Yelp.com

Complaint: ***
We are rejecting this response because we have a right to know exactly what your software found to be inappropriate regarding our customer's review or supposedly unreliableWe do not accept your excuse regarding your softwareYou speak of your software as though it is an entity all its own and that you cannot override it for any reasonThis is not only ridiculous, but we find it also insulting to imagine that you actually believe a software engineer would believe this sort of nonsense
As we stated in our previous email, one of the owners of *** *** is an engineer and knows EXACTLY how software worksYour software made an explicit error when deleting a customer's legitimate review and thus we insist that those reviews are reinstated because of your companies error and continued use of inferior software
We would also like to point out that your business has received numerous complaints from multiple companies regarding this same issueYet you continue to practice this sort of scamIf our request is not completed we will take this complaint to the attorney generalYour company has no right to try and milk small businesses for advertising money and when a legitimate review is posted you remove it because your mysterious software somehow has a mind of its own.
The number we called was the one listed all over the internet because your actual website does not have any number readily listedWe called in November of last year the following: ***
Regards,
*** ***

Hi Tyler,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns. We require more information in order to better assist youPlease reply to this message with additional information and links to either the Yelp business page or user account you are referring to, and
the name of the reviewerOnce we have this information, we’ll be better equipped to assist you.Regards,HelenYelp Inc

Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because: Yelp hasn't offered a solution to my problem, their service didn't work, they either sold my phone number to telemarketers or I was only harassed by more then of them since signing up for their service and that's essentially what I was charged for.Their response: " variable cost of a clickThe 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." Completely contradictory to what I was told by their representative Joy Randle, and their is still no tangible viewable scale showing "competition and relevance" effecting the rate - it's all made up for their benefit to charge you as much as possibleOffering to waive the cancellation fee would maybe suffice if I wasn't being lied to this entire time
Sincerely,
*** ***

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 campaignTo be clear, while the goal of advertising on Yelp is to
drive more traffic to the business page, which may ultimately result in more customers, it is important to keep in mind that results are not guaranteedWhen advertising with a Cost Per Click program, you were electing to pay every time a user clicked on your ad impressionYou were also paying for a featured video and an enhanced profile, which included features such as competitor ad removal and a photo slideshow.You wrote, "My understanding was the my month commitment ended on May 10, 2016." We want to clarify that the terms stated in your advertising agreement with Yelp were:"Commitment Period: months from Service Start Date""Automatic renewal: Month-to-Month"That is to say, once you've completed your initial six-month term, your advertising continues to renew automatically on a monthly basis until we receive a cancellation request from youPer the terms of your advertising agreement, we require days written notice to your account management contact if you wish to terminate your advertising programOur cancellation policy was also included in the email with the subject line "Your Ads Are Live" that was sent to you on November 12, 2015: "Note: After month(s), your advertising will continue on a month to month basisIf you intend to cancel your program at any point after your initial term, written notice must be submitted days in advance of your desired date of cancellation." As it appears the first cancellation request we received from you was on May 11, 2016, your advertising program was cancelled on June 10, 2016.You also expressed concern with the Request a Quote featurePlease note that you can turn this feature off by logging in to your Business Account at *** *** *** *** ***- Click on "Inbox" in the left-hand navigation- In the top right, click "Settings"- Change the drop-down to "Disabled" and hit SaveFinally, we wanted to let you know we've forwarded your message to the appropriate parties for their considerationThat being said, at this time it appears that because you have not been billed for advertising received from June 1, to June 10, 2016, you will see one final charge on July 1, Thanks for understanding.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because: I am a victim of yelp "recommendation software" Yelp does not recommend my reviews because their software is not recommending themHow ironicWhere is your human, common sensePeople are asking why yelp software does not recommend your business??
Because yelp does have humans working for them, or do they?? software decidesYou are hurting my businessstop and thinkyou are human, you decidedo not let a machine decide for you You are hurting my business
I do not remember the names of two people from yelp who called meit was a few months ago.Sincerely,*** ***

Hi,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for *** ***It looks like you contacted our Support team the same day you filed this Revdex.com complaintAs you may recall from the correspondence you've had with my colleagues
*** *** ***, the business page has been marked as closed and the "From the business" section has been removedWhile Yelp does not remove or delete verifiable businesses from our database, closed businesses eventually stop appearing in Yelp's search results over time.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because:The unauthorized debt from Yelp caused me to have the overdraftThis is not how a business should conduct its business. Sincerely,*** ***

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 10, 2015/08/04) */
Hi ***,
It looks like you previously filed a complaint in with similar concernsAs you may recall, we want to make sure you know that a business' 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/myths 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
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 12, 2015/08/06) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Yelp's response is and devoid of any logic and truthWe have legitimate reviews from well documented customers for whom we prepared legal documents that were field with the court systemThese customers like many thousands were very satisfied and decided on their own to give us positive reviewsYelp removed these positive reviews and kept negative reviews from people that we do not know and believe we have not even helped
Yelp can hide behind its defective "software" to provide twisted and distorted customers' "experiences" with businesses, but when Yelp itself states that this software is not functioning properly and removing legitimate and honest customers' experiences, then Yelp should not be offering such services or claiming that they are true and/or accurate
We still think that Yelp targets businesses to advertise with the hope that at lease honest and legitimate reviews will stay on
You should be ashamed of yourselvesIn my view, your conduct and way of business is un-American, and you are destroying American businesses and distorting customers' experiences
Final Business Response /* (4000, 14, 2015/08/18) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for your response
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
It also sounds as though you don't accept our explanation of the recommendation software, but we can only stand by our previous statementsYelp's recommendation software is an automated algorithm that attempts to weed out less reliable reviews while showcasing more reliable onesThis means that when reviews are posted to your listing, not all of them will make the cutWe acknowledge that even some legitimate reviews will not be recommended, but we still believe that the recommendation software as a whole makes our site more trustworthy and useful to consumers
As indicated in our prior response, the recommendation software is automated to help avoid the potential for human bias inherent in individual decision-making: we cannot reverse the software's decisions, either to suppress an active review or to restore a review that isn't currently recommendedThis also means (and I can say this with 100% certainty) that we cannot manually manipulate the recommendation software to favor an advertiser or punish a non-advertiserBut once again, the system is not static reviews may come and go as the recommendation software picks up new information
We do understand the recommendation software can be frustrating at times, and your feedback is appreciatedWhen it comes down to it, all review sites face the same challenge: how to identify fake reviews among the many millions of legitimate reviewsIt's no easy task, and there is always room for improvementWe hope to be able to continually improve on this issue
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 16, 2015/08/19) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
***'s reply is unacceptable and the information she provided on behalf of Yelp is and inaccurateWe have field a complaint also with the FTC because we also believe Yelp is engaging in unfair trade practices
*** would want us to believe that somehow Yelp's defective algorithm program can only delete positive review when you are no advertisingWe have reviews that are clearly fake but just happened to be negative they nonetheless remained recommended by yelpAll the positive ones, on the other hand were removed
***: who are you kidding??? The American people are beginning to see Yelp for what it really is, and that is why analysts state you are losing ground and customersI hope you continue to lose customers
If your algorithm is removing real, authentic, honest, provable customer reviews which we are willing to back up with real proof of purchase and documents prepared for our customers, then your algorithm is NOT working, and you should scrap it if you have any decencyOtherwise, you would be deceiving the American consumer, which we strongly believe you are doing so
We reject your response and believe you are dishonest and deceptive

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/06/04) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for *** *** *** ***
You expressed concern that your business page had not yet been marked as closedWe
have systems in place to keep our data accurate and timely but from time to time, errors or delays can occurWe've gone ahead and marked your business as closed: ***
We apologize for any inconvenience
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 7, 2015/06/08) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because:
The yelp product is unsatisfactory and the yelp team and the filter should see that these reviews are a carbon copy o.f each other Yelp should take into consideration as to whether these clients had even set foot in my business They are carbon copies of each other, plaguerism which also shows the fact that these reviews are false In any other world, these accusations would be considered libel Yelp should at least do what amazon does and that is to prove you were a customer by verifying a purchase.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 me I surely will NEVER do business with Yelp again and I will absolutely do my best to inform others of their deceptive sales reps and policies.Sincerely, *** ***

Hi ***,Thank you for your response.You wrote, "I submitted the proper type of photoA yelp person contacted me and I emailed it directly to him." If you are referring to the image you sent to Derrick, it appears that the image you sent was of your logoThis image was rejected because your face was not visibleAs previously noted, we require business owners to upload a real photo that's a clear image of you if you wish to use the messaging or public commenting features of your Business AccountAgain, this is so Yelpers can attach a face to their interactions.For more information about how to add a business account profile photo, and what kinds of photos are and aren't acceptable, please visit: ***Regards,***Yelp Inc

Hi Charles,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for Dreaming Tree Alternative Wellness Solutions.We are sorry to hear you were not satisfied with your advertising campaignTo be clear, while the goal of advertising
on Yelp is to drive more traffic to the business page, which may ultimately result in more customers, it is important to keep in mind that results are not guaranteedWhen advertising with a Cost Per Click program, you were electing to pay every time a user clicks on your ad impressionYou were also paying for page upgrades, including a Call To Action button, a photo slideshow, competitor ad removal, and a featured video. You expressed concern that you saw bills for $Our records indicate you signed up for an advertising program with a $per month Yelp Ads budget plus $per month page upgrades, for a monthly maximum of $We 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.Additionally, after you signed up for your advertising program, we sent you an automated email that recapped your purchase and the details of your campaign, including that you will be charged monthly, up to a maximum of $400.You also expressed concern with the our cancellation policy, specifically the early termination fee and the day notice requirementInformation about the early termination fee was provided to you on the page where you finalized your orderBy signing up for your advertising program, you agreed to the Master Advertising Terms*** which state that we require days written notice to Yelp's account management team if you wish to terminate your advertising programAs you provided your cancellation request on December 11, 2017, your advertising program was terminated as of January 10, 2018. You expressed concern that you saw a charge after your advertising program was terminatedPlease note that your advertising program was billed in arrears, and your billing date was the 26th of the monthThus, the $you were charged on January 26, was for the advertising services you received from December 26, - January 10, 2018.We have forwarded your message to the appropriate parties for their consideration, but at this time, as advertising services were delivered in accordance with the terms and conditions you agreed to, we will not be able to offer you a refundThanks for understanding. Regards,HelenYelp Inc

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/05/29) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns
You expressed concern that the business page for *** *** & *** was displaying the phone number for your business, *** ***
*** You also noted that you had attempted to correct the phone number on the Yelp page but that the changes had not been madeWhile we enable users to submit changes to business pages on Yelp, our moderators evaluate those changes to ensure they meet our standards, and from time to time, delays can occurWe have corrected the phone number: http://www.yelp.com/***
We apologize for any inconvenience
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc

Hi ***,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for Zwingfilms.We are sorry to hear you were not satisfied with your advertising campaignTo be clear, while the goal of advertising on Yelp is to drive more traffic to
the business page, which may ultimately result in more customers, it is important to keep in mind that results are not guaranteedWhen advertising with a Cost Per Click program, you were electing to pay every time a user clicked on your ad impressionYou were also paying for enhanced profile features, such as competitor ad removal and a photo slideshow.We also want to address your comment, "In the months that I worked with them I had a total of clicks to my websiteclicks less than what I was being charged for and phone calls, ALL of which were indians and pakistani's calling from toll free numbers trying to pull my business away from Yelp and onto them for SEO." To clarify, ad clicks and the Activity Feed are separate entities of information.An ad click is when a person clicks on your business's Yelp adWhen a user is searching on Yelp for a business in a certain area, we do our best to provide that user with a Yelp Ad applicable to their searchYelp Ads appear above the natural search results, as well as on your competitors' business pagesThe Yelp Ad is differentiated from the natural search results by a yellow border, and has the notation "Ad" in next to the business nameClicking on your ad impression will take the user to your business page on Yelp, and you were being charged when someone clicked on your adYou can view a breakdown the number of ad clicks you received by logging in to your Business Account at *** and clicking on the "Yelp Ads" tab.Once a user is on your business page (regardless of whether they found it through an ad impression or through another means, such as our natural search results), additional actions they take while on your page may appear in the Activity Feed section of your Yelp for Business Owners AccountThe Activity Feed shows recent activity by Yelp users on your Yelp business listing, such as phone calls and website clicks, but these users haven't necessarily found your Yelp page by clicking on your Yelp ad.Please note that you were being charged each time someone clicked on your ad, and not based on the number of clicks to your website or phone calls.You also expressed concern with the variable cost of a clickThe 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 periodYou can view a video that explains in more detail how Yelp's Cost Per Click ads work here: ***With regards to your comment, "I have solid reviews from clients that they wouldn't allow due to a "Machine" that controls whether the review is reputable or notI guess paying $1,to this company for the last months and being a premium member doesn't change that my reviews will never seen by future customers," 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 advertiseWe understand there are some misconceptions about this, so we invite you to visit *** *** *** 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: ***Per the terms of your advertising agreement, we require days written notice to your account management contact if you wish to terminate your advertising program and early termination is subject to a fee of $However, it looks like our Account management team has waived the day notice requirement and the early termination fee, and your advertising program was terminated on July 21, As advertising services were delivered in accordance with the advertising agreement you signed, we will not be able to waive the outstanding balance of $Once this amount is collected, you will not incur further chargesThanks for understanding.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/12/10) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for *** *** LLC
You expressed concern that your advertising program has not yet been cancelledPer the
terms of your advertising agreement, we require written notice in order to terminate your advertising programIt looks like you spoke with an account manager, *** on November 25, and that your advertising program is set to cancel as of December 25,
You claim that you "Called to cancel in August" and were "Told it would be taken care of." While we do not see any indication in your account that you spoke with an account manager in August, we would like to look into this furtherTo that end, please provide us with the name of the individual whom you spoke with, their phone number, the phone number you called from, and the date and time of your conversation with them, if known
Thank you
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc

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

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because:
The services I paid for to Yelp were completely unsatisfactoryThe sales rep was very clear in that on average every dollar spent, equals a three dollar returnThe return was nothing near thisIn reality, one dollar spent on Yelp ads equaled to approximately ten cents ($0.10) return, which is a significant lossHad the results Yelp mentioned materialized, we would have gladly paid Yelp and continued the service
If Yelp is a legitimate company, they would gladly refund the payment
Sincerely,*** ***

Hi ***,Thank you for the additional feedbackWe have forwarded your concerns to the appropriate parties.You claim that you were told you "would be placed on the 1st or 2nd page of the listings." We again want to reiterate Yelp Ads are separate from our natural search resultsIf a business is advertising, then their Yelp Ad will appear in places such as above the natural search results, and on their competitors' business pagesHowever, a business's advertising status will not affect the their ranking in our numbered search results.As previously noted, there are a number of different advertisers that we must show, so advertisers will not see their ad appear every time above the first or second page of search resultsWith your advertising program, you were paying for a variable and unguaranteed number of ad impressions to appear each month in places such as above search results and on your competitors' business pagesAdditionally, as noted in Section VI (Yelp's Disclaimer of Warranties) of the contract you signed, "Yelp specifically disclaims all warranties and guarantees regarding [...] (III) the placement, content, promotional value, quality, timing, or number of ad impressions."We also want to clarify that you signed up for an advertising program with $monthly fixed costs plus up to $monthly variable costs, for a monthly maximum of $The monthly fixed costs were for your enhanced profile, which included features such as competitor ad removal and a photo slideshowYour advertising program was a cost per click (CPC) program and your monthly cost per click budget cap was set at $475, which means you were charged when someone clicked on your ad and you agreed to pay up to $a month for those ad clicksIf you did not reach your monthly budget cap, you would only be charged for the ad clicks you receivedHowever, if you did reach your monthly budget cap of $475, we no longer delivered ads for your business for the remainder of the month so that you wouldn't have to pay more than you agreed to for the ad click portion of your program.Our records indicate your advertising program ran from February 11, to April 3, 2016, and you received ad clicks in February 2016, ad clicks in March 2016, and ad clicks in April You can view a breakdown of the number of ad clicks you received by logging in to your Yelp for Business Owners Account at ***/ and clicking on the "Yelp Ads" tab.As advertising services were delivered in accordance with the contract you signed, we will not be able to waive the remaining balanceThanks for understanding.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Hi ***,Thank you for your response.Please be assured that we've evaluated *** *** review and are allowing the user to stand behind it.It also sounds as though you don't accept our explanation of the recommendation software, but we can only stand by our previous statementsYelp's recommendation software is an automated algorithm that attempts to weed out less reliable reviews while showcasing more reliable onesThis means that when reviews are posted to your listing, not all of them will make the cutWe acknowledge that even some legitimate reviews will not be recommended, but we still believe that the software as a whole makes our site more trustworthy and useful to consumers.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.We also want to address your comment, "The reviewer is not required to post a photo, nor is he required to post a last name." We require business owners to post a real photo to keep interactions between consumers and business owners as personalized as possibleWe've also found that reviewers are much more receptive to dialogue when they can attach a face to their interactionsAdditionally, please note that for the last name field, only your last initial will be displayed.We understand that uploading a real photo may not be for everyone, and we can certainly respect that, however if you would like to use the messaging or public commenting features of your Business Account, you will need to provide us with a real photoThanks for understanding.Regards,***Yelp Inc