Yelp.com

Hi [redacted] Thank you for your feedback.We're sorry to hear you were not satisfied with your advertising program, and would like to provide some clarification about how our self-serve advertising programs work.Our records indicate that you redeemed a $promotional ad creditTo redeem the $credit towards Yelp ads, you were required to sign up for our Cost Per Click (CPC) advertising campaign and put a credit card on fileYou set your Cost Per Click monthly budget at $150, and also signed up for our enhanced profile features, which cost $per monthOnce the promotion runs out, advertising continues until you stop your ads through your Yelp for Business Owners Account.Your advertising program was a self-serve program, which means that ads can only be turned off by the business through the Yelp for Business Owners AccountYou wrote, "Yelp didn't give me an opportunity to turn off the Yelp Ads before I was charged," but if you only wanted to use your $promotion, you would have needed to log in and end the program once that credit was usedIn Step of your ad setup there were Q&A's on the right side of the page explaining that you could stop your ads any time through the Yelp for Business Owners site: "Can I stop any time? YesThere's no commitment or obligationJust come back to the Yelp for Business Owners site and stop your adsYou will be billed at the beginning of the next month for any clicks you bought before you cancelled."Below is a more detailed description of the advertising services you received and how the promotion was applied:September - 30, 2016- You received ad clicks which cost a total of $125.27- Your prorated Call To Action, Slideshow, and Remove Competitor Ads features cost $62.64- $of your $credit was used and you paid $0October 2016- You received ad clicks which cost a total of $150- Your Call To Action, Slideshow, and Remove Competitor Ads features cost $75- You had $remaining promotional credit for this month because it was partially used in September- You paid $for advertising services delivered in October 2016.November - 3, 2016- You received ad click which cost a total of $5.18- Your prorated Call To Action, Slideshow, and Remove Competitor Ads features cost $5.29- You had remaining promotional credit for this month because it was used in September and October- The balance of $for advertising services delivered in November was waived.You can view a breakdown of how many ad clicks you received by logging in to your Yelp for Business Owners Account at [redacted] / and then clicking on the Yelp Ads tabInformation about how much of your promotional credit was applied each month is available in the Billing tab of your account.You ended your advertising program on November 3, As advertising services have been delivered in accordance with the Terms you agreed to, we will not be able to offer you a refundThanks for understanding.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2015/09/30) */ Hi [redacted] , Thank you for writingWe appreciate you brining your concerns to our attention We've taken another look at your photo of MTA - Metro Blue Line that was removed, and our decision to keep the photo removed remains the sameOur Support team has taken a look at the other photos on that business page, and has removed the photos which were found to violate our Content Guidelines Regards, [redacted] Yelp Inc Initial Consumer Rebuttal / [redacted] (3000, 7, 2015/10/01) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) Business ignored by requestBusiness response is vague and unhelpful Please advise what SPECIFICALLY about the photo(s) in question violated the "content guidelines" As I mentioned in my previous statement, the photo(s) provide an accurate description of the consumer experience using the Metro Blue Line, and by removing my photo(s) you are censoring the truth Final Business Response / [redacted] (4000, 9, 2015/10/13) */ Hi [redacted] , Thank you for your response While we welcome our reviewers to share their experiences and to be as descriptive as possible in those accounts, we ask that they avoid taking their grievances to a personal levelIn this case, it looks like one of the photos you posted contained an inappropriate captionAdditionally, as noted in our Content Guidelines, we ask that you "Please don't post clophotos or videos of other patrons without their permission." Regards, [redacted] Yelp Inc

Hi ***,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for [redacted] ***You indicated you sent a cancellation email on April 18, 2017, but please note that we require days written notice to your account management contact if you wish to terminate your advertising programWith that in mind, your advertising program was terminated on May 17, 2017.Additionally, please keep in mind that your advertising program is billed in arrears, which means that we typically bill on the first of the month for advertising services that were delivered in the previous monthThus, the $you were charged on May 1, was for advertising services you received in April, and the outstanding balance of $is for the advertising services you received from May - 17, Once this amount is collected, you will not incur further chargesThanks for understanding.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2016/01/19) */ Hi ***, Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for Swimm Pool and Patio We've looked at [redacted] review, and since it appears to reflect the personal experience and opinions of the reviewer, we are leaving it intact While we share your concern about the possibility of a defamatory review on our site, we don't adjudicate disputes between businesses and their reviewersCongress acknowledged this predicament by passing legislation that provides statutory immunity to online service providers such as Yelp for the content of third-party postsSee U.S.C§The case law is clear on this point in support of online service providers because of concerns that they would otherwise be forced to remove third party posts every time someone raised issue with their contents[redacted] That said, we will revisit your request if you provide to us a final judicial determination that the contents of a review are defamatory and will, at our discretion, take appropriate action with respect to the review and the user responsible for the review We encourage you to contact the reviewer directly using the private messaging function on our site in order to constructively address your concernsWe do not recommend that you engage in anything other than a well-meaning dialog with the reviewer in order to sort out any misunderstandings Regards, [redacted] Yelp Inc

Revdex.com, I am not satisfied with the amount due to the fact that I received no business whats so ever and I am still getting harassed from solicitors due to my company listed with yelp.com I would like to receive my entire amount back of $ Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because:Sincerely, [redacted]

Hi ***,Thank you for writing again.We first want address your comment, "just because I don't pay for an unfair advantage yelp are trying to marginalise my store." To be clear, a business's decision whether or not to advertise on Yelp does not affect how the reviews on its listing are treatedBusinesses are not punished if they don't advertise, nor are businesses awarded with preferential treatment with regards to their reviews if they do advertiseWe understand there are some misconceptions about this, so we invite you to visit [redacted] to learn more.You also wrote, "They tell people on my page that they were removed because I asked for them." However, we actually don't go into detail as to why a specific review is or is not recommendedRather, the information we provide about our recommendation software gives some possible explanations as to why reviews may not be currently 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

Hi Ronald,We have reviewed this situation extensively and we stand by our previous responsesWe are unable to assist you further in this matterRegards,HelenYelp Inc

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2015/10/07) */ Hi [redacted] , Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] of [redacted] We've gone ahead and marked [redacted] of [redacted] as closed, and while we don't remove business pages in cases like this, closed businesses eventually stop appearing in search results over time Regards, [redacted] Yelp Inc

Hi [redacted] ,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for [redacted] .We appreciate your feedback, and have forwarded you message to the appropriate partiesAs you may recall, an account manager, ***, reached out to you by voicemail and email on August 11, to let you know that we will be refunding you a total of $Please note that it may take up to business days for this to post to your account, and please feel free to reach out to our account management team if you have further questionsRegards,***Yelp Inc

Hi [redacted] ,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding the messaging feature of your Business Account for [redacted] We're sorry to hear you ran into troubleIf you're still encountering this problem, could you please provide us with a screenshot of the error you're seeing? Please also provide us with your browser information by sending us the custom link generated at [redacted] , which would help us determine if you're encountering a browser-specific issue.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2015/10/30) */ Hi [redacted] , Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] & Design We have forwarded your message to our Account Management teamIt looks like [redacted] has reached out to you, and, as you may recall from the email you've received from her, your advertising program has been terminated as of October 30, Additionally, the October charges will be written off and the early termination fee will be waived We've also gone ahead and updated your city to Queen Valley per your request: http://www.yelp.com/biz/ [redacted] With regards to your concern with the category, while we enable users to submit changes to business pages on Yelp, our moderators evaluate those changes to ensure they meet our standardsIn this situation, it looks as though your category request has been rejected because we could not verify that your business provides handyman services rather than contractor servicesIf that information is available on your website or another public-facing source, please reply to this message with a link so we can verify it and update the business page on Yelp Regards, [redacted] Yelp Inc Initial Consumer Rebuttal / [redacted] (2000, 7, 2015/11/05) */ (The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.) I accept the resolution of this complaint, I was very naive on how yelp workedWith no reviews, even with the add exposure, it's was cost prohibitive for my small businessI will first try and get reviewsPlease unlock so it may be of some use or delete it

Hi [redacted] Thank you for writing again.We appreciate your feedback, and are sorry to hear you were not satisfied with your advertising campaignYelp delivered ads for your business in a variety of places, including on search result pages and business pages, and you were charged when someone clicked on your adYelp ads can help drive more traffic to the business page, which may ultimately result in more customers, but we cannot guarantee a certain level of results.Your advertising campaign began on December 8, Per the terms of your advertising agreement, we require days notice to your account management contact if you wish to terminate your advertising programAccording to our records, you provided your cancellation request on January 28, 2016, so your advertising program was terminated on February 27, 2016.With regards to your comment, "I was told I'd have help setting up profile which I never recieved." An enhanced profile (which included features such as competitor ad removal, a photo slideshow, and a Call to Action button) was part of your advertising program, but making the most of these features may have required additional action from youOur records indicate that an account manager, ***, sent you an email on December 8, with the subject "Make the most of your Yelp advertising" and that another account manager, [redacted] sent you an email on January 19, with the subject "Yelp Recommendation - Call to Action." In these emails, our account management team outlined next steps for you to take advantage of these featuresIf you had any questions about using these features, you were welcome to reach out to our account management team for further assistance.As advertising services were delivered in accordance with the advertising agreement you signed, we will not be able to offer you a refundThanks for understanding.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Hi ***,Thank you for writing back.It sounds as though you don't accept our explanation of the recommendation software, but we can only stand by our previous statementsYelp's recommendation software is an automated algorithm that attempts to weed out less reliable reviews while showcasing more reliable onesThis means that when reviews are posted to a business 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 wanted to let you know that we've taken another look at [redacted] review of [redacted] Upon further evaluation, the review was found to be in violation of our Content Guidelines and it has been removed.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Hi [redacted] ,Thank you for your response.You have again asked that your business listing be removed, but as previously stated, we don't remove business listing informationYelp is allowed to publish business names and publicly available information about businesses under the well-established fair use doctrine, as well as First Amendment principlesGenerally speaking, this means that we can display business names and trademarks "for purposes of comparison, criticism, point of reference, or any other such purpose." [redacted] 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.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Hi ***,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] .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, including a Call To Action button, a photo slideshow, and competitor ad removal.You wrote, "they promised me that my Company would be elevated from being ranked in the teens to next to the top of the listings under the Catagory Page, Hearing Aid Providers." To clarify, when 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 pages and in various other places around the websiteThe Yelp Ad is differentiated from the natural search results by a orange border, and has the notation "Ad" in next to the business name.Separate from Yelp Ads are Yelp's numbered search results, which have absolutely nothing to do with who is paying us Yelp's natural search results algorithm is designed to provide the best results based on a number of different factors including review text, ratings, and number of reviewsWhile we can't guarantee specific results or business rankings, we are always working to improve our search tool so that we can deliver the most relevant local results to our users.We also want to address your comment, "I was told that if some of my patients would write reviews it would be helpful to validate my Company." We want to clarify that asking for reviews is not something we encourageFor one thing, most businesses tend to ask their happiest customers to write reviews, not the unhappy onesThese self-selected reviews tell only part of the story, and we don’t think that’s fair to consumersWe would much rather hear from members of the Yelp community who are inspired to talk about their experiences without a business owner’s encouragementMore information can be found here: [redacted] It's important to note that Yelp uses automated software to showcase helpful and reliable reviews from the Yelp communityAs a result, you shouldn’t be surprised if our software fails to recommend the reviews that you’ve asked your customers to writeYour best bet to get high quality and unbiased reviews about your business is to provide a memorable and amazing customer experience, rather than asking your customers to post on Yelp.As you may have read, we use automated software to recommend reviews, with the goal of showcasing the ones that best reflect the opinions of the Yelp communityThe rest are posted below and don’t factor into the business’s overall star ratingThe software does what it can with the information at hand, and regularly revisits each review as it learns moreAs a result, different reviews might be recommended on different daysYou can see reviews that aren't currently recommended by clicking on the link at the bottom of each business page.While we understand your concerns, we want to make sure you are clear that federal law bars lawsuits against websites like Yelp for the decisions they make about which reviews to post or remove [redacted] To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: [redacted] You also expressed concern with a review that contained the text, "Please don't review this business if you received a freebie for writing this review or if you are connected in any way to the owner of employees." It looks like you are referring to the review by [redacted] Please note that the following text appears on the write a review page before users begin writing their review: "Your review helps others learn about great local businessesPlease don't review this business if you received a freebie for writing this review, or if you're connected in any way to the owner or employees." It appears [redacted] may not have deleted all of this text when he wrote his reviewWe've decided to remove this review because the content falls outside our Content Guidelines, but please keep in mind that the user may choose to post new content that doesn't violate our terms.With regards to your comment, "my sentence on the Catagory Page disappeared as did the paragraph writeups that I put together for my Company Page," we're not sure we understand what you are referring toIf you are referring to the "review snippets" that appear on search results pages, these are determined algorithmically, like the search rankings themselves, taking into account things like keyword relevanceThe process behind this is automated, so we don't have the ability to make any manual changesIt's always possible that these review snippets could change, depending on the review activity on a business pageAdditionally, it appears the Specialties, History, and Meet the Business Owner sections that you have submitted are appearing in the From the Business section on your business listing: [redacted] Finally, 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

Hi ***,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] .It looks like you signed up for enhanced profile features from February 8, to October 19, Your enhanced profile included a Call To Action button, a photo slideshow, and competitor ad removalThese services were delivered, so we will not be able to offer you a refund.Additionally, we want to be clear that a business's decision whether or not to advertise on Yelp does not affect how the reviews on its listing are treatedBusinesses are not punished if they don't advertise, nor are businesses awarded with preferential treatment with regards to their reviews if they do advertiseWe understand there are some misconceptions about this, so we invite you to visit [redacted] and [redacted] to learn more.You also expressed concern with the recommendation softwareAs you may have read, the goal of Yelp's recommendation software is to showcase more reliable contentThe recommendation software establishes an objective standard against which every review can be measured, and looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability, and activity on Yelp.It's important to note that the software applies the same analysis to everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviewsPlease also understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a reviewHowever, the system is not static -- reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors.To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: [redacted] You also wrote, "of the has a conflict of interest and is telling customers to go to the shop down the street." It looks like you are referring to the review by [redacted] *We've taken another look at this review, and have carefully considered your concerns that the reviewer may have a conflict of interestHowever, we are still unable to confirm the conflict using the information we have in our systems.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

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 7, 2015/10/26) */ Hi [redacted] , Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] Spa Repair & Service You expressed concern with the recommendation softwareAs you may have read, the goal of Yelp's recommendation software is to showcase more reliable contentThe recommendation software establishes an objective standard against which every review can be measured, and looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability, and activity on Yelp With regards to your comment, "It appears as though they will only post Negative reviews and never positive reivews," we want to clarify that the software affects both positive and negative reviews and that it applies the same analysis to everyoneYou asked that we "put up the 5star review," 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 expressed concern with a negative reviewWe assume you are referring to the review by [redacted] GAs you may recall from the message you've received from the Yelp Support team, the review has been evaluated by the Yelp Support team and left up, as it was not found to be in violation of our guidelinesIf a review appears to reflect the personal experience and opinions of the reviewer, it is our policy to allow the user to stand by his/her review Regards, [redacted] Yelp Inc Initial Consumer Rebuttal / [redacted] (3000, 9, 2015/10/28) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) once again I never met this person he went on second hand information which was completely incorrect This is not the terminator years where algorithms take over By the way when I was told to pay as an advertiser the one star would go away You can do what ever you what yelp is meaningless to me I HAVE 5STARS ON HOME ADVERTISER THE ONLY TRUE FAIR AND BLANCHED REVIEWS BUT I DO UNDERSTAND WHY YOU LOST 62% OF YOUR STOCK IN THE LAST TWELVE MONTHS Final Business Response / [redacted] (4000, 11, 2015/11/05) */ Hi [redacted] , Thank you for your response You have again expressed concern with [redacted] G's reviewOur Support team has taken a second look at the review, and has reached the same conclusion as before and are unable to remove the reviewWe don't take sides in factual disputes; if a review appears to reflect the reviewer's personal experiences and opinions, it is our policy to let the user stand behind his or her reviewThese decisions aren't always easy, but please know we looked at this review closely before reaching our decision You also wrote, "I was told to pay as an advertiser the one star would go away." We want to be clear that a business's decision whether or not to advertise on Yelp does not affect how the reviews on its listing are treatedBusinesses are not punished if they don't advertise, nor are businesses awarded with preferential treatment with regards to their reviews if they do advertiseWe understand there are some misconceptions about this, so we invite you to visit http://www.yelp.com/advertiser_faq and http://officialblog.yelp.com/2013/05/no-yelp-doesnt-extort-small-businesses-see-...⇄ to learn more If you believe, however, that an individual has provided you with different information, 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 Thank you Regards, [redacted] Yelp Inc

Revdex.com:I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted] , and find that this resolution is satisfactory to meSincerely, [redacted]

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2015/11/09) */ Hi [redacted] , Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns We first 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 comment, "he said there was a way that I could respond to all these allegations if I signed up with him and paid some, still unknown, fee," we want to clarify that the ability to send private messages to reviewers or publicly comment on reviews are free features that we offer to business owners through a free Yelp for Business Owners AccountThese features are available to business owners once they have claimed their business page on YelpFor more information, please click here: https://biz.yelp.com/signup_business Additionally, you expressed concern with some reviews and photosCreating a free Yelp for Business Owners Account will also give you the ability to report content that you believe violates Yelp's Content Guidelines (http://www.yelp.com/guidelines)If you believe a review or photo violates Yelp's Content 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 and http://www.yelp-support.com/article/How-do-I-report-a-photo-or-video?l=en_US While reporting content doesn't guarantee that it'll be removed, our team looks at every inquiry and carefully evaluates the content against our guidelinesEach case will be reviewed by our team in the order it was receivedTypically, you will receive a response to your report within a few business daysIf you don't believe you've received our response, please be sure to check all email and spam folders (you may want to add [redacted] @yelp.com to your contact list) With regards to your request for your business to be removed from Yelp, 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 Finally, we've gone ahead and informed our Sales team that you no longer wish to receive any communication from themIf for any reason you continue to hear from them, please let us know at http://www.yelp.com/support/contact/questions Regards, [redacted] Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2015/11/20) */ Hi [redacted] , Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] We appreciate your feedback regarding your conversations with our Sales team, and have forwarded your note along to the appropriate parties We want to clarify that we do not create new listings or remove reviews for businesses that change ownership or management but continue to leverage the goodwill in the name used by prior ownership or managementFrom a consumer perspective, the businesses appear to be the same For more on how we handle business changes, please visit our Support Center: http://www.yelp-support.com/Reporting_Business_Changes?l=en_CA We also want to be clear that a business's decision whether or not to advertise on Yelp does not affect how the reviews on its listing are treatedBusinesses are not punished if they don't advertise, nor are businesses awarded with preferential treatment with regards to their reviews if they do advertiseWe understand there are some misconceptions about this, so we invite you to visit http://www.yelp.ca/advertiser_faq and http://officialblog.yelp.com/2013/05/no-yelp-doesnt-extort-small-businesses-see-...⇄ to learn more Regards, [redacted] Yelp Inc Initial Consumer Rebuttal / [redacted] (3000, 7, 2015/11/24) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) "We want to clarify that we do not create new listings or remove reviews for businesses that change ownership or management but continue to leverage the goodwill in the name used by prior ownership or managementFrom a consumer perspective, the businesses appear to be the same." That's NOT what your rep, Ben said to me on the phone when I spoke to him numerous times and requested private business information from us to remove the old reviews prior to our acquisitionTotally not acceptableThere was NO REASON for Yelp to obtain this private business information and we feel like our privacy was violated as well Final Business Response / [redacted] (4000, 9, 2015/12/04) */ Hi [redacted] , Thank you for your response While we enable business owners to submit changes to business pages on Yelp, our moderators a separate department from our sales representatives evaluate those changes to ensure they meet our standardsWe want to reiterate that generally speaking, our policy is that if a business changes ownership but continues to operate under the same name, we do not do not create a new business page or remove reviews We apologize for any confusion Regards, [redacted] Yelp Inc Final Consumer Response / [redacted] (4200, 11, 2015/12/19) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) Again, this is not what was agreed onYour representatives represent your business and are accountable for what they sayYour reps promised me that they could remove the old reviews prior to our acquision of the business and requested CONFIDENTIAL business information to do soyou've violated our privacy with this