Yelp.com

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/12/23) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising programs for *** Costumes and *** Studios
We appreciate your feedback regarding your sales representative, and
have forwarded your message the the appropriate parties
As you noted, you redeemed a $promotionTo redeem the $promotion, 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 $per locationOnce 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 only be turned off by the business 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 usedYou wrote, "Yelp was not clear that it was the businesses responsibility to cancel the campaign," but when you signed up for Yelp self-serve advertising, in Step of 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: "Can I stop any time? YesThere's no commitment or obligationJust come back to the Yelp for Business Owners site and stop your adsYou will be billed at the beginning of the next month for any clicks you bought before you cancelled."
It looks like you cancelled your advertising programs through your Yelp for Business Owners Account on December 2, As advertising services were delivered in accordance with the Terms you agreed to when you signed up for your advertising campaign, we will not be able to waive the outstanding balance of $510.48, which is for advertising services delivered in November and from December and 2, for your two business locationsOnce this amount is collected, you will not incur further chargesThanks for understanding
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Complaint Response Date bumped because: Holiday

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 7, 2015/07/14) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writing with your concerns about your Yelp account
We are unable to locate your account with the information you providedCould you please respond to this message with the email address you used to create the
account and the case number found in the subject line of the email you received from ***, so that we can look into this?
We also wanted to clarify that while our Yelp Support team doesn't offer phone based support, they do provide email based support through our Support Center (http://www.yelp-support.com)We've tried to include detailed answers to the questions we most frequently receive in our Support Center, but there may be situations you encounter where you'll need to contact our Support team for assistanceFor these specific situations, there are articles in the Support Center that include submission forms to inquire about the issue
Finally, we want to address your comment, "I strongly suspect that they closed my account because I left a negative star review for one of their sponsors." We want to assure you that a business's decision whether or not to advertise on Yelp does not affect how the reviews or the reviewers 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
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 9, 2015/07/18) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
The email my account was under was ***@aol.com and the case number was XXXXXXXMy roommate had an account under his email ***@yahoo.com but I don't know what case number his wasI looked all through the FAQThere was nothing that was directing me to contact Yelp support in any wayEvery time I found information that I should go to a specific website to do so, it kept circling around and put me right back at the beginning of the FAQ
Final Business Response /* (4000, 11, 2015/08/04) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writing in again with your concerns regarding your user account
Upon further inspection, we've decided to reinstate your user accountWe are currently in the process of doing so and will update you via email at ***@aol.com when the process is completeWe apologize for the inconvenience
If your roommate would like to get in touch with us regarding his account, please have him contact us at ***@yelp.com
Regards,
***
Yelp, Inc
Final Consumer Response /* (2000, 13, 2015/08/16) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
The company restored my account and I'm satisfiedThank you

Hi Cris,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for TEK Virtuoso Computer Services. Our records indicate you redeemed a $promotional ad credit on August 31, To 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 $300, which may have also been shown as a daily average of $a dayYou also signed up for enhanced profile features which cost an additional $per month, or an average of $per dayOnce 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 page explaining that you could stop your ads any time through the Yelp for Business Owners site.Additionally, after you signed up for your advertising program, we sent you an automated email that recapped your purchase and the details of your campaignAdvertisers also have the option to opt in to receiving billing confirmation emails in the Account Settings section of their account. Below is a more detailed description of how the promotion was applied: August 31, 2016- You received ad clicks and enhanced profile features which cost a total of $6.14- $of your $credit was used and you paid $0September 2016- You received ad clicks and enhanced profile features which cost a total of $375- You had $remaining promotional credit for this month because it was partially used towards your August ads- You are responsible for $for advertising services delivered in SeptemberOctober 1, 2016- You received ad clicks and enhanced profile features which cost a total of $0.81- You had remaining promotional credit for this month because it was used towards your August and September ads- You are responsible for $for advertising services delivered in October You can view billing information in the Billing tab of your Yelp for Business Owners Account at ***You ended your advertising program on October 1, While we're sorry to hear you were not satisfied with your advertising program, advertising services have been delivered in accordance with the Terms ***) you agreed to, so we will not be able to waive the outstanding balance of $for the advertising services delivered in September and October Once this amount is collected, you will not incur further chargesThanks for understanding.With regards to your comment, "never to contact the business again for any type of promotion," if you no longer wish to be contacted by our Sales team, please let us knowAdditionally, you can change the notifications you receive for your business by following the instructions given here: ***Regards,HelenYelp Inc

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because: Yelp has declared that all of my patients submissions are basically not up to their standards. This is utterly ludicrous and does not make sense. You indicate that the patients were prompted to respond by *** *** *** That is absolutely correct they were prompted to give my company a recommendation on Yelp. If they hadn't been told where to give the recommendation I will guaranty to you that these senior citizens would have no idea who and what Yelp is. All patients of *** *** *** receive up to 50% off on Major Hearing Aids brands that is the reason for our existence...to undercut competition to benefit seniors pocketbooks. Of course our patients like what we do as they save hundreds to thousands of dollars. I am going to ask another patient to send in a review and see what happens. I am going on seventy years old and this is tending towards a discrimination case. Sincerely,*** ***

Complaint* ***I am rejecting this response because: I told them from the very beginning I do not want it to auto renew and that it should be canceled after months, because we don't operate in the winter. In those months they charged me more than any other company I've ever worked with ($per month!), and I only gained job which paid less than $300. This is the most unreasonable business I've ever done business with! Every other company I've ever asked to grant a refund for the months when they auto renewed a subscription that I didn't want, has given me a full refund for those months.Sincerely,Eric ***

Hi ***,Thank you for writing back.It appears *** *has removed their review from your business.It 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 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 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 the most reliable and useful content amongst the millions of submitted reviewsIt's no easy task, and there is always room for improvementWe hope to be able to continually improve on this issue.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Complaint:***I am rejecting this response because: The company clearly does not wish to resolve this issue which was caused by their employee and their deceptive practicesThe company prefers to lose a client over one unauthorized transaction then sustain a repeat clientI will make sure everyone is aware of there malicious practices so that no one else falls to these unethical business operations.Sincerely,Edwin ***

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/06/30) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for *** LLC
You expressed concern with the recommendation softwareAs you may have read, we use
automated software to recommend reviews, with the goal of showcasing the ones that best reflect the opinions of the Yelp communityThe recommendation software establishes an objective standard against which every review can be measured, and looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability, and activity on Yelp
It's important to note that the software applies the same analysis to everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviewsYou wrote, "I want all my reviews to show not just the bad ones," but please 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
While we understand your concerns, we want to make sure you are clear that federal law bars lawsuits against websites like Yelp for the decisions they make about which reviews to post or removeSee Carafano vMetrosplashcomInc., F3d (9th Cir2003); Zeran vAmerica Online, Inc., F.3d (4th Cir1997); Barrett vRosenthal, Cal4th (Cal2006)
For more information about recommended reviews, please visit our Support Center: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/07/07) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I do not except this responseHere is whyWhy would you make a system that is flawed to only recommend the bad reviews and not my good ones that have been on your websites for a couple of yearsAs far as the lawsuit goI will be moving forward since you are not taking account that your software is losing business which in a court room will be considered lost of business due to your software systemIf you cant fix itI want to be permanently taken off of your website AND PUNITIVE DAMAGES OF AROUND $50,I see now that this is your number one complaint so obviously I am gathering up other business owners to get a class action lawsuit started whether its out of my pocket or notEither way I am moving forward on my end and your excuses of its your system well that needs to change since you are hurting small businesses out there
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/07/14) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for your response
You stated that you don't accept our response, 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 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 informationFor example, the software might pick up new information as time goes by that makes a reviewer seem more trustworthy, or the information we have about a reviewer can grow stale
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
You also asked for your business to be removed from Yelp, but we actually 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 lawMore importantly, we believe that the public benefits from sharing their experiences with local businesses
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 campaignWhile 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 an enhanced profile which includes features such as competitor ad removal and a photo slideshow.As Cost Per Click ads and enhanced profile features are being delivered in accordance with the advertising agreement you signed, we will not be able to offer you a refundIt also appears you have since been in touch with our Account Management team regarding your request to cancel your adsPlease feel free to reach out to our Account Management team if you have further questions or concerns.Thanks for understanding.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because: Once again Yelp chooses to ignore facts presented to themI would love how they can defend the reviews post that he had haircuts the same day (as based on reviews posted the exact same day, stating the same thing), and again how they can ignore a personal attack against one of our styslists, in which the "review" has nothing to do with any service or perfomance out our salon.
Yelp has always been a shady company, and continues to do soJust because their search algorithm doesn't find anything, and again because we won't support their shady business by buying their ads they allow competing a business to slander othersThey are always high and mighty about their rules and practices, but when you receive a phone call from them it's a completely different storyThey are in the business of selling ads, the cost is reviews and/or slander being highlighted on a page if you choose not to stoop to their level
Sincerely,*** ***

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because:
This customer keep threatening that either give me a refund or I will write more negative ***, I do not understand which part of it is not clear to you guys since I have been loyal customers of yelp for many many years, I can even send you guys the email that she sent us!
Sincerely,
*** ***

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because: I will not accept this same response by Yelp because the automated system hurts our online reputation by withholding the raving reviews we received from ACTUAL clients Sincerely,*** ***

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because: It is absolutely ridiculous and defies just plain common sense. If Yelp is so naïve to think that people without being asked will go to your site and write a review, especially senior citizens, all I can say is dream on. I am confident to say that not one of the Hearing Aid practices that have reviews that are on your site were given the reviews spontaneously. And for sure not by their elderly patients as they were looking through Yelp. Again my Practice along with my competitors work with senior citizens who are on average in their late 60's on up. For the most part this group of people have no idea or interest in Yelp is or for that matter Social Internet Media in general, i.e., ***, ***, ***, etc. As for each of my 3 patients posts not one of these people had heard of Yelp. I consider your entire review program as being manipulated internally, advertiser slanted and also discriminatory against the free speech of senior citizens, which I am one close to years old. Eventually a law suit will stick against Yelp and the truth will come out. Regards,*** ** *** *** President/CEO *** *** ***

Hi ***,Thank you for letting us know you are currently unable to take phone calls.We've forwarded this information to our Account Management teamA manager, ***, has reached out to you via email on July 27, to try and schedule a time to discuss your ad campaign upon your return on August 2, If you haven't already done so, please reach out to *** with your availability so you can arrange a time to further discuss your concerns with her.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/07/10) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for *** *** and ***
You 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 measuredThe software looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability, and activity on Yelp
It's important to note that the software applies the same analysis to everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviewsYou wrote, "I wish to have ALL of my business's reviews displayed on the profile and counted toward the overall rating, good or bad," but please 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, 2015/07/14) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Yelp did not resolve my issue whatsoeverI already know everything they just told meThey continue to blame a computer softwareSo a software determines how my business looks to the public? I am the only one in the area that has almost every single good review under not recommend reviewsAnd the recommended reviews have hardly changed in the last year like Yelp claims they doI don't know why any of our clients even left reviews because instead of trusting people who have been to my business one or more times, this software only shows reviews of people who hardly know anything about my business and have been there onceYelp needs to take responsibility and not stand behind a software with no brainI want my business taken off Yelp because I want nothing to do with a company that lets a software determine the fate of my business
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/07/23) */
Hi ***,
It 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 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 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
You have again asked that your business listing be removed, but as previously stated, we don't remove business listing informationPlease note again that Yelp 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)
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc

Revdex.com:I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to meSincerely, Daniel ***

Complaint:***I am rejecting this response because:you say in your video that you like to know the people doing reviews but two of my bad reviews have no other reviews or friends and several of my good one have other reviews and friends makes no sense I have been in business for almost years and have a great reputation and you are hurting my business it not fair for yelp to do this to usSincerely,Dennis ***

Hi ***,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for *** *** *** *** *** *** ***.You expressed concern with the early termination feeAs noted in the advertising agreement you signed, early
termination of your advertising program is subject to a fee of $Per the terms of your contract, we also require days written notice to your account management contact if you wish to terminate your advertising programAs you provided your cancellation request on August 16, 2016, your advertising program was cancelled as of September 15, 2016.Your advertising program was billed in arrears, which means that we typically bill on the first of the month for advertising services that were delivered in the previous monthThus, the $you were charged on October 1, was for advertising services delivered from September - 15, The early termination fee of $was collected on September 15, 2016.As advertising services were delivered in accordance with the advertising agreement you signed, we will not be able to offer you a refundThanks for understanding.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Revdex.com: I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to mePlease do note that I get many spam phone calls than business from this Yelp lookup.Please note that many spam calls state that they are affiliated with YelpIf this is not stopped, it reflects badly upon your good effortsThe response is so bad, I have to not answer my phone. There was a bad entry on Yelp in *** *** that took my info and scrambled itThe confusion with Yelp has been a nightmareI am so sorry, others have attacked your bushiness model. Please do consider the small business workers and protection needsThank you so much for creating the new work field of Furniture RepairIt appeared that Upholster was assigned by default due to no other field could be assigned Please do make sure the *** *** listing is removed under my business name
*** ***

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/05/29) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding the reviews of *** *** *** Inc
You expressed concern with the reviews by *** ***, and *** VThe reviews have been
evaluated by the Yelp Support team and left up, as they were not found to be in violation of our guidelinesYou claim that these users are the same individual using multiple accounts; however, we are unable to verify that these users are the same personIf a review appears to reflect the personal experience and opinions of the reviewer, it is our policy to allow the user to stand by his/her review
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc