was "not recommended" but the recommended review stated "this place be whacked" with a one star. I went on my YELP profile and stated that I could no longer be a part of such a disreputable and fraudulent company that is pretty much presenting to the world FAKE REVIEWS! The public isn't deciding the reviews, BIG BROTHER YELP IS! So, what's the point? Of course, in their revolting way of doing business they made sure they blocked me from their site, I say GOOD! Just wish I could get all my photos back! The public helped to build YELP but the public is who YELP is screwing over. Don't use YELP period. You can't trust the reviews because they are skewed and you shouldn't write any because they will be used in nefarious way and not how you intended and oh you poor businesses, run for the hills.

It becomes very depressing when you are an individual being bullied by a big rich and powerful diabolical entity. But if everyone who has been victimized by this filth, unites and stands together we can take YELP down. They have gone too far. Look at all their negative reviews with the BBB and all of the people who are complaining about them on Facebook on their own page. We must stop resigning our self to the false belief of "they are too big to be taken down", this only emboldens bullies like YELP, they must be stopped. Class action lawsuit, whatever it takes send YELP and its greasy CEO packing! Enough already with their mob like extortion and crimes.

I am a single mom with a small cleaning company. I have my website information on Yelp for the past five years and have never once been charged.

A salesman named Zach called me up and was supposed to give me instructions on how to change certain things on my Yelp page. When he called me to do this, he started trying to upsale me on an advertising product. I told him I was interested but there was NO WAY I could afford any payment coming out on February 1,2019. He suggested that we set it up and that he would apply $150 credit so there would be no way possible that I would be charged on February 1,2019. With his assurance, I went ahead and signed up with them. HUGE MISTAKE!

Oddly enough, after I agreed to sign up, Zach never gave me the information he originally called to give me. He gave me his personal contact information and said if there were any problems that he would personally take care of it. ALL LIES!

So come February 1,2019, Yelp charged my account, which overdrew it, especially with all the other bills that were supposed to post that day. There was a reason I told him that I could not afford it at that time. I have spent hours on Friday, Saturday and today, Monday trying to get them to fix what they messed up. I can't get Zach to return a phone call or email. They have all refused to get me to a manager. This isn't just an upset customer, there are legal issues at hand and they could care less.

Unfortunately for them, I record all of my phone calls too. If I can't get them to fix this without anymore of a fight, you will be able to follow our court battle on the local news. I'm so sick of these big companies screwing the smaller ones out of funds they need just so they can hit a sales quota. Well Zach, I hope you are proud of yourself. I hope meeting your quota was worth screwing my company over! Hopefully when one of you or your managers reads this review, maybe I will actually get a call back. It doesn't seem that Yelp has any sort of management

I was literally banned on Yelp.com a few years ago - before Yelp had to go to court and clean up their act.

There's a gym in Santa Fe, NM called Santa Fe Spa. I had heard that at one time that Yelp.com was charging clients $299.00 a month to make "bad reviews go away". I always wondered how this over priced gym for such a small town had the ability to do what they did when i posted a very detailed negative review.

The lack of professionalism in that place was appalling. At the time i had written my review, the whole family - plus the extended family, plus the chick one of owners sons was banging on the side was hanging out at the front desk like the Brady Bunch - laughing and cracking jokes when people passed by. Needless to say, if you come in there and you're already pissed off, or having a "low" or "ugly" day - that's really not the time or place.

It never failed that every damn time, certain people - including myself would walk past that desk and that hell-hag was up there with J. - They'd burst out laughing. Now, i found it strange that someone that had a face and body like her - would have the nerve to laugh at anyone - period. Let alone J.

When i confronted them on it one day? Well the hell hag took off and ran out the front door.

J. later started crying. Unbelievable. Then guess what? The following week? He put on a big show of "attitude" in front of the her AGAIN. It was interesting. After that I'd had enough left the gym - but decided to review it to warn others of this silliness.

It's "family owned and operated", so J. And his son, and the rest of the Brady Bunch are not going anywhere.

It put this detailed review on Yelp.com. It was no different or no worse than others i had seen or posted in the past.

Yelp.com posted that review? Then suddenly - BOOM! 72 hours later, They not only deleted my review - they BANNED my account from Yelp.com. I had an older account, so they couldn't touch that - but they would not post that review - not even under the older account.

They claimed it was "guidelines" which was actual bull. Then someone was saying that if you posted under a new account - they could "delete" the post. But to BAN someone? That was something highly questionable.

After Yelp.com was taken to court, i noticed that people who have a new account are placed under "not recommended reviews". Even if the reviews are positive. But they certainly aren't BANNED.

Now according to the news article, Yelp.com can MANIPULATE the reviews. But before then? They could do far worse than that!

Yelp permits reviewers to give inaccurate ratings for personal reasons that have nothing to do with the business and the service that is provided. Yelp has no interest in helping the consumers who read the reviews. Yelp rewards reviewers for quantity with no regard for the legitimacy of the reviews and ratings. Yelp obviously has no concerns for the businesses that have listings.

A reviewer had written inaccurate information about my business and the way that the services are done. I replied to explain that the services were altered, due to her needs and demands (which I did explain to her at the time of the appointment). I needed for the public to understand this.

A year after my reply, the reviewer changed her rating to one star, due to her dislike of my response to her review. Side note: This violates at least 5 of Yelp's policies, which I pointed out to Yelp but I was repeatedly ignored, with no response or explanation.

She hadn't been back since the first time, so there couldn't have been any issues with a decrease in the value of the business or the service.

When I reported this to Yelp, I got an insincere reply that "Yelp allow for the reviewers to stand behind their reviews " but it was so obvious that they didn't even read about the issue! The new review completely contradicts the original review and isn't really accurate or consistent enough to stand behind! If they would have read the reviews they could have seen that.

It was recommended for me to respond to her. This advice was not only unhelpful but has caused harm. There was clearly no way for me to correct this issue by attempting to communicate with the reviewer, since that was the actual cause of this issue! This was why I was hoping that I could rely on Yelp to assist!

I asked for an explanation of how this was acceptable but was ignored after 4 separate attempts to get a response.

It's unfair for a business to be an open target for someone with personal issues who is attempting to hurt the livelihood of a business, where they've only had a positive experience with no problems involving the service that has been provided.

I have attached a copy of the review. It's actually stated that of the 2 ratings given to my business, neither are what she really believes and that the only reason for lowering the rating is due to her dislike to my response to her review (having nothing to do with the business and services). This shows that she's not a reliable source and that the updated review/rating is not legitimate, based on her own words.

This isn't helpful for the Yelp community who is searching for a potential business or helping for them to make an informed decision. They're not going to get any use out of reading about her being spiteful. Yelp has found this to be acceptable and for this reason I know that Yelp could never be trusted.

Sadly, a local pediatrician (Dr. Kevin Grant MD of Folsom) has repeatedly been able to get my very honest and factual Yelp reviews removed. This is very unfortunate because Yelp is thereby not helping the public when it comes to protecting them from unscrupulous businesses.

It therefore appears that we need to also check Facebook for "negative" reviews that provide the "dark" side of some businesses, especially medical and dental businesses.

On the other end of the spectrum, I have a new dentist subsequent to my long-term dentist selling out his practice. I am very pleased with this new dentist and his hygienist who I never knew prior to the transfer of the business. I placed the first Yelp review (for the new name of the business). I gave him very high ratings so others would know his new business exists and that I believe he is top notch. His name is Dr. Chee Chang with "Smile Care Family Dental" of Sacramento.

Shockingly Yelp knocked out my first customer review because Yelp think I am related to him (I am Caucasian and he is Chinese!). There is no way to challenge these actions by Yelp. So now they are knocking out both a great review for great businesses and also a bad review of a business.

I had so much faith and trust in Yelp. Their recent actions have greatly shaken my belief that I can fully trust Yelp to provide honest business reviews that happen to be exceedingly good or exceedingly bad.

The bad review was for "Dr. Kevin Grant MD" who is the owner of Folsom Lake Pediatrics. Somehow he influenced Yelp to remove a fully substantiated review that identifies very serious and documented character and integrity deficiencies.

People need to know who to trust and who to be concerned about in the medical and dental area. If doctors or dentists are unscrupulous and lack integrity you want to know this from the experiences of others instead of painfully learning it the hard way yourself.

Bottom line is that it appears you need to go to the only known review forums (i. E., Facebook) to see the really favorable review comments and especially the ones that can protect you from potential disaster with an unscrupulous business.

Yelp removed three of my reviews without even considering placing them in the "unrated" category. The "unrated" category is for reviews that for some reason will not be weighed in with the rest of the reviews. Nowadays you can only view these "unrated reviews" on your computer, not android phone (at least not mine). They did not even consider my reviews for that category. Just removed them, and only two of them had the courtesy of "removed for violations." None of them show up under "about me" although some years back they used to show even the removed under your private "about me." The point is that I believe there are two things wrong. 1) The ones they leave up predominately focus on TSI members complaining about their overage charges or being billed after sending notice or trying to cancel in person. They should have read the contract. Everyone knows you will be billed for one more month, just like leaving your apartment early, especially in NY, Boston, WDC, where there are many urbanites. Why are they complaining about one extra month worth of bill? So most of them are about these bills, while other legitimate ones, such as mine, are removed. 2) I have made it clear that so far I am not annoyed about my billing. I know what I signed up for, and yes, I am disappointed that TSI has closed so many clubs that by now, my passport membership is kind of moot. I probably should go in and ask for $10 off per month, since it's not really possible for me to use the passport anytime soon anymore. But my "beef" with them has more to do with some discrimination I felt I was experiencing as an older minority female. I am not the W/B variety minority, and the service was singling out a few times. On the complaint at Yelp I did say what race I was, and then they probably used that for removal, even though if I was B/W they would have left it in. I am pretty sure that is the reason they chose to remove it. Nothing I said was offensive, and maybe one time it was too long; I was offering some suggestions. But there are plenty, plenty of whiners at the Yelp for the sports clubs, and some of them, are rightfully about the customer service, or the concern of one gentleman at one club I used to visit of feeling like there were "men in towels who did not work out." Ha. I almost could relate to the counterpart in the women's locker-room at that club location. But that is beside the point. It's not fair to TSI to just keep all those reviews of people whining about their bill. These are people who probably pay hundreds in personal attire and grooming, or whatever. There's no way to check out who some of the reviewers are either. Some are clearly saying the same thing at one club then another which makes no sense since you only pay at one club for everything. It is disappointing that Yelp removes my reviews and then keeps these other super-whiny reviews up. It also feels sort of biased. That is why we are writing about it here. I even told them so. Sorry, but otherwise, I do appreciate Yelp. It does offer me a sense of commiseration at this sad, depressing time when we can't even work out that much anymore. I wish that people would rethink everything and sign back up. It's really better than LA or Planet Fitness, and better lighted than Orange Fitness, and more economical than Vida. Even if they didn't get things quite right, it is always a fun place to work out, and the total effect is that it really helps improve your sense of well being.

I would like to add that 2 hours, yes 2 hours! After I canceled my ad campaign I recieved a 1 star review from someone that has never been into my business.
And all of my Legitamate 5 star reviews where suddenly hidden in the not recommened section.

I decided to post this as a response to the negative review.

I encorage everyone battling these extortion type (allegedly) issues, random non client negative reviews, and hidden real client
5 star reviews, to do so!

It may be our only recourse.
Yelp (Yelp) uses " Freedom of Speech" as their platform.
So why dont we do the same.

Feel free to copy & Paste and use this to reply to any or all non substantiated negative reviews.

Please, find My Real Client Reviews under the "Not Recommended" section
And to clarify as to why this happens
Please click on the links below.
Thank you.

Also check out the Movie Billion Dollar Bully

I claim My First Amendment- Right to Free Speech

Truth about Yelp- Movie on Amazon -

Billion Dollar Bully
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amazon.com/Bill...⇄ />
The Thousands of BBB Yelp Complaints
Better Business Bureau profile c...
Web results
Yelp.com | Complaints | Better Business Bureau® Profile
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.bbb.org/us/ca/s...⇄ />
Please Watch the Movie
Billion Dollar Bully
Please read the many many many
BBB complaints.

Please. Always read the
" Not Recommended" Reviews.
They are Legitimate.

Please, also click the profiles of people that leave negative reviews.
You will find they make a habit of complaining and are not reliable sources.
Thank you.

Yelp entices a small business owner to buy into their 'marketing platform' which is per click. I have paid over $1600 in the past 4 months for organic marketing. First, Yelp don't post all reviews. Out of 14, only 2 were posted. My replies were not posted to the happy customers. Second, when you advertise your business, on the first page they 'suggest' your competition. Third, there is no way of know your 'clicks' were actually from possible new clients or a call center set up to drive your pay per click advertisement. YELP is a scam. YELP is linked to APPLE which makes it even more sketchy. Consumers believe YELP to be an independent social network, honest reviews and not a jaded powerhouse. YELP should be sued for discrimination all elements of 'intent to fraud'.
Elements of Proof of Fraudulent Practices

Definition
IFI Guidelines define "Fraudulent Practices" as:
"Any act or omission, including a misrepresentation, that knowingly or recklessly misleads, or attempts to mislead, a party to obtain a financial or other benefit or to avoid an obligation."
Elements of proof
Any act or omission
Including a misrepresentation
That knowingly or recklessly misleads, or attempts to mislead a party
To obtain a financial or other benefit
Or to avoid an obligation
Any act or omission
A fraudulent "act" could include, for example, forging a document or signature or altering (backdating, etc.) a document.
An "omission" refers to knowingly and willfully failing to disclose a material fact, for example, that a contractor has been debarred, to obtain an improper benefit or avoid an obligation.
Including a misrepresentation
A misrepresentation refers to a false statement of fact (e.g., "our company employs 2000 people," when in fact it employs ten) and generally not to an opinion ("Our company is the leading contractor in the area.") An exception might be an opinion as to the correctness of a financial statement, issued by an accounting firm, which it knows to be false or which it issued recklessly.
Proof of a misrepresentation should be done in two stages: first prove the representation through one set of documents or witnesses, and then prove that it was false by a second set of documents, or witnesses with direct personal knowledge of the falsity.
That knowingly or recklessly misleads, or attempts to mislead
"Knowingly" means that the subject acted with actual knowledge that a statement was false and would tend to mislead the recipient.
"Recklessly" means that the subject:
O Acted without knowing whether the submitted facts were true or false, or did not make an adequate inquiry to determine the truth, or
O Acted with willful blindness as to the truth or falsity of the statement, i. E., deliberately failed to determine the correctness of the facts, or to put in place procedures that would enable it to do so. "Reckless" implies that the subject acted with something "more than mere negligence."
Knowledge and intent can be proven directly, for example, by the admission of the subject, the testimony of a co-conspirator or other witness with direct personal knowledge, or by documentary evidence, such as an incriminating email.
Knowledge and intent also can be proven circumstantially, by, for example, showing that the subject knowingly altered or forged supporting documentation, lied to investigators, attempted to obstruct the investigation (e.g., by intimidating witnesses) or refused to produce pertinent records.
A pattern of prior similar "errors" or misrepresentations also can be used to show willfulness and rebut the typical defense of accident or mistake.
A party
Includes a public or private person or organization, such as the Project Implementation Unit, the borrower or the Bank.
To obtain a financial or other benefit
For example, to be short listed, to receive a contract award, or to inflate a payment request.
Or to avoid an obligation
For example, to avoid performing work to contract specifications, or to avoid refunding overpayments received under the contract.

I am upset with Yelp. Twice Yelp have duped me and my small business into advertising with them. For what comes out to half of my monthly home rental cost, I would expect better customer service. They are unreachable half of the time in their phone. They should be able to afford the extra office staff necessary to taking calls of its clients. They will not mail you a bill. I started the first month of service using my personal credit card. It keeps charging my capital one credit card account. I emailed them to stop. I stopped services all together hoping that would sto the charges and that they would mail be a bill. I sent a strongly worded email with NO REPLY. I have been hung up on. For billing and customer service questions, they make you, the client, call two different phone numbers for your help.
They will say that it is their platform that causes them to be unable to send your bill tk you in the mail. What kind of crap garbage service won't send a bill in the mail to a business it offers service to? Unless I can actually speak to someone on the phone, which can take a long time, and i update my card info to a new card, instead of them sending me a bill. They will continue to charge my personal credit card until it is resolved their way. This pandemic hasn't just been hard for them, it's hard for us too, ya know. I just want my darn credit card to quit being charged. Why is that so hard?
This doesn't even get into the cost/benefit ratio of their product. We shouldn't have to work harder to supply them with what they need when we are spending 400/500+ a month on their services to generate us money. But all that happens is we spend money, some few people click on our website. Maybe a couple of people send a message to year's inbox requesting an estimate for service. Yelp's information gathering request from the customer is total crap by the way. It makes it so that the customer thinks you can come out soon to look at the work that they have described in detail by answering many of yelps questions like, what kind of service, is it an emergency, please tell us more, what is your timeline... but offeres no detail as to their address to come look at the work! This app has made me work harder to loose money. And I've lost hours of my time in life waiting on hold for their customer service which isn't that great even though everyone is friendly. 1 out of 10 stars for me.

Beware. The employees here are tought to be shady in the way Yelp repersent there company. We have allowed them on (2) different occations to advertise for us and they promise that they will help your business but as soon. As you sign up with them they will take your money and you will get little to nothing back in revenue for your money... When you call to talk to someone about it they try to get you to spend even more by saying that you need to up your monthly budget so you can be seen more. What a joke. This last time the rep Billy promissed us that they had changed the way they handle business advertising dollars that will not be charged until they take the action on your add. We said ok and set up and advertising budget of 300.00 they told us we would be getting a 900.00 credit in advertising dollars at 150.00 per month on top of our budget. So 450.00 per month. We have vontage and google antaletics that shows when some one clicks on our pag and is transfered from a different site like Yelp. In two weeks time they said we had spent 335.86 + the 150.00. When we checked with our seo manager they showed us the reports that differed in the amount of traffice from other sites and it was 27 clicks. We had 3 calls from yelp users. Billy A. Our sales rep said it was going to be at a rate of. 62 per click. So when i called to speak with a supervisor about it Justin G. Informed me that it is charged everytime someone looks at your site. So i asked for a detailed report of the charges and he said he could only send me an envoice. I explained that we were told it was per action so people would not be able to eat up the budget and he told me that they watch it to make sure that the same ip address is not clicking mutiple times to eat up the budget. So i asked for that report and once again i was told they did not have access to that one either. So based on that the cost per click is 485.86 (335.86 + 150.00 = 485.86) / (27 clicks on site and 3 calls = 30) = 16.19per click. This business is a scam and all business owners should run run run. You will be waisting your money. There are numerous companies out there that do truly only charge you per sale. It migh be a little bit more but in the long run you are getting a guaranteed customer from it. Not an empty promise. When we asked for a detailed report from them Justin the supervisor he was not able to give me that so i asked for the contact info for the owner of the company and he sent me the link shown below.

Hello Penny,

Below you will find the Legal Questions page for Yelp.

https://www.yelp-support.com/Legal_Questions?l=en_US

Thank You,

Justin

When i tried to write a review about yelp on yelp it kept giving me an error.
Opp's something went wrong try again later.

What a scam they are ready to let anyone talk about every other business but theirs. So they don't want people to review them because they know it will kill their company.

Billing Issues:
We cancelled the program back in September but were subsequently charged for October, November 2020 and Yelp tried to charge the card in December 2020 but failed due to a new card being issued. Interesting that Yelp failed to acknowledge the cancellation in September but, yet they continued to charge for October and November 2020 at the fees agreed in the amount of one-hundred fifty which was to comment in March 2020 but instead we were charged an inflated amount.

December 2020 the payment to Yelp was not received so they decided to take most of the Five-Star Reviews and move them over to the ‘Not Recommended Reviews'. They further claimed that their software did it. Their main response was to deflect and negate any responsibility to us, their Customer. In March aside from the Ads which of course are at a different rate, our base rate was only supposed to be in the amount of one-hundred fifty as above-mentioned but, whereas up to the end of August the rate was as high as $600.00; the month of September when the cancellation occurred they did not charge a monthly fee.

Removal of Reviews:
The removal of ‘Reviews' Yelp claims is their Software designed by Yelp engineers and is not monitored by any IT Department; the software analytics does all the thinking and does not require maintenance.

The software also decides when the reviews are to be moved to the ‘Not Recommended Reviews' which it moves reviews from a day to a year or two after posting. As a customer, with the inflated monthly fees shouldn't the customer decide when the reviews should be taken down? Personally, other well-known technology corporations should use this model since this software thinks and does not require IT to monitor and/or maintain nor does it require updates. This software's analytics are self-thinking and self-sufficient.

The removal of the reviews seemed to oddly correlate with the non-payment for December 2020 which was cancelled back in September 2020 but continued to charge unauthorized charges back in October and December 2020.

Communication Quality:
In September when we cancelled service, Yelp never sent out any type of communication as other global corporations always to do and it seems to also correlate with the resumption of billing a month later. As well when we tried to change our company phone number, they did not communicate that the change of phone number had failed but notwithstanding, they did send out the communication that we did not pay December's bill. Further the first associate hung-up on us after being on hold for almost an hour and the second associate who happened to be a manager clearly stated ‘We try not to hang-up on people' then back-peddle. The most amazing experience was when she tried to sympathize with the long wait time and being hung up on. The reality is that it is not about being hung up on but more about employees being unproductive which is another accrued expense in addition to their bad business practices to continuously charge, unauthorized charges although the services have been cancelled.

Conclusion:
This company Sales & Marketing are not transparent when meeting with our business, when cancelling services, this company suddenly has no record and further does not believe in communication unless they want you to pay for services already cancelled. In addition, for cancelling services they will remove all the beautiful reviews that happy customers take time to write and bring down your business creditability. It seems to scathe the border of defamation and most certainly is retaliation.

I visited the restaurant on a Sunday after church with my family. We only went here because our usual spot nearby [Caravelle] was booked for a wedding. What a mistake. To start, the wait person [older female] did NOT speak good English. She wasn't friendly; just there to take the order. I ordered green beans with beef. I'm 100% sure that I ordered beef. Anyway, when my food came out my dish was green beans with chicken. I kindly reminded the waitperson and she swore me up and down that I did order chicken. I insisted that I needed what I ordered. She grabbed the plate from under my hands and took it back and within minutes comes back and almost throws the plate with beef onto the table. Long story short, this person NEVER stops by our table again, looks at us... nothing the entire time we are there. We did not get drink refills, no to go boxes [we asked someone else] nor did we get a thank you. The other two wait people who brought check, to go boxes made no eye contact with us, just dropped the things [boxes, check] at the table. NOTHING. Also my daughter ordered steamed rice. The waitperson [older female] who brought her fried rice and said, "oh, I'll just give you this for free" and left a small bowl on the table. When we asked the waitperson for the white rice, she yanked her "courtesy" fried rice (untouched by us] off the table and brings the white rice. All the errors were caused by her so not sure why she was so unpleasant. My [remake] food was out so quickly after the order which, at a dine in restaurant, is NOT a good thing. The food was poor, poor quality. I noticed that several of my green beans were black (like spoiled) and the beef was tough. Yuck, yuck, yuck. There is nothing good or pleasing about this place. It's old and dingy, dirty. Save you and your family the anguish and headache... try another restaurant in the area, Chinatown. STAY FAR AWAY - mean unfriendly people and nasty food!

Yelp is a horrible site filled with entitled snobs who proudly wear their 'elite' badges, questionable business tactics and mob mindset.

I'll start with the admission that I was once an elite yelper. At first I really loved the site and getting involved with the yelp community though after some time I learned that yelp really isn't as wholesome as it would have the masses believe.

Basically what yelp has created is a platform for self important people (aka 'elites') to whine. There are some great elite reviewers out there who do take the time to write thought out and fair reviews however Yelp make up the vast minority. Elites are the most entitled people in existence and use their badge which gives them immunity against the review filter to their advantage and will say anything they want about a business and usually top off the review with a obligatory catch phrase or inside joke. Aren't they clever? They do this because they can and will continue to do so because they get away with it.

Yelp also creates a mob mentality with it's monthly review challenges and events that the community managers create. This makes the elites feel so special as they get invites to the most exclusive parties where they are given free booze. This is a complete contradiction of one of yelp's terms of service because elites are being given freebies in exchange for writing reviews. If you take a close look at the terms of service that yelp itself posts on it's site you'll see that getting freebies in exchange for reviews is a big no no in yelp's eyes, though apparently it's ok when you're getting the freebies through yelp itself.

The whole issue of the extortion claims against yelp is a pretty hot button issue. Many business owners all across the globe have come forward claiming that a yelp rep offered to remove their negative reviews if they pay for advertising, The excuse many yelp elites will offer for this is that what the yelp rep is actually saying is that with the fee for advertising they can include the service of a yelp employee to personally go through your reviews and check for legitimacy outside of the automatic review filter. If this individual finds legit reviews caught in the filter these will be released. However this service costs yelp money so that is why this service can only be offered if the business coughs up dollars for advertising. Whether this is true or not is anyone's guess, I however find it hard to believe that billions of business owners are completely misunderstanding what is being told to them by the yelp sales reps.

Bottom line, yelp is a terrible site and does not provide honest feedback on businesses. It is a site used by many as a place to post their personal vendettas and in many cases flat out lies. I have abandoned yelp for good and suggest you do the same!

I signed up for a business account on Yelp and was completely disappointed with their service. I'm giving them one star because Yelp are only concerned with taking a small business person's advertising dollars over helping that small business gain customers and succeed.

I started paying for advertising with Yelp a few months ago, but stopped as soon as they accused me of soliciting reviews from my customers. Apparently, they use some type of software that tests a reviewer's past history of submitting reviews and uses other algorithms to decide is the review is legitimate because they hid three reviews that customers posted about on my service by telling me that their software found those reviews to be inauthentic because their software says I asked my customers to post them.

This is a lie and when I escalated my dissatisfaction for being accused of soliciting the reviews to their customer service, they read a script over and over about their antiquated review policy. So when I stopped paying for advertising on their site, the Account Manager called me and had the mitigated gall to ignore my complaints about the reviews that they didn't recommend. I also asked them to remove one of the reviews that the customer wanted removed but just didn't have time to do it, but they said it was against their policy.

The account manager went on to tell me that since I had only spent $1000, that this was the reason why I was only getting two clicks per day in their pay per click advertising program.

Ironically, since I stopped paying to advertise on Yelp Biz, I continue to get those same two quote requests per day on Yelp. This makes the money that I was paying to advertise on it, unnecessary.

The AM proceeded to tell me that in order to get more clicks that would lead to more quote requests, that I was competing with other businesses that were paying upwards of $10,000 dollars each month to advertise on Yelp to get more clicks.

This is totally ridiculous and their review policy is outdated and delusional when they take a non-paying consumer's review over a paying advertiser's requests to post the hidden reviews that Yelp lists as "not recommended" because of their faulty software programs. I also responded to each customers review in a manner deemed professional and rational to resolve any dissatisfaction.

I will never spend another dollar on Yelp nor will I look at or take into consideration any of their reviews before I make a purchase. If Yelp was really concerned about their paying business client's ability to gain more business by advertising on their site, they wouldn't make such a big deal about reviews when certain circumstances make a review inauthentic anyway.

Look for this company to fall in the next few years if they don't change this policy! I'm going to post this review in Google as well.

Casa de Capucine is a small short term rental business. Yelp Representatives had been trying for years to get me to sign my rental business advertising agreement with them, but due to the bad reviews and the word of mouth of many people I kept away from Yelp.

On 28 September a representative from yelp by the name of Shiko Khan contacted me about great promotion that Yelp was running for the holiday weekended. Clients could run a promotional add for the weekend alone at a low cost of $33. Shiko Khan, insisted that I should give Yelp a try and not listen to the nay sayers and the the bad reviews, while taking into consideration that this promotion would only be for a weekend. If after the weekend I felt that I had success, I could come back and sign a long term contract with them. The only reason I agreed to this was because he told me on multiple occasion's that this would only be for the weekend and it would be cancelled when the weekend ended.

With that being said, I am very disappointed and disgusted with the way Yelp has handled the issue by charging me for something I did not ask for. Yelp have charged me $300 for something that I did not even know I was paying for. After I agreed to give the details of my credit card for the $33, I never heard back from Mr. Shiko Khan. I sent him a couple of emails asking him why wasn't I getting any return emails from him but I never got a reply. This is a terrible way for y'all to do business and cheat your way into making money for Yelp.

I don't want to have anything to do with Yelp in anyway whatsoever. I have been disputing the $300 transaction since October 1 I never gave Yelp verbal or written permission to charge me for any transaction, other than the original $33.
I don't ever want to deal with a company like Yelp that hire deceptive people like Shiko Khan, to misguide lay people into eventually stealing from them.

Had a lease and knew the expiration was coming soon.
My original intention was to go to Audi and make a deal, however when i called the Sales Associate at Audi told me to come back in one year and never showed any interest in helping me at all.

The next call I made was to Lexis and was greeted professionally by Jennifer Peters who answers calls at Lexis Escondido where I purchased my 2018 NX-300 Lexis 3/years ago and wanted see how much longer my lease was and what would it take to get into a new car, however after speaking to Jennifer Peters who qualified me as a repeat customer and who without a doubt had her heart in her job and wanted me to stay as a Lexis customer and not go to another competitor she immediately transferred the call for me to speak and meet Patrick - Super helpful lady excellent phone skills and a gem for Lexis.

Patrick Garland was not your ordinary Salesman for luxury cars. He immediately explained it was a great time to come talk about all the deals available. Patrick was not pushy or over aggressive just kind and really wanted to help me. I made an appointment the next day and I am so happy to have met this talented individual. Not only was he very knowledgeable about the Lexis product also found a way to keep me as a customer and treated me like family with my best interest at hand.

Couple of over the top impressive things happened - Since I did not know I was going to buy a car, my extra key for car needed to be returned to Lexis. I brought all the paper work the next day and the key. Come to find out I grabbed was my husbands Audi key not the lexis key. The were so patient with me and made sure to let me know not to worry bring it at your own leisure. Second thing - realized I left my parking pass in the car and called Patrick and he ensured me that it was safe in his possession. I came back another day and Patrick was off. I called him and he picked up his cell phone on the second ring and said he would be happy to come bring me the pass even on his day off. Over and above the call of duty.

Lexis has a fabulous product, however hands down to the team on the front line who are the initial sale for your success.

I'm in hospitality Management for many years and the team can make or break a company.
"Team Work is Dream Work"

Fortunately, you are hiring the right people who make the client feel comfortable and ensure there best interest.
Also, a special shout-out to Colin who is one of the most intelligent finance Managers I have ever dealt with.

Thank you Team Lexis for another great experience.
Looking forward to returning in the near future for my 3rd car~

Nancy Hirsch
Happy Customer

I wanted a pump action shotgun and the debate between the Mossberg 590A1 and the Remington 870 is legendary.

So after speaking with Peter Boruchowski "a key account manager" and Javier Contreres as well as reading a myriad of articles online and speaking with friends and several Gunshops I still wasn't certain.

So, trying to keep the business near where I grew up I settled on a Mossberg 590A1 model #51771.

It took about 8 days for my shotgun to arrive, I couldn't wait to get it home, clean it up and then off to the range.

I got it home and when I opened it realized I had received a mix match of past on a receiver that didn't resemble any shotgun Mossberg owned. A Frankenstein shotgun, it seemed made of odd parts.

When I phoned Mossberg and spoke with Javier Contreres a customer service manager he informed me that "just because I see a gun on their site doessn't mean that is what I will get if I order it".

Is Mossberg kidding, that is the definition of bait and switch.

Eventually I got Javiers manager a Peter Boruchowski, on Mossbergs site his title is "key account manager".
Peter felt that he would look into it and offered to send me the right parts that should go on my receiver. I said flatly NO, I didn't know what else may be wrong and wanted a new from the factory gun. There are no model 51771's to be had I was told. So, I said I would decide what I wanted to do and call the next day.

The next day I phoned Peter and said I had decided to go with the basic 590A1 model #51660 and that for my troubles I would be happy if Mossberg would put their heat shield over the barrel and a picatinney rail on the receiver for an opti if I chose. This represented approximately $50.00 worth of parts at retail price, less than 10% of my cost for the gun and inconvenience.

Peter said he would try to get the basic gun to me, but Yelp had none in stock, no 51771's either, hmmm. They had a production run slated for May and he would "try to steal" a gun for me. He would not have a heat shield nor a rail placed on the gun and he felt insulted that I referred to the mish mash of odd parts on the gun I had received as a Frankenstein gun. Surely his cost on retail parts is less than their retail price of $50.00.

No guns in stock... what if i had needed parts?

I returned the Mosberg abomination back to the store hwere I had purchased it, called Remington. They explained what I wanted from my description, had it in stock and would be happy to help me purchase it and for $250.00 lesss than the Mossberg.

I have a Remington 870 in my home as we speak and am thrilled with it, the slide is silky smooth compared to the Mossberg, its lighter and everyone I have spoken to from Benelli to Gunshop workers and owners to friends that shoot, pretty much everyone that owns one loves them.

I'm happy to be part of the Remington family and am done with Mossberg.

Beware of Mossberg is all I can say and double check that what you arder is what you will receive!

CAUTION my friends
Please read... Renewed posts and updates:

(1) September 21,2015
Do not go for the free offer for a free web presence on yelp.
Yelp entices your business with an offer of a free presence on their website. After you accept and create ad content on the free site, Yelp then collects reviews and lists them on your site for all to read about your company. Yelp is all about reviews, and people do like to make poor reviews. These reviews are not well scrutinized by Yelp but Yelp do get posted on your site. Anyone could post anything they want, whether it be truthful or all lies. Anything can be posted about your company without being challenged. Yelp actually miss leads you into believing that they are trying to help your company; but, you have fallen for their trap. Now unfavorable things are being written about your business.
So what do you do then?
You try to reach out to Yelp but they are very difficult to get to by phone; so, you go on their site. You do not get anywhere because you are not a member. The only way that you have any input on those bad reviews is to become a member. The membership cost you money so in order to defend your reputation through Yelp, you have got to pay Yelp. Any way that you look at the situation... it is extortion.
These poor and even bad reviews are hurtful to your company and you have been coerced into taking the free offer only to be hurt and then extorted into becoming a paying member.
Be careful my friends.
Yelp, How do you remain in business?

(2) December 2015,
On one of the top 5 syndicated radio talk shows ( Dave Ramsey), Yelp was referred to as "irrelevant".

(3) September 23,2017

Yelp Says, Sign-up for a free listing.
WOW! NEVER do that.
Signing-up for that Free listing means that now Yelp owns you. Yelp then has a hand
On the financial well-being of your business. The blood, sweat, and tears which you spent to create your own business is now at the mercy of Yelp's destructive business model.
Yelp shares compromising information, which then gets attached to other sites that you may have created to actually help your business and hopefully to assist in it's growth. My mistake to 'Sign-up for the Free Listing' has been nothing but trouble. A review by a disturbed customer is welcomed on to your Yelp 'Free Listing' whether it contains truths, is a made-up bunch of trash, or even consist of lies. Those hurtful reviews containing 'lies can not be challenged by you unless you commit to upgrade your relationship with Yelp to a subscriber and pay them a monthly fee. That is just plain extortion. Even if you decide to become a paying subscriber, one could only beg to a client manager to have that "bunch of lies review" reclassified so as to not show-up in the "acceptable" group of reviews. Those reviews NEVER go away. New customers pass you by and your hard-earned customers question your integrity and/or use the threat of a bad review on Yelp to force discounts or for free services.
Let us agree that Yelp is NOT a help to any business, especially small town family businesses that have to struggle to keep it together. I truly hope that Yelp chokes on it's own bad business practices. Let us all make Yelp irrelevant.

(4) January 8,2018

This is an email response from Yelp regarding my confusion of how the same review could be posted BOTH as 'accepted' as well as 'unaccepted':

Hello,
We're writing to let you know that we've evaluated ( Person)'s review of ( my company) that you recently reported. We rely on community engagement to help keep Yelp useful, and although we didnt agree that this content should come down, we appreciate you bringing it to our attention.
Business owners can address any concerns or misunderstandings via their Business Account by posting a public comment or sending a message to the reviewer.
For further information on using Yelp, please find answers to frequently asked questions in our Support Center (http://www.yelp-support.com).
- The Yelp Support Team

This is my email response to Yelp:
You, YELP, have allowed the very same review to exist as an "accepted review" as well as an "unaccepted review. The YELP content reviewers must be 'disturbed' to believe that one review can actually exist as both "accepted" and an "unaccepted" can only be diagnosed as a mental disorder.
This is just another reason why Yelp should be and will be completely irrelevant.

Beginning around March 2019, I wrote (2) very detailed and completely honest and legitimate reviews on (2) related online rug businesses. The 1st rug business is called Rugknots.com, and the 2nd rug business is Rugknot's business partner, Arsh's Fine Rugs. I had originally bought (3) custom, hand knotted persian rugs from Rugknots.com in Sept 2018, and later found out my (3) rugs had all been stored & shipped from Rugknots' business partner, Arsh's Fine Rugs. To make a long story short, all my rugs arrived with varying degrees of damages and defects. None of my rugs were as described or as shown on Rugknots website, and were definitely NOT what I'd paid for or expected. When I first unpacked and saw all (3) rugs, my Contractor was with me, as he's been working on doing renovations on our home for the past year or so. Both of us immediately saw ALL my rugs were damaged / not acceptable or satisfactory. After viewing all my rugs, I immediately contacted George, the Rugknots sales employee who'd showed me all my rugs, & told him how very unhappy & dissatisfied I was with all my rugs. George apologized & asked me to send him rug photos showing their damages, which my Contractor did. During the entire time I had my rugs, NO ONE in management, including Rugknots owner, Ms Mir, ever called me to apologize for sending me damaged rugs in error, or offered to make things "right", or ensure I was satisfied with the end result. To summarize the overall condition of my rugs, two of my rugs were from Iran, & were in the worst overall condition, & looked used vs new. Both my Iranian rugs also had multiple deeply set-in stains & marks & other weaving defects, which didn't show up in any of Rugknots' online photos. My 3rd rug was from Pakistan, & this rug had no visible stains or marks, unlike my (2) Iranian rugs, but instead had weaving defects throughout the rug, which appeared like deeply set in lines or creases or waves, which made this Pak rug unsatisfactory. I never would have bought any of my (3) rugs Arsh's Rugs shipped me, if I'd been able to first see them in person, & view them up close. After this terrible experience with both Rugknots & Arsh's Fine Rugs, I now know it's next-to-impossible to properly "see" most rug details, including stains or marks & weave defects, in online photos. My advice is do NOT ever buy any rugs online, only go in person & buy them from a reputable rug dealer or business. The other huge disadvantage about buying online rugs is when you get sent damaged rugs like I did, you're then faced with the unwanted challenges of repackaging & shipping them back. At first, I even considered keeping all my rugs, despite my unhappiness with them, mainly due to this burden of having to ship (3) very heavy & cumbersome rugs back to Rugknots. In the end, I paid someone to do this for me, and returned all my rugs. Arsh's Rugs blamed ME for causing all the damages to my rugs while I'd had them, & falsely claimed all my rugs had been thoroughly inspected before being shipped in "excellent condition". Rugknots completely supported & backed their rug partner, Arsh's Rugs, over ME, their paying & honest customer. In the end, Rugknots was only willing to refund me 1/2 my money back & I lost over $4,000! After this, I gave both Rugknots & Arsh's Fine Rugs their lowest 1* star review rating on Yelp - Yelp has either completely deleted my reviews, or shelved/hidden them in a separate "not recommended" reviews section, where your 1* ranking on each business doesn't count against them. Yelp has also put a few of my other Positive business reviews in their shelved or hidden "not recommended" reviews section, so how exactly is this helping or affecting both legitimately bad & good businesses? Yelp's arbitrary review moniker completely misses the mark & is a waste of time for consumers wanting to leave honest & legitimate business reviews! What kind of legitimate review site allows or does this?! After Yelp did this to several of my business reviews, I have since read it has happened to others' as well. Going forward, I am DONE with writing or relying on any future Yelp reviews!