Yelp.com

Hi *** ***,Thank you for your feedback.After further consideration, we have marked your page as temporarily closed and have removed the phone number: ***Thanks for using Yelp.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/05/11) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for *** CPA LLC
You signed up for an advertising program that included ad impressions to appear each
month in places such as above search results and on your competitors' business pagesYou wrote, "There business practice is improper requiring you to sign a contract with a no refund policy or termination clause." However, as noted Section V (Term and Termination) of the contract you signed, early termination is subject to a feeIn your case, the early termination fee was $300; this amount was stated on the first page of your advertising agreementSince you have chosen to end your advertising program before the end of the month term, an early termination fee of $was assessedAdditionally, as advertising services (including ad impressions per month) have been delivered in accordance with your contract, we will not be able to offer you a refundThanks for understanding
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/05/22) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I was pressured into signing the month advertising agreement, I cancelled within daysI emailed my rep the I effectively cancelled within daysI was told by my rep that I was cancelledThey hit me with an early termination on May 20th
I'm requesting full refund of the termination charge and full or partial refund of the months advertising
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/06/05) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for your response
You expressed concern with the cancellation date and early termination feeInformation about our cancellation policy was included in Section V (Term and Termination) of the advertising agreement you signedThe advertising agreement stated: "Client may terminate the Purchase Order by providing written notice, including email, to Client's account management contact at Yelp on or before the 15th day of the month in order for the Purchase Order to terminate at the end of that month." In other words, if you provide written notification to your account manager on or before the 15th of the month, then your advertising will terminate at the end of that monthYou provided your cancellation request on April 15, 2015, so your advertising program was terminated on April 30,
With regards to your concerns about the early termination fee, as you may recall from the conversation you had with your account manager, early termination is subject to a fee per the terms of the advertising agreement you signedThis information was also included in Section V (Term and Termination) of your contract: "Client agrees to pay the Early Termination Fee set forth in any Purchase Order, if Client terminates such Purchase Order after the Effective Date and before the end of its Commitment Period." Again, you chose to end your program before the end of the 3-month commitment period, so an early termination fee of $was assessed on April 22,
You have again requested a refund, but as previously noted, we will not be able to offer you a refund since advertising services have been delivered in accordance with the advertising agreement you signedWe have attached a copy of your contract for your referenceThanks for understanding
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc

Hi ***,Thanks for writing back. We forwarded your message to the appropriate parties, and wanted to let you know that we are refunding your credit card $Please allow 5-business days for this to be reflected on your statement.Additionally, our records indicate that you have already been refunded $on December 15, for the part of your order you did not receive.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because: They did not resolve the issueI asked that my profile be taken down IF they are unwilling to correctly display ALL reviewsClients are breaking their own confidentiality to post reviews in response to YELP's leaving up reviews that represent slander and defamation of characterYELP's software inaccurately deemed two legitimate reviews as "not recommended" and hid these reviewsThese clients called YELP and demanded their reviews be displayed as recommendedYELP told them they would, and did, for a day, and then once again hid them under "Not Recommended"As a legal and ethical business owner for nine years, I have one of the best reputations in the San Diego area as an outstanding therapistThe two reviews by a couple who are not able to review my business because they are not patients are illegitimate reviews, and YELP is promoting fraudulant information that is a complete lieAs a member of Revdex.com, I operate at the highest level of integrity and honesty in my practice, as is commensurate with the oath I took upon becoming state board licensedIt is unconscionable to me that YELP is not held accountable for their unethical and illegitimate business practicesAlso, YELP failed to address my assertion that YELP reviewers who give them one star are buried and only positive reviews are seen firstThis contradicts how YELP displays all other business reviews, with the most recent review at the topI adamantly reject YELPs (non)resolution, and respectfully request Revdex.com to pursue legitimate resolution, as stated aboveIf YELP wishes to blame their software for labeling certain reviews as "Not Recommended", they must correct the software so that legitimate reviews are displayed without filteringI'm asking the Revdex.com to look at my YELP profile and look for the hidden "Not Recommended" reviews to see how such positive reviews are being buried by YELPI have a strong litigation case against YELP and wish to resolve this without further incident
Respectfully,
*** ***-***

Hi ***,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for *** ***We first want to make sure you know 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 *** and *** 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 YelpPlease note that we only look at Recommended Reviews in calculating a business's overall star rating.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: ***You also expressed concern with a negative reviewIt looks like you are referring to the review by *** *, as you recently reported this reviewOur team has taken a second look at the review, but we reached the same conclusion as before and are unable to remove the reviewWe don't take sides in factual disputes; if a review appears to reflect the reviewer’s personal experiences and opinions, it is our policy to let the user stand behind his or her review.We noticed that you've already used your free business account to post a public comment on this reviewMany 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 concerns.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 ***Regards,***
Yelp Inc

Hi Ross,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for Body Healthy Spa. Our records indicate you signed up for a month advertising program with a $per month Yelp Ads budget plus $per month page upgrades, for
a monthly maximum of $The $per month page upgrades included features such as a Call To Action button, a slideshow, and competitor ad removalYour advertising program was a cost per click (CPC) program and your ads budget was set at $475, which means you were charged when someone clicked on your ad and you agreed to pay up to $a month for those ad clicksIf you did not reach your monthly budget cap, you would 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.Please note that per the terms and conditions you agreed to, early termination is subject to a fee of $It looks like this fee was collected on February 28, 2018. Your advertising program was terminated on February 28, We've forwarded your message to the appropriate parties for their consideration, but at this time, as advertising services were delivered in accordance with the Terms***) you agreed to we will not be able to offer you a refund or waive the outstanding balance of $for the advertising services you received from February - 28, Thanks for understanding.Regards,HelenYelp Inc

Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because: The negative review that is on my page is an paragraph rant against me personallyIt is not a legitimate review of my businessAll I want is for ALL reviews that my business receives to be posted just like the current negative rantI can handle the bad just as long as the good reviews are provided also.As you can see by the attached document, the review is long and personally attacks me and it is not the first review that I have received as you can tell by the review dated YEARS prior
Sincerely,
*** ***

** *** ***Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for *** *** ***.You wrote, "Yelp does not recommend the reviews, because I am not advertising with Yelp." 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 *** *** *** ** *** ***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.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

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because:Sincerely,*** ***
Adding insult to injury!! You know full well that what you say is untrue Your IT department definitely has 100% control over your website Don't presume that everyone around except for the cheats at Yelp are stupid!
How come for at least a couple of years there were star comments present and everything escalated down to only one stars being present? There is no automated thing involved It was certainly a human to did this (possibly through your automated system) but certainly it didn't happen alone We are not the only ones that this happened to but you should start paying attention to the people who complain You think you are too big to fail but when everyone sees you are just manipulators for your own profit things will change Plenty of people use google instead of you now Karma is a very nasty thing and bites back when least expected I wish you well till then Yelp will failYou are bullies and that is self distructing!

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/11/16) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for *** *** *** Control
You expressed concern with a review of your businessIt looks like you are
referring to the review by *** MAs you may recall from the message you 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 guidelinesYou claim that this review is "false"; however, Yelp does not take sides in factual disputesRather, if a review appears to reflect the personal experience and opinions of the reviewer, it is our policy to allow the user to stand by his or her review
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/11/17) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
She wanted us to come out for free that is not what we do why would any business come out for freeWe also do not do small birds it's like asking a plumber to come out to do with electric the post need to be taken down because nothing to do with our business
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/11/25) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writing back
We have taken another look at *** M's reviews but, after careful consideration, we reached the same conclusion as before and are unable to remove the reviewsIf 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
These decisions aren't always easy, but please know we looked at these reviews closely before reaching our decision
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2015/12/01) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
The review must come down it is not pertaining to my business at allThe person wants something for free that was not even the business that we provideYelp will not even hear her side of the story they just will not take it down

Hi Steven,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for Autolock Solutions.Our records indicate you signed an advertising program with a 12-month commitment period in April You wrote, "I contacted Yelp to have my
contract 'paused for the period of time that my business would be closed." We want to clarify that we don't have an option for advertisers to put their ad program on hold temporarily, but what we do allow is for advertisers to downgrade or cancel their programHowever, early cancellation is typically subject to an early termination fee. It appears that, as a compromise our account management team offered to mark your business as temporarily closed while you are out for surgery, and you would be responsible for the fixed cost for your program but would avoid having to pay the video production fee portion of the early termination feeHowever, it does not appear that you accepted this offer. It also appears that you indicated to Bryce on November that you had filed a dispute with your credit card company, and because of this payment dispute our account management team decided to terminate your advertising program immediately. We have forwarded your message to the appropriate parties for their consideration, but at this time, as advertising services were delivered in accordance with the advertising agreement you signed, we will not be able to offer you a refund or waive the remaining balance for the advertising services you received from November - November 15, Thanks for understanding. Regards,HelenYelp Inc

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because:
what more verification that I have send the new number myselfI am the Business owner, I am the one that paid the bill so I really don't think you can decide what # can go on my page or notI lose about $on advertisement that week plus all of the customer that call me and didn't get and answerYou guys really don't care about the Business owner you only care about us paying youReally bad customer service and supportI want a refund for all of these day you didn't change my #
Sincerely,*** ***

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/12/16) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for ***
If a review is not appearing on the main Yelp listing of a business, it would be for one of three
reasons: the review is currently not recommended by Yelp's automated recommendation software (which affects both positive and negative reviews); the review was found to be in violation of our Content Guidelines or Terms of Service and has been manually removed by the Yelp Support team; or the user elected to remove the review him/herself
If a review is brought to the attention of the Yelp Support team and is found to fall outside our Content Guidelines, the Yelp Support team will take appropriate action, such as removing the reviewThat said, please note the action that the Yelp Support team takes is separate from actions taken by Yelp's automated 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
With regards to *** R's reviews of your business, as you may recall from the correspondence you've had with the Yelp Support team, *** R's November 20, review has been evaluated and left up, as it was not found to be in violation of our guidelinesYou claim that this reviewer is an ex-employee; however, using the information we have in our systems, we are unable to confirm that the user has a conflict of interest with the businessIf a review appears to reflect the personal experience and opinions of the reviewer, it is our policy to allow the user to stand by his or her reviewThat said, *** R's November 19, and December 4, reviews of your business were removed because they fell outside our Content Guidelines
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/12/17) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
*** R has made three reviewes two of which were found to be outside the yelp guidelinesCan somebody not see that ***r is being intentionally malicious and has nothing to with her experienceWe even have a police report regarding her inappropriate behaviour at our store
We have not contested other negative reviews as we agree that they might be a genuine experienceBut something that is outright blatant should be reviewed by a human, that can logically figure what someone is trying to doIt is not a personal experience by *** but just a malicious attempt to hurt a business - it is obvious and I cannot seem to understand why you at Yelp are not able to see thatWill *** be allowed to keep writing negative reviews even is she is not going to the store
I thought reviews are supposed to reflect actual experiences, rather than ones concocted
I do hope that some one can see our point of view
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/12/22) */
Hi ***,
Thank you for your response
We have taken another look at *** R's November 20, 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
Regards,
***
Yelp Inc
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2015/12/23) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
They are insisting that it is a personal experience of a guest whereas it is notI guess there is no point butting heads as they do not seem to understand or they do not want to understand the actual situationThey also do not accept our request to talk to someone and they rather stay behind a veil

Hi ***,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for *** *** ** ***.We first 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 *** *** *** 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.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 Yelp.It's important to note that the software applies the same analysis to everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviewsPlease also understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a reviewHowever, the system is not static -- reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors.To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: ***Finally, you asked for your business to be removed from Yelp; 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 Jessica,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns. One of the ways we try to help Yelp users discover local businesses is by using automated software with the goal of showcasing reliable reviewsThis means Yelp doesn’t recommend every review from
every user and the software is automated so that it can apply the same objective standards to every business and every reviewThis is very different from other sites that tend to feature every single negative rant and positive raveThe software looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability and activity on YelpWhat is recommended can change over time, and a review that is currently not recommended may be recommended on another day.Our recommendation software recommends both positive and negative reviews in an effort to show the most helpful and reliable reviews to our usersThat said, Yelpers write more positive reviews than negative reviews, so it isn’t necessarily surprising that Yelp’s recommendation software might impact more positive reviews. We hope you’ll take the time to watch our video about the Recommendation Software: *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***It also sounds as though you have concerns about some negative reviewsIf you come across content that you feel may violate Yelp's Content Guidelines ***), please let our moderators know by reporting itYou can do so by finding the content in question, clicking the flag icon on the website or the More Options/Overflow Menu (dots) on the appYou'll need to be logged into your account to report content.To learn more, please visit* ***While reporting content doesn't guarantee that it'll be removed, our team looks at every inquiry and carefully evaluates the content against our guidelinesEach case will be reviewed by our team in the order it was receivedPlease note that the Yelp Support team's evaluation of reviews against our guidelines is separate from actions taken by Yelp’s automated recommendation software. Typically, you will receive a response to your report of a review within a few business daysIf you don't believe you've received our response, please be sure to check all email and spam folders (you may want to add*** to your contact list).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 content
The 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 reviewsYou wrote, "We want Yelp to put back all our good reviews into 'Recommended' category," 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_ReviewsRegards,***Yelp Inc

Hi ***Thank you for writing regarding your user account.We're sorry to hear you ran into trouble confirming your accountOur records indicate that our emails to your *** email address have bounced back to us as undeliverable, but on our end it appears the emails sent to your
*** were deliveredIs it possible that the emails sent to your *** email address ended up in your spam folder? That said, it looks like you've since been able to add a Gmail address to your account, and that your account is now confirmedIf you'd like to change your email address, log into your user account on *** (account changes can’t currently be made via a mobile device):Go to “Account Settings”Click “Email/Notifications” (you may be asked to re-enter your password for security)Add, remove or change your primary email addressPlease note that you may want to add *** to your email contacts or safe sender list.If you run into further difficulties, please get in touch with our *** *** ** *** *** *** ** *** ** ***Regards,***Yelp Inc

Hi Tony,Thank you for writing back.It sounds as though you still believe 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 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. All review sites face the same challenge: how to identify the most reliable and useful content amongst the millions of submitted reviewsIt's no easy task, and while we think we do a pretty good job at it, there’s always room for improvement. 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 *** *** review of your businessUpon further evaluation, the review was found to be in violation of our
Content Guidelines and it has been removed.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: ***Regards,***Yelp Inc

Complaint: ***I am rejecting this response because: The business admitted there was a problem and had already talked to the sales person however could not see fit to refund the clients moneyThis will serve as a reminder to high pressure sales that offer everything and then a company that will not match what was offeredI think they call this bait and switchHopefully others will be warnedRecorded phones calls were not offered to clear up misunderstanding thus proving the clients point. Sincerely,Ronald***