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Yelp.com Reviews (1827)

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/04/29) */
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 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
Your advertising program for CP *** has been terminated as of January 31, Our Collections team has noted that you are refusing to pay the outstanding balance of $2,($for ads delivered in December, $for ads delivered in January, and $1,for the early termination fee), and we will no longer attempt to charge the card on file
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/05/04) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I am not sure what the result is here as the response was not clear
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/05/13) */
Hi ***,
Thanks for writing again
To clarify, your advertising program has been terminated and we will not be making further attempts to charge your credit cardThat said, our Collections team has made a note in our records that you are refusing to pay the remaining outstanding balance of $2,030.89, which is for the advertising services delivered in December, January, and February, and for the early termination fee
We also want to clarify that the goal of advertising on Yelp is to drive more traffic to the business page, through features such as sponsored search resultsWhile this may ultimately result in more customers, we cannot guarantee a certain level of resultsThanks for understanding
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc

Hi ***,Thank you for writing again regarding your business page for *** *** *** * ***You expressed concern with *** *'s reviewWe understand that a negative review about an experience you don’t recognize is very frustratingWe have taken a second look at this review but, after
careful consideration, we reached the same conclusion as before and are unable to remove the reviewIf a review appears to reflect the reviewer’s personal experiences and opinions, it is our policy to let the user stand behind his or her review.You also wrote, "I personally have been called MANY times and so told that if I advertize with them the negative review would go away." As you may recall from our previous correspondence (Revdex.com Complaint #***), there is no relationship between reviews and anything having to do with Yelp Ads or the Yelp Ads sales processPlease be assured that there’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.That said, if you believe that an individual has provided you with different information, we again invite you to share that information with usTo that end, please provide us with the name of the individual whom you spoke with, their phone number, and the date and time of your conversation with them, if known.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/07/10) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for ***
You expressed concern with the review and tip by *** JIt looks like you flagged this review
the same day that you filed this complaint, and, as you *** recall from the message you received from the Yelp Support team, *** J's review has been removed because it falls outside our Content Guidelines*** J's tip has also been removed
You also expressed concern with the recommendation softwareAs you *** 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 reviewYou asked that we "Change the software to include reviews by people you make sign up but are not longstanding yet," but please keep in mind that the system is not static reviews *** become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors
To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US
You also wrote, "Last year I called to complain that negreviews showing were not for my company but that they confused my listing with another." If you believe a review violates Yelp's Content Guidelines (http://www.yelp.com/guidelines), you can report the content by clicking the flag icon next to itYou'll need to be logged in to your account in order to view the flag iconWhile 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 *** want to add ***@yelp.com to your contact list)
For instructions on how to report content, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/article/How-do-I-report-a-review?l=en_US
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc

Hi Jason,Thank you for your response. We're sorry to hear you were not satisfied with the results of your advertising program, but we want to reiterate that you signed up and were paying for enhanced profile features and for Cost Per Click adsYou can view the number of ad clicks you received in the "Yelp Ads" tab of your Business AccountPlease note you were not paying based on the number of "interactions", the number of Customer Leads, or the number of clicks to your website you received. You have again expressed concern with the review by Nicholas VIt appears this user has since posted a new reviewWe’ve looked at Nicholas V.'s current review of Phoenician Financial Planning, and have elected to leave it upIf a review appears to reflect a user's personal experience and opinions, it is our policy to let the user stand behind his or her review. With regards to your comment, "I believe, as many people online also claim, that Yelp is ignoring their own terms of service because I refuse to pay them for their failure to fulfill their contract as advertised," 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. We hope you’ll take the time to read more about common misconceptions here: ***Regards,HelenYelp 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 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 are electing to pay every time a user clicks on your ad impressionYou were also paying for an enhanced profile, which included features such as competitor ad removal and a photo slideshow.It looks like a manager, ***, reached out to you by voicemail and email on February 25, As you may recall, she provided you with some clarification regarding our cancellation and policies.We require days notice to your account management contact if you wish to terminate your advertising programAs you provided your cancellation request on January 28, 2016, your advertising program was terminated on February 27, 2016.Your advertising program is billed in arrears, which means we bill on the first of the month for advertising services delivered in the previous month.- The $you were charged on January 1, was for advertising services delivered from December - 31, 2015.- The $you sere charged on February 1, was for advertising services delivered in January 2016.- The $you were charged on March 2, was for advertising services delivered from February - 27, 2016.Per the terms of your advertising agreement, early termination is subject to a feeSince you chose to end your advertising program before the end of the 6-month term, an early termination fee of $was collected on February 29, Thanks for understanding.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Hi,Thank you for your response.To clarify, you will not be able to log in to a business account for business pages that have been marked as closedWe've gone ahead and removed the photo you posted from your business account per your request. You also asked for your business to be removed from Yelp; however, we don't remove business information, even if a business has been marked as closedThat said, closed businesses eventually stop appearing in Yelp's search results over time.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/12/23) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writing regarding your advertising program for *** ***We are still looking into this and will respond with additional information soonWe appreciate your patience in the
meantime
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc

Hi ***Thank you for your response.We want to reiterate that 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

Hi Shane,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for First Call Construction. Our records indicate you redeemed a $promotional ad credit on August 15, To redeem the $credit towards Yelp ads, you were
required to sign up for our Cost Per Click (CPC) advertising campaign and put payment information on fileYou set your Cost Per Click monthly budget at $450, or a $per day averageOnce 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 be turned off by the business at any time through the Yelp for Business Owners AccountIf you only wanted to use your $promotion, you would have needed to log in and end the program once that credit was usedDuring your ad setup there were Q&A's on the page explaining that you could stop your ads any time through the Yelp for Business Owners site.Additionally, after you signed up for your advertising program, we sent you an automated email that recapped your purchase and the details of your campaign, including that the payment method on file in your account will be charged monthly, up to a maximum of $450, until cancelledAdvertisers also have the option to opt in to receiving billing confirmation emails in the Account Settings section of their account. Below is a more detailed description of how the promotion was applied: August - 31, 2017- You received ad clicks which cost a total of $240.33- $of your $credit was used and you paid $0September - 26, 2017- You received ad clicks which cost a total of $449.30- You had $remaining promotional credit for this month because it was partially used towards your August ads- $of your remaining $credit was uses and you paid $for advertising services delivered in September.You can view ad click and billing information in the Yelp Ads and Billing tabs of your Yelp for Business Owners Account at***As you can see on the Yelp Ads tab, you received a total of ad clicks during your campaign at an average cost of $per click. With regards to your concern that the cost of a click increased, while you may have seen an estimated price per click during the sign up process, it is important to keep in mind that that amount is an estimate based on demand from businesses in your category and area, and that the cost per click may change over time based on demandThe 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 periodFor a video description of how CPC ads work, please visit our Support Center:***We also want to clarify that ad clicks, user views, and Customer Leads 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, on your competitors' business pages, and in various other places around the websiteThe Yelp Ad 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.User Views is a measure of how many times your Yelp page was accessed or viewed on the Yelp website, mobile website, and mobile apps. 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 Customer Leads and Activity Feed sections of your Business AccountCustomer Leads are intended to show you how our users are adding and accessing information located in your Yelp business page after they've landed on the pageFor example, Customer Leads activity messages and clicks to your websiteYou expressed concern about seeing activity from outside your state, and it sounds like you may be referring to activity you saw in your Activity FeedWe want to clarify that the location information in this section may be based on the information the user provided in their profile, which might not reflect their actual location. Please keep in mind that the activity you see on the Activity Feed and Customer Leads sections of your account is not necessarily from users who have clicked on your ad, and could be from users who found your page by another means, such as our natural search results. You ended your advertising program on September 26, As advertising services have been delivered in accordance with the Terms (*** **u agreed to, we will not be able to offer you a refundThanks for understanding.Regards,HelenYelp Inc

Hi Bianca,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising programs for STL Mobile Notary and Bianca *** The Suthern Bail Bond Gurl. While we appreciate your feedback regarding our Yelp for Business Owners app, please note that
some features that are present on the Yelp for Business Owners website may not be available on the appYou expressed concern that you were not able to monitor your campaign through the app, but you could have monitored it through the Yelp for Business Owners website at ***.As advertising services were delivered in accordance with the Terms *** you agreed to, we will not be able to waive the outstanding balances of $for STL Mobile Notary and $for Bianca*** The Suthern Bail Bond GurlOnce these amounts are collected, you will not incur further chargesThanks for understanding. Regards,HelenYelp Inc

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/06/17) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for *** *** of ***
Our records indicate that you started a Self Serve Cost Per Click advertising
program through your Business Owner's Account on October 7, and that you ended it on May 27, You expressed concern that your advertising program was not terminated in January after you wrote in requesting that your ads be cancelledWhile some of our advertising programs do require a written cancellation request, for our self-serve programs Yelp does not turn the ads on or off; only the business owner has this ability
According to our records, you emailed our account management team on January 3, 2015, and they responded to you on January with the following message indicating that you needed to log in to your Business Owner's Account to end your advertising campaign:
Hi ***,
Thank you for your email
To confirm, I checked your account and you started a Self Serve Cost Per Click (CPC) ads campaign through your Business Owner's Account (biz.yelp.com) on 10/7/
You are still running this campaign
If you would like to cancel you need to log into your Business Owner's Account and click on the "Yelp Ads" tab
Once you're there, you can click on the "End Campaign" link
Thank you,
***
Yelp Account Management
If you believe, however, that another individual has provided you with different information about how to cancel your advertising program, we would like to investigate furtherTo that end, please provide us with the name of the individual whom you spoke with, their phone number, and the date and time of your conversation with them, if known
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/06/18) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I am not sure with whom I have spoke with in the past at YelpI did not record their nameI do get occasional calls from Yelp all the timeI do believe that I called into customer service and I said I no longer want to advertiseThis was when I first noticed the billing past a $credit that I had startedIt may have been the "manager" on my account who had called me to check in again, I do not rememberBut I do know that they said to put it in writing in which I didI did not see that response at all from them and I probably didn't check because I did what I was told to do on the phone!
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/06/29) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for your response
Your advertising program was a self-serve program, which means that ads can only be turned off by the business through the Business Owner's AccountWhen 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."
Additionally, as we previously noted, our records indicate that *** informed you via email that as of January 6, your advertising campaign was still running and that if you wanted to cancel you would need to do so through your Business Owner's Account
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because: Yelp keeps responding by stating what I needed to do but I am still going on record to say that the way I was approached by their representative and how things were explained to me, I was mislead I understand they are not going to do anythng further and did say they would forward my concerns to the appropriete dept I do not need any further response but I do not want to say I accept something when I do not.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 are 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 guaranteed.You also expressed concern with the pricing structure of your advertising programTo clarify, you signed up for an advertising program with $monthly fixed costs plus an ad click budget of $275, 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 monthly cost per click budget cap was set at $275, which means you were only 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, 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.We also want to clarify that ad clicks and Customer Leads 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 am orange 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 are being charged when someone clicks 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 Customer Leads and Activity Feed sections of your Business AccountCustomer Leads are intended to show you how our users are adding and accessing information located in your Yelp business page after they've landed on the pageFor example, Customer Leads activity includes directions and map views, mobile calls, clicks to your website, and more.You also indicated that you would like to cancel your ad programIt looks like you were in contact with an account manager, *** on September 20, the day before you filed this complaintAs you may recall from the conversation you had with her and the email she sent you, we require days written notice to your account management contact if you wish to terminate your advertising program, so if you would like to cancel your advertising program, please email ***We've also forwarded your message to the appropriate parties for their consideration.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me
Sincerely,
*** ***

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/12/03) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for *** Bicycles
We are sorry to hear you were not satisfied with your advertising campaignOur
records indicate 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 the call tracking feature and your enhanced profile (which included features such as competitor ad removal and a photo slideshow)Your advertising program also included a Cost Per Click (CPC) program and your monthly cost per click budget cap was set at $275, which means you were only 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, 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
With regards to your concern with the start date, the start date for our Cost Per Click programs is determined by when the ad is set up, rather than a predetermined dateIn you case, your advertising program began on July 30, We apologize for any confusion
It looks like one of our account managers, ***, left you a voicemail and sent you an email on August 3, asking for you to call her backIt also appears that another account manager, ***, responded to your email regarding the coupon on August 4, 2015, and that he spoke with someone at your business on that same dateYou expressed concern that you then "received no communication from anyone at Yelp for months." We're sorry to hear that this happened, but you could have reached out to our account management team via phone or email at any time if you wanted assistance
With regards to your comment, "Yelps own "Activity" feed does not show any significant increase in "leads" compared to before advertising with yelp," we want to be clear that 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 your packaged Cost Per Click program, you were paying for your enhanced profile and the call tracking feature, and you were electing to pay every time a user clicked on your ad impressionIt looks like your business page saw an increase in User Views while your advertising program was running (views in July, in August, in September, in October, and in November 2015, compared with views in April, in May, and in June 2015)
As you have chosen to end your advertising program before the end of the 6-month term, an early termination fee of $was assessedAs advertising services were delivered in accordance with your contract, we will not be able to offer you a refundThat said, we have forwarded your message to the appropriate parties so that they can take your feedback into consideration
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 8, 2015/12/09) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
The correspondance from Yelp on August and were both in response to MY contacting yelpIt is extremely POOR customer service to call me after business hours and note that as an attempt to contact me on my accountAlso, A message must have been left with an employee on the 4th because no one spoke with me directlyAnother YELP rep did confirm that a message was left so please do not manipulate to make it sound like YELP actually spoke with MEI did receive the email and chose not to pursue the matter of the coupon further based on the wording of the emailSo let me be clear, I reached out to YELPAnd it was clearly not in regards to my current account activity as the coupon was for extended advertising
As far as the lack of further contact with YELP, I am appalled that this lack of communication is being placed on meDuring the sales call, I was promised that YELP would hold my hand and stay in constant contact with me on my accountI was further promised that my account manager would be monitoring my accountNone of which happenedWhen I sent my cancellation request, my account manager contacted me and immediately apologized for the lack of communication and indicated that it was in fact her fault for the failure to communicateSo, you are now saying that she was lieing? You sold me a servicePart of that service included actual customer service, not me having to hound YELP about something that I was unfamiliar
I am well aware of the difference between "user views" and "leads"As a business owner, those user views mean nothing unless they translate into leadsI could have had a million "user views" but without that translation, it means nothingleads is still only leadsAt the end of the day, the number that actually mattered (leads) did not show any increaseWhich meant that ultimately, the paid clicks were uselessYelp is being clearly misleading in this matter
Aside from my issues with the service itself, my major complaint at this moment is the fact that YELP charged my account without any notice to meNothing that I have been provided indicated WHEN the termination fee would be chargedBased on my financial dealings with Yelp, I assumed it would be the end of the period when I had previously been chargedPlease go back and read the contractThe contract only allows for the fee to be charged but does not give any special indication that it would be at a time other than when YELP had previously charged my accountYour finance department stated that was "policy" to charge the fee within a certain time frame of cancellationHowever, that policy was not provided to me written or verbally, is not available to me and my contract says nothing to that effectAlso, my actual cancellation was not for another weeksSo even the alleged policy that was quoted to me was not being followed
I understand if I tried an advertising method and it did not workThat is businessBut I can not accept that my bank account was charged without notice which then made everything after that charge overdraw my accountI have incurred bank fees of almost $over thisJust because you have my credit card on file does not give you permission to charge it on random dates
Final Business Response /* (4000, 10, 2015/12/18) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for your responseWe appreciate your feedback, and have forwarded your concerns to the appropriate parties
We are refunding you $for the Early Termination FeeAdditionally, as you may recall, a manager contacted you on December via voicemail and email to discuss your recent experiencePlease feel free to reach out to *** directly at your convenience, if you haven't already done so
Thank you
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Final Consumer Response /* (2000, 12, 2015/12/22) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)

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 *** Associates
You wrote, "Automated software only allows critical or negative reviews to be
submitted and unless you contract for services with Yelp, not one positive review can be posted." 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 http://www.yelp.com/advertiser_faq and http://officialblog.yelp.com/2013/05/no-yelp-doesnt-extort-small-businesses-see-... to learn more
With regards to your 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 measuredThe software looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability, and activity on Yelp
It's important to note that the software applies the same analysis to everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviewsYou asked that we "post positive reviews," 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
You also asked that we "Remove critical reviews, esp those that name our employees." If you believe a review violates Yelp's Content Guidelines (http://www.yelp.com/guidelines), you can report the content by clicking the flag icon next to itYou'll need to be logged in to your account in order to view the flag iconFor instructions on how to report content, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/article/How-do-I-report-a-review?l=en_US
If you have already received an email from us about our decision to remove or leave up content you reported, please know that our team carefully evaluates each report we receive before we come to a final decisionIf you would still 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 flagged) here: http://www.yelp-support.com/article/Can-I-request-a-second-evaluation-of-somethi... /> 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

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/05/08) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for ***, LLC
You expressed concern with the recommendation softwareAs you may have read, the
goal of Yelp's recommendation software is to showcase more reliable contentThe recommendation software establishes an objective standard against which every review can be measured, and looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability, and activity on YelpWe acknowledge that our approach is very different from other sites that tend to feature every single negative rant and positive raveWe do our best to nurture a community of users who actively contribute reliable and useful content
It's important to note that the software applies the same analysis to everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviewsYou wrote, "We are requesting that the five five-star reviews be moved from 'unrecommended' status to 'recommended' status," but please understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a reviewHowever, the system is not static reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors
To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/05/14) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
We do not accept that you cannot change your formula to adjust for the fact that many reviewers for small businesses may not be regular Yelp participantsYour favoring of regular Yelp reviewers only works for large corporations, who have tons of reviews per yearOf course, a certain percentage of 1,reviewers will be Yelp regularsWhen you only have perhaps per year who will actually choose Yelp over Houzz or other review platforms, the likelihood of those being regular Yelpers is much lessPlease don't tell me that Yelp can't figure out an algorithm to compensate for that fact
I would like to ask you what you suggest that we do? As a small business, with numerous good and legitimate customer's ratings suppressed by Yelp, what do you think should be our next step? We could lasso up some customers, ask them if they are regulars on Yelp, and if they are, we could ask them to review usSureWe could do thatBut how do we know Yelp will not suppress those reviews, and now we have wasted our customers' time and effort? We provide services for busy professionals; we respect their timeWe are embarrassed that those who actually took time in the past to review on Yelp were rewarded with seeing their posts suppressed
We are interested that there is an upcoming movie about Yelp's bullying practices called "Billion Dollar Bully." We are also interested that there has been media coverage about the potential sale of YelpWe rather put our efforts elsewhere, but if Yelp continues to ignore what it is doing to negatively impact small businesses, including affecting our bottom line by suppressing legitimate reviews and only releasing negative ones, we can only resort to getting your attention through media coverage that calls out these practicesWe will join forces with others who are also trying to get your attention, including the movie's producers
Your line of "nurturing a community of users" is only a thinly veiled excuse for doing business in a way that turns your profit, while ignoring Yelp's incessant negative impact on small businesses who simply do not have the number of reviewers to neatly fit into your corporate formulaYour allowance of the only two negative reviews our company has ever gotten, while suppressing numerous reviews bearing our typical 5-star rating, amounts to spreading lies about us
Our customers have consistently raved about usOur customer loyalty and satisfaction has been the backbone of our businessIt is how we've built a million-dollar business during the Great RecessionIt is reflected in our reviews on Houzz, which are very highThis customer satisfaction is how we continue to do business, despite Yelp's formula that shows us having an extremely low ratingOur profiles in newspapers and online media have only been extremely positive and reflective of our standing in the community
We are not worried about our businessWe are annoyed, yes, but not worriedBut we are disturbed by the unfairness that Yelp continues to perpetuate for the sake of its profit
Please hear the plea of small businessesSmall businesses contribute approximately 19% to the GNP, and make up 99.7% of all employer firms in the U.SWe already have the challenges of high insurance costs and regulationsThe last thing we need on top of that is corporate bullying from Yelp
Sincerely,
An American Small Business
Final Business Response /* (4000, 15, 2015/06/23) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writing again
You wrote, "We demand that you look individually at these reviews, created by legitimately happy customers, and tell us specifically why these are not recommended." Please note we don't go into detail as to why a review is or is not recommendedWe intentionally make the recommendation software difficult to reverse engineer otherwise, we would be overrun by reviews written by people hoping to game the systemSo while it may be tough to decipher how the recommendation software works, the rules are actually the same for every business and every review
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 17, 2015/07/03) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Dear Yelp Leadership,
Your response, along with the previous responses, do nothing to address the fundamental issue that we are raisingYelp's profile of our company isn't anywhere close to representative of our long-standing, stellar reputation in the community and onlineYour recommendation software is skewed toward big businesses who have hundreds of reviews to filter down through your review formulaFor our small businesswith only a handful of reviews going onto Yelpthe formula has weeded out a handful of stellar reviews and left two negative reviewsThese are the only negative reviews that our company has ever gotten online, on any platformWe find it befuddling that Yelp doesn't see it problematic to highlight these two reviews and squelch the five-star reviewsWe don't know why any company would continue a practice that can clearly hurt small, stellar businessesWe trust that Yelp's leadership will begin to think differently about its real, monetary impact on small, neighborhood companies and do something to remedy the situation
Sincerely,
An American Small Business

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 an enhanced profile, which included features such as competitor ad removal and a photo slideshow.Our records indicate you signed up for an advertising program with $monthly fixed costs plus an ad click budget of $275, for a monthly maximum of $The monthly fixed costs were for your enhanced profileYour advertising package included a cost per click (CPC) program and your monthly ad click budget was set at $275, 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 be charged for the ad clicks you receivedHowever, if you did reach your monthly budget cap, 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.We also want to address your comment, "they can not prove that they are not fabricating these $click charges to maximize their profits." You can view a breakdown the number of ad clicks you received by logging in to your Yelp for Business Owners Account at *** and clicking on the "Yelp Ads" tabAdditionally, we use 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.As advertising services were delivered in accordance with the advertising agreement you signed, we will not be able to offer you a refundHowever, the early termination fee of $was waivedThanks for understanding. Regards,***Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/08/12) */
Hi Dr***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for *** J ***, MD
You expressed concern with the review by *** IWe wanted to let you know we've
removed this review because it falls outside our Content Guidelines
If there are additional reviews that you would like to report that you think may violate Yelp's Content Guidelines (http://www.yelp.com/guidelines), please click the flag icon next to the reviewYou'll need to be logged into your account in order to view the flag iconWhile 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 ***@yelp.com to your contact list)
We also 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 http://www.yelp.com/advertiser_faq and http://officialblog.yelp.com/2013/05/no-yelp-doesnt-extort-small-businesses-see-... to learn more
With regards to your 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 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 Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/08/20) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for ***
As you noted, 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 $Once the promotion runs out, advertising continues until you stop your ads through your business account
You wrote, "I am disappointed no notice or receipt was ever sent to me as to the status of my account." While we appreciate your feedback, you could have logged in to your business account at https://biz.yelp.com/ at any time to see the status of your campaign and monthly budget from the Yelp Ads tab
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

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