Yelp.com

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because:
The response from Yelp is completely inadequateThe are well aware of their fraudulent practices given the thousands of complaints filed at the Revdex.com and other internet sitesThe ads run on Yelp are artificial at best, and likely fraudulentThe value received from their so called "services" are completely unsatisfactory, and have little or no valueTheir contract is void since a consumer was induced by fraud
Given these facts, wouldn't a reputable company issued a refund? Only a criminal organization would treat their customers like this
Additional complaints with government will follow, and eventually we can get Yelp shut down
Sincerely,*** ***

Hi ***,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding the business page for *** *** *** * ***.You expressed concern that your business page had not been marked as closedWhile we enable users to submit changes to business pages on Yelp,
our moderators evaluate those changes to ensure they meet our standardsIn this situation, it looks as though your request to mark the page as closed was initially rejected because we could not verify the closure at that time.However, as you may recall from the correspondence you've recently had with my colleague ***, we've since gone ahead and marked your business as closedWhile we don't remove business pages in cases like this, closed businesses eventually stop appearing in search results over time.Regards,***Yelp Inc

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 manually reverse the software’s decisions, either to suppress an active review or to restore one that isn’t recommended.We do understand the recommendation software can be frustrating at times, and your feedback is appreciatedWhen it comes down to it, all review sites face the same challenge: how to identify the most reliable and useful content amongst the millions of submitted reviewsIt's no easy task, and there is always room for improvementWe hope to be able to continually improve on this issue.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 law.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because:
I do not mind putting my real picture on line; I just mentioned it that goes around comes around
You are adamantly refusing to take down reviews: *** ** * *** ** are other ones, for which I WILL lodge separate complaints. Clearly they fail to mention a real experience. This is a clear indication that you DO have a vested interest in false/negative reviews; you have been sued for that, have you not!?
Sincerely,*** ***

Hi ***,Thank you for writing back.We want to clarify that creating a Business Account is freeTo learn more about the free tools that are available for business owners, please visit: ***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 lawAnd while we understand you are concerned that some reviews are not currently being recommended on your listing, it's important to remember that people can still see these reviews at the bottom of your business page, and they might be recommended on another day. Regards,***Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/05/22) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe appreciate your feedback and are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for *** Studio Massage
We are sorry to hear you were not satisfied with your
advertising campaignTo be clear, while it is our hope that advertisers will find success via the Yelp advertising program, it is important to keep in mind that results are not guaranteed; this is noted in Section IV (Yelp's Disclaimer of Warranties) of the advertising agreement you signed: "Yelp specifically disclaims all warranties and guarantees regarding (I) the performance, quality and results of the ad programs." When advertising with a packaged cost-per-click program, you are electing to pay for your enhanced profile and for every time a user clicks on your ad impression
You also wrote, "From mid march I started requesting my account be cancelledThey ignored my emails." According to our records, it looks like you spoke with an account manager, ***, on March 18, but it does not appear that intent to cancel was discussed at that timeAs you may recall, *** explained that it was early in your advertising campaign and she went over the traffic, leads, and advertisement clicks seen in the past days
We've been in touch with our account management team, and it appears the first written notice to cancel they received from you was on April 15, As noted in your advertising agreement, we require days written notice to your account management contact in order to terminate your advertising campaign, so your advertising program has been terminated as of May 15, That said, if you provided a written cancellation request to your account manager prior to April 15, 2015, could you please forward us the email (headers included) to ***@yelp.com, so that we can look into this further? Please be sure to indicate that it is in regards to Revdex.com case #XXXXXXXX
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/05/25) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Again I spoke to numerous people on the phoneI neber even received an account managerLike I said prior, my sales rep misinformed me of what the program was aboutI was guaranteed business per my sales rep and was quoted per ad clickWhen the clicks were not reached to the full amount, I was charged moreFurthermore I would have never joined had id known the guarantee part was her just trying to make a saleNever did I receive any business fromyelp, which leads me to believe the clicks were coming from inside the company just to make moneyI have heard this from other past clients as well
Final Business Response /* (4000, 16, 2015/06/29) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writing again
You expressed concern with the leads you receivedTo be clear, the goal of advertising on Yelp is to drive more traffic to the business page, which may ultimately result in more customers, but as previously noted, we cannot guarantee a certain level of resultsYou signed up for a cost-per-click advertising program, which means you elected to pay every time a user clicked on your ad impression
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 18, 2015/07/02) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I have been informed that you pay people to click yelp adsI have other friends in the same situationNo real leads whatsoeverLike I said before my sales rep lied to me and scammed me into signing something without allowing me to read itI find it ironic how now the truth comes outYour site has destroyed my safety with these same scammers harassing meYou shouldn't hire people to lie to customers just so you can get business

Hi ***,Thank you for writing back.While we appreciate your feedback regarding your advertising program, we want to reiterate that advertising services were delivered in accordance with the advertising agreement you signed. You can view a breakdown the number of ad clicks you received and the average cost per click by logging in to your Yelp for Business Owners Account at ***/ and clicking on the "Yelp Ads" tabHowever, we are unable to provide you with further details regarding the ad clicks you received.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Hi Heath,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns. We appreciate you bringing this to our attention, and we'll be looking into this matter further. We have placed your business on our internal Do Not Call list, and going forward you should
receive no further sales communication unless you explicitly request otherwiseIf for any reason you continue to hear from them, please let us know at ***Regards,HelenYelp Inc

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because:
YELP PEOPLE LIE THROUGH THEIR TEETH! EVERY FIVE STAR REVIEW IS REJECTED, EVERY ONE STAR IS ACCEPTED, YOUR SOFTWARE WAS INSTALLED BY IS, HAVE THE IS CORRECT IT!!! IF LIES ARE OK, THATS CALLED SLANDER, I GET AN ATTORNEY NEXT, WILL WE SEE WHO INSTALLED THE SOFTWARE, OK?
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 meThank you so much!!!!Sincerely, *** ***

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because:
Yelp is not allowing positive reviews to balance a single, very damaging, review! The review is a third-party slam, not even witnessed by the reviewer. There is nothing fair about this system. In addition, when I try to post a response to the reviewer, I am forced to post a photo of my face! The reviewer is not required to post a photo, nor is he required to post a last name. Completely anonymous, third party lies, and I cannot respond without posting a photo of my face. I posted a photo of my business logo, but Yelp denied the photo, saying I must use a face, or I cannot respond to this reviewer.Sincerely,*** ***

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because: I emailed a cancelation notice and verbally told my account manager in On May and time frameI was never told I had to cancel with such terms of written notice within daysI do believe in NYS, I do need to have a signature document not just verbal also, I was never told that I had a term or the any early opt out noticeI want a refund and full credit of May to currentI was only pushed by the sales person who wanted yes and didn't accept no for an answerI finally broke down to give it a tryIn NYS I do have days to opt out of a signed contract and I chose to do so within the days
You will need to refund mePlease if any concerns, have someone call me at *** on This Friday, November 25, after PM ET if any questionsI will not accept any less than a refund and full credit.Sincerely,*** ***

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/10/30) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe're glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for *** ***
You expressed concern with the health score alert that is currently displayed on your Yelp
business pageYelp recently added a pop up alert to restaurant pages in San Francisco that have received a recent official health score of or below (placing them in the bottom 5% locally) to highlight this important information to consumers so they can make an informed decisionThis feature does not affect a user's interaction with the business page, as the pcan be easily dismissedRestaurants in San Francisco with a recent health inspection score of or below will have a health score alert displayed on their page for six months, or until we receive an updated health score that is significantly improved
It appears that *** *** received a health inspection score of on March 11, You asked that we remove the health score alert from your business page, but we think consumers have a right to have access to this public informationWhile there is no opt-out for businesses, please keep in mind that the pop up will be removed if we receive a significantly improved health score for this businessIf you think your health score is inaccurate, you should contact the county health department, which provides this data to Yelp
Further, because the alert is based on recent inspections, restaurants with low scores based on older inspections may not receive an alertAlso, because there may be a time delay between the date of any inspection and when Yelp receives the data containing the score resulting from that inspection, there may be a delay between the time restaurants receive new low health inspection scores and the time they receive an alert on their Yelp pageWe invite you to send us links to any restaurants that you believe have received a low health inspection score, but do not have an alert on their page, so that we may investigate further
Finally, it is incorrect that only advertisers may communicate with YelpWe understand that you contacted Yelp directly about these issues on October 27, and that we responded to you on the next day
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because:
Again, yelp and its employee hide behind a computer program, which is unstoppable and
CAN NOT BE EDITED, for the same reason as before....*** *** is an established Franchise with #locationsOurs in *** *** is being targeted by NEGATIVE Yelp reviewsThree five star reviews are being hidden and a new FAKE review of two stars is being shownYelp wants to show the FAKE two star reviews, which is a violation of there own TOS, which they refused to addressOur Real review, by actual students are being hidden??? The two star review on yelp by *** * is fraudulent, as noted to yelp and nothing was done*** was inappropriate with our teacher and his called was NOT returned for that reason! He was told on the first attempt, teachers do NOT fraternize with studenthis advances continued and his calls were not returned*** had no interest in learning how to dancehe spent no money and had only four days in town? a dance lesson takes weeks to monthsYelp could care less, so lets try to see if the Revdex.com can help??
Sincerely,*** ***

Hi Kyle,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for The Cleaning Company. We appreciate your feedback, and have forwarded your message to the appropriate partiesAs you may recall, you spoke with one of our
Customer Success Managers, Diana, to go over the concerns you brought up in your Revdex.com complaintAs advertising services were delivered in accordance with the Terms *** *** *** *** ** *** *** ** *** ** *** *** * *** *** *** *** Regards,HelenYelp Inc

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/11/16) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for *** Restaurant
You wrote, "Auto debited personal bank account without any consent to do
so." Our records indicate that you signed up for an advertising program on March 31, and that your ad campaign was terminated on September 30, As noted in the Purchase Order section your contract, you agreed to pay monthly in arrears by credit card
We also want to clarify that the $you were charged on October 29, was for an outstanding balance for advertising services delivered in July, August, and September As advertising services were delivered in accordance with your contract, we will not be able to offer you a refundThanks for understanding
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc

Hi ***,Thank you for writing backWe appreciate your feedback, and will make sure to forward your note to the appropriate parties.You wrote, "In regards to other businesses outside of Dixon setting up a service area, I previously mentioned that I had called some of those businesses asking if I was in their service area,and they all said no." Please note that the Service Area displayed on business pages is set up by the business and can be changed by the business at any time through their Yelp Business AccountThe business can enter up to major cities that their business servesAny cities between the cities they specify will be included in their service area automatically.With regards to your comment, "people want to see what is closest to them first," please keep in mind that distance is not the only factor taken into consideration in our search resultsYelp's search results algorithm takes into consideration a number of different factors including review text, ratings, and number of reviewsAdditionally, our search results for mobile businesses may differ from businesses that have a physical location that customers visit, such as restaurants.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/04/27) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for ***, LLC
We are sorry to hear you were not satisfied with your
advertising campaignTo be clear, the goal of Yelp advertising is to put your listing in front of more potential clients, via features such as sponsored search resultsWhile of course it is our hope that the programs will result in an increase of business for clients, ultimately, we cannot guarantee results of an advertising program
The program you signed up for was a Cost Per Click (CPC) program, which means you elected to pay every time a user clicked on your ad impressionWith an advertising program, ad impressions will appear in places such as above search results and on your competitors' business pagesThese ad impressions have a yellow border and an "Ad" notation to the left of the business nameClicking on an ad impression will take the user to your business page on Yelp
Our records indicate that you redeemed a $credit towards Yelp adsIn order to redeem this promotion, you were required to sign up for our Cost Per Click (CPC) advertising campaign and put a credit card on fileYou set your Cost Per Click monthly budget at $Please note that your monthly budget and the promotion you received are separate
Once your $credit is used, the ads will continue to run unless you stop them through your Business Account (biz.yelp.com)Your credit was redeemed on December 28, 2014, and you stopped your CPC ads through your Business Account on March 4,
Here is a breakdown of the ad clicks you received and the amounts you paid:
December
-You received clicks which costs $
-Your $credit was used and you paid $
January
-You received clicks which costs $
-You had $credit for this month and you paid $
-The costs did not exceed your $budget
February
-You received clicks which costs $
-You had credit for this month because it was used in December-JanuaryYou paid $
-The costs did not exceed your $budget
March
-You received clicks which costs $
-You had credit for this month because it was used in December-JanuaryYou paid $
-The costs did not exceed your $budget
You can also view this activity in your Business Account under Yelp Ads
Please note that because you were billed in arrears for your program, you last bill for the services delivered in March was assessed on April 1, As advertising services have been delivered, we will not be able to offer you a refund
You also expressed concern that you had trouble finding our contact informationOur Client Services team's email address would have been displayed on the Billing tab in your business account while you were advertisingAdditionally, business owners regardless of their advertising status can contact our Support team 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 Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/04/29) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
The supposed clicks were from me checking my Yelp page to see if anyone had left a review/message/questionIn the months I had an ad running we never received a request or even a question about our servicesSo if they are to be believed that people clicked on our ad but not a single one ever followed thru or even had a question, their product is a shamI suspect someone from YELP is the one clicking on the ad so they can inflate the numbersWe advertise with Google Ad Words with a pay per click arrangement and get constant business from those clicksEither YELP is fraudulently padding their numbers or its the worst advertisement campaign I've come across in years of being in businessThe only activity noted in the YELP emails was from me checking my YELP page for any responses
To the matter of customer serviceI immediately stopped my campaigne after the $credit was used up because we received not a single requestI was unable to remove my debit card from their records, they provided NO phone number and only offered an email address to send all inquiriesUnder the FAQ, the first listed is how you cant sue YELP because they hide behind their claim of providing advertising and allowing anyone to leave negative reviews without proofYELP is a scam and we intend to join the class action suit against them unless we are reimbursed for all the money they debited out of our account without a single request from one of the so called "clickers" from which we have no listing to see who, from where, and how often one person is Clicking on our YELP ad
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/05/14) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for your response
You wrote, "In the months I had an ad running we never received a request or even a question about our services." While the goal of advertising on Yelp is to drive more traffic to the business page, which may ultimately result in more customers, we do not make claims as to the effectivenessWithin Section of the Ads and Upgrades Terms (https://biz.yelp.com/tos/upgrades_en_us_XXXXXXXX) that you agreed to when you signed up for advertising, it reads, "Yelp specifically disclaims all warranties and guarantees regarding (I) the performance, quality, and results of the ad services."
You also expressed concern that the ad clicks may have been manipulated by someone at YelpPlease be assured that Yelp ads clicked on from a Yelp IP do not count towards the ad clicks you see in your Business AccountAdditionally, we employ a variety of industry-standard measures to detect and prevent invalid traffic and click fraudFor example, we monitor our clicks and impressions for fraudulent activity, and frequently update our filters to exclude activity from known offendersWe also subscribe to the Internet Advertising Bureau's bot list, which gives us an industry-standard filter in addition to our own more rigorous ones
You have again asked for a refund, but as we previously stated, we will not be able to offer you one as advertising services have been delivered in accordance with the terms you agreed to when you signed up for advertisingThanks for understanding
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc

Hi Richard,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for Soundguy Productions.We've forwarded your message to the appropriate parties and a manager, Marissa, reached out to you on March 16, As you may recall from
your conversation with her, we are refunding you $and waiving the outstanding balance of $12.10. We have also placed your business on our internal Do Not Call list, and going forward you should receive no further sales communication unless you explicitly request otherwiseIf for any reason you continue to hear from them, please let us know at ***If you would like to update your email notification preferences, you can do so by following the instructions given here:***Regards,HelenYelp Inc

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/05/07) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program and business page for *** ***
We are sorry to hear you were not satisfied with your advertising
campaignTo be clear, while it is our hope that advertisers will find success via the Yelp advertising program, it is important to keep in mind that results are not guaranteedWhen advertising with a cost per click program, you are electing to pay every time a user clicks on your ad impression
You wrote, "After days I cancelled by email like instructed and then received no response." We've been in touch with your account manager, ***, and according to her records, you first brought up your cancellation concerns via email with her on April 8, *** followed up with you on April 9, requesting that you forward the email you claim to have previously sent requesting to cancel, but you did not forwarded that email to her
That said, if you provided a written cancellation request to your account manger prior to April 8, could you please forward us the email (headers included) to ***@yelp.com? Please be sure to indicate that it is in regards to Revdex.com case #XXXXXXXX
You also wrote that you were "told it would be a month trial." While you may have discussed other term lengths with your sales representative, you ultimately signed a 12-month advertising agreement
Your advertising program has been terminated as of April 30, As advertising services have been delivered in accordance with your contract, we will not be able to offer you a refundSince you have chosen to end your program before the end of the 12-month term, you are responsible for an early termination fee of $You are also responsible for an outstanding balance of $for advertising services delivered in February, March, and April
With regards to your concerns 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 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 asked that we restore the reviews that are not currently 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
Finally, you wrote, "negative reviews from a competitor were leftOne specifically states a different company name." We assume you are referring to the review by *** S, as you've previously flagged this reviewAs you may recall from the correspondence you've had with the Yelp Support team, the review has been evaluated by and left up, as it was not found to be in violation of our guidelinesYou claim that this review is from a competitor, but based on what we see in the review, we can't confirm that the user has a conflict of interest with your businessIf a review appears to reflect the personal experience and opinions of the reviewer, it is our policy to allow the user to stand by his/her review
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc