Yelp.com

Hi Dwayne,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for Club Z In Home Tutoring - Vista.We are sorry to hear you were not satisfied with your advertising campaignTo be clear, while the goal of advertising on Yelp is to
drive more traffic to the business page, which may ultimately result in more customers, it is important to keep in mind that results are not guaranteed.When advertising with a Cost Per Click program, you are electing to pay every time a user clicks on your ad impressionYou are also paying for enhanced profile features such as a Call To Action button, photo slideshow, and competitor ad removal.We appreciate your feedback, and have forwarded your message to the appropriate parties for their considerationIt appears you also spoke with Katie, a member of our Customer Success team, on February 15, and that you discussed downgrading to a program with monthly recurring costs of $It appears Katie emailed you a new advertising agreement to sign, but that you have not yet signed this agreementIf you would prefer to cancel your advertising program instead, please reach out to our Customer Success team at the email address in the Billing tab of your Yelp for Business Owners Account ***Regards,HelenYelp Inc

Hi ***,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for *** ***Our records indicate you signed an advertising agreement on October 5, 2016, and that your advertising program started that same dayIt looks like
your advertising program was terminated on November 30, because the balance was not clearedAt this time it looks like you are responsible for an outstanding balance of $for advertising services delivered October - November 30, 2016.You wrote that you "canceled [your] service within days of contract." Please note that per the terms of your advertising agreement, we require days written notice to your account management contact if you wish to terminate your advertising program, and we were unable to locate a written cancellation request from youIf you submitted a written cancellation request, could you please forward us the email (including headers) to *** so that we can look into this further? Please be sure to indicate that it is in regards to Revdex.com case #***.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because:
I did not post our winery on your site, our son didTherefore I would like to be considered as a special situation given that I did not know about the posting
We wish to remain a small private boutique wineryPlease ask your top CEO for this consideration
Sincerely,*** ***

Hi ***Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for *** *** ***You wrote, "On 5-24-*** * wrote a review about my business and gave my business one star and yelp allowed her to write this review without
contacting me to see if it is true or not." To address your concern about how our content is monitored, we allow users to post reviews and photos, and rely on the Yelp community to report content that they believe is questionableIf a review violates our Content Guidelines ***), then our Support team will remove it.We understand that you’re disputing the accuracy of *** *'s review of your business, and our team has taken a second look at the review.However, we reached the same conclusion as before and are unable to remove the reviewWe don't take sides in factual disputes; if a review appears to reflect the reviewer’s personal experiences and opinions, it is our policy to let the user stand behind his or her review.These decisions aren’t always easy, but please know we looked at this review closely before reaching our decision.You also noted that you've already used your free business account to post a public comment on this reviewMany reviewers respond favorably to business owners willing to engage in constructive conversation, and at the very least, other Yelp users appreciate seeing business owners take a proactive approach to dealing with customer concerns.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/05/01) */
Hi Dr***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for Dr ***'s *** *** ***
You expressed concern that your business page is appearing when people
search for medical marijuana cards near PalmdaleYelp's search results algorithm provides results based on a number of different factors including review text, ratings, and number of reviewsWhile we can't manually adjust these search results, we are always working to improve our search tool so that we can deliver the most relevant local results to our usersPlease also keep in mind that you can use the features in your Business Account to help make the nature of your business clear to people viewing your listing, which it appears you've already done
You also asked for your business to be removed from Yelp; however, we don't remove business informationWhile some business owners might prefer to keep a lower profile, this kind of information is publicly available and its use is protected under the lawMore importantly, we believe that the public benefits from sharing their experiences with local businesses
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/05/04) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
They have not addressed the fact that they are falsely listing my business as providing a medical marijuana card and that needs to be removedNor have they agreed to remove my name and the name of my business completely from their site which filtered out all ten of my positive reviews and kept negative onesI am not the only one complaining about yelp and the way they use their so-ccalled algorithmsThey are here only to create harm to businesses who refuse to advertise with themThey are not even trying to resolve my complaintI would like to escalate this complaint
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/05/18) */
Hi Dr***,
Thank you for your response
With regards to your concern with our search results, as we previously noted, we can't manually adjust these resultsThat said, we have forwarded your messages to our search team so that they can take your feedback into consideration
You have again asked that your business listing be removed, but as previously stated, we don't remove business listing informationYelp is allowed to publish business names and publicly available information about businesses under the well-established fair use doctrine, as well as First Amendment principlesGenerally speaking, this means that we can display business names and trademarks "for purposes of comparison, criticism, point of reference, or any other such purpose." See New Kids on the Block vNew America Pub., Inc., F.2d 302, (9th Cir1992)
With regards to your comment, "They are here only to create harm to businesses who refuse to advertise with them," we want to assure you that a business's decision whether or not to advertise on Yelp does not affect how the reviews on its listing are treatedBusinesses are not punished if they don't advertise, nor are businesses awarded with preferential treatment with regards to their reviews if they do advertiseWe understand there are some misconceptions about this, so we invite you to visit http://www.yelp.com/advertiser_faq and http://officialblog.yelp.com/2013/05/no-yelp-doesnt-extort-small-businesses-see-...⇄ to learn more
You also expressed concern that the recommendation software has "filtered out all ten of my positive reviews and kept negative ones." As you may have read, the goal of Yelp's recommendation software is to showcase more reliable contentThe recommendation software establishes an objective standard against which every review can be measuredThe software looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability, and activity on YelpIt's important to note that the software applies the same analysis to everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviewsPlease also understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a reviewHowever, the system is not static reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors
To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US
Finally, if you believe a review violates Yelp's Content Guidelines (http://www.yelp.com/guidelines), you can report the content by clicking the flag icon next to itYou'll need to be logged in to your account in order to view the flag iconWhile flagging something doesn't guarantee that it'll be removed, our team looks at every inquiry and carefully evaluates the content against our guidelinesFor instructions on how to report content, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/article/How-do-I-flag-a-review?l=en_US
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc

Hi ***,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for *** *** *** ***We are sorry to hear you were not satisfied with your advertising campaignTo be clear, while the goal of advertising on Yelp is
to drive more traffic to the business page, which may ultimately result in more customers, it is important to keep in mind that results are not guaranteed.You expressed concern that you kept hitting your monthly budget capAs you may recall, you signed up for an advertising program with $monthly fixed costs plus up to $monthly variable costs, for a monthly maximum of $The monthly fixed costs were for your enhanced profile (which included features such as competitor ad removal and a photo slideshow), featured video, and call trackingYour monthly cost per click budget cap was set at $275, which means you were only charged when someone clicked on your ad and you agreed to pay up to $a month for those ad clicksIf you did not reach your monthly budget cap, you would only be charged for the ad clicks you receivedHowever, if you did reach your monthly budget cap, we no longer delivered ads for your business for the remainder of the month so that you wouldn't have to pay more than you agreed to.Additionally, please note that you signed up for a cost-per-click auction-based auto-bidding program, which means that Yelp delivered a variable and unguaranteed number of ad impressions, and that the price per click fluctuated up or down depending on competition, relevance, and other factorsAs noted in your contract, you agreed to allow Yelp to set the bid price per click price to keep you competitive in the marketHowever, the price you paid was always the lowest price possible to win the clickAdditionally, please note that ad delivery is not based on specific keywords, but rather the categories on your business page.Your advertising program has been terminated as of May 5, We've forwarded your message to the appropriate parties for their consideration, but at this time it appears you are responsible for an outstanding balance of $for advertising services delivered from April 1, through May 5, Thanks for understanding.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Hi ***,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for *** *** *** ***.We appreciate your feedback, and have forwarded your message to the appropriate partiesAs you may recall, an account manager, *** reached
out to you today, May 12, to discuss your concerns.*** has set your advertising campaign to stop at the end of your agreement on July 31, She is also applying a bonus budget of $to your advertising program. If you have further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact our Account Management team. Regards,***Yelp Inc

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because:Instead of helping to resolve this problem I am being solicited to register and pay for an accountWhat are my options for removing my company from your website? Sincerely,*** ***

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/05/12) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for *** Moving
You expressed concern with the review by *** CWe wanted to let you know that after further
evaluation, we have removed the review by *** C because, as written, it falls outside our Content GuidelinesPlease keep in mind that if the user chooses to post a new review and that content falls within our Guidelines, we will allow it to remain on the site
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 7, 2015/05/14) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/05/11) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for *** ***
You stated that your business is listed on Yelp "without consent." We license basic
business information from third party data providers who gather this type of information from public records and other sourcesWe also get business information from our users, who are helpful enough to correct the info we have, or let us know about a new spot that just opened down the street
You asked for your business to be removed from Yelp; however, we don't remove business informationWhile some business owners might prefer to keep a lower profile, this kind of information is publicly available and its use is protected under the lawMore importantly, we believe that the public benefits from sharing their experiences with local businesses
With regards to your comment, "they have removed ALL good reviews upon denying to pay them for advertising," we want to make sure you know that a business's decision whether or not to advertise on Yelp does not affect how the reviews on its listing are treatedBusinesses are not punished if they don't advertise, nor are businesses awarded with preferential treatment with regards to their reviews if they do advertiseWe understand there are some misconceptions about this, so we invite you to visit http://www.yelp.com/advertiser_faq and *** to learn more
You also expressed concern with the recommendation softwareAs you may have read, the goal of Yelp's recommendation software is to showcase more reliable contentThe recommendation software establishes an objective standard against which every review can be measuredEven though it inevitably affects legitimate reviews from time to time and misses some fake ones, too, it helps protect the integrity of the site both for consumers (who will be less likely to be led astray by bogus reviews) and business owners (who will spend less time worrying about whether their competitors are writing negative reviews about them)
It's important to note that the software applies the same analysis to everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviewsPlease also understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a reviewHowever, the system is not static reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors
To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/05/12) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
All good reviews have been removed on days we talked with advertising department and denied itThe people who left good reviews are regular customers and deserve to have their voices hear but somehow got "filtered"Yet someone making accusations that we have proof are untrue seems to have no problem staying on the page
Yelp is such an untrustworthy company and yet we are forced to do business with them on their terms
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/05/28) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for your response
It sounds as though you still believe that Yelp is manipulating your reviews because you declined to advertiseHowever, with respect to reviews, paying businesses have absolutely no advantageThe recommendation software does not distinguish between advertisers and free listings, and the revenue side of our business operates independently of the content side of our business, just as a newspaper might put a firewall between their advertising and reporting functionsThere is zero relationship between the timing of when a review gets recommended and when a business decides to or declines to advertiseReviews can be recommended or not recommended days, weeks, or even months after they were first posted, and a Yelp sales representative doesn't have any influence over when that might happen
It also sounds as though you don't accept our explanation of the recommendation software, but we can only stand by our previous statementsYelp's recommendation software is an automated algorithm that attempts to weed out less reliable reviews while showcasing more reliable onesThis means that when reviews are posted to your listing, not all of them will make the cutWe acknowledge that even some legitimate reviews will not be recommended, but we still believe that the recommendation software as a whole makes our site more trustworthy and useful to consumers
As indicated in our prior response, the recommendation software is automated to help avoid the potential for human bias inherent in individual decision-making: we cannot reverse the software's decisions, either to suppress an active review or to restore a review that isn't currently recommendedThis also means (and I can say this with 100% certainty) that we cannot manually manipulate the recommendation software to favor an advertiser or punish a non-advertiserBut once again, the system is not static reviews may come and go as the recommendation software picks up new information
We do understand the recommendation software can be frustrating at times, and your feedback is appreciatedWhen it comes down to it, all review sites face the same challenge: how to identify fake reviews among the many millions of legitimate reviewsIt's no easy task, and there is always room for improvementWe hope to be able to continually improve on this issue
With regards to your comment, "someone making accusations that we have proof are untrue seems to have no problem staying on the page," please note Yelp does not take sides in factual disputes, and the Yelp Support team's manual evaluation of a review is separate from actions taken by the recommendation softwareIf you believe a review, photo or video violates Yelp's Content Guidelines (http://www.yelp.com/guidelines), you can report the content by clicking the flag icon next to itYou'll need to be logged in to your account in order to view the flag iconFor instructions on how to report content, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/article/How-do-I-flag-a-review?l=en_USWhile flagging something doesn't guarantee that it'll be removed, our team looks at every inquiry and carefully evaluates the content against our guidelines
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because:
Those "not recommended" reviews are hidden If you are on a mobile device you can't see themWhy hide reviews from actual customers that were at our shop and actually performed services with us? I want my listing removed from Yelp or that you balance my reviews at least contacting the customers to see that they are true reviews.
Sincerely,*** ***

Hi ***Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for Professional Appliance Repair.Our Support team has taken another look at *** *'s review, and have carefully considered your concerns that the reviewer may have a
conflict of interestHowever, we are still unable to confirm the conflict using the information we have in our systemsAdditionally, we realize that different people have different tolerances for strong language, but our bar is pretty high so that we can allow reviewers to tell their story in their own words even when things get colorfulWith that said, we've decided not to remove the review after carefully assessing it against our Content Guidelines, but thank you for bringing it to our attention.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Hi ***,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for *** *** ***As you noted, you redeemed a $promotional ad creditTo redeem the $credit towards Yelp ads, you were required to sign up for our Cost
Per Click (CPC) advertising campaign and put a credit card on fileYou set your Cost Per Click monthly budget at $Once the promotion runs out, advertising continues until you stop your ads through your Yelp for Business Owners Account.Your advertising program was a self-serve program, which means that ads can be turned off by the business at any time through the Yelp for Business Owners AccountIf you only wanted to use your $promotion, you would have needed to log in and end the program once that credit was usedDuring your ad setup there were Q&A's on the right side of the page explaining that you could stop your ads any time through the Yelp for Business Owners site.Below is a more detailed description of how the promotion was applied:December - 31, 2016- You received ad clicks which cost a total of $274.10- $of your $credit was used and you paid $0January 2017- You received ad clicks which cost a total of $300- You had $remaining promotional credit for this month because it was partially used in December- The costs did not exceed your selected $monthly budget- You paid $for advertising services delivered in JanuaryFebruary - , 2017- You received ad clicks which cost a total of $8.33- You had remaining promotional credit for this month because it was used in December and January- You are responsible for $for advertising services delivered in FebruaryA breakdown of how many ad clicks you received is available in the Yelp Ads tab of the Yelp for Business Owners Account at ***You ended your advertising program on February 2, As advertising services have been delivered in accordance with the Terms you agreed to, we will not be able to waive the remaining balance of $for advertising services delivered in FebruaryOnce this amount is collected, you will not incur further chargesThanks for understanding.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Hi ***,Thank you for your response.You wrote, "The information the reviewer had provided is false." However, we don't take sides on factual disputes, so we can only therefore reiterate what we previously communicated to you: if a review appears to reflect the user's personal experience and opinions, we allow the user to stand behind their review.We encourage you to contact the reviewer directly using the private messaging function on our site in order to constructively address your concerns and clarify any misunderstandings.You can access your account by visiting ***For guidance on using your Business Account, check out ***Regards,***Yelp Inc

Complaint: ***
I am rejecting t*is response because:All I want is for my business to be removed and along wit* all t*e information about my businessT*e response was similar to w*at I've been told by Yelp Support w*ic* is still not *elping my situation
Sincerely,
*** *

Hi ***,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for *** *** *** ***We are sorry to hear you were not satisfied with your advertising campaign, and have forwarded your message to the appropriate partiesAs you
may recall, an account manager, ***, reached out to you by voicemail and email on February 15, to let you know that we are refunding you $167.03.Please feel free to reach out to *** directly if you have further questions or concerns.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Hi ***,Thanks for letting us know you did not receive *** voicemailAccording to our records, it appears *** left a voicemail for you on your business phone number on September 20.We've passed your message along to Hannah, and she left you another voicemail on October 25, this time on the phone number you provided with this Revdex.com complaint*** also followed up by email on October If you haven't already done so, please feel free to reach out to *** directly to further discuss your concerns.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Hi David,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for Perennial Lawn and Landscape.You expressed concern with a reviewIt looks like you are referring to the review by Roland PWe have taken another look at this review and
want to clarify our policies as they pertain to cases like this.The only people who can speak authoritatively to a situation are the people who were there when it happened, so our moderators aren't in a position to take sides when factual accounts differAs long as a review appears to reflect the reviewer's personal experiences and opinions, we'll generally allow them to stand behind their reviewOur moderators generally aren't able to consider outside information or arbitrate disputes, if there's a disagreement over the facts of a situation.With that in mind, we’ve taken another look and we stand by our original decision to leave the review up, as we did not find it to be in violation of our guidelines.You may want to consider reaching out to the reviewer or publicly commenting on the review, which you can do with your free business accountWhile it is ultimately up to the reviewer to decide if they wish to engage further, responding to your reviews can show both the reviewer and visitors to your Yelp page that you care about your businessYou can learn more about directly messaging your reviewers or publicly commenting on your reviews at ***For additional guidance on using your business account, visit***With regards to your comment, "they do not show other positive reviews that are posted on yelp," one of the ways we try to help Yelp users discover local businesses is by using automated software with the goal of showcasing reliable reviewsThis means Yelp doesn’t recommend every review from every user and is automated so that it can apply the same objective standards to every business and every reviewThis is very different from other sites that tend to feature every single negative rant and positive raveThe software looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability and activity on YelpWhat is recommended can change over time, and a review that is currently not recommended may be recommended on another day.We hope you’ll take the time to watch our video about the Recommendation Software: *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***Regards,HelenYelp Inc

Hi ***,Thank you for writing again.You asked for your listing to be removed from Yelp; however, we don't remove business listing informationWhile some business owners might prefer to keep a lower profile, this kind of information is publicly available and its use is protected under the law*** is allowed to publish business names and publicly available information about businesses under the well-established fair use doctrine, as well as First Amendment principlesGenerally speaking, this means that we can display business names and trademarks "for purposes of comparison, criticism, point of reference, or any other such purpose." See *** *** ** *** *** ** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***)Additionally, while we understand you are concerned that some reviews are not currently being recommended on your listing, it's important to remember that people can still see these reviews at the bottom of your business page, and they might be recommended on another day.Regards,*** Inc

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/08/11) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your review for the business page for ***
Based on the email we sent you on July 23, 2015, we removed your previous reviews
because they fell outside our Content GuidelinesThese reviews were removed because they addressed disputes with other reviewersPlease note that your most recent review still stands
Regarding our recommendation software, as you may have read, the goal of Yelp's recommendation software is to showcase more reliable contentThe recommendation software establishes an objective standard against which every review can be measuredEven though it inevitably affects legitimate reviews from time to time and misses some fake ones, too, it helps protect the integrity of the site both for consumers (who will be less likely to be led astray by bogus reviews) and business owners (who will spend less time worrying about whether their competitors are writing negative reviews about them)
It's important to note that the software applies the same analysis to everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviewsPlease also understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a reviewHowever, the system is not static reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors
To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US
Regards,
***
Yelp, Inc
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/08/26) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I do not accept the response from yelpIf my 'recent review still stands', how come it doesn't show up when I pull up ***' yelp review? In fact, I tried to re-write a follow up reciew and it was blocked and went straight to the 'reviews not currently recommended'I want access to write about what my personal experience was and have it posted on the review page NOT the 'reviews not currently recommended'
TL's review should be removed since it still refutes my review and opinions on MY experience with ***It clearly addresses his dispute with my reviewIt's can be seen at the end of his reviewLike you said 'addressing disputes with other reviewers' is not allowed
Allow me to post my review and remove TL's review since he is addressing his dispute with my review
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/09/04) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for your response
To clarify, it looks like your review of *** is currently not recommended by our recommendation softwareAs we previously noted, Yelp's recommendation software is an automated algorithm that attempts to weed out less reliable reviews while showcasing more reliable onesThis means that when reviews are posted to a business's listing, not all of them will make the cutWe acknowledge that even some legitimate reviews will not be recommended, but we still believe that the software as a whole makes our site more trustworthy and useful to consumers
As indicated in our prior response, the recommendation software is automated to help avoid the potential for human bias inherent in individual decision-making: we cannot reverse the software's decisions, either to suppress an active review or to restore one that isn't recommendedBut once again, the system is not static reviews may come and go as the recommendation software picks up new informationIt's also important to note that even if your review isn't currently recommended, users can still find it at the bottom of the Yelp listing or on your user's profile page
We do understand the recommendation software can be frustrating at times, and your feedback is appreciatedWhen it comes down to it, all review sites face the same challenge: how to identify fake reviews among the many millions of legitimate reviewsIt's no easy task, and there is always room for improvementWe hope to be able to continually improve on this issue
Finally, we wanted to let you know that we have removed the review by T L because, as written, it falls outside our Content GuidelinesPlease keep in mind that if the user chooses to post a new review and that content falls within our guidelines, we will allow it to remain on the site
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc