Yelp.com

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2015/10/12) */ Hi [redacted] , Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] LLC 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 You also expressed concern with the recommendation softwareAs you may have read, the goal of Yelp's recommendation software is to showcase more reliable contentThe recommendation software establishes an objective standard against which every review can be measuredEven though it inevitably affects legitimate reviews from time to time and misses some fake ones, too, it helps protect the integrity of the site both for consumers (who will be less likely to be led astray by bogus reviews) and business owners (who will spend less time worrying about whether their competitors are writing negative reviews about them) It's important to note that the software applies the same analysis to everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviewsPlease also understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a reviewHowever, the system is not static reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US With regards to your comment, "Some negative reviews are directly affiliated with competition," if you believe a review violates Yelp's Content Guidelines (http://www.yelp.com/guidelines), you can report the content by clicking the flag icon next to itYou'll need to be logged in to your account in order to view the flag icon 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 receivedTypically, you will receive a response to your report 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 [redacted] @yelp.com to your contact list) You also wrote, "Yelp refuses to allow posting of our/ownership rebuttals." With a Business Account, business owners can privately message users or publicly comment on reviews of their businessIt looks like some of your colleagues have already claimed the [redacted] LLC business pageWe can assist in adding users with the consent of the account holderIf you don't know who claimed this business page, you'll need to pursue this matter internally to find out Please have the current account holder contact our team directly with a request to either share access to the page or to transfer access entirely and relinquish ownership: http://www.yelp.com/support/contact/business_share http://www.yelp.com/support/contact/business_transfer Finally, you 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, [redacted] Yelp Inc

Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because: I submitted the proper type of photoA yelp person contacted me and I emailed it directly to himThey still did not publish it and have not responded to my continued attempts to contact themYelp is not being honest in their responseIn fact, that is a lie Sincerely, [redacted]

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2015/11/24) */ Hi [redacted] , Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business pages for [redacted] You asked for your business pages 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 With regards to your comment, "They harass you to advertise with them and when you don't, they remove your start reviews," we want to clarify 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 advertiseFurthermore, there is zero relationship between the timing of when a review gets recommended and when a business decides to or declines to advertise: reviews can be recommended or not recommended days, weeks, or even months after they were first posted, and your Yelp sales representative doesn't have any influence over when that might happenWe 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 As you may have read, we use automated software developed by our engineers to recommend reviews from the Yelp community, with the goal of showcasing 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 With regards to your comment, "They also allow anonymous users to slander your business and say anything they please and then they will not remove it when you report them," it does not appear that you have previously reported a review using the email address you providedIf you believe a review violates Yelp's Content Guidelines (http://www.yelp.com/guidelines), you can report the content by clicking the flag icon next to itYou'll need to be logged in to your account in order to view the flag iconIf you already reported the content using another email address, 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: http://www.yelp-support.com/article/Can-I-request-a-second-evaluation-of-somethi...⇄ Regards, [redacted] Yelp Inc

Hi Anny,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for Southern LA Granite.Our records indicate you redeemed a $promotional ad credit on July 25, To redeem the $credit towards Yelp ads, you were required to sign up for our Cost Per Click (CPC) advertising campaign and put payment information on fileYou set your Cost Per Click monthly budget at $On August 11, 2017, you signed up for enhanced profile features, which cost an additional $per monthThus, the total for your cost per click ads and enhanced profile was a monthly maximum of $375.Once the promotion runs out, advertising continues until you stop your ads through your Yelp for Business Owners AccountYou terminated your ads on October 16, 2017.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 or edited your advertising programs, we sent you an automated email that recapped your purchase and the details of your current campaign, including that the payment method on file in your account will be charged monthly, up to the maximum specified in each email, and your programs will continue unless cancelledAdvertisers also have the option to opt in to receive billing confirmation emails in the Account Settings section of their account.Below is a more detailed description of how the promotion was applied:July - 31, 2017- You received ad clicks and which cost a total of $18.59- $of your $credit was used and you paid $0August 2017- You received ad clicks and enhanced profile features which cost a total of $250.78- $of your remaining $credit was used and you paid $250.78September 2017- You received ad clicks and enhanced profile features which cost a total of $375.00- $of your remaining $credit was used and you paid $344.37October - 16, 2017- You received ad clicks and enhanced profile features which cost a total of $180.72- You had $remaining credit for this month because it was used towards your July, August, and September ads- You paid $for advertising services delivered in OctoberYou can view ad click and billing information in the Yelp Ads and Billing tabs of your Yelp for Business Owners Account at https://biz.yelp.com/.It also sounds as though you have some concerns about how the price of a click fluctuatesCost-Per-Click ads are delivered in categories matching your specific business, as well as other similar categories that our ad delivery system has identified as relevantThe price you pay per click is based on competition and relevance, but you'll always pay the least amount needed to win the clickWe aim to maximize the number of clicks you get for your budget over the course of the month, and you should plan to have 100% of your budget fulfilledOccasionally competitive demand prevents this, but you'll only be billed for the cost of the clicks you received in that monthly billing period.You ended your advertising program on October 16, As advertising services have been delivered in accordance with the Terms [redacted] you agreed to, we will not be able to offer you a refundThanks for understanding.Regards,HelenYelp Inc

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2016/01/14) */ Hi [redacted] , Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for AV Overhead Garage Door You expressed concern with [redacted] reviewWe've taken another look at this review, but based on what we can see in the review and the information at hand, we weren't able to confirm that this review is on the wrong business pageAdditionally, 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 or her review In some situations business owners find it appropriate to reach out to a reviewer to resolve matters constructivelyIf you have not already communicated with the reviewer, you might consider leaving a private message or public commentMany 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 Please visit our Support Center for information on responding to reviews: http://www.yelp-support.com/Responding_to_Reviews?l=en_US You also asked for your business to be removed from Yelp; however, we don't remove business informationWhile some business owners might prefer to keep a lower profile, this kind of information is publicly available and its use is protected under the lawMore importantly, we believe that the public benefits from sharing their experiences with local businesses Regards, [redacted] Yelp Inc Initial Consumer Rebuttal / [redacted] (3000, 7, 2016/01/19) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) It says in the response received from Yelp that they do not take sides in factual disputes, however it is not a factual disputeThe "customer" clearly wrote that he called "Consolidated" from the number on his door sticker (who he said he thought our company purchased)We never purchased that or any other companyConsolidated is in business and operates in the town next to usFurthermore the "customer" makes an offensive derogatory sexual remark in his "review" which I believe is a violation of Yelps Terms of ServiceThis "customer" claims to have never used us, not to have even called us so how is this to be considered a "factual review" for our business? Final Business Response / [redacted] (4000, 9, 2016/01/27) */ Hi [redacted] , Thank you for your response You have again expressed concern with [redacted] review of AV Overhead Garage DoorWe understand that a negative review about an experience you don't recognize is very frustratingHowever, based on what we can see in the review and the information at hand, we weren't able to confirm that this review is on the wrong business pageThat said, we've reached out to the reviewer to let them know they may have posted to the wrong businessAdditionally, if you have not already communicated with the reviewer, you might consider leaving a private message or public comment Regards, [redacted] Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2015/11/06) */ Hi [redacted] , Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] 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 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 You also wrote, "Remove the one that we have flagged for removal multiple times." We assume you are referring to the review by [redacted] TOur team has taken a second look at the review, but we reached the same conclusion as before and are unable to remove the reviewWe don't take sides in factual disputes; if a review appears to reflect the reviewer's personal experiences and opinions, it is our policy to let the user stand behind his or her reviewThese decisions aren't always easy, but please know we looked at this review closely before reaching our decision We noticed that you've already used your free Yelp for Business Owners Account to post a public comment on this reviewMany reviewers respond favorably to business owners willing to engage in constructive conversation, and at the very least, other Yelp users appreciate seeing business owners take a proactive approach to dealing with customer concerns Regards, [redacted] Yelp Inc

Hi Robert,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] You expressed concern with a photo that was posted to your business pageIt looks like you are referring to a photo posted by [redacted] *, and it appears this user has already removed this photo from your business pageTo address your question about how our content is monitored, we allow users to post reviews and photos, and rely on the Yelp community to report content that they believe is questionableIf a review or photo violates our Content Guidelines ( [redacted] then our Support team will remove it.For future reference, if you believe a review or photo violates Yelp's Content Guidelines ( [redacted] you can report the content by clicking the flag icon next to itYou'll need to be logged in to your account in order to view the flag icon.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.For instructions on how to report a photo, please visit: [redacted] Regards,***Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2015/11/11) */ Hi ***, Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] Academy You expressed concern with a star review of your businessIt looks like you are referring to Peter W'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 this review has "very inaccurate 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 or her review You might consider sending a private message to the reviewer or posting a public comment through your free Yelp for Business Owners 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 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 Even though it inevitably affects legitimate reviews from time to time and misses some fake ones, too, it helps protect the integrity of the site both for consumers (who will be less likely to be led astray by bogus reviews) and business owners (who will spend less time worrying about whether their competitors are writing negative reviews about them) It's important to note that the software applies the same analysis to everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviewsPlease also understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a reviewHowever, the system is not static reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US Regards, [redacted] Yelp Inc

Hi ***,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] .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 [redacted] and [redacted] to learn more.You also expressed concern with the recommendation softwareAs you may have read, the goal of Yelp's recommendation software is to showcase more reliable contentThe recommendation software establishes an objective standard against which every review can be 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: [redacted] With regards to your concern with a negative review, it looks like you are referring to the review by [redacted] as you previously reported this reviewAs you may recall from your correspondence with the Yelp Support team, this review has been evaluated by and left up, as it was not found to be in violation of our guidelinesIf 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 or her review.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2015/09/16) */ Hi [redacted] , Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding the business page for [redacted] 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 everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviewsYou wrote, "We would like all positive reviews to be posted," 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, [redacted] Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2015/05/08) */ Hi ***, Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding the Yelp page for [redacted] You asked for this page to be removed from Yelp, stating that [redacted] "is NOT a business." While most listings on Yelp are for businesses, other services or organizations for which there is some kind of local experience or interaction are also eligible to be listed on YelpAdditionally, please note that we don't remove listing informationWhile some 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 organizations With regards to your comment, "The "reviews" posted on your site are slander and defamation of character," we assume you are referring to the reviews by [redacted] S, [redacted] N, and [redacted] W, 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 by the Yelp Support team and left up, as they were not found to be in violation of our guidelinesPlease note that 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 Regards, [redacted] Yelp Inc Initial Consumer Rebuttal / [redacted] (3000, 7, 2015/05/17) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) The reviews ARE slander and defamationI have never given Yelp permission to use [redacted] and your website is not above the law I will be writing to the President of Yelp, the Department for Consumer Affairs, and the State Attorney General among others until this is resolved I want my individual account with Yelp deleted and rest assured I will share this experience with everyone I know Final Business Response / [redacted] (4000, 9, 2015/05/29) */ Hi ***, Thank you for your response You wrote, "The reviews ARE slander and defamation." While we share your concern about the possibility of defamatory reviews on our site, we don't adjudicate disputes between businesses and their reviewersCongress acknowledged this predicament by passing [redacted] that provides statutory immunity to online service providers such as Yelp for the content of third-party postsSee U.S.C§The case law is clear on this point in support of online service providers because of concerns that they would otherwise be forced to remove third party posts every time someone raised issue with their contentsSee Carafano vMetrosplashcomInc., F3d (9th Cir2003); Zeran vAmerica Online, Inc., F.3d (4th Cir1997); Barrett vRosenthal, Cal4th (Cal2006) That said, we will revisit your request if you provide to us a final judicial determination that the contents of a review are defamatory and will, at our discretion, take appropriate action with respect to the review and the user responsible for the review We encourage you to contact the reviewers directly using the private messaging function on our site in order to constructively address your concernsWe do not recommend that you engage in anything other than a well-meaning dialog with the reviewers in order to sort out any misunderstandingsTo create a free Business Account, go to: https://biz.yelp.com/ You have again asked that your business listing be removed, but as previously stated, we don't remove business listing informationYelp is allowed to publish business names and publicly available information about businesses under the well-established fair use doctrine, as well as First Amendment principlesGenerally speaking, this means that we can display business names and trademarks "for purposes of comparison, criticism, point of reference, or any other such purpose." See New Kids on the Block vNew America Pub., Inc., F.2d 302, (9th Cir1992) Regards, [redacted] Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2015/12/04) */ Hi [redacted] , Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] We first want to be clear 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 We have taken a second look [redacted] K's review but, after careful consideration, we reached the same conclusion as before and are unable to remove the reviewIf 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 one of your colleagues has already used the Yelp for Business Owners Account to post a public comment on this reviewMany reviewers respond favorably to business owners willing to engage in constructive conversation, and at the very least, other Yelp users appreciate seeing business owners take a proactive approach to dealing with customer concerns Regards, [redacted] Yelp Inc Initial Consumer Rebuttal / [redacted] (3000, 7, 2015/12/10) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) Yelp is violating their own posted policies The review in question clearly and unambiguously refers to a review that was removed due to conflict of interest (from a former business partner)By referring to that review, the new post both represents the same conflict of interest AND violates their terms of service where they state that no poster can help another person violate their terms Unfortunately, another review of mine (to an unrelated business) was removed on 12/9/The timing suggest that this is their first move in retaliation for pointing out that Yelp will help users violate Yelps terms of service if it give them leverage in which to take money from legitimate small businessesI fully expect that Yelp will start showcasing negative reviews and removing positive ones as their retaliation continues Yelp is clearly using their ability to impact our business as a way to get us to pay themThere is absolutely no other reason why they would leave up a derogatory post that violates their "Personal Experience" TOS (Yelp's TOS: "We want to hear about your firsthand consumer experience, not what you heard from your co-worker or significant otherTry to tell your own story without resorting to broad generalizations and conclusory allegations.") and their enabling of others to violate their terms of service (From Yelp's TOS "You also agree not to, and will not assist, encourage, or enable others to: Violate the Terms;") The fact that an entire section of the review are allegations not based on ANY personal experience, we can only conclude that Yelp is not interested in behaving in an ethical and consistent manner towards those who do not pay them Final Business Response / [redacted] (4000, 9, 2015/12/21) */ Hi [redacted] , Thank you for your response You have again stated that the review by [redacted] K should be removedHowever, as the majority of this review appears to reflect the user's personal experience and opinions, the review has been left up With regards to your comment, "Unfortunately, another review of mine (to an unrelated business) was removed on 12/9/The timing suggest that this is their first move in retaliation," we want to assure you that Yelp does not retaliate against businesses for any reason, including asking questions, expressing concerns or filing complaints You have again alleged that Yelp manipulates reviews to favor advertisersHowever, with respect to reviews, paying businesses have absolutely no advantageThe 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 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, [redacted] Yelp Inc

Hi ***,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for [redacted] You expressed concern that you were billed on January 1, 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 monthAs you noted, your advertising program was terminated on December 28, 2016, and we want to clarify that he charge you saw on January 1, was for the advertising services you received December - 28, 2016.Additionally, according to our records, the Yelp Confirmation emails an account manager, Happy, sent you on November and December 14, 2016, indicated that there may be additional balances owed: "Please note that this email does not represent your final statementDepending on your program type there may be final payments or outstanding balances owed."Regards,***Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2015/08/20) */ Hi ***, Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] Services We've looked at [redacted] L's review, and since it appears to reflect the personal experience and opinions of the reviewer, we are leaving it intact While we share your concern about the possibility of a defamatory review on our site, we don't adjudicate disputes between businesses and their reviewersCongress acknowledged this predicament by passing [redacted] that provides statutory immunity to online service providers such as Yelp for the content of third-party postsSee U.S.C§The case law is clear on this point in support of online service providers because of concerns that they would otherwise be forced to remove third party posts every time someone raised issue with their contentsSee Carafano vMetrosplashcomInc., F3d (9th Cir2003); Zeran vAmerica Online, Inc., F.3d (4th Cir1997); Barrett vRosenthal, Cal4th (Cal2006) That said, we will revisit your request if you provide to us a final judicial determination that the contents of a review are defamatory and will, at our discretion, take appropriate action with respect to the review and the user responsible for the review We encourage you to contact the reviewer directly using the private messaging function on our site in order to constructively address your concernsWe do not recommend that you engage in anything other than a well-meaning dialog with the reviewer in order to sort out any misunderstandings You can access your account by visiting https://biz.yelp.com/ For guidance on using your Business Account, check out https://biz.yelp.com/support/using_business_account 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, [redacted] Yelp Inc Initial Consumer Rebuttal / [redacted] (3000, 7, 2015/08/24) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) TAKE DOWN NOTICE: Dear Yelp, You may be subject to liability under several sections of the DMCA, if you don't comply to my request immediately: PLEASE REMOVE MY PERSONAL MOBILE NUMBER AND MY HOME ADDRESS by DELETING THE ENTIRE COMPANY LISTING with my personal home address http://www.yelp.com/biz/ [redacted] -services- [redacted] YELP General Guidelines Inappropriate

Hi [redacted] ,Thank you for writing back.You wrote, "I 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)." Please note that users are welcome to post reviews based on their experiences, regardless of when they occurred, so the date a review was posted isn't necessarily the date the user received the service.Please be assured that we've evaluated the content of S G.'s review of [redacted] and are allowing the user to stand behind their reviewWe've also looked at S G.'s review of Luxe Salon, and have elected to leave it upIf a review appears to reflect a user's personal experience and opinions, it is our policy to let the user stand behind his or her reviewHowever, we've removed S G.'s review of The Loft because it falls outside our Content Guidelines.It also sounds as though you still believe that Yelp manipulates reviews to favor advertisersHowever, with respect to reviews, paying businesses have absolutely no advantageThe 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.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because: This is not what Juan and myself agreed to, I dont care what they sayWill never do business or refer Yelp to anyoneThey are just another large corporation that takes advantage of the little manThey even make it to where a client cant write a negative review...That should say something...Sincerely,Ross***

Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because: This is not an acceptable answer from Yelp! Yelp is very unprofessional and should be shut downMy company has great five star reviews that Yelp hid, but yet they post negative reviewsWhat is there point? Yelp should not be able to have my business on there listing if I oppose and I opposeI would Yelp to take my business information off of there website Yelp does not stand behind there guidelines [redacted] is not even a real company.Sincerely,Paige Dyer

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2015/10/19) */ Hi [redacted] , Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] You wrote, "Yelp has been deleting all Postive Yelp reviews off my Yelp site." 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 In this case, it sounds as though the reviews you are referring to are currently not recommendedAs 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, [redacted] Yelp Inc Initial Consumer Rebuttal / [redacted] (3000, 7, 2015/10/22) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) They did not give me any useful information and dos not stop Yelp from removing all good reviews this site is a scam and needs to be taken down Final Business Response / [redacted] (4000, 9, 2015/11/02) */ Hi [redacted] , 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 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, [redacted] Yelp Inc Final Consumer Response / [redacted] (4200, 11, 2015/11/06) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) They still have yet to come up with a resolution they clearly do jot care about customer concerns or flaws with there company they need to be shut down

Hi [redacted] Thank you for your feedback.We're sorry to hear you were not satisfied with your advertising program, and would like to provide some clarification about how our self-serve advertising programs work.Our records indicate that 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 AccountYou wrote, "Yelp didn't give me an opportunity to turn off the Yelp Ads before I was charged," but if 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 the advertising services you received and how the promotion was applied:September - 30, 2016- You received ad clicks which cost a total of $125.27- Your prorated Call To Action, Slideshow, and Remove Competitor Ads features cost $62.64- $of your $credit was used and you paid $0October 2016- You received ad clicks which cost a total of $150- Your Call To Action, Slideshow, and Remove Competitor Ads features cost $75- You had $remaining promotional credit for this month because it was partially used in September- You paid $for advertising services delivered in October 2016.November - 3, 2016- You received ad click which cost a total of $5.18- Your prorated Call To Action, Slideshow, and Remove Competitor Ads features cost $5.29- You had remaining promotional credit for this month because it was used in September and October- The balance of $for advertising services delivered in November was waived.You can view a breakdown of how many ad clicks you received by logging in to your Yelp for Business Owners Account at [redacted] / and then clicking on the Yelp Ads tabInformation about how much of your promotional credit was applied each month is available in the Billing tab of your account.You ended your advertising program on November 3, 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 [redacted] ***You indicated you sent a cancellation email on April 18, 2017, but please note that we require days written notice to your account management contact if you wish to terminate your advertising programWith that in mind, your advertising program was terminated on May 17, 2017.Additionally, please keep in mind that your advertising program is 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 May 1, was for advertising services you received in April, and the outstanding balance of $is for the advertising services you received from May - 17, Once this amount is collected, you will not incur further chargesThanks for understanding.Regards,***Yelp Inc