Yelp.com

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
After you removed my review, I even CHECKED IN which means I was at the restaurant personally and my review was based on a personal experience indeed. But you still kept removing my 1-star review. My review has nothing to do with the news and everything to do with the facts. And you close the account because you realize I will keep posting it? What a JOKE! You are definitely getting paid by businesses to keep them happy. I never got any warning or anything because the[redacted] account, which is my username is a closed account and you know that because your email must have bounced. You as a Yelp is a joke and people need to know what kind of scam you are running. Keep businesses happy, getting paid by the advertisement money, claiming that is not really for the reviews and removing all the 1-star reviews at businesses request. And if someone resists your tactics you shut down their account completely. Shame on you!
 
Sincerely,B K

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/06/01) */
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 "The weekend after refusing YELP's advertising package I found...

that our company had dropped from the search results." Search results are intended to provide the most useful results to consumers. The search algorithm looks at a number of different factors, including the search term itself, ratings, and active reviews. However, a business's advertising status is not factored into the ordering of our search results, though we sometimes show relevant ads above them. The ads that we feature on search results pages are shown above our natural search results and are highlighted with a yellow icon indicating that they are paid ads.
You also expressed concern that "they created a new listing for my business and took down our original listing" and that "We had moved locations once before, 4 years ago, and none of this happened." Please note that from time to time some of our policies change. Currently, to reflect a change in location, we will typically mark the existing business page on Yelp as "moved" and create a page for the new location. The "moved" notation is meant to inform customers of this change and to direct them to your business's current location. Existing reviews will generally stay put, as they describe experiences from before the move and won't necessarily apply to the new location. Customers who visit your new location are welcome to post their reviews on the new page. Customers can also find the old location linked in the banner that appears on the new business page: [redacted]
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

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, and we'll be sure to forward your note along to the appropriate...

parties for their consideration.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 Cost Per Click program, you are electing to pay every time a user clicks on your ad impression. You are also paying for call tracking an an enhanced profile.Our records indicate you signed up for an advertising program with $75 monthly fixed costs plus an ad click budget of $475, for a monthly maximum of $550. The monthly fixed costs were for the call tracking feature and your enhanced profile, which included features such as competitor ad removal and a photo slideshow. Your advertising package included a cost per click (CPC) program and your monthly ad click budget was set at $475, which means you were charged when someone clicked on your ad and you agreed to pay up to $475 a month for those ad clicks. If you did not reach your monthly budget cap, you would be charged for the ad clicks you received. However, 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.You can view a breakdown the number of ad clicks you received and the average cost per click by logging in to your Yelp for Business Owners Account at [redacted] and clicking on the "Yelp Ads" tab.With regards to your concern with the variable price per click, as noted in your contract, you signed up for a Cost-Per-Click (CPC) auction-based auto-bidding program, which means that you agreed to allow Yelp to set the bid price per click to keep you competitive in the market. While your sales representative may have given you an estimated price per click, it's important to keep in mind that the price will fluctuate up or down depending on competition, relevance, and other factors. However, it will always be the lowest price possible to win the click.Per the terms of your advertising agreement, we require 30 days written notice to your account management contact if you wish to terminate your advertising program. It looks like you provided your cancellation request on February 21, 2017 and that your advertising program is currently set to cancel on March 28, 2017. While your advertising program could have been terminated 30 days after February 21, 2017, this early termination would've been subject to a fee of $550. By waiting to terminate your program until March 28, 2017, which is after the initial commitment period, no early termination fee will be assessed. Thanks for understanding.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

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.Our records indicate you initially signed up for a 12 month advertising program with $25 monthly fixed costs plus a monthly ad click budget of $275, for a monthly maximum of $300. This advertising program began on September 26, 2016. The monthly fixed costs were for your enhanced profile, which included features such as competitor ad removal and a photo slideshow. Your advertising program was a cost per click (CPC) program and your ad click budget was set at $275, which means you were charged when someone clicked on your ad and you agreed to pay up to $275 a month for those ad clicks. If you did not reach your monthly budget cap, you would be charged for the ad clicks you received. However, 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.While we do allow businesses to change to another advertising program, generally speaking, this requires signing a new contract for the remaining months of the advertising term. It looks like you signed a new 10 month advertising agreement on November 28, 2016, with a service start date of December 1, 2016. This program was for an enhanced profile only (again including features such as competitor ad removal and a photo slideshow), at a fixed cost of $70 per month. It looks like your advertising program was terminated on December 21, 2016.We also want to address your comment, "Yelp Never removed the Competitor's Ads from my page." To clarify, the competitor ad removal feature means that competitor ads will not appear on your business page. Competitor ads have a yellow border and the notation "Ad" in next to the business name. If a business has not signed up for the competitor ad removal feature, then competitor ads may appear on the business page between the business information and Recommended Reviews sections.However, the competitor ad removal feature does not remove the "People also viewed" feature from business pages. The "People also viewed" section aims to enhance the user experience by displaying additional businesses that users on the page have also viewed. This feature is located on the right hand side of all business pages on Yelp, regardless of regardless of their advertising status. It’s also important to note that the businesses displayed in this section cannot be manually adjusted.We appreciate your feedback, and forwarded your concerns to the appropriate parties. That said, advertising services were delivered in accordance with the advertising agreements you signed. Thanks for understanding.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

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.

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns. We were unable to locate the review in question based on the information you provided. Could you please provide us with a link to the business page and the name of the reviewer?Alternatively, if you...

already have Yelp account and would like to report content that you feel may violate Yelp's Content Guidelines [redacted]), 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).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, 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.

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.

(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.

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

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.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/10/30) */
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 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.
That said, if you no longer wish to receive communication from our Sales team, please let us know.
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. You wrote, "I want ALL of my reviews published," 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
You also expressed concern with some reviews. We assume you are referring to the reviews by [redacted] M and [redacted] M, as you've previously reported these reviews. We wanted to let you know that we have removed the review update by [redacted] M because it falls outside our Content Guidelines. We have also taken a second look at [redacted] M's original review and [redacted] M's review but, after careful consideration, we reached the same conclusion as before and are unable to remove these reviews. 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.
In some situations, business owners may want to message the reviewer privately, or post a public response to clarify any misunderstandings. You can access these features using our free accounts for business owners (https://biz.yelp.com/), and you can find more information about how to respond to reviews here: http://www.yelp-support.com/Responding_to_Reviews?l=en_US.
These decisions aren't always easy, but please know we looked at these reviews closely before reaching our decision.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
I have never done business with the person who left this review. How can someone slander my business name that I never met. As stated in your guidelines consumers must be accurate and truthful and be able to back up their review.
 
"Accuracy: Make sure your review is factually correct. Feel free to air your opinions, but don't exaggerate or misrepresent your experience. We don't take sides when it comes to factual disputes, so we expect you to stand behind your review."
Quoted from your guidelines.
 
Sincerely,[redacted]

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing back.  You have again alleged that Yelp manipulates reviews to favor advertisers. However, with respect to reviews, paying businesses have absolutely no advantage. The 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.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-making: 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 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 writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns. Please note that we were unable to locate your business page based on the information you provided.You asked for your listing to be removed from Yelp; however, we 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.We use automated software to recommend reviews, with the goal of showcasing the ones that best reflect the opinions of the Yelp community. The rest are posted below and don’t factor into the business’s overall star rating. The software does what it can with the information at hand, and regularly revisits each review as it learns more. As a result, different reviews might be recommended on different days. You can see reviews that aren't currently recommended by clicking on the link at the bottom of each business page.With regards to your comment, "Yelp should be required by law to show ALL review not just the review they chose to show," 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 Cara[redacted]).For more information about recommended reviews, please visit our Support Center: [redacted]Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/01/07) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns.
You expressed concern that your address was listed on the business page for [redacted]. We have removed the street address from...

this page and apologize for any inconvenience: http://www.yelp.com/biz/[redacted].
Additionally, while our Yelp Support team doesn't offer phone based support, we encourage you to visit our Support Center at http://www.yelp-support.com if you have further questions or concerns in the future. 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 /* (2000, 7, 2016/01/15) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
I check their website , and noticed they removed the address.

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:Yelp did not adequately address my concerns directly as Yelp continues to hide behind their "it's just our software" excuse. Yet Yelp continues to hurt our business which places us in an unfair position. Yelp's response is their boilerplate response to all businesses who can't pay for their ads or who protest against their cyber-sabotage. However, if Yelp would remove our restaurant from their review platform altogether, such a gesture would indicate that Yelp really does care about small businesses like ours and it would prove that Yelp is making a good faith effort to do the right thing. In turn, we may be convinced that joining YelpEats would be good for our business and we would accept their response as such. Otherwise we are rejecting their current response.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/05/08) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding the Yelp page for [redacted]
You asked for this page to be removed from Yelp, stating that [redacted] "is NOT a...

business." While most listings on Yelp are for businesses, other services or organizations for which there is some kind of local experience or interaction are also eligible to be listed on Yelp. Additionally, please note that we don't remove listing information. While some 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 organizations.
With regards to your comment, "The "reviews" posted on your site are slander and defamation of character," we assume you are referring to the reviews by [redacted] S, [redacted] N, and [redacted] W, as you've previously flagged these reviews. As you may recall from the messages you received from the Yelp Support team, the reviews have been evaluated by the Yelp Support team 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.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/05/17) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
The reviews ARE slander and defamation. I have never given Yelp permission to use [redacted] and your website is not above the law.
I will be writing to the President of Yelp, the Department for Consumer Affairs, and the State Attorney General among others until this is resolved.
I want my individual account with Yelp deleted and rest assured I will share this experience with everyone I know.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/05/29) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for your response.
You wrote, "The reviews ARE slander and defamation." While we share your concern about the possibility of defamatory reviews 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 reviewers 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 reviewers in order to sort out any misunderstandings. To create a free Business Account, go to: https://biz.yelp.com/
You have again asked that your business listing be removed, but as previously stated, we don't remove business listing information. 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.