Yelp.com

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/11/24) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page 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 guaranteedWhen advertising with a Cost Per Click program, you are electing to pay every time a user clicks on your ad impression
As you noted, 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 featured video and your enhanced profile, which included features such as competitor ad removal and a photo slideshowYour advertising program was a Cost Per Click program and your monthly cost per click budget cap was set at $200, 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
With regards to your comment, "we were still billed maximum amount of over $per month for maximum clicks they claimed without any evidence of it," you can view a breakdown the number of ad clicks you received by logging in to your Yelp for Business Owners Account at https://biz.yelp.com/ and clicking on the "Yelp Ads" tabYou received ad clicks in August, in September, and in October
You also wrote, "Two months into the contract we realised that no additional traffic was generated." However, it looks like your business page saw an increase in user views in the months you were advertising (August - October 2015) compared with months you were not advertisingIf you log in to your Yelp for Business Owners Account, you can see on the Activity page that your business page saw user views in August, in September, and in October, compared with user views in May, in June, and in July
You also expressed concern with the early termination feeSince you chose to end your program before the end of the 12-month term, and since it appears you declined ***'s offer to waive $of the early termination fee, an early termination fee of $was assessed per the terms of your advertising agreement
We hope you will continue to take advantage of the free features available to you on your business account to engage with the Yelp communityFor guidance, please visit https://biz.yelp.com/support/using_business_account
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/11/30) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
In general we are accepting that this was a disappointing experience and we are prepared to cut our losses and walk away from itWhat we are not accepting is the apparent reversal now of Yelp back tracking on the offer to reduce the early termination fee: "Since you chose to end your program before the end of the 12-month term, and since it appears you declined ***'s offer to waive $of the early termination fee, an early termination fee of $was assessed per the terms of your advertising agreement."
No where did we decline ***'s offer - of course we are not happy with the overall outcome of the offering but we did not decline any attempted offer by Yelp to make good for the disappointing outcome
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/12/17) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for your feedback
We've forwarded your concerns to the appropriate parties for their consideration, and they have informed us that we will not be able to offer you a refundPer the terms of the advertising agreement you signed, early termination is subject to a fee of $
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc

Hi ***,Thank you for the additional information about your business modelWe have also forwarded your concerns about the sales representative you spoke with to the appropriate parties. We try to keep our focus local businesses, and we regularly re-evaluate what it means to be a “local business” For example, some businesses primarily offer their services online, but others still maintain a meaningful local, offline interaction with consumers These decisions can be very fact specific, and they can also change over time as we react and respond to an ever-evolving business environment In this case, this listing no longer qualifies because it is primarily a referral business rather than a local business in its own right If you have more information that you think would be helpful for our eligibility team to reconsider its decision, I’d be happy to pass it along, but want to set expectations that there’s no guarantee they’ll reverse their decision 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 concerns to the appropriate partiesWe 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 guaranteedWhen advertising with a Cost Per Click program, you were electing to pay every time a user clicked on your ad impressionYou were also paying for an enhanced profile, which included features such as competitor ad removal and a photo slideshowYou also expressed concern with our cancellation policyPer the terms of your advertising agreement, we require days written notice to your account management contact if you wish to terminate your advertising programThat said, it looks like a manager, ***, reached out to you to let you know that your advertising program has been cancelled as of April 7, 2016.We hope you will continue to take advantage of the free features available to you on your business account to engage with the Yelp communityFor guidance, please visit ***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 $150, and also signed up for our enhanced profile features, which cost $per monthOnce 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 usedIn 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."Below is a more detailed description of how the promotion was applied:July - July 31, 2016- You received ad clicks which cost a total of $37.12- Your prorated Call To Action, Slideshow, and Remove Competitor Ads features cost $25.63- $of your $credit was used and you paid $0August - 28, 2016- You received ad clicks which cost a total of $150- Your prorated Call To Action, Slideshow, and Remove Competitor Ads features cost $66.04- You had $remaining promotional credit for this month because it was partially used in July- You paid $for advertising services delivered in AugustYou can view a breakdown of how many ad clicks you received by logging in to your Yelp for Business Owners Account at *** and then clicking on the Yelp Ads tab.You ended your advertising program on August 28, As advertising services have been delivered in accordance with the Terms you agreed to, we will not be able to offer you a refundThanks 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 are sorry to hear you are 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 guaranteedWhen 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) and a featured video. With regards to your concern with the variable price per click, as noted in your contract, you signed up for a Cost-Per-Click (CPC) auction-based auto-bidding program, which means that you agreed to allow Yelp to set the bid price per click to keep you competitive in the marketWhile your sales representative may have given you an estimated price per click, it's important to keep in mind that the price will fluctuate up or down depending on competition, relevance, and other factorsHowever, it will always be the lowest price possible to win the click.It looks like your advertising program is currently set to cancel on July 20, It also appears an account manager, ***, reached out to you on June 28, and left a voicemail to discuss your concernsPlease feel free to reach out to *** directly if you have further questions or concerns.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because:
This is simply your way of ripping people's money for nothing in returnI don't even remember seeing that information that this ad campaign would continue onNo warning, no notification has been receivedAt least after the first month you could send some info, but nothing! Plus that nothing in regards to call to action was involved, I never had that feature usedI just enrolled to that free one month of add credit (as it was the description of the campaign on YELP) but it seems that you automatically enroll people to this trapYes I think "Trap" is the best word to explain your way of doing business in this caseAnd customers should be protected by this type of add traps designated by companies like Yelp
I am not expecting anything from YELP from this point on in regards to this case.Sincerely,*** ***

Hi ***,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for ***.As you noted, your business page has been marked as closedYou also asked that we remove your business page; however, we don't remove business information, even if a
business has closedWhile 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 businessesThat said, closed businesses eventually stop appearing in search results over time.You also expressed concern that some reviews include your full nameIt looks like you are referring to the reviews by *** ** *** *** *We appreciate your concerns for privacy but, after careful consideration, we ultimately reached a different conclusion than you about whether these reviews violate our termsWe do allow individuals such as business owners and service providers to be named in reviews describing a consumer interaction.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Hi Oscar,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for The Ornelas Firm.You expressed concern with the cancellation policy for the full serve advertising program you signed up for on August 21, Per Section 5, Term,
Program Changes & Termination, of the the Master Advertising Terms (***) you accepted on the checkout page, early termination is subject to a fee and there is a day written notice requirement if you wish to cancel your adsThe amount of the early termination fee was also stated on the checkout pageAdditionally, after you signed up for ads we sent you a "Welcome to Yelp Advertising: Your Ads Are Now Live!" email on August 21, which stated, "There is an early termination fee equal to $700.00" and linked to the terms you accepted. We also want to clarify that the $you were charged on October 25, was for the early termination feeThere is currently an outstanding balance of $for advertising services delivered from October - 28, 2017, which we have been attempting to collect since November 2, 2017, as your advertising program is billed in arrears.As advertising services were delivered in accordance with the terms you agreed to, we will not be able to offer you a refund or waive the remaining balanceThanks for understanding.Regards,HelenYelp Inc

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/10/22) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for *** Day Care
We first 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 http://officialblog.yelp.com/2013/05/no-yelp-doesnt-extort-small-businesses-see-...⇄ to learn more
If you believe, however, that an individual has provided you with different information, we would like to investigate furtherTo that end, please provide us with the name of the individual whom you spoke with, their phone number, and the date and time of your conversation with them, if known
You also expressed concern with the recommendation softwareAs you *** 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 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 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 *** 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
You also expressed concern with some negative reviewsWe assume you are referring to the reviews by *** L, *** S, and *** W, as you've previously flagged these reviewsAs you *** recall from the messages you've received from the Yelp Support team, we've removed *** W's review update of *** Day Care because it fell outside our Content Guidelines*** W's original review and the reviews by *** L and *** S 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 reviews "contain information"; however, Yelp does not take sides in factual disputesRather, if 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
Thanks for understanding
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/10/29) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I have checked the link that *** has provided, but it does not help my understanding of the matter at handOn yelp, there are still two reviews that should not be postedThe one review from *** should be voidI have never spoken or met this woman before, therefore her review should not have any relevance to my business's overall reviewNow, *** has informed me that Yelp uses a recommendation software that chooses what reviews should be posted on the websiteHowever, this seems to be an unfair way of informing the public of anyone's business*** states that the system, "looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability, and activity on Yelp." I looked at the other reviews that are not visible on the website, and there are two other previous customers that should qualify for thisThey have more than one reviewHowever, I don't understand the reasoning behind using this systemIf someone has a positive thing to say about another person and/or business, the public should be entitled to see itJust because the other clients don't seem to have much activity using Yelp, doesn't mean their views on my business should not qualifyThere are a total of reviews that display positive information about my businessAlso, if a review contains information, then it should not be postedThis information will mislead potential clientsI have a total of reviews, however the only two that are posted are negative, making my ratings go down severelyIf Yelp would look at all the reviews, they would notice that the majority are positiveIf the ratio of positive to negative reviews is 10:2, then this should be taken into considerationThere is no reason why potential clients should not be given the opportunity to see what my business has to offer
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/11/11) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for your response
You wrote, "there are still two reviews that should not be postedThe one review from *** should be voidI have never spoken or met this woman before." We understand that a negative review about an experience you don't recognize is very frustratingWe have taken another look at *** L and *** S's reviews but, after careful consideration, we reached the same conclusion as before and are unable to remove the reviewsIf 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
In some situations, business owners *** want to message the reviewer privately, or post a public response to clarify any misunderstandingsYou can access these features using our free accounts for business owners (https://biz.yelp.com/), and you can find more information about how to respond to reviews here: http://www.yelp-support.com/Responding_to_Reviews?l=en_US
These decisions aren't always easy, but please know we looked at these reviews closely before reaching our decision
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 software as a whole makes our site more trustworthy and useful to consumers
With regards to your comment, "I looked at the other reviews that are not visible on the website, and there are two other previous customers that should qualify for thisThey have more than one review," please note that the recommendation software considers many different signals when determining whether or not to recommend a reviewHowever, we don't go into detail as to why a review is or is not recommendedWe intentionally make the recommendation software difficult to reverse engineer otherwise, we would be overrun by reviews written by people hoping to game the systemSo while it *** be tough to decipher how the recommendation software works, the rules are actually the same for every business and every review
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 *** 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
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2015/11/12) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I am baffled by Yelp's response*** has stated that "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." However, I have made it perfectly clear that there was never a time I have met ***'s statement is hypocriticalAlso, there is no reason why other clients of mine are not allowed to post visible reviewsThe " recommendation software" that *** speaks about is obviously not working to its expectationsPrior and present clients should be able to voice their opinionMy business should not be negatively effected because two people, one of which I have never met before, decided they would write a bad reviewIf this is how the system works, then I want my business to no longer be on the Yelp website***'s response does not show any customer supportIt should be in Yelp's best interest to help its customers, instead I am being told that there is nothing that can be done because of a " recommendation software." I do not want someone who does not know me or my business to write a review that lacks valid informationThere should not be a system that essential makes a "guess" as to who and what reviews should be shownI hope Yelp understands where I am coming fromI either want the other reviews to be posted or I want my business off Yelp

Hi Clinton,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding the billing for your advertising program for Local Smoking Domain.It looks like you spoke with several representatives on March 1, 2018, including a manager, SamuelAs you may recall, we
submitted a refund of $on March 1, 2018, but please note that it may take 7-business days from that date for the refund to be reflected on your account.Additionally, it looks like Samuel has noted your request for the remaining payments to be collected per the payment plan, and that he provided you with his direct contact information.Regards,HelenYelp Inc

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because:Sincerely,*** ***

Hi ***,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for *** ** ***.We appreciate your feedback and and have forwarded your message to the appropriate partiesIt also appears you were in touch with our account
management team around the time you filed this Revdex.com complaint.To clarify, you signed up for an advertising program with $monthly fixed costs plus a $ad click budget, for a monthly maximum of $The monthly fixed costs are for your enhanced profile, which includes features such as competitor ad removal and a photo slideshowYour advertising package includes a cost per click (CPC) program and your monthly ad click budget is set at $275, which means you are charged when someone clicked on your ad and you agree 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.Your advertising agreement also included a promotional offer for up to $in free Yelp ad clicks over monthsIn other words, up to $in free ad clicks would be applied each monthAs you may recall from your conversation with an account manager, ***, our system mistakenly charged you for this $per month promotion during the first two months of your advertising programWe apologize for this billing error, and *** has submitted a profile credit for $150.It looks like your advertising program is currently set to end on November 6, Since you are choosing to end your program before the end of the 6-month term, an early termination fee of $will be assessed per the terms of your contractThanks for understandingRegards,***Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/09/28) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for *** Mattress
You expressed concern that *** L's review is appearing towards the top of your
business pageThe default order of reviews on business listings is Yelp Sort, which attempts to show reviews that help consumers make informed decisionsFor example, the first review displayed for a business will typically be one that reflects the average star rating of a businessThe order is determined by recency, user voting, and other review quality factors, which is why an older review may appear before a newer oneKeep in mind when viewing a business a user can sort the reviews in a few other ways by date, star rating, and those written by Elites
You also expressed concern with the content of *** L's reviewThe review has been evaluated by the Yelp Support team and left up, as it was not found to be in violation of our guidelinesYou claim that "she was encouraged by a competitor to write this review," but based on what we see in the review, we can't confirm that the user has a conflict of interest with your businessIf 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
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/09/30) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
*** L's has a husband or partner that now has reviewed with starsClaims that chain store is betterThese are opinions not consumer experienceThey are encouraging others to go to a chain storeThese reviews are not fairThey did not purchase a mattress and these are opinionsThese reviews should be hiddenAlso, the partner Greg has threatened us saying that if we didn't leave things a lone, that they would bash us even moreTheir opinions should not warrant a star and star reviewsWe did nothing wrong and this is ridiculousWe bend over backwards for our customersThey are doing this as a warning and that is no necessaryIt is all on our website!!!!!!!!
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/10/06) */
Hi ***,
Thanks for writing again
You have again expressed concern with the review by *** LWe have taken a second look at this review but, after careful consideration, we reached the same conclusion as before and are unable to remove the reviewAs previously noted, 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
You also expressed concern with *** S's review of your businessThe review has been evaluated by the Yelp Support team and left up, as it was not found to be in violation of our guidelinesAgain, if 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

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because:
Yelp provided a blatantly misleading cost estimate for the services providedWe are requesting a minimum refund of $230.09, which is the difference between the estimate and the actual amount chargedAdditional details are provided in the attached documents
Sincerely,*** ***

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because:Sincerely,*** ***

Hi ***,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for *** *** ***.As you noted, we require days written notice to your account management contact if you wish to terminate your advertising programOur
records indicate that you provided your cancellation request to our account management team on September 2, 2016, so your advertising program was cancelled as of October 2, Please note that 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 November 1, was for advertising services delivered on October and 2, 2016, and the $you were charged on October 1, was for advertising services delivered in September.As advertising services were delivered in accordance with your contract, we will not be able to offer you a refundThanks for understanding. Regards,***Yelp Inc

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because: I find yelps algorytgm flawed yelp states that many factors determine which reviews are recommended but when two reviews from new yelpers take precedence over established yelp users it is clear to me that the system is biased both the reviewers in question had never yelped anything while established yelpers are filtered in numerous instances becausebi refused to pay yelp Yelp staff assured me that the reviews would "straighten themselves out" when and if I paid amd I have this recorded and will reveal it at the appropriate time and placeSincerely,*** ***

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because:
I don't own a Notary Business I own a construction business name *** I would like to know where did you obtain my credit card from since I just received a new Credit card
two weeks ago?
I am in the state of California Your ad is not for my state *** *** is a Home-Based Construction which is listed in Home Advisor, why would I put Yelp as my business?
Ridiculous
Sincerely,*** ***

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because an email from Yelp dated 11/7/stated that I only owed a balance of $after I terminated my advertising with Yelp.Sincerely,Oscar *** ***

Hi ***,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for *** *** *** - *** ***.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.You also expressed concern with two reviewsIt looks like you are referring to the reviews by *** ** and *** *** as you've previously reported these reviewsWe have taken a second look at these reviews but, after careful consideration, we reached the same conclusion as before and are unable to remove the reviewsIf 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.We noticed that you've already used your free business account to post a public comments on these reviewsMany 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.Additionally, for future reference, if you have reported a review, received an email from us about our decision to leave it up, and would like us to take a second look, you can submit a new inquiry by providing the case number (this is provided in our previously emailed response to the content you reported) here: ***Regards,***Yelp Inc