Yelp.com

Hi Matthew,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for Mountain House Child Care & Learning Corner. Our records indicate you redeemed a $promotional ad credit on January 18, 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 monthly ad budget at $3,(or a $per day average)You also signed up for enhanced profile features which cost an additional $per month (or a $per day average)Once the promotion runs out, advertising continues until you stop your ads through your Yelp for Business Owners Account. Your advertising program was a self-serve program, which means that ads can 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 $3,075, and your programs will continue unless 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: January - 31, 2018- You received ad clicks and enhanced profile features which cost a total of $1,331.49- $of your $credit was used and you paid $1,031.49February - 2, 2018- You received ad clicks and enhanced profile features which cost a total of $172.67- You had $remaining promotional credit for this month because it was used towards your January ads- You paid $for advertising services delivered in FebruaryYou can view ad click and billing information in the Yelp Ads and Billing tabs of your Yelp for Business Owners Account at***.You ended your advertising program on February 2, 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,HelenYelp Inc

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because:I have a right to control the information being published in my businesses: See the freedom act below: My son put up the yelp page, I wish to remain
private and take down the yelp page for our winery business and art business
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ** * *** *** *** ** *** ** *** *** *** ** *** *** *** *** ** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ** *** *** *** ** *** *** ** *** *** ** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ** *** *** *** *** * *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ** *** *** ** *** *** *** ** *** *** *** *** *** ** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ** *** *** *** *** *** ** *** *** ** *** *** *** *** ** *** *** ** *** *** *** ** ** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ** *** *** ** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ** *** *** ** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** * *** *** ** *** *** *** *** *** ** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ** *** *** ** *** *** *** *** *** *** ** *** ** *** *** *** *** *** * *** ** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ** *** *** *** ** *** *** *** *** *** ** *** *** ** *** *** *** *** ***

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 *** Photography
You indicated that your business is no longer located in *** ** and asked for your
business page to be removed from YelpWe'd be happy to update your business page to reflect your current primary location, but please note that we don't remove business informationFrom publicly available sources, your business appears to be in operationWhile 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
Could you please let us know what city you would like to have listed on your business page? You might also consider adding a Service Area to your business page through the Business Information tab of your Business Account (https://biz.yelp.com/)Service Areas show the range where a mobile business will provide serviceWe allow you to enter up to major cities that your business servesAny cities between the locations you specify will be included in your Service Area automatically, and currently Service Areas are limited to a 100-mile radius
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/06/13) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Hi ***,
I do not have a primary business location and I am not located in ***, **, so the information that you have listed on Yelp is incorrect and is found nowhere from publicly available sourcesI am allowed to continue to have an online portfolio/presence and no longer have a local business, so you are incorrect in stating that my former business as listed on Yelp is still in operationPlease remove the page
Thank you,
***
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/06/23) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for your response
We've gone ahead and marked your business as closed: http://www.yelp.com/biz/***-***While we don't remove business pages in cases like this, closed businesses eventually stop appearing in search results over time
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2015/06/29) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
The page is still showing up as a top result in Google and is still listed as being located in *** *** This incorrect information needs to be removed so it does not show up at all

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/06/09) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns
You expressed concern that your review of *** was not displayed on the business pageIt sounds as though your review was
previously not recommended by our recommendation softwareWe use automated software developed by our engineers to recommend reviews from the Yelp communityThe 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 it looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability, and activity on YelpMost of all, however, it's looking for people who are intrinsically motivated to share the wide range of rich and detailed experiences they have every day with local businesses
It looks like your review is currently recommendedThat said, please understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a reviewHowever, the system is not static reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors
To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US
Finally, we want to assure you 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
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc

Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because it's lazy on your partHe is operating an illegal business and you are accepting ad revenue from itIt would be like accepting revenue from a gambling establishment in a place gambling is illegalBusinesses have a duty to not do business with illegal operations.
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 meSincerely, Chad***

Hi Alexander,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for Alexander Daniel - PrimeLending. Our records indicate you redeemed a $promotional ad credit on October 29, 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 $Once the promotion runs out, advertising continues until you stop your ads through your Yelp for Business Owners Account. Your advertising program was a self-serve program, which means that ads can 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 $300, until cancelled. Below is a more detailed description of how the promotion was applied: October - 31, 2017- You received ad clicks which cost a total of $20.41- $of your $credit was used and you paid $0November 2017- You received ad clicks which cost a total of $300- You had $remaining promotional credit for this month because it was partially used towards your October ads- You paid $for advertising services delivered in November.December 2017- You received ad clicks which cost a total of $300- You had remaining promotional credit for this month because it was used towards your October and November ads- You paid $for advertising services delivered in DecemberJanuary 2018- You received ad clicks which cost a total of $300- You paid $for advertising services delivered in JanuaryFebruary - 5, 2018- You received ad clicks which cost a total of $17.08You can view ad click and billing information in the Yelp Ads and Billing tabs of your Yelp for Business Owners Account at ***We appreciate your feedback, and have forwarded your message to the appropriate partiesOur records indicate you emailed us on January 10, with concerns about the charge you saw, and it looks like a representative wrote back to explain you signed up for a recurring program and provided you with a phone number where you could contact usAfter further evaluation, we are honoring January 10, as your date of cancellation, so we will be refunding you $(the charges you accrued from January - 31, 2018) and waiving the remaining balance of $(for the advertising services you received from February - 5, 2018).Regards,HelenYelp Inc

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 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.You wrote, "the system seems to be filtering out all of our good reviews, and allowing the negative reviews to be shown." We want to be clear 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: ***You also expressed concern with *** **'s reviewWe’ve taken another look at this review, and have carefully considered your concerns that the reviewer may have a conflict of interestWe are unable to confirm the conflict using the information we have in our systems.I understand we did not provide the response you were hoping forThese decisions aren’t always easy, but please know we looked at this review closely before reaching our decision.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/05/22) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for ***
You claim that advertising services were not delivered
You signed up for a $per month advertising program which included impressions per month, and these ads were delivered in accordance with your contractWhen 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 an orange border, and has the notation "Ad" next to the business nameYou expressed concern that "My banner or ad was not visible the entire year I paid for the service in either location I myself and friends would look fod it multiple times on different computers and never saw my impressions," but please keep in mind that you wouldn't have seen your particular ad appear every timeSometimes you may see an ad for a different company, sometimes when conducting a search you may not see an ad at all
You also stated that your account managers were unresponsive or did not follow throughWe appreciate your feedback, and will forward your note to the appropriate partiesThat said, according to our records, it does appear that your first account manager, ***, had an onboarding call with you on February 18, where she resent you access for your business account and made suggestions for your business information and photosShe also emailed and left a message for you on March
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/05/25) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
This does nothing to resolve all the money I wastedNot once did anyone see my ad not did the amount of traffic to my page increase the whole year I used your service
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/06/08) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for your response
While we are sorry to hear you were not satisfied with your advertising program, Yelp did display ad impressions per month in accordance with your contractTo be clear, the goal of Yelp advertising is to put your listing in front of more potential clients, via features such as sponsored search resultsWhile of course it is our hope that the programs will result in an increase of business for clients, ultimately, we cannot guarantee results of an advertising programAs noted in Section VI (Yelp's Disclaimer of Warranties) of your advertising agreement, "Yelp specifically disclaims all warranties and guarantees regarding (I) the performance, quality and results of the ad programs, including ad click rates." As advertising services have been delivered in accordance with your advertising agreement, we will not be able to offer you a refundThanks for understanding
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/05/04) */
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 recommendation software, stating, "They fail to explain
the exact criteria used in this 'algorithm', and I do not believe it exists." Please note we don't go into detail as to why a review is or is not recommendedIt's a bit of a Catch-22, but the more we describe how the system works, the easier it is for people to game the system and write fake reviews
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 it looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability, and activity on YelpIt'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
You also expressed concern with *** L's review of your businessAs you may recall from the correspondence you've had with the Yelp Support team, the review has been evaluated and left up, as it was not found to be in violation of our guidelinesYou claim that "this reviewer must have posted this review incorrectly / for the wrong business"; however, Yelp does not take sides in factual disputesRather, if a review appears to reflect the personal experience and opinions of the reviewer, it is our policy to allow the user to stand by his/her review
With regards to your comment "Yelp's way of responding to our flagging was to move it from our 'not recommended reviews' up to our 'recommended reviews' and it is now counted in our overall rating," please note that actions taken by Yelp's automated recommendation software are separate from the Yelp Support team's manual evaluation of reviews against our Content Guidelines
Finally, you wrote, "I would love to hear a good explanation for why we are consistently receiving phone calls, emails and letters from Yelp and third party (probably affiliated) companies offering to "manage" our social media pages and promising to increase our rating IF we are willing to pay them anywhere from $per month and upYet Yelp states that it will not boost ratings based on wether or not a business pays to advertise with themSo how exactly does Yelp, or a third party company, go about raising ratings if we choose to pay them???." There are dozens of "reputation management" companies that claim to work with Yelp to remove your negative reviews or otherwise boost your ratings for a feeIf you're wondering how these companies can make good on this offer, the answer is simple: they can'tIf you've been contacted by someone offering something along these lines, we'd love to get the details so we can prevent these companies from preying on others please contact our Support team here: http://www.yelp.com/support/contact/questions?src_article_id=XXXXXXXXX
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/05/09) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Yelp representatives give the same canned response to everyone who files a complaintThere are thousands of small businesses adversely affected by their shady practicesThey really need to consider not filtering to remain unbiased(The rep who replied did not address my request to remove filters, and did not address my legitimate star reviews and give an acceptable response as to why they are being filtered.) Their words mean nothing without actionUpon further research, I have found that Yelp's only income comes from their advertisersSo obviously, it would be to their advantage to try to strong-arm small businesses into paying $per month in order to "manage" their online reputationWe refuse to buy into that, but I personally know other businesses that have paid and DO get their ratings boostedSo they can say whatever they like, but it's blatantly obvious that they are lying about their practices(Even a former management-level employee admits to this in a recent article and upcoming documentary.) Hopefully one day, karma will come around for the owners of this unscrupulous company
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/05/21) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for your feedback
You wrote, "They really need to consider not filtering to remain unbiased." We understand the recommendation software can be frustrating at times, and acknowledge that even some legitimate reviews will not be recommendedHowever, we still believe that the software as a whole makes our site more trustworthy and useful to consumersAdditionally, 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 software picks up new information
With regards to your comment that we "did not address your legitimate star reviews and give an acceptable response as to why they are being filtered," again, we don't go into detail as to why specific reviews are or are not 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 the same for every business (regardless of their advertising status) and every review
You claim that you "personally know other businesses that have paid and DO get their ratings boosted." However, 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
We recognize that there have been news stories alleging that Yelp manipulates reviews and ratings to reward advertisers, yet these allegations are not based in factPlease consider:
Third party research (such as Harvard Business School) has debunked this conspiracy
Courts have rejected the conspiracy due to the lack of any fact-based evidence
A simple search across the site proves that non-advertisers often have excellent and 5-star ratings while many advertisers have low ratings
For more information about this issue, please visit http://officialblog.yelp.com/2013/05/no-yelp-doesnt-extort-small-businesses-see-...⇄ /> When 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 Ericka,Thank you for your response.You wrote, "I did not authorize these charges!" and "I have no idea how a budget was determined or anything about what your talking about." However, our records indicate you signed up for a self-serve advertising program on September 21, According to our records, you selected a $monthly Cost Per Click budget (or a $per day average) plus enhanced profile features which cost an additional $per month (or a $per day average), for total charges of up to $per monthThis monthly maximum was stated in the "Welcome to Yelp Advertising: Your Ads Are Now Live!" email we sent you after you signed up for this program.By signing up for this advertising program, you agreed to Yelp's Master Advertising Terms*** You provided your payment information to Yelp, and as stated in these Terms, "IF CLIENT PROVIDES YELP WITH CREDIT CARD, DEBIT CARD, OR BANK ACCOUNT INFORMATION (“PAYMENT METHOD”), CLIENT AUTHORIZES YELP TO USE SUCH PAYMENT INFORMATION TO AUTOMATICALLY CHARGE CLIENT ON A RECURRING BASIS TO COLLECT ALL FEES DUE HEREUNDER."We also want to reiterate that ads do not automatically stop once the promotion has been used, but you had the ability to log in at any time to edit or end your advertising campaign.You signed up for and received cost per click ads and enhanced profile features, so we will not be able to offer you a refundThank you for understanding.Regards,HelenYelp Inc

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/10/19) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for *** Academy
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
You claim that Yelp is "deliberately blocking positive reviews," but 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
You also expressed concern with some negative reviewsIf 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 icon
While reporting content doesn't guarantee that it'll be removed, our team looks at every inquiry and carefully evaluates the content against our guidelinesEach case will be reviewed by our team in the order it was receivedTypically, you will receive a response to your report within a few business daysIf you don't believe you've received our response, please be sure to check all email and spam folders (you may want to add ***@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
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

Hi ***,Thank you for writing backWe're sorry to hear you still haven't received the check, and understand that this has been a frustrating experience for you.I've forwarded your concerns to our Deals team, and my colleague *** emailed you today (December 2, 2016) to confirm that the reissued check (#*** for $262.50) was sent on 11/2/to the PO Box address providedAs it appears our payments are not reaching the address provided, please reply directly to *** with another mailing address so we can reissue this payment again.Thank you.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because:
You need to be a little more truthful, read what people have to say here ***Small businesses who claim they were pressured into advertising with Yelp or positive reviews were suppress and the negatives reviews were high lighted above the foldIn fact just Google Yelp Scam and read for yourself There are literally 1000's of WebPages of people pleading for help because of Yelp's unethical practicesIs everybody lying? and Yelp is innocent I doubt that
You keep saying automated software, I am software programmer there is no such thing as automated software, software is written and programmed to do certain tasks, whatever the programmer decides (Yelp)It doesn't think on its own it has to be programmedThis is not Terminator where machines take over" We cannot reverse the software’s decisions" this is just absolutely not true you can!
What I am asking Yelp to do is put all the reviews on the same levelAllow all Yelp visitors read the all reviews and let the visitors choose whether or not they want to visit that businessWithout any influences from Yelp, as of now Yelp well pick and choose which views to display above the fold and which reviews are hidden at the bottom of the page grayed out with command above the reviews saying that Yelp does not recommend these reviews
I am asking Yelp to be fair and honest and run its businesses ethically, be fair and upfront with their visitors, instead of hiding reviewsI am asking Yelp to be fair and honest with their customers, not making them feel like if they didn't advertise with them their business may go bankruptBecause of Yelp's unethical practices small business across the country including mine may have lost 1000's of dollars of revenue for that small business, simply because of Yelp claims that its software is automated.
If you do not agree please delete my business page as I do not want to a part of this injustice
Tony ***

Hi ***,Thank you for your response.While we are sorry to hear you were not satisfied with your advertising campaign, it is important to keep in mind that results are not guaranteedRather, the goal of Yelp advertising is to increase the exposure of a business on Yelp through features such as targeted ad impressionsWhen 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 an enhanced profile and the call tracking feature.It looks like you spoke with *** on July 20, after you wrote to us on July As you may recall from your conversation with ***, we are refunding you the early termination fee of $It appears *** also explained our cancellation policy to you and why you are responsible for the charges for the advertising services that were deliveredPer the terms of your advertising agreement, we require days written notice to your account management contact if you wish to terminate your advertising programIt appears you indicated on June 8, that you wanted to cancel, and your advertising program was terminated on July 7, As advertising services were delivered in accordance with your advertising agreement through July 7, 2016, we will not be able to offer you a further refund.It appears *** sent you an email after your call, in case you wanted to schedule some additional time to go over any other questions you may havePlease feel free to reach out directly to *** if you have further concerns.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/01/12) */
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 Yelp for Business Owners Account
Your advertising program was a self-serve program, which means that ads can only be turned off by the business through the Yelp for Business Owners AccountIf you only wanted to use your $promotion, you would have needed to log in and end the program once that credit was usedIn Step of your ad setup there were Q&A's on the right side of the page explaining that you could stop your ads any time through the Yelp for Business Owners site: "Can I stop any time? YesThere's no commitment or obligationJust come back to the Yelp for Business Owners site and stop your adsYou will be billed at the beginning of the next month for any clicks you bought before you cancelled."
Below is a more detailed description of how the promotion was applied:
October 24-31,
- You received ad clicks which cost a total of $
- $of your $credit was used and you paid $
November
- You received ad clicks which cost a total of $
- You had $remaining promotional credit for this month because it was partially used in October
- The costs did not exceed your selected $monthly budget
- You are responsible for $for advertising services delivered in November
December 1-10,
- You received ad clicks which cost a total of $
- You had remaining promotional credit for this month because it was used in October and November
- You are responsible for $for advertising services delivered in December
You can view a breakdown of how many ad clicks you received by logging in to your Yelp for Business Owners Account at https://biz.yelp.com/ and then clicking on the Yelp Ads tab
You ended your advertising program on December 10, As advertising services have been delivered in accordance with the Terms you agreed to, we will not be able to waive the outstanding balance of $for advertising services delivered in November and December Once this amount is collected, you will not incur further chargesThanks for understanding
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2016/01/13) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Terms and Conditions wasn't clear and it was deceitful to get customers to enter a credit card
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2016/01/25) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for your feedback
We want to reiterate that in order to redeem the $credit towards Yelp ads, you were required to sign up for our Cost Per Click advertising campaign and put a credit card on fileYou set your monthly budget cap at $You were only charged when someone clicked on your ad, and you agreed to pay up to $a month for those ad clicksIf you had reached your monthly budget cap, we would no longer have delivered ads for your business for the remainder of that month so that you wouldn't have to pay more than you agreed toIf you did not reach your monthly budget cap, you would only be charged for the ad clicks you received
If you only wanted to use your $promotion, you could have logged in to your account at https://biz.yelp.com/ at any time to see the status of your campaign and end your advertising program from the Yelp Ads tabAs noted in the Q&As when you signed up for your self-serve advertising program, advertising continues until the business ends their ads through the Yelp for Business Owners Account, so we will not be able to waive the outstanding balanceThanks for understanding
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc

Hi ***, Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for *** ***.We appreciate you bringing this to our attention, and have 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 ***Regards,***Yelp Inc

Hi ***,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for *** *** *** ***.We're sorry to hear you were not satisfied with your advertising program, and we've forwarded your message to the appropriate partiesAs you
may recall, a manager, *** reached out to you by voicemail and email to let you know that as it appears you indicated on May 21, that you wanted to cancel your program, your advertising campaign should have been terminated on June 20, per our day cancellation policyWith that in mind, *** is crediting your account $for the charges from advertising services delivered from June through July 29, 2016, so that your new balance is $*** also let you know that you could contact our Finance Department to work out a payment plan, and it looks like you've since been able to speak with our Finance teamPlease feel free to reach out to *** if you have further questions or concerns. Regards,***Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/07/13) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for ***, LLC
To address your comment, "Since I have refused to pay for ads with Yelp, they have proceeded to
hide good reviews," 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
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 measured, and looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability, and activity on YelpIt'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
You also expressed concern with a negative reviewIt sounds like you are referring to the review by *** PThe 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
If you haven't already done so, you might consider sending a private message to the reviewer or posting a public comment through your free business 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
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 Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/07/14) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Yelp did not clarify why good reviews about my business are being hidden since I have declined to pay for advertisementsThe response seems to be yet another computer generated response, with fill ins for the company names
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/07/23) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writing back
You have again alleged that Yelp is manipulating your reviews because you declined to advertiseHowever, with respect to reviews, paying businesses have absolutely no advantageThe 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 ***,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 guaranteed.When 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 listing, which included features such as a photo slideshow and competitor ad removal.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 has been waived. 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 *** *** *** to learn more.With regards to your concern 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 measured, and looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability, and activity on Yelp.It's important to note that the software applies the same analysis to everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviewsPlease also understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a reviewHowever, the system is not static -- reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors.To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: ***Regards,***Yelp Inc