Yelp.com

Hi Gary,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for Motorworks Engine Center.We want to assure you 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 reviews. You'll find plenty of Yelp advertisers with negative reviews, and plenty of non-advertisers with five-star ratings across the boardFurthermore, there is zero relationship between the timing of when a review gets recommended and when a business decides to--or declines to--advertiseReviews can be recommended or not recommended days, weeks, or even months after they were first posted, and a Yelp sales representative doesn't have any influence over when that might happen.Our recommendation software recommends both positive and negative reviews in an effort to show the most helpful and reliable reviews to our usersThat said, Yelpers write more positive reviews than negative reviews, so it isn’t necessarily surprising that Yelp’s recommendation software might impact more positive reviews. We hope you’ll take the time to watch our video about the Recommendation Software: *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** We also want to clarify that actions taken by Yelp’s automated recommendation software are separate from the Yelp Support team's evaluation of reviews against our Content Guidelines. 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, 2015/12/21) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for ***
You expressed concern with ** J's review of your businessThe review has been evaluated by the
Yelp Support team and left up, as it was not found to be in violation of our guidelinesYou claim that this is "a review"; 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
That said, you do have a voice on YelpWith a free Yelp for Business Owners Account, you can privately message the user or publicly comment on the reviewYou can also post information about your business, upload photos to your listing, and more
You can get started on claiming your business page by clicking the "Claim this business" button, or the "Work here? Claim this business" link on the business page
Please visit our Support Center for more information: http://www.yelp-support.com/article/How-do-I-claim-my-business-page?l=en_US
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc

Hi ***,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for *** *** *** ***We are sorry to hear you were not satisfied with your advertising program, which was terminated on April 14, We've forwarded your message
to the appropriate parties, and it looks like a manager, ***, reached out to discuss your concernsAs you may recall, we have waived the balance for advertising services delivered from March 1, to April 14, 2016. Regards,***Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/01/13) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program
It appears the email address you provided is currently associated with three business pages on Yelp
(***)Could you please clarify which business page you are referring to, so that we can better address your concerns?
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2016/01/18) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
It needs further response from the business
*** XXXXX
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2016/01/27) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for the additional information
As you noted, you redeemed a $promotional ad credit for your *** *** pageTo redeem the $credit towards Yelp ads, you were required to sign up for our Cost Per Click advertising campaign and put a credit card on fileYou set your Cost Per Click monthly budget at $Once the promotion runs out, advertising continues until you stop your ads through your Yelp for Business Owners Account
Your advertising program was a self-serve program, which means that ads can only be turned off by the business through the Yelp for Business Owners AccountIf you only wanted to use your $promotion, you would have needed to log in and end the program once that credit was usedIn Step of your ad setup there were Q&A's on the right side of the page explaining that you could stop your ads any time through the Yelp for Business Owners site: "Can I stop any time? YesThere's no commitment or obligationJust come back to the Yelp for Business Owners site and stop your adsYou will be billed at the beginning of the next month for any clicks you bought before you cancelled."
Below is a more detailed description of how the promotion was applied:
September 28-30,
- You received ad clicks which cost a total of $
- $of your $credit was used and you paid $
October
- You received ad clicks which cost a total of $
- You had $remaining promotional credit for this month because it was partially used in September
- The costs did not exceed your selected $monthly budget
- You paid $for advertising services delivered in October
November
- You received ad clicks which cost a total of $
- You had remaining promotional credit for this month because it was used in September and October
- The costs did not exceed your selected $monthly budget
- You paid $for advertising services delivered in November
December
- You received ad clicks which cost a total of $
- The costs did not exceed your selected $monthly budget
- You paid $for advertising services delivered in December
January 1-5,
- You received ad clicks which cost a total of $
- You are responsible for $for advertising services delivered in January
You can view a breakdown of how many ad clicks you received by logging in to your Yelp for Business Owners Account at https://biz.yelp.com/, selecting your *** *** page, and then clicking on the Yelp Ads tab
You ended your advertising program on January 5, 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.You expressed concern with *** *** *** ** *** *** *** ***Please note that users are welcome to post reviews based on their experiences, regardless of when they occurredWith that in
mind, we've looked at *** *** review and because this particular review appears to reflect the personal experience and opinions of the reviewer, we are leaving it up.To the extent that the business owner would like to comment on the review in question, please note that we have a free Public Comments feature available to business owners.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Hi Ms***,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for *** *** *** ** *** * ***We understand you find the language used in the review by *** * offensive and are frustrated that we have left the review up
Evaluating reviews for inappropriate content isn’t easy and we recognize that each person has a different tolerance for strong languageGenerally, what we don’t tolerate on our site are serious threats and hate speechWe do have a fairly high bar for colorful language and try to allow users to tell their story in their own words, whether or not they had a positive experience with a business, and regardless of our own personal tastesWe hope you can understand why we ultimately didn’t conclude that this review violates our terms.With regards to your comment, "There are numerous reviews that appear to be fake or can not be identified and nothing is done about it," we allow users to post reviews, and rely on the Yelp community to report content that they believe is questionableIf you believe a review violates Yelp's Content Guidelines (h***), 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 *** to your contact list).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: ***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,***Yelp Inc

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because: Yelp did not only lie to me about the day period, Yelp also lied about the number of clicks that were actually made. One of the clicks showed that a potential customer clicked in yelp to my website. Well, I do not have a website. Also, yelp stated that a man from California clicked for directions to my cleaners. Why would anybody want directions to my cleaners from California? Yelp also told me that I would ONLY be charged for the amount of clicks that I would get. However, I was never told that I would be charged 100% of the max amount of the package. This is fraud. Yelp is stating that over potential customers clicked to find my cleaners within the short amount of time that I was with yelp. Nevertheless, I did not received a single new customer from yelpI have every single one of my customers in my POS. Therefore, if I get a new customer I always ask where did they hear from us. out of three new customers that I served during this time, all tree found me in google. The amount of money that I was charged was extremely high for the $dollars I made this whole time. This does not add up, this is and it is fraud
Yelp states that all the phone calls are being recorded, therefore; if yelp has nothing to loose, I want yelp to come up with the recordings they have in their posesion to show the leis that they make on the phone to their customers. Yelp should have all the conversations recorded as they state it
Best regards,
*** ***Sincerely,*** ***

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because it is nonsense
They need to stop removing my reviews and stop lying about why
They tell people on my page that they were removed because I asked for them, which is a deliberate lie
I am rated the best shop of my kind by all smoke-shop customers in my town, but just because I don't pay for an unfair advantage yelp are trying to
marginalise my store!
The excuse that their software is to blame and that they are not liable and have no will to make changes should be an illegal stance to take
They are causing a problem and they need to fix it whether that means a new system or software or handing-over 100% control of pages to owners, or
even shutting down their site
Sincerely,*** ***

Hi ***,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for Condominium Administration company.You expressed concern with two reviewsIt looks like you may be referring to the reviews by *** ** *** *** *., as you've previously
reported these reviewsIt appears as though *** *has removed their review from your business.Our team has taken another look at *** *** current review of Condominium Administration company, 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 reviewYou wrote, "my offers to provide proof are ignored," but as frustrating as it may sound, we don't take the place of a court of law and make evidentiary determinations.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.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Hi Mr***Thank you for writing again.You expressed concern that it appeared more ad impressions were delivered at the end of the monthTo clarify, the delivery of ads on Yelp is done via an auction systemWhen there is an opportunity for an ad to be displayed, an auction then happens that effectively stack ranks advertisers to determine which ad will be the best fitThe ranking is done based on many different factors, including past performance, their bid, geographical location, category match, and much moreWhat can happen is when an advertiser is having a tough time competing throughout the month, it can mean that more of their ads get delivered at the end of the monthThis can happen because towards the end of the month, there is generally less competition to have ads delivered, giving the advertiser who wasn't competing well an opportunity to have ads delivered.In this case, it looks like your ads had a lower click through rate, which in turn required Yelp to deliver more ad impressions in order to get you an ad clickThus, when in the auction, our system was tending tending to pick other ads that had a greater probability of being clicked.That said, it looks like the ad delivery behavior you described was mainly affecting your ads during MarchThe distribution of ads throughout April and May, and the first days of June was relatively stable For more information about how our Cost Per Click advertising program works, please visit ***Regards,***Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/12/21) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for ***'s ***
You expressed concern with some reviews of your businessWe assume you are
referring to the reviews by *** S and *** C, as it appears you've previously reported these reviewsAs you may recall from the messages you've received from the Yelp Support team, these reviews have been evaluated and left up, as they were not found to be in violation of our guidelinesYou claim that these reviews contain "information"; however, Yelp does not take sides in factual disputesRather, if a review appears to reflect the personal experience and opinions of the reviewer, it is our policy to allow the user to stand by his or her review
You also asked for your business to be removed from Yelp, but we actually don't remove business listing informationWhile some business owners might prefer to keep a lower profile, this kind of information is publicly available and its use is protected under the lawMore importantly, we believe that the public benefits from sharing their experiences with local businesses
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc

Hi ***,Thank you for 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 *** 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 writing back.You wrote, "You stated that '*** *** review update of *** *** *** *** was removed because it fell outside our Content Guidelines,' however the review is still posted." To clarify, our records indicate *** ** posted a review of *** *** *** *** on November 1, 2012, and a review update of *** *** *** *** on April 14, *** *** April 14, review update was removed because it fell outside our Content GuidelinesHowever, *** *** November 1, review doesn't appear to violate our Content Guidelines so we're leaving it up.With regards to your comment, "I am clearly stating I don't know these individuals, nor have they come to my day care for a visit," we understand that a negative review about an experience you don’t recognize is very frustratingWe have taken another look at *** ** and *** *** reviews, but, after careful consideration, we reached the same conclusion as before and are unable to remove the reviews We 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 review.We also want to be clear that the Yelp Support team's evaluation of reviews against our Content Guidelines (*** is separate from actions taken by our automated recommendation software.Finally, you asked for your listing to be removed from Yelp; however, we 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 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

Hi ***,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for *** *** ***sIt also appears you spoke with a manager, ***, the day after you filed this Revdex.com complaint.We want to clarify that Yelp treats advertisers
and non-advertisers exactly alike with respect to reviewsBusinesses 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.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 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: ***Regards,***Yelp Inc

Hi ***,Thank you for writing again.You wrote, "If your software considers favorable responses from patients biased then your computer should be blocking every favorable response." We want to be clear that the recommendation software looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability, and activity on Yelp, when determining whether or not to recommend a reviewSome reviews that are not currently recommended may be real reviews from real customers who we just don't know much about and therefore can't recommend.With regards to your comment, "I am quite sure we lost our stars due to complaints from your other hearing aid customers listed due to our highly competitive pricing that is driving the market towards *** ***I know two that are highly ranked by your company that would be apt to do that," please be assured that there is no relationship between reviews and anything having to do with Yelp Ads or the Yelp Ads sales processThere’s no amount of money a business can pay to manipulate their reviews or rating and Yelp doesn’t skew things in favor of advertisers or against businesses that don’t.You also wrote, "Until either *** *** is completely removed or our star rating is again displayed I am going to look for ways to expose your company's egregious activities." We want to reiterate that because our recommendation software is automated, the Yelp Support team cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a reviewWith regards to your request that your business listing be removed, 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." S** *** *** ** *** *** ** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***Regards,***Yelp Inc

Hi ***,Thank you for your feedback.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 pageWith regards to your request to remove your business page, 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).While we are unable to manually override or provide you with additional details about the recommendation software, we encourage you to continue providing a world class customer experience and let the reviews take care of themselves over the long term.Regards,***Yelp 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 *** Restaurant
You expressed concern with a negative review of your businessWe assume you
are referring to the review by *** F, as you've previously flagged this reviewAs you may recall, the review has been evaluated by the Yelp Support team and left up, as it was not found to be in violation of our guidelinesYou stated that you "Have proof of previous employee"; however, as frustrating as it may sound, we don't take the place of a court of law and make evidentiary determinationsBased on what we see in the review, we can't confirm that the user has a conflict of interest with your businessIf a review appears to reflect the personal experience and opinions of the reviewer, it is our policy to allow the user to stand by his/her review
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/07/03) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
This person has never dined at our restaurantHe is a previous employee that is upset that he was firedHe told the Manager that fired him that he was going to write a bad reviewThis is unacceptable that you are allowing a person to bad mouth our business because of a person grudge he has with being fired
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/07/14) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for your response
You have again stated that the review by *** F is from a "previous employee" and should be removedAgain, we are not in a position to verify that this user has a conflict of interest with your business based on what we see in the 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

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because:Regardless of what they are saying it remains untrueWe have many customers who have written nice reviews about our company as well as reviews for other companies through YelpAlong with us, they are also very angry that their positive reviews about our company are being hidden for absolutely no reasonAt the same time, we have customers who have left one or perhaps two Yelp reviews and it's about us, and it's bad yet their review is not hidden and makes our company look badIt is causing irreparable harm to our business and is completely unfairThey should be sued for the business they are causing us to lose due to their unfair practice
Sincerely,Gary ***

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/08/25) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for*** ***
To redeem the $credit towards Yelp ads, you were required to sign up for our Cost
Per Click (CPC) advertising campaign and put a credit card on fileYou set your Cost Per Click monthly budget at $Once the promotion ran out, advertising continued until you stopped your ads through your business account
You began your self-serve advertising campaign on June 12, and ended it on July 22, Here is a breakdown of how the promotional credit was applied to the ad clicks you received and the additional features you purchased:
June
- You received clicks which cost $
- You purchased the prorated slideshow feature which cost $
- You purchased the prorated Call To Action feature which cost $
- You purchased the prorated competitor ad removal feature which cost $
- $of your $credit was used and you paid $
July
- You received clicks which cost $
- You had $remaining promotional credit for this month and you paid $
With regards to your comment, "I received a charge in the amount of $after I ended the campaign," you were charged $on August 1, because your advertising program was billed in arrears
Your advertising program was a self-serve program, which means that ads can only be turned off by the business through the business accountIf you only wanted to use your $promotion, you would have needed to log in and end the program once that credit was usedWhen you signed up for Yelp self-serve advertising, in Step of your ad setup there were Q&A's on the right side of the page explaining that you could stop your ads any time through the Yelp for Business Owners site: "Can I stop any time? YesThere's no commitment or obligationJust come back to the Yelp for Business Owners site and stop your adsYou will be billed at the beginning of the next month for any clicks you bought before you cancelled."
As advertising services were delivered in accordance with the Terms you agreed to when you signed up for your advertising campaign, we will not be able to offer you a refundThanks for understanding
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 7, 2015/08/27) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
Thank you for the response, ***
The term "self-serve" is rather misleadingYour ad sales representative called me, and guided me through every single action I took aboveI was merely the conduitThe rep telling me where to go and what to click is hardly self-serve
I was quite clear to her that I wished not to spend beyond the credit and that I wanted to evaluate its success before proceeding furtherI did not want to put a card on file, but was talked into doing so by your representativeYou can listen to my objection in your recording, which unfortunately, I don't have access toThe practice of requiring a credit card for a free trial campaign is unnecessary, but I did make the mistake of acquiescing to this practice of yours
I followed your rep's advice in setting up the campaign and how to terminate it at the appropriate time so as to avoid coming out of pocketI monitored the account regularly, we are very cautious how we spend our advertising dollarsI recall ending the campaign when we reached our $thresholdYes, you do have Q&As, but to delegate personal responsibility to a list on your website is an impersonal practice that I cannot support
If I made a mistake in understanding the "self-serve" system that was set up for me, that is fineUltimately, the everlasting mistake was that I trusted in your company and its representative to serve me, the customerThe dubiousness, misinformation, and lack of clear communication is why I filed this complaint under the "sales practice issues" categoryYou are free to sell how you wish to sell, but I would advise your company focus on customer loyalty, long-term satisfaction, and a mutually beneficial relationship over trying to make a quick buck off of a small business
Wishing you all my best,
***

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/06/30) */
Hi Dr***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for *** ***, MD
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
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/07/03) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Completely unacceptableI am not a local businessYelp is a restaurant review siteI have had positive reviewsOnly one is listed, the others are 'not recommended'Why?
Yet it continues to recommend the one negative reviewOnce Yelp starts editorializing and hiding reviews it moves the emphasis from public forum to private promotionIf it can't list ALL of the reviews in order by date then it should remove me from the site
I would think the Revdex.com would agree
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/07/14) */
Hi Dr***,
Thank you for writing back
You have again asked that your page be removed from Yelp, stating, "I am not a local businessYelp is a restaurant review site." Any local business, service or place with a physical presence can be listed on Yelp, for example, restaurants, shops, bars, salons, spas, doctors, mechanics, parks, museums, and moreYelp 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)
You also expressed concern with the recommendation softwareWhile 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 access these reviews at the bottom of your business page, and they might be recommended on another day
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 measuredIt'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
With regards to the order of the recommended reviews, the default order is Yelp Sort, which attempts to show reviews that help consumers make informed decisionsFor example, the first review displayed for a business will be one that reflects the average star rating of a businessThe order is determined by recency, user voting, and other review quality factors, which is why an older review may appear before a newer oneKeep in mind when viewing a business a user can sort the recommended reviews in a few other waysby date, star rating, and those written by Elites
To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2015/07/19) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Again, I am not a business, I am employee of *** FoundationAnd, just as I can't review *** from Yelp, no one should be able to Yelp me but rather my employer
Obviously, by "not recommending" many of the positive reviews it implies that Yelp thinks they are suspectI would be happy to provide patient names and phone numbers if that would make them more reliable to the computer algorithm
I have no problem with Yelp continuing my reviews but only if they list them all in the order receivedYou make it sound like the computer algorithm is an immutable scientific lawI believe you created it
What is the Revdex.com's take on all of this? Are you nothing more than an internet forum?