Yelp.com

Hi [redacted] ,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] 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 [redacted] 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.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] With regards to your comment, "Just as a persons personal credit report, after a certain amount of time, the law says these items can and should be removed," currently, there is no expiration date for reviews on Yelp, but users can sort the recommended reviews to show the most recent reviews first.You also wrote, "Several names listed, I have never serviced and have no record of them." We encourage reviewers to use their full names on Yelp, but this isn't an absolute requirement and many people don'tAs a result, it may be difficult to match up a reviewer's name to the records maintained by many businesses, and our moderators aren't in a position to arbitrate these situationsAs long as a review appears to reflect the reviewer's personal experiences and opinions, we'll generally allow them to stand behind their review.That said, if you come across content that you feel may violate Yelp's Content Guidelines ( [redacted] ), 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: [redacted] 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 received.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Hi ***,Thank you for writing back; we appreciate your feedback.We forwarded your message to our account management teamAs you may recall, an account manager, ***, spoke with you on October to discuss your experienceWe will be refunding you for your October 1, payment of $98.25.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because: Yelp and their did not give me an answer to my inquiry, they are trying to forward it to other people that they are not even answering my call and are not willing to listen to my complain If they really care they can just read my complaint and remove the review asap and since this is taking too long they would need to answer me to court and the longer it takes the more money I will be suing them for because this wrong and injustice review is hurting my business and they would have to have a good answer for the judgesMy compliant is simple: she was NOT my customer and I can only refund the money the same way that I received itif they paid credit card I have to refund the credit card back and I can not write a check instead to some stranger that I never even met or sawplease put yourself in my position and it is very easy to understand , thanks Sincerely, [redacted]

Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because: You said, "More importantly, we believe that the public benefits from sharing their experiences with local businesses." However, you are NOT sharing their experiences This is not acceptable, and I am kindly requesting my patients' positive experiences to be published These are just as reliable as the ones Yelp software chose to publish, and more proportionately reflect MY COMMUNITY's opinion of my business (that is, the majority is positive) The reviews that Yelp has chosen to publish can only HARM my business This is defamation (or unjustified injury of the good reputation of another).Sincerely, [redacted] ***

Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because: It's the same reponse I have received repeatedly HOWEVER, ***, an account manager, subsequently reached out to me and helped resolve the issue to my satisfactionApparently it was not noted to my account, or occurred after [redacted] responded to my complaintThank you to [redacted] for providing a resolution.Sincerely, [redacted]

Hi Mohneefah,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding the page for Neef Fresh PhotographyWe appreciate your feedback about the representative you spoke with, and we'll be looking into this matter furtherYou also requested that this page be removed because you did not create itWe license basic business information from third party data providers who gather this type of information from public records and other sourcesWe also get business information from our usersWe generally don't remove business pages unless the business appears to fall outside our eligibility guidelines, which does not appear to be the case hereThat said, we've gone ahead and removed the street address and phone number from the pageFor more information about our stance on removing business information, see [redacted] Additionally, you expressed a concern with a tipWe have removed Lola S.'s Tip of your business, as it falls outside our guidelines.Regards,HelenYelp Inc

Hi [redacted] ,Thank you for writing back.We forwarded your messages to the appropriate parties, and it looks like a manager [redacted] reached out to you to discuss your concernsAs you may recall, we are refunding you $for the advertising services that were delivered from November 23, to December 2, 2015.We hope you will continue to take advantage of the free features available to you on your business account to engage with the Yelp communityFor guidance, please visit [redacted] Regards,***Yelp Inc

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, and have forwarded your message to the appropriate partiesIt looks like you spoke with an account manager, ***, regarding your concerns on June 20, As you may recall, while we enable business owners 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 the new phone number you submitted was rejected because we could not verify the new informationYour advertising program is currently set to cancel at the end of your initial termIf you have further questions or concerns, you can reach out to your account management team directly at the email address and phone number listed under the Billing section of your Business Account [redacted] Regards,***Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2015/11/12) */ Hi Ms [redacted] , Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] You wrote, "They call offering to "help" with reviews (shake me down for what they assess as a percentage of my income) and add more bad reviews if I don't complyOver the years they have repeatedly contacted me with this ploy." 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 advertiseAdditionally, please be assured that members of the Yelp Sales team cannot post Yelp reviews because of the inherent conflict of interest this would presentWe 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 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: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US If there are specific reviews on your business page that you think may violate Yelp's Content Guidelines (http://www.yelp.com/guidelines), you can report them by clicking the flag icon next to the reviewsYou'll need to be logged into 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 [redacted] @yelp.com to your contact list) With regards to your comment, "Several months ago I submitted my complaints to IC(Complaint Id: IXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX) and the FTCAs you can see, since then, "Yelp" has made their fraudulent rating of my business even worse," we want to assure you that Yelp does not retaliate against businesses for any reason, including asking questions, expressing concerns or filing complaints Finally, you wrote, "I have made several attempts to delete my account, to no avail." Please note that we 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, [redacted] Yelp Inc Initial Consumer Rebuttal / [redacted] (3000, 7, 2015/11/17) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) Every word of this response is a lieThe evidence I have provided is more than sufficient proof of this Final Business Response / [redacted] (4000, 9, 2015/11/25) */ Hi Ms [redacted] , Thank you for your response It sounds as though you still believe that Yelp manipulates reviews to favor advertisersHowever, with respect to reviews, paying businesses have absolutely no advantageThe automated recommendation software does not distinguish between advertisers and free listings, and the revenue side of our business operates independently of the content side of our business, just as a newspaper might put a firewall between their advertising and reporting functions That said, if you believe that an individual has provided you with different information, we ask that you provide us with some additional information (the name of the individual whom you spoke with, their phone number, and the date and time of your conversation with them) so that we can investigate further 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, [redacted] Yelp Inc Final Consumer Response / [redacted] (4200, 11, 2015/11/26) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) I have already provided sufficient evidence proving the alleged impartiality and software filtering to be a lieMy words stand and will bear up under investigation

Hi [redacted] ***,Thank you for your feedback.You wrote, "I can see in my case that only of the reviewers appear to be even remotely more established users and the others displayed in the recommended section clearly are not." Please note that when determining whether or not to recommend a review, the recommendation software looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability, and activity on YelpWe don't go into detail as to why a review is or is not recommended, and we 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.We also want to reiterate that the recommendation software is automated to help avoid the potential for human bias inherent in individual decision-makingWhile we cannot manually reverse the software’s decisions, our recommendation software runs on a daily basis, so reviews that aren't currently recommended may be recommended in the future, and vice versa.Regards,***Yelp Inc

Hi Dwayne,Thank you for your feedback.We've forwarded your response to the appropriate parties and a Customer Success Manager, Katie, will be reaching out to you to further address your concernsYou can also reach out to our Customer Success team at the email address or phone number in the Billing tab of your Yelp for Business Owners Account [redacted] Regards,HelenYelp Inc

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2015/07/15) */ Hi [redacted] , Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] You expressed concern with a recent reviewIt sounds like you are referring to the review by Nicole WThe 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 you "don t recall this conversation"; 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 You also expressed concern with the recommendation softwareAs you may recall from our previous correspondence (Revdex.com Case #XXXXXXXX and #XXXXXXXX), we are unable to manually recommend your reviewsThe recommendation software is automated to help avoid the potential for human bias inherent in individual decision-making If you have questions or concerns in the future, we encourage your to visit our Support Center at http://www.yelp-support.comWe've tried to include detailed answers to the questions we most frequently receive in our Support Center, but there may be situations you encounter where you'll need to contact our Support team for assistanceFor these specific situations, there are articles in the Support Center that include submission forms to inquire about the issue Regards, [redacted] Yelp Inc Initial Consumer Rebuttal / [redacted] (3000, 7, 2015/07/17) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) this new review has nothing to do with my servicesthis person did not experience my braiding servicesPeople putting reviews of my braids, them you delete them, but crazy random people writing on my wall, that you leavethis is not rightBBureau, please do something about this yelpI am not the only one complaining about their methodsThat new review need to be removednothing to do with my work Final Business Response / [redacted] (4000, 10, 2015/08/03) */ Hi [redacted] , You have again stated that the review by Nicole W should be removedHowever, we don't take sides on factual disputes, so we can only therefore reiterate what we previously communicated to you: if a review appears to reflect the user's personal experience and opinions, we allow the user to stand behind their review 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 We also want to clarify the difference between reviews that are not recommended by our software and reviews that are removed by our Support TeamIf 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 softwareIf a review is not recommended, that does not necessarily mean it is in violation of our guidelines Regards, [redacted] Yelp, Inc

Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because: There was absolutely no resolutionI still have only poor reviews and times the amount of good reviews that have ALL been rejected.Sincerely, [redacted]

Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because: pictures are not removed from Yelp databaseIf you google my business nameMy photos appear via yelp under google imagesOther website webmasters removed my picturesOnly yelp refuse to remove my photosSincerely, [redacted]

Hi Robert,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for Window KingWe 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 guaranteedOur records indicate you signed up for an advertising program with a $per month Yelp Ads budget plus $per month page upgrades, for a monthly maximum of $The $per month page upgrades included features such as Call To Action button, a photo slideshow, and competitor ad removalYour advertising program was a cost per click (CPC) program and your ads budget was set at $275, which means you were charged when someone clicked on your ad and you agreed to pay up to $a month for those ad clicksIf you did not reach your monthly budget cap, you would be charged for the ad clicks you receivedHowever, if you did reach your monthly budget cap, we no longer delivered ads for your business for the remainder of the month so that you wouldn't have to pay more than you agreed to.Please note that per the Terms [redacted] you agreed to, we typically require days written notice to Yelp's account management team if you wish to terminate your advertising programIt looks like you were initially set to cancel your ads at the end of your term on March 29, 2018, but that when you spoke with our account management team on January 31, 2018, they offered to move your cancel date to February 27, and to waive the early termination fee.We've forwarded your message to the appropriate parties for their consideration, but at this time, as advertising services are being delivered in accordance with the terms and conditions you agreed to, we will not be able to offer you a refundThanks for understandingRegards,HelenYelp Inc

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 6, 2015/05/01) */ Hi Salvatore, Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding the business page for Dominator Sportfishing It appears that you flagged Animal R's review two days before you filed this complaint with the Revdex.comAs you may recall from the message you received from the Yelp Support team, this review has been removed because it falls outside our Content Guidelines Regards, Helen Yelp Inc Initial Consumer Rebuttal / [redacted] (2000, 8, 2015/05/04) */ (The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)

Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because: First off, we've hardly taken advantage of any 'good will' provided by the prior owners and I find this response to be dismissive Sincerely, [redacted]

Hi [redacted] Thank you for writing again.You wrote, "Yelp did you see the attachments I put on the previous response? You did not mention anything about the attachments in your response." As we noted in our previous response, we don't make evidentiary determinations, nor do we take sides on factual disputesSince [redacted] *.'s review 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 contentsSee Carafano vMetrosplashcomInc., F3d (9th Cir2003); Zeran vAmerica Online, Inc., F.3d (4th Cir1997); Barrett vRosenthal, Cal4th (Cal2006).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,***Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2015/04/24) */ Hi [redacted] , Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns You expressed concern that your review of Discover Card is not currently recommendedAs you may have read, we use automated software developed by our engineers to recommend reviews from the Yelp community, with the goal of showcasing 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 Yelp It's important to note that the software applies the same analysis to everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviewsYou asked that we "Return the aforementioned review to 'recommended' status," but please understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a reviewHowever, the system is not static reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US Regards, [redacted] Yelp Inc Initial Consumer Rebuttal / [redacted] (3000, 7, 2015/04/27) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) Unfortunately, I find Yelp's response to be both disappointing and disingenuousThe mere fact that their software algorithm, approximately hours later, found my 100% fact-based review that could save a potential consumer thousands of dollars annually to be unworthy of being recommended, reveals just how flawed their algorithm isFurthermore, to suggest that they do not have direct access to the database that their software interfaces with is being disingenuousFor example, when a review is found to contain inappropriate content by a human, someone at Yelpwith appropriate access rights, can then access the database directly and remove such contentTherefore, their refusal to humanly intervene in this case is a matter of choice, not capability Final Business Response / [redacted] (4000, 9, 2015/05/07) */ Hi [redacted] , Thank you for your response You wrote, "when a review is found to contain inappropriate content by a human, someone at Yelpwith appropriate access rights, can then access the database directly and remove such contentTherefore, their refusal to humanly intervene in this case is a matter of choice, not capability." 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 against reviews that fall outside our guidelines is separate from actions taken by Yelp's automated recommendation software 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 Regards, [redacted] Yelp Inc Final Consumer Response / [redacted] (4200, 11, 2015/05/14) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) The Yelp representative,in her most recent response ,now admits that they are capable of accessing the database directly, yet they still refuse to intervene in this matter where it is obvious that their software algorithm has failed to properly rate a 100% fact-based review that could potentially save consumers up to thousands of dollars annually

Hi [redacted] ,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] .You expressed concern with [redacted] *.'s reviewI understand that you’re disputing the accuracy this review, and our team has taken a second look at it However, 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.These decisions aren’t always easy, but please know we looked at this review closely before reaching our decision.We also want to address your comment, "Our VERY HAPPY customer reviews are not being scored!! We received to great reviews and our score went from to I imagine it should be higher because Yelp chooses to not score those probably so businesses become desperate and pay them which we refuse to." 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.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 reviewWhile we only look at Recommended Reviews in calculating a business's overall star rating, please keep in mind that 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] Regards,***Yelp Inc