Yelp.com

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted].You expressed concern with a review. It looks like you are referring to the review by [redacted], as you previously filed a Revdex.com complaint...

(#[redacted]) regarding this review. You claim that this review was posted by an ex-employee of your business. Our Terms of Service prohibit anyone with a conflict of interest with a business from posting reviews about that business. In order to evaluate whether someone has a conflict of interest, we rely on information in our systems and information in the content that person has posted in the first place. Our moderators generally aren't able to consider outside information or arbitrate disputes, if it's not clear whether a conflict of interest may exist.With that in mind, we’ve taken another look at [redacted]'s review and we stand by our original decision to leave the review up, as we did not find it to be in violation of our guidelines.You also wrote, "we then ask other customers to leave reviews to offset this fraudulent one, and when they do Yelp hides them." Please note asking for reviews is not something we encourage. Asking your customers to write reviews for your business may sound like a good way to improve your reputation, but it’s exactly the sort of behavior that Yelp’s recommendation software is trained to detect. The most helpful reviews are unsolicited, so don’t be surprised if the reviews you solicit aren’t recommended by Yelp.As 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 reviews. Please also understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a review. However, 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]_ReviewsWith regards to your comment, "I called YELP who suggested we advertise with them as we would then received 'enhanced assistance' for dealing with negative reviews and removing negative 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 treated. Businesses are not punished if they don't advertise, nor are businesses awarded with preferential treatment with regards to their reviews if they do advertise. We 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 further. To 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 wrote, "Yelp has blocked my company login so I cannot change any of the information on our review page!!! And they list an 'owner' as someone who is not me, and then list a phone number we have never had, however list us in the correct city and state." It appears your Business Account used to be under the email address your provided when you filed this complaint and that you may have changed the email address and name associated with the account. It also looks like your Yelp for Business Owners Account was closed for violations of our Terms of Service. We've gone ahead and removed the From the Business information and updated the phone number to what appears to be the current number for your business: [redacted]. Please note that on occasion, we'll lock fields in order to prevent malicious or erroneous changes to listing information. If you would like assistance with reclaiming your business page or otherwise updating your business information, please contact our Support team: [redacted]Finally, you requested that your business to be removed from Yelp. As you may recall from our previous correspondence, we don't remove business information, as  this kind of information is publicly available and its use is protected under the law. Yelp is allowed to publish business names and publicly available information about businesses under the well-established fair use doctrine, as well as First Amendment principles. Generally speaking, this means that we can display business names and trademarks "for purposes of comparison, criticism, point of reference, or any other such purpose." See New Kids on the Block v. New America Pub., Inc., 971 F.2d 302, 306 (9th Cir. 1992).Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/08/20) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] Services.
We've looked at [redacted] L's review, and since it appears to reflect the personal experience...

and opinions of the reviewer, we are leaving it intact.

While we share your concern about the possibility of a defamatory review on our site, we don't adjudicate disputes between businesses and their reviewers. Congress acknowledged this predicament by passing [redacted] that provides statutory immunity to online service providers such as Yelp for the content of third-party posts. See 47 U.S.C. §230. The case law is clear on this point in support of online service providers because of concerns that they would otherwise be forced to remove third party posts every time someone raised issue with their contents. See Carafano v. Metrosplash. com. Inc., 339 F. 3d 1119 (9th Cir. 2003); Zeran v. America Online, Inc., 129 F.3d 327 (4th Cir. 1997); Barrett v. Rosenthal, 40 Cal. 4th 33 (Cal. 2006).

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 concerns. We do not recommend that you engage in anything other than a well-meaning dialog with the reviewer in order to sort out any misunderstandings.
You can access your account by visiting https://biz.yelp.com/
For guidance on using your Business Account, check out https://biz.yelp.com/support/using_business_account
You also asked for your business to be removed from Yelp, but we actually don't remove business listing information. While some business owners might prefer to keep a lower profile, this kind of information is publicly available and its use is protected under the law. More importantly, we believe that the public benefits from sharing their experiences with local businesses.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/08/24) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
TAKE DOWN NOTICE:
Dear Yelp,
You may be subject to liability under several sections of the DMCA, if you don't comply to my request immediately:
PLEASE REMOVE MY PERSONAL MOBILE NUMBER AND MY HOME ADDRESS by DELETING THE ENTIRE COMPANY LISTING with my personal home address http://www.yelp.com/biz/[redacted]-services-[redacted]
YELP General Guidelines
Inappropriate content: Colorful language and imagery is fine, but there's no need for threats, harassment, lewdness, hate speech, and other displays of bigotry.
Conflicts of interest: Your contributions should be unbiased and objective. For example, you shouldn't write reviews of your own business or employer, your friends' or relatives' business, your peers or competitors in your industry, or businesses in your networking group. Business owners should not ask customers to write reviews.
All the other reputable already listing company already removed them, because it violates their company guidelines by promoting another competitor moving company and not only these event never occurred, but we never provide any services to this customer.
And unfortunately, if you cannot removed this malicious defamation, we are demanding to PLEASE REMOVE MY HOME ADDRESS AND DELETE THE ENTIRE COMPANY LISTING with my personal home address http://www.yelp.com/biz/[redacted]-services-[redacted]
to resolve this simple matter or we required the personal information of the reviewer such as full name and address to start preliminary legal actions.
Best Regards,
[redacted] Moving
Final Consumer Response /* (3000, 13, 2015/09/01) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Third and Final request to delete the listing http://www.yelp.com/biz/[redacted]-services-[redacted],
The above listing contain my personal phone number and the address on that listing is my residential home address.
Therefore, I am requesting Yelp to delete the listing immediately to protect my personal information.
I am holding Yelp liable for not comply with my request to remove my personal information and any attacks, vandalism or theft at my home, I will hold Yelp fully responsible of any lost.
PLEASE DELETE IT ASAP!
Final Business Response /* (4000, 15, 2015/09/08) */
Hi [redacted],
Thanks for writing again.
As indicated in our prior response, the residential street address has been removed from your business listing, and the phone number has been updated to match the business phone number given on your website: http://www.yelp.com/biz/[redacted]-services-[redacted]
You also asked again that we remove your listing from the site, but we can only restate what was indicated in our prior messages: Yelp doesn't remove business listing information.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted].We first want to address your comment, "My business became review-able on this site without my request or my permission." We license basic...

business information from third party data providers who gather this type of information from public records and other sources. We also get business information from our users, who are helpful enough to correct the info we have, or let us know about a new spot that just opened down the street.You asked for your business to be removed from Yelp, but we actually don't remove business listing information. While some business owners might prefer to keep a lower profile, this kind of information is publicly available and its use is protected under the law. More importantly, we believe that the public benefits from sharing their experiences with local businesses.You also expressed concern with the recommendation software. As 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 reviews. Please also understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a review. However, 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]Please note that actions taken by Yelp's automated recommendation software are separate from the Yelp Support team's evaluation of reviews against our Content Guidelines. With regards to [redacted]'s review, our Support team has looked this review and has elected to leave it up. If a review appears to reflect a user's personal experience and opinions, it is our policy to let the user stand behind his or her review.We noticed that you've already used your free business account to post a public comment on this review. Many 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.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing. We appreciate your feedback and will take it into consideration for the future.Additionally, it looks like your account was recently closed per your request. We are currently unable to restore user accounts once they are closed.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/05/19) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding the reviews of [redacted] & [redacted]
We wanted to let you know that after further evaluation, we have removed the review by [redacted]...

because, as written, it falls outside our Content Guidelines.
For future reference, if you would like to request a second evaluation of something you flagged that did not get removed, you can submit a new inquiry by providing the case number (this is provided in our previously emailed response to the content you flagged) here: http://www.yelp-support.com/article/Can-I-request-a-second-evaluation-of-somethi...⇄ /> Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)Dear [redacted],Your non-responsive answer completely fails to directly address my specific complaint. In fact, it misleadingly states that you have cancelled my contracts and waived the balance accrued during March...however,...

the real story is this:My contracts were cancelled immediately on march 7, 2016 in response to the over 20 phone and email msgs I left with various Yelp reps beginning in February 2016...protesting that my 3 contracts should have run for max 3 months only- meaning I should not have been charged anything past feb 2016. Yelp has wrongfully charged me $700/per office, per month after Feb 2016- so that's a loss of $2100 that I have received no reimbursement for. I asked to refer to numerous email confirmations sent to me by my account rep, [redacted], (who still works at Yelp)- assuring me and reassuring me that my ad would only run for 3 months- and [redacted] (Yelp manager) flatly refused to reference that correspondence or bring [redacted] in on this dispute so he could clear up the matter and confirm that I had only committed to a 3 month contract. That is flat out misrepresentation and deceit on the part of your rep just to trap me into a contract.THe history of my ads with Yelp has a clear precedence of running for max 3 months only. It has NEVER automatically renewed past 3 months which is why I had no reason to suspect that it would renew without my authorization or to distrust my account rep's written and verbal assurances that it would not renew without my express authorization!Further and most appaling, I NEVER EXECUTED the [redacted] contract. I instructed my account rep [redacted], (who would contact me 5x day before I signed the contract and then suddenly disappeared when I needed assistance) to dismiss that contract and I NEVER GAVE HIM A CREDIT CARD NUMBER for that agreement. [redacted] ignored all my emails regarding this issue and [redacted] refused to bring him in on the matter or reference any past emails or recorded phone calls between myself and Brandon. The fact that Yelp used a credit card IT HAD ON FILE FOR ANOTHER OFFICE TO EXECUTE THE [redacted] AGREEMENT constitutes blatant theft and fraud! Because each of my office entities are owned by different corporate entities..what Yelp did is the equivalent of using another customer's credit card to execute a contract for my business. I was offered no explanation or reimbursement for this loss which amounts to a separate $2800!! I have placed a fraud claim on my credit card for this misappropriation and will pursue this credit card fraud with the highest authorities including the US Department of Justice. I expect a refund of $4900.00 immediately in order to close this dispute permanently.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
 
Why are the positive reviews from customers showing up as 'not recommended'?
I do not believe your explanation of not having any control over the way reviews are listed for one second.
Why are ALL positive reviews since the time I declined your services hidden?
Yelp has unscrupulous practices. If you want to list negative reviews, which I believe Yelp thrives on, list POSITIVE ones as well.
I am giving Yelp a chance to change their unscrupulous practices by going through the Revdex.com, if this is not resolved here, I will go to other avenues to make sure the business is not retaliated against because it refuses the practices of an unscrupulous company. It is up to you. I know when something stinks. This stinks all the way through.
Sincerely,K.A.A

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/01/06) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted].
We have removed [redacted] from Yelp Search because it does not appear to meet our listing...

guidelines. Additionally, we have closed your Yelp for Business Owners Account.
Yelp is primarily intended for the review of local consumer oriented businesses. Generally if a business is an online business, it will not appear in our directory and will not be eligible for a Yelp for Business Owners Account. Please visit our Support Center for more info: http://www.yelp-support.com/article/What-kinds-of-businesses-are-eligible-to-be-...⇄ /> Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/08/20) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted].
You expressed concern that not all of the reviews of your business are displayed...

on your business page. As you may have read, we use automated software developed by our engineers with the goal of showcasing 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.. Even though it inevitably affects legitimate reviews from time to time and misses some fake ones, too, it helps protect the integrity of the site both for consumers (who will be less likely to be led astray by bogus reviews) and business owners (who will spend less time worrying about whether their competitors are writing negative reviews about them).
It's important to note that the software applies the same analysis to everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviews. You asked that we show all of your reviews, but please understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a review. However, 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 /* (3000, 7, 2015/08/24) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Pleasebe advised that I have researched all your complaints with Revdex.com, all your lawsuite that you are in and also complaints with the attorney general's office. I can prove that the not recommended are not fake reviews and that they are from real customers. You will need to prove that they are fake. I have filed a review with the attorney general's office and I am only asking to show all reviews good and bad. If [redacted] needs to file suite then we will but we are trying to communicate with you and work with Yelp to resolve this issue. [redacted] can not and will not stand back and allow a software that you state no one has control over to dictate the integrity of my business.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/08/28) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing back.
It sounds as though you don't accept our explanation of the recommendation software, but we can only stand by our previous statements. Yelp's recommendation software is an automated algorithm that attempts to weed out less reliable reviews while showcasing more reliable ones. This means that when reviews are posted to your listing, not all of them will make the cut. We 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.
You have again asked that we recommend all of your reviews, but 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 recommended. But once again, the system is not static reviews may come and go as the recommendation software picks up new information.
While we understand your concerns, we want to make sure you are clear that federal law bars lawsuits against websites like Yelp for the decisions they make about which reviews to post or remove. See Carafano v. Metrosplash. com. Inc., 339 F. 3d 1119 (9th Cir. 2003); Zeran v. America Online, Inc., 129 F.3d 327 (4th Cir. 1997); Barrett v. Rosenthal, 40 Cal. 4th 33 (Cal. 2006).
That said, we do understand the recommendation software can be frustrating at times, and your feedback is appreciated. When it comes down to it, all review sites face the same challenge: how to identify fake reviews among the many millions of legitimate reviews. It's no easy task, and there is always room for improvement. We hope to be able to continually improve on this issue.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Hi [redacted]Thank you for your response.You expressed concern with the recommendation software. As 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 reviews. Please also understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a review. However, 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 [redacted]'s review, we appreciate your concerns but, after careful consideration, we ultimately reached a different conclusion than you about whether this review violates our terms. If a review appears to reflect the user's personal experience and opinions, we allow the user to stand behind their review.Finally, you asked for your business to be removed from Yelp, but we actually don't remove business listing information. While some business owners might prefer to keep a lower profile, this kind of information is publicly available and its use is protected under the law. More importantly, we believe that the public benefits from sharing their experiences with local businesses.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 7, 2015/05/08) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] Program.
You expressed concern with [redacted] Z and [redacted] N's reviews of your business. As you may...

recall from the correspondence you've had with the Yelp Support team, the reviews have been evaluated and left up, as they were not found to be in violation of our guidelines. Please note that Yelp does not take sides in factual disputes. Rather, 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 expressed concern that you are not able to respond to these reviews, but currently, businesses that have been marked as closed are not eligible for a business account.
We also want to address your comment, "I am thinking that Yelp put them there to punish me for not purchasing advertising with them." To be clear, a business's decision whether or not to advertise on Yelp does not affect how the reviews on its listing are treated. Businesses are not punished if they don't advertise, nor are businesses awarded with preferential treatment with regards to their reviews if they do advertise. We 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.
You also wrote, "they delete positive reviews I get from time to time." If you are referring to the reviews by LeeAnn W, Lenny D, and Ying Ying Y, these reviews were removed for violations of our Terms of Service.
Additionally, you expressed concern that the changes you have submitted to the business listing have been rejected. While we enable users and business owners to submit changes to business pages on Yelp, our moderators evaluate those changes to ensure they meet our standards. Additionally, our system will often automatically lock business information once it's evaluated by our moderators. This is to protect businesses from malicious or erroneous changes. In this situation, it looks as though your suggestions have been rejected because the changes were not appropriate or because we could not verify the new information.
You also expressed concern that the business page has been marked as closed, but it appears that you previously informed us that [redacted] Program has closed. If, however, your business is still open, could you please reply to this message with a link the the current business information on your business website or another public-facing source so we can verify it and update the business page on Yelp?
Regards,
Helen
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 9, 2015/05/12) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
#1. I have been attempting to get Yelp to address the fact that Ying Ying accused me of a FELONY on their website, and I have had no vehicle to respond. I cannot imagine too many people who would let this go.
YingYing did not review my business, she is trying to ruin me personally, all because I would not change my business practice for her. This has endured for over 5 years now. Yelp removed the link for me to write a response, and now they tell me I cannot respond because my business is closed, largely to YingYing's diatribe. I want my day in court, so I will simply take YingYing and Yelp to small claims and let them explain to the judge what is going on. Yelp does not help its customers; it slaughters them. Yelp is all about ruining small business and mine is by far not the only one. You also allow others to post on my "closed business" but bar me from answering. What a scam you are.
Yelps extortion practices are also well known. They routinely punish people for not doing paid advertising with them. Check in one of the other postings on this very website. That could be a motivation for them. The only other possible motivation is that they are antisocial and regulate their own emotions by picking on others.
Positive review deletion: no, I am not referring to the ones you listed. I am referring to Minh Ha's review, which you re-posted after I made this complaint. It "disappeared" and now has "re-appeared."
I have changed aspects of this business listing at least 20 times, all have been rejected. Verify? How do you do that? With your search engines? Had you really verified what I wrote, you would find it true. This is but one more example of your deceptive and brutal business practices. You belong in a third-world country.
In conclusion, Yes, I have closed all piano teaching businesses and happily I do not list my other businesses with Yelp. I rue the day I did so with the piano teaching businesses. This mistake has cost me thousands of dollars and will continue to do so.
So, Yelp, explain how it is you allow others to post to my "yelp listing" but do not allow me to answer it. Explain why, even though my Preschool P_iano Kids listing is still "open" that I cannot make changes or answer the "reviews" there, either.
I have a newsflash for you, Yelp. People become angry when they do not get what they want. Often, in business, people want more than the business can deliver. The few that are pathological enough to project out their own problems are the ones who review on Yelp. They need a therapist, not the power to ruin someone's life because they did not get their way. They should have gotten over that in childhood.
I have a suggestion, Yelpjust call me and talk to me to get everything straight so I can answer these folks on your site. Or, say why you are barring me from doing so.
Dr. [redacted]
Final Business Response /* (4000, 11, 2015/05/29) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for your response.
You expressed concern that you are unable to respond to [redacted] Z's review because the business page has been marked as closed. We have temporarily reopened the business page for [redacted] Program so that you can send a private message or post a public response to this review, and we will remark the page as closed on June 15, 2015. To respond to a reviewer, log in to your Business Account at https://biz.yelp.com/, click on the "Reviews" link in the left-hand sidebar, and then click "Send Private Message" or "Add Public Comment" below the specific review. Please note that in order to message users or publicly comment using your Business Account, we require business owners to upload a photo of themselves. Once you've uploaded the photo and it has been approved by our staff, this function will be enabled on your account. For guidance on using your Business Account, check out https://biz.yelp.com/support/using_business_account
Additionally, while we share your concern about the possibility of a defamatory review on our site, we don't adjudicate disputes between businesses and their reviewers. Congress acknowledged this predicament by passing [redacted] that provides statutory immunity to online service providers such as Yelp for the content of third-party posts. See 47 U.S.C. §230. The case law is clear on this point in support of online service providers because of concerns that they would otherwise be forced to remove third party posts every time someone raised issue with their contents. See Carafano v. Metrosplash. com. Inc., 339 F. 3d 1119 (9th Cir. 2003); Zeran v. America Online, Inc., 129 F.3d 327 (4th Cir. 1997); Barrett v. Rosenthal, 40 Cal. 4th 33 (Cal. 2006).

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.

With regards to your allegation that Yelp "routinely punishes people for not doing paid advertising with them," we want to reiterate that businesses are not punished if they don't advertise. With respect to reviews, paying businesses have absolutely no advantage. The 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.
You also wrote that Minh H's review "'disappeared' and now has 're-appeared.'" As you may have read, we use automated software developed by our engineers to recommend reviews from the Yelp community. Please note that because our recommendation software is automated, the Yelp Support team cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a review. That said, our recommendation software runs on a daily basis, so the results can change day-to-day. For example, the software might pick up new information as time goes by that makes a reviewer seem more trustworthy, or the information we have about a reviewer can grow stale. To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US
With regards to your comment, "I have changed aspects of this business listing at least 20 times, all have been rejected. Verify? How do you do that?" our moderators need to be able to independently verify each suggested change that comes in, for example, through a business's website or another public-facing source. Not all suggestions are valid, so we have to carefully evaluate each one and look for independent confirmation before we can approve the change. In some cases, your suggested change simply may not have fit our particular standards for business page information. We want Yelp business pages to be simple, accurate, and generally reflective of the way consumers recognize a business.
Finally, you wrote, "Explain why, even though my Preschool P_iano Kids listing is still 'open' that I cannot make changes or answer the 'reviews' there, either." It appears that the business information fields have been locked to prevent malicious or erroneous changes to the business information. However, you should be able to respond to reviews on this page by following the instructions given above.
Regards,
Helen
Yelp Inc.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 13, 2015/06/03) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Yelp is an online business that likes to publish gossip and start fights. I have tried for 5 years to get them to allow me to rebut Ying's "review," or delete it, and I had gotten nowhere until I reported them to the Revdex.com. So, thank you for that, at least.
I am in awe of the wide-eyed, bushy tailed response they give, making their decisions sound so benign. Ying Ying Ying (I think that is the name) accused me of felony child endangerment on her "review" causing me great harm since I did not do what she said I did. If anyone doubts that, ask yoursel (as you read the "review") why she did not report me, why she did not take her child to an ER or other facility to have her hand evaluated, and why she came back the following week. Of course, I did not hurt her little child, and I was not even rude to them. I had no idea Ying Ying Ying was so angry at me until I saw that defamatory "review."
There is no more [redacted] Program
The address is incorrect, since the [redacted] Program is no longer in business. That address has another unrelated business there.
The [redacted] Program's phone number is not working, because there is nothing to call.
There is no website
There are no hours
Yelp is now allowing others to place photos on the web page of my closed business, and there is no way for me to remove them. I can't even remove my own photos, so I put photos of my dogs and cats up out of sheer exasperation. I would like to hear from them how it is that others can place photos on my web page? Since they will not delete itthey will no doubt run it decades after my deathhow is it that they allow others to put photos on the site?
Yelp also does not allow me to change the business information, and people are going to these old addresses expecting piano lessons and disturbing the businesses. Then the business calls me and asks why I don't change the business information. This is harassment for them, and from now on, I will tell them to contact Yelp.
Yelp allows others to put photos on the page with the defunct business information on it, but won't allow me to remove them. Anyone can put whatever they want on that page.
For Preschool [redacted] Kids, same thingI can't change the outdated information, and this business is also closed. Someone came to my door yesterday, wanting preschool piano lessons and did not believe me when I told her we were no longer in business. She left here angry. I'll bet she writes a "review." Luckily there were 2 others here to witness the fact that I simply told her we were no longer in business.
Yelp continues to allow anyone to levy accusations without any sort of proof. They are the only website I know of who will allow such things.
I know how they hide behind the freedom of the internet, etc. That is very unfortunate. My next move will be to start a site of my own whereby it only "reviews" sites like Yelp. Yelp will be the first.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/12/18) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for [redacted].
We are sorry to hear you were not satisfied with your advertising campaign. To 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 packaged Cost Per Click program, you were paying for an enhanced profile (which included competitor ad removal and a photo slideshow), and you were electing to pay every time a user clicked on your ad impression.
We also want to address your comment, "Yelp should be ashamed of themselves for pushing their auto renewal on clients even when adequate notice is given." As noted in the advertising agreement you signed and in in the email with the subject line "Your Ads Are Live" we sent you on August 20, 2015, once you completed your initial 3-month term, your advertising program would be renewed automatically on a monthly basis until we received a cancellation request from you. Additionally, the advertising agreement and the email noted that we require 30 days written notice to your account management contact if you wish to terminate your advertising program. As you provided your written cancellation request on November 16, 2015, your advertising program was terminated on December 16, 2015. Because your advertising program is billed in arrears, you will see one final charge on January 1, 2016 for advertising services delivered from December 1 - 16, 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 community. For guidance, please visit https://biz.yelp.com/support/using_business_account
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Hi Steven,Thank you for your response.While we appreciate your feedback, you did sign a 12-month advertising agreement, and early termination of this agreement was subject to a fee. In your case, the early termination fee specified in the advertising agreement was $700. Our account waived $400 of this early termination fee and you paid a $300 early termination fee, which covered the video that was produced.We also want to reiterate that we don't currently have an option for advertisers to put their ad program on hold temporarily, but we appreciate your feedback and we'll make sure to forward your note to our product team so that they can take your suggestion into consideration.Regards,HelenYelp Inc.

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for Rhoadside Blooming House. You expressed concern that you have been unable to get a hold of someone at Yelp. While our Yelp Support team doesn't offer phone based...

support, they do provide email based support through our Support Center ([redacted]). We’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 assistance. For these specific situations, there are articles in the Support Center that include submission forms to inquire about the issue. We were unable to locate any inquiries associated with the email address you provided.For future reference, if you come across content that you feel may violate Yelp's Content Guidelines ([redacted]), please let our moderators know by reporting it. You can do so by finding the content in question, clicking the flag icon on the website or the More Options/Overflow Menu (3 dots) on the app. You'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 guidelines. Each case will be reviewed by our team in the order it was received. Typically, you will receive a response to your report of a review within a few business days. If 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] to your contact list).You expressed concern with a review posted in 2013. It looks like you are referring to the review by [redacted]. We’ve looked at [redacted].'s review of Rhoadside Blooming House, and have elected to leave it up. If a review appears to reflect a user's personal experience and opinions, it is our policy to let the user stand behind his or her review.You also expressed concern that some reviews of your business are not currently recommended. One of the ways we try to help Yelp users discover local businesses is by using automated software to showcase reliable reviews. The software looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability and activity on Yelp. This means that solicited reviews may not be recommended by our software, but sometimes a legitimate review may not be as well. What is recommended can change over time, and a review that is currently not recommended may be recommended on another day.Please visit our Support Center for more info: [redacted].Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Hi [redacted],Thank you for your response.You have again alleged that Yelp is manipulating your reviews because you declined to advertise. However, with respect to reviews, paying businesses have absolutely no advantage. The 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 statements. Yelp's recommendation software is an automated algorithm that attempts to weed out less reliable reviews while showcasing more reliable ones. This means that when reviews are posted to your listing, not all of them will make the cut. We 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-ma[redacted]: we cannot reverse the software’s decisions, either to suppress an active review or to restore a review that isn’t currently recommended. This 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-advertiser. But 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 appreciated. When it comes down to it, all review sites face the same challenge: how to identify the most reliable and useful content amongst the millions of submitted reviews. It's no easy task, and there is always room for improvement. We hope to be able to continually improve on this issue.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Everything in red is my response as rebuttal to Yelp's response in black.
 Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
...Our records indicate you redeemed a $300 promotional ad credit on August 15, 2018. To redeem the $300 credit towards Yelp ads, you were required to sign up
1.    This is the scam you are running.  I did NOT sign up for a cost per click advertising campaign.  I signed up for a free promotion offered by Yelp.  That’s the difference.  My intention was NEVER to be billed out of my own pocket but to use the promotion and “evaluate” my experience.  See Bing Ads Example Attached.  By the way, you don’t allow people to use the promotion unless they enter their credit card info.  Another part of sleeze.  Bing does not require a credit card and allows you to use the promotion, why don’t you?
2.    As you can see from the Bing Ads (the legitimate way to run a promotion), they notified me continuously throughout my “promotional” experience about the money that had been spent, then they pause the campaign so that I could evaluate my experience.  Yelp chooses NOT to notify those who signed up for the promotion because they know people (like myself) will unknowingly be charged for your exorbitant Ads by Yelp, then hide behind a “sign up” to not provide a refund.  This is sleazy.  The CA AG’s office should be notified of your business practices.
…Below is a more detailed description of how the promotion was applied: August 15 - 31, 2017- You received ad clicks which cost a total of $240.33- $240.33 of your $300 credit was used and you paid $0September 1 - 26, 2017- You received ad clicks which cost a total of $449.30- You had $59.67 remaining promotional credit for this month because it was partially used towards your August ads- $59.67 of your remaining $59.67 credit was uses and you paid $389.63 for advertising services delivered in September.…You can view ad click and billing information in the Yelp Ads and Billing tabs of your Yelp for Business Owners Account at [redacted]. As you can see on the Yelp Ads tab, you received a total of 21 ad clicks during your campaign at an average cost of $32.84 per click. 
1.    There are two problems with your calculations.
1st, I approved, under the promotion, of $15 per day as you can see from the cancellation email attached.  If you followed my approval of $15 per day (which you should have, and I accept your calculations of 21 leads), the total is $315, not $689 that you claim I owed.  $15 x 21 leads = $315. 
2nd, I don’t accept that I had 21 leads from these ads.  Please see the Activity Reports and the Activity Feeds attached.  It shows from the time period the ads were running, I received 12 “leads”.  And those leads were questionable at best, which I’ll give more detail later.
…With regards to your concern that the cost of a click increased, while you may have seen an estimated price per click during the sign up process, it is important to keep in mind that that amount is an estimate based on demand from businesses in your category and area, and that the cost per click may change over time based on demand. The price you pay per click is based on competition and relevance, but you'll always pay the least amount needed to win the click.
2.    This is another unethical practice by Yelp.  When I signed up for the “promotion”, I requested to spend NO MORE THAN $15 per day, as per the cancellation email attached.  It doesn’t say ESTIMATE.  Now I understand how the cost of leads can vary, which is fine, but double in price as you mentioned at $32 per click??  Most Ad providers, i.e., Google, Bing, FB, etc… will stay within the bid amount within 10% which is reasonable give the variation.  But to say it doubled is wrong and unethical.  It’s also a way to rationalize the $689 spent in ads within 5-6 weeks. 
…We also want to clarify that ad clicks, user views, and Customer Leads are separate entities of information.  An ad click is when a person clicks on your business's Yelp ad. When a user is searching on Yelp for a business in a certain area, we do our best to provide that user with a Yelp Ad applicable to their search. Yelp Ads appear above the natural search results, on your competitors' business pages, and in various other places around the website. The Yelp Ad has the notation "Ad" in next to the business name. Clicking on your ad impression will take the user to your business page on Yelp, and you were being charged when someone clicked on your ad
 
3.    Most Ad providers, i.e., Google, Bing, FB, etc., will direct the click to the website so to allow the user to make the decision to contact the business.  You add another layer into the mix by pushing the user to the business page of Yelp.  Then to the site if they choose.  We all know, this reduces greatly the conversion to the actual site and is not a good business practice.  So a business owner can use their whole budget in Yelp ads and not even see one hit to their website from the ad??? And at your $32 per click??  That is very scammy at best.
…We want to clarify that the location information in this section may be based on the information the user provided in their profile, which might not reflect their actual location. Please keep in mind that the activity you see on the Activity Feed and Customer Leads sections of your account is not necessarily from users who have clicked on your ad, and could be from users who found your page by another means, such as our natural search results.
What???  You don’t follow the IP address like all the other ad providers??  And allow contamination from other cities and states to perhaps click on the ad in error and the business owner is charged $32?  This is a poor business practice if what you are saying is true and that local people have just entered wrong locations into their profiles.
Sincerely,Shane [redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
[redacted] complaint was caused by a different company(not us).  Her story is dishonest and inaccurate about what happened between her and our business.  However, we are not surprised at yelp's response.   This response is another example of their bias toward business that pay for their advertising and lack of integrity by supporting a dishonest review.  Reviewers get their say with no recourse if they are lying through their teeth while small businesses are negatively affected.  Yelp's response:  they cannot be held liable for third party slander so they don't care.
Sincerely,[redacted]

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing regarding your advertising program for [redacted].We've forwarded your message to the appropriate parties, and a manager, Hannah, reached out to you by voicemail on September 20, 2016. Please feel free to reach out to [redacted] directly to further discuss your...

concerns. Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/07/15) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted].
You expressed concern with a recent review. It sounds like you are referring to the...

review by Nicole W. The review has been evaluated by the Yelp Support team and left up, as it was not found to be in violation of our guidelines. You claim that you "don t recall this conversation"; however, Yelp does not take sides in factual disputes. Rather, 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 software. As you may recall from our previous correspondence (Revdex.com Case #XXXXXXXX and #XXXXXXXX), we are unable to manually recommend your reviews. The 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.com. We'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 assistance. For 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 /* (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 services. this person did not experience my braiding services. People putting reviews of my braids, them you delete them, but crazy random people writing on my wall, that you leave. this is not right. BBureau, please do something about this yelp. I am not the only one complaining about their methods. That new review need to be removed. nothing to do with my work.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 10, 2015/08/03) */
Hi [redacted],
You have again stated that the review by Nicole W should be removed. However, 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 account. Many 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. Our 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 Team. 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 review. That said, please note the action that the Yelp Support team takes is separate from actions taken by Yelp's automated recommendation software. If a review is not recommended, that does not necessarily mean it is in violation of our guidelines.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp, Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/08/11) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns.
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 treated. Businesses are not punished if they don't advertise, nor are businesses awarded with preferential treatment with regards to their reviews if they do advertise. We 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.
You also expressed concern with the recommendation software. As 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. Even though it inevitably affects legitimate reviews from time to time and misses some fake ones, too, it helps protect the integrity of the site both for consumers (who will be less likely to be led astray by bogus reviews) and business owners (who will spend less time worrying about whether their competitors are writing negative reviews about them).
It's important to note that the software applies the same analysis to everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviews. Please also understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a review. However, 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.