Yelp.com

Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because: It is not possible that my business could spend nearly $and supposedly get clicks and not get one single inquiry. Unlike Google, Yelp controls the cost per click and their entire program is a deceptive trade practice.
Sincerely,
*** ***

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 6, 2016/01/29) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe're glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding the advertising program for Popped Fresh, and we appreciate you bringing this to our attentionAfter investigation, it appears that
Yelp mistakenly processed an advertising agreement for your businessAs of earlier this week, we have corrected that mistake and wiped your account clear of any balance owedWe're sorry that our team did not catch this error sooner, and our collections team will not be contacting you further
We apologize for the confusion, and hope that you'll continue to engage with the free tools available to your business on Yelp
Regards,
Helen
Yelp Inc
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 8, 2016/02/02) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
Yelp did acknowledge that they "mistakenly" processed an advertising contactAll money that I "owed" was wiped out and I now have a zero balance

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/06/08) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for ***
You expressed concern that "Yelp allowed negative reviews to be posted about my
business." We assume you are referring to the reviews by *** and ***, as you've previously flagged these reviewsAs you may recall from the messages you received from the Yelp Support team, the reviews have been evaluated and left up, as they were not found to be in violation of our guidelinesYou claim that these reviews are false; 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
With regards to your comment, "when I mentioned it to Yelp I had positive reviews deleted," we want to clarify that the Yelp Support team's manual evaluation of a review is separate from actions taken by 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 measuredIt's important to note that the software applies the same analysis to everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviewsThe software looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability, and activity on Yelp
Additionally, our recommendation software runs on a daily basis, so the results can change day-to-dayFor 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 stalePlease also understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a review
To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US
You asked that we "Take down anything that has the name *** on your website"; 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 wrote, "Don't even include me in your marketing emails." To update your email preferences, log in to your business account at https://biz.yelp.com/, click "Account Settings" at the top of the page, and then click "Manage your email preferences." From there, check or uncheck the appropriate boxes, and then click "Save Settings."
While we are sorry to hear you are not satisfied with your advertising program, Yelp is providing advertising services (including ad impressions per month) in accordance with your contractAs such, we will not be able to offer you a refundYour advertising program has been set to cancel as of June 30, As you have chosen to end your program before the end of the 12-month term, an early termination fee of $will be assessed per the terms of your agreementOnce that fee has been collected, you will not incur further charges
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc

Final Consumer Response /* (2000, 6, 2015/05/22) */
I'm contacting the Revdex.com to confirm that Yelp! has finally complied with my request and removed my User account from their websiteThank you!

Hi ***,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for *** *** *** ***.We first want be clear that a business's decision whether or not to advertise on Yelp does not affect how the reviews on its listing are treated
Businesses 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 *** and *** to learn more.You wrote, "I had reviews and they took one." As you may have read, we use automated software developed by our engineers to recommend reviews from the Yelp communityThe goal of the 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 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: ***You also wrote, "Several times I tried to look for my listing and could not find it." Yelp's search results algorithm is designed to provide the best results based on a number of different factors including review text, ratings, and number of reviewsWhile we can't guarantee specific results or business rankings, we are always working to improve our search tool so that we can deliver the most relevant local results to our users.Finally, if you no longer wish to receive calls from our Sales team, please let us know.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 me, with the caveat that I hope the company takes the suggestions and feedback under serious advisement and implements changes soon to enhance (instead of hinder) their future customer's experiences.Sincerely, *** ***

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, Dwayne***

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 10, 2015/07/15) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for *** *** Tours
You expressed concern with *** S's reviews of your businessWe have removed ***
S's review update of *** *** Tours because it fell outside our Content GuidelinesHowever, as you may recall from the message you received from the Yelp Support team, the original review doesn't appear to violate our Content Guidelines so we are leaving it up
We also want to clarify that if a review is brought to the attention of the Yelp Support team and is found to fall outside our Content Guidelines, the Yelp Support team will take appropriate action, such as removing the reviewHowever, the action that the Yelp Support team takes is separate from actions taken by Yelp's automated recommendation software
With regards to your concern that *** S's review was previously not recommended but is currently a recommended review, as you may recall from the previous correspondence we had (Revdex.com Case #XXXXXXXX), the recommendation software is not staticOur recommendation software runs on a daily basis, so the results can change day-to-dayFor 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
You also wrote, "its VERY clear they do this to make you pay them advertising money to take it off which is against the law." Please be assured that 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 functions
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
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 12, 2015/07/16) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
really helen? this is almost a carbon copy of the response I got back from my original Revdex.com filing against yelpif what you say is true, why did yelp end up taking away(hiding) ***'s review? they did, because I threaten to use ALL my resources with NBC news here in **and you/they wanted to avoid the unnecessary negation PR and hide her reviewso here we are againanswer the following why is ***'s review up again after yelp took it out? why does her negreview fall within your guidelines, but my other positive reviews do not? can you not use common sense and see that after she wrote ANOTHER update review to my site, for which she has NEVER used my service, that maybe there is a pattern here that's not true? if you do not remove/hide her review immediately, I will share this info with my uncle, *** ***, the head of NBC news on saturday over dinner(fyi, he's not a yelp fan) you can then explain all this "software" jargon to his team of reporter's at your office in SFcheers
Final Business Response /* (4000, 14, 2015/07/28) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for your response
We want to again reiterate that reviews that are not recommended are different from reviews that have been removed by our Support Team
If a review is not appearing on the main Yelp listing of a business, it would be for one of three reasons: the review is currently not recommended by Yelp's automated recommendation software (which affects both positive and negative reviews); the review was found to be in violation of our Content Guidelines or Terms of Service and has been manually removed by the Yelp Support team; or the user elected to remove the review him/herself
If a review is brought to the attention of the Yelp Support team and is found to fall outside our Content Guidelines, the Yelp Support team will take appropriate action, such as removing the reviewThat said, please note the action that the Yelp Support team takes is separate from actions taken by Yelp's automated recommendation softwareIf a review is not recommended, that does not necessarily mean it is in violation of our guidelines
That being said, 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
Regards,
***
Yelp, Inc
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 16, 2015/08/06) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
***
You DO know this is being read by a monitor right? She knows about the first complaint I filed with yelp and its outcomeYou STILL haven't answered my questionsI'll ask them again very specificallyWhy is ***'s review back up after you(yelp) took it down after I filed a complaint with the Revdex.com?
Did you read her review? Did you not see that I mentioned that she never used my service and is a EX gf trying to ruin my new start up bike business? Why is her review recommended, but my other positives are not? Do I have any legal right to the name of my business, in that, I don't even want it listed on yelp?
If you don't do the appropriate thing and take her review down, as you did before, I will use all my legal rights and let the courts and my news media contacts do it for youI've kept copies of my first Revdex.com filing and its outcome with YelpWhat is your last name please?
And I didn't file a complaint with Revdex.com again to give you "feedback", it was filed because you unhide the review again
Do as you did before, hide it since you can't remove it

This is the complaint I sent to Yelp:"Racial Discrimination: In a review of my business page, I am bringing to your attention, and this is my second time bringing it up to Yelp, an issue that I have with a review that is ruining my business and one that is defamatory and discriminatory based on my race, African AmericanIn the review, the reviewer makes a personal attack on me based on my race and gender, African American womanThis is in violation of the Unruh Act, and various federal statutes that forbid discrimination against race in commerceThe review makes a racial attack, which is in violation of Yelps terms of servicePlease remove the review."They never responded after I contacted them several times.I have submitted the above complaint to Yelp on at least occasions and they have not responded or complied with my request

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/11/23) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for Loudermilk Construction
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 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 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, "We simply want the positive reviews (and all reviews from this day forward) made visible on our business listing on Yelp," 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
With regards to your comment, "we would like our business taken completely off of the website," 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
Finally, you wrote that Yelp "doesn't make it easy to contact someone who will help." For future reference, 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
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/06/23) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding the business page for Burlington Coat Factory
You expressed concern that this business page had your phone numberWe have systems
in place to keep our data accurate and timely but from time to time, errors can occurThe phone number has been corrected: http://www.yelp.com/biz/burlington-coat-factory-saint-cloud
We apologize for any inconvenience
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/06/09) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for ***
You expressed concern with the recommendation software and noted that "The day that I built
my page, I was at a dinner party and told my some clients & friends of my efforts at SEOThe next day, four of them went on Yelp to write reviews for me." Please note asking for reviews is not something we encourageWe would much rather hear from members of the Yelp community who are inspired to talk about their experiences without a business owner's encouragementMore information can be found here: https://biz.yelp.com/support/review_solicitation
It's also important to note that Yelp uses automated software to showcase helpful and reliable reviews from the Yelp communityAs a result, business owners shouldn't be surprised if our software fails to recommend the reviews that they've asked their customers to writeYour best bet to get high quality and unbiased reviews about your business is to provide a memorable and amazing customer experience - it has nothing to do with asking your customers to post on Yelp
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 reviewsYou wrote, "I want the reviews that my customers wrote to be visible and have their 5-stars returned," 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
Finally, with regards to your comment, "I don't even have the option to remove my business from Yelp," while 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, 2015/06/25) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Thank-you for your reply
The first point you address speaks to the inadequacy of your softwareBuilding a business is about relationships and the fact that I was at a party and told some friends/clients that I had built a YELP page was a natural way of sharing what was happening with meClearly, YELP condemns this kind of natural behaviorWho decided that communicating with people about one's business is a bad thing?
You wrote: "It's also important to note that Yelp uses automated software to showcase helpful and reliable reviews from the Yelp communityAs a result, business owners shouldn't be surprised if our software fails to recommend the reviews that they've asked their customers to write."
I didn't ask anyone to write a review for me, something you seem not able to hear or respond to
The, you say, "Your best bet to get high quality and unbiased reviews about your business is to provide a memorable and amazing customer experience."
What exactly is an unbiased review? Reviewers are not impartialThe very nature of writing a review is to praise/criticize the experience one hadHow is it that you are in the review business and you don't know that? This statement illustrates what a flawed premise you are operating on and why your software fails to support real reviews from real customersIt failed to keep my reliable content from actual customers
The you say, "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."
You are talking out of both sides of your mouth-
You say YELP creates reliable content
You say the system may choose to recommend & then NOT recommend reviews over time
HOW IS THAT RELIABLE? It is inconsistent and changeable! I am more convinced from your response that YELP doesn't know what it is doing, that your software is garbage, and that you will defend it in spite of your faulty logic
You software needs an overhaul & you might benefit from looking up the definitions of the words unbiased & reliable
Shaking my head in disbelief,
*** ***
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/07/07) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for your response
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 recommended
You also expressed concern that "You say the system may choose to recommend & then NOT recommend reviews over timeHOW IS THAT RELIABLE? It is inconsistent and changeable!" 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, so 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
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2015/07/08) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Resolution is not possible here

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because: this ad campaign is the worst in history and TOTALLY deceptive Nobody in their right minds would pay over 10$ / click You are claiming that I agreed to 450$ / month of advertising? That is insane and you know it From the HORRIBLE service you have provided to me a first attempt to use your service well tell everybody I know including my friends and over 1,*** to stay clear from anything to do with YelpA business with this low of ethics and deceptive advertising is doomed to fail Absolutely awful and shameful ask you to do a small business owner like me into signing up for totally weak service that only resulted in you stealing hard-earned money It is sad to think of how many people you are attempting to do this too
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

Hi Stephanie,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding the advertising program for Scott DLothamer, DDS.We've forwarded your message to the appropriate parties, and a manager, Melissa, reached out by email on February 27, to address your
concerns. While we appreciate your feedback regarding not having a specific account representative, the Yelp Customer Success department is structured on a team model as we have found that this group model ensures a quicker response time and a higher level of support. Our records indicate that your colleague Debra initially wrote in with a request to cancel on September 6, While we do not provide transcripts or recordings of calls, Melissa reviewed the September 15, call between Debra and Eric, where it was agreed to continue with the program while taking advantage of a promotional creditEric sent a follow up email on September with the subject line "Promotion Confirmation" to confirm that ads were set to continue with the promotionIn this email, Eric wrote: "This email is to confirm that your Yelp advertising is set to continue per the terms of your agreement with the promotional offer we spoke about (details below)Should you decide you would like to cancel, written notification is required days before the date in which you intend to cancelTo confirm what we discussed today, we'll be adding $in additional click budget each month for the next months, at no additional cost to youThis will start within the next business days."However, it appears we did not receive another written cancellation request from Debra until October 31, Your advertising program was terminated on November 13, due to non-payment.While we are sorry to hear you were not satisfied with your advertising program, advertising services were delivered in accordance with the advertising agreement signed by one of your colleagues, so we will not be able to offer you a refundIt looks like there is currently an outstanding balance of $for the advertising services you received from August 14, - November 13, 2017, and once this amount is collected, you will not incur further chargesThanks for understanding. Regards,HelenYelp Inc

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 *** & **
You expressed concern with Sarah S's review of your businessAs you may recall
from the messages you've received from the Yelp Support team, the review has been evaluated and left upBased on what we can see in the review, we're unable to confirm that it was posted in errorThat said, we've reached out to the reviewer to let them know they may have posted to the wrong business
You might also consider sending a private message to the reviewer or posting a public comment through your free business accountMany 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 concernsOur hope is that by utilizing these means you will be able to rectify any misunderstandings and come to an amicable resolution
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 have messaged the reviewer to no avail she mentions the owner of the business whose services she used "***" in her response but ignored my informing her that she posted the review on the wrong business much as you the customer service from Yelp are also doingAgain we do not offer the services for which this reviewer posted a review so how can your evaluation of the review conclude this is a valid review? Could she post on our page about what a horrible job we did grooming her dog?
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/07/14) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for your response
You have again stated that the review by Sarah S is for the wrong business and should be removedPlease be assured that we've evaluated the content and are allowing the user to stand behind her reviewIf a review appears to reflect the user's personal experience and opinions, we allow the user to stand behind their review
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc

Hi Dusan,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns. Based on the information you provided, it looks like you are referring to the business page for REPS:***If you are referring to a different page, please reply to
this message with a direct link to the page so that we can better understand your concerns.You expressed concern about how this page came to be listed on YelpWe 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. 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).We also want to clarify that Yelp treats advertisers and non-advertisers exactly alike with respect to reviewsAdvertising only buys ads and never higher ratings, removal of negative reviews or promotion of positive reviewsWe hope you’ll take the time to read more about common misconceptions here: ***If you come across content that you feel may violate Yelp's Content Guidelines ***), please let our moderators know by reporting itYou can do so by finding the content in question, clicking the flag icon on the website or the More Options/Overflow Menu (dots) on the appYou'll need to be logged into your account to report content.To learn more, please visit: ***While reporting content doesn't guarantee that it'll be removed, our team looks at every inquiry and carefully evaluates the content against our guidelinesEach case will be reviewed by our team in the order it was received. Typically, you will receive a response to your report of a review within a few business daysIf you don't believe you've received our response, please be sure to check all email and spam folders (you may want to add *** to your contact list).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,HelenYelp Inc

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/10/26) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for *** ***
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 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 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 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, 2015/10/28) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Thanks for the smoke & mirrors form letter responseBut I do not believe youI told my dentist about this & he said Yelp did the same thing to himHe said your company contacts him ever couple months & offered for $200mo he would never have to worry about any Bad ReviewsAfter posting our & his experience on social media I have heard back from others with similar experiencesYelp is a dishonest company that I hope will cease to exist as soon as possible
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/11/05) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writing back
You have again alleged that Yelp manipulates reviews to favor advertisersHowever, with respect to reviews, paying businesses have absolutely no advantageIf someone you know believes that an individual has provided them with different information, please ask them to contact our Yelp Support team at http://www.yelp.com/support/contact/questions so that we may investigate further
The automated 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 functions
The 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 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 software picks up new information
We recognize that there have been stories alleging that Yelp manipulates reviews and ratings to reward advertisers, yet these allegations are not based in factPlease consider:
Third party research (such as Harvard Business School) has debunked this conspiracy
Courts have rejected the conspiracy due to the lack of any fact-based evidence
A simple search across the site proves that non-advertisers often have excellent and 5-star ratings while many advertisers have low ratings
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

Hi ***,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for ***.You expressed concern that your business page was marked as closedWe have systems in place to keep our data accurate and timely but from time to time, errors can
occurYour business page has already been corrected to reflect that you are open (***), and we apologize for any inconvenience.We also want to address your comment, "We have had issues with Yelp over the years with our restaurant not being ranked in the neighborhood search, despite being her over years and having over reviews- which we assume is due to not advertising with them." Yelp's search results algorithm is designed to provide the best results based on a number of different factors including review text, ratings, and number of reviewsWhile we can't guarantee specific results or business rankings, we are always working to improve our search tool so that we can deliver the most relevant local results to our usersPlease note that advertising status is not factored into the ordering of our search resultsWe may show relevant ads in a variety of places on the search results page, but these ads are marked "Ad" with orange outlines.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/09/16) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for *** & Day Spa
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 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 every business and every review, and that it affects both positive and negative reviewsYou asked for your positive reviews to be recommended, 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, 2015/09/19) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Thank you for your respond
As Yelp's recommendation software establishes an objective standard against which every review can measured, and looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of QUALITY, RELIABILITY, and ACTIVITY on Yelp
Please take a look at these Yelp user on our page should they be recommended or not
*** review and Friends
The review of these user on our page are NOT RECOMMENDED REVIEW but they are review can be RECOMMENDED on other businessIf all these four Yelp user are not ( quality, reliability, and activity on yelp) to be list at recommended for our page, how they can be list at recommended for other business
***
Her review can not be recommended for *** & Day Spa but her reviews can be recommended at
***, XXXXX
***
His review can not be recommended for *** & Day Spa, but his reviews can be recommended at
***, XXXXX
***
Her review can not be recommended at *** & Day Spa, but her review can be recommended at
***, XXXXX
***
He only has Review can not be recommended at *** & Day Spa, but his review can be recommended at
*** XXXXX
Should we be treat same like other business
Thank you
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/09/28) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writing back
While it may be tough to decipher how the recommendation software works, the rules are actually the same for every business and every reviewYou have again asked that we recommend reviews that are not currently recommended, but 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 recommendedThat said, 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
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2015/10/01) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Thank you for the quick response with our Business page
However, nothing was resolved regarded our issues
Like stated we have multiple clients whom have left GOOD/Positive reviews and its nowhere to be found however, looking at the competitors yelp account it is "shown"
Why is this "same system for EVERY Business "showing the SAME PERSON/ on their recommended list but not on ours?
This isn't just one or two reviews leading into this complaint, there are multiple clients, multiple timesThe system allows "Client A" to comment on Imperials yelp however its shown as NOT RECOMMENDEDTHEN, going into Competitors yelp page you will see the same "CLIENT A" listed as well as shown in the recommended listThese problems are causing our business problemsWhat is fair for one business page should be fair for oursPlease fix these issues or delete our business off this account
By responding by saying its recommended software isn't the answer to the problem, nor can you explain how this SO CALLED AUTOMATIC system worksDo your research and you will then find the same PEOPLE responding to our page are also responding to our neighbors/competitors pageSo I'm guessing we have a different software controlling our recommended comments appose to any other business?

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/04/24) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for *** *** ***
You wrote, "Since January 2011, negative posts have been the determining factor of
a low rating and even a lower rating because we would not advertise with Yelp." To be clear, 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
With regards to your concern with the 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 measuredThe software looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability, and activity on YelpMost of all, however, it's looking for people who are intrinsically motivated to share the wide range of rich and detailed experiences they have every day with local businesses
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