Yelp.com

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:  I dont believe that Yelp is not liable for defamatory remarks made on their web site ESPECIALLY when they are aware the remarks are defamatory.  I believe it is your responsibility to contact the writer to let her know that if in fact the content is defamatory she can be held liable for among other things disruption of business.   
YELP IS [redacted] !!! 
Sincerely,[redacted]

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for [redacted].We appreciate your feedback, and have forwarded you message to the appropriate parties. As you may recall, an account manager, [redacted], reached out to...

you by voicemail and email on August 11, 2017 to let you know that we will be refunding you a total of $57.35. Please note that it may take up to 10 business days for this to post to your account, and please feel free to reach out to our account management team if you have further questions. Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Hi Dennis,Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for Whit's Auto Repair. One of the ways we try to help Yelp users discover local businesses is by using automated software with the goal of showcasing reliable reviews....

This means Yelp doesn’t recommend every review from every user and the software is automated so that it can apply the same objective standards to every business and every review. This is very different from other sites that tend to feature every single negative rant and positive rave. The software looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability and activity on Yelp. What is recommended can change over time, and a review that is currently not recommended may be recommended on another day.Our recommendation software recommends both positive and negative reviews in an effort to show the most helpful and reliable reviews to our users. That said, Yelpers write more positive reviews than negative reviews, so it isn’t necessarily surprising that Yelp’s recommendation software might impact more positive reviews. We hope you’ll take the time to watch our video about the Recommendation Software: [redacted]You also expressed concern with the negative reviews. If you come across content that you feel may violate Yelp's Content [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 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).If you have reported a review, received an email from us about our decision to leave it up, and would like us to take a second look, you can submit a new inquiry by providing the case number (this is provided in our previously emailed response to the content you reported) here[redacted]Regards,HelenYelp Inc.

Hi Mohneefah,Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding the page for Neef Fresh Photography. We appreciate your feedback about the representative you spoke with, and we'll be looking into this matter further. You also requested that this...

page be removed because you did not create it. 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. We generally don't remove business pages unless the business appears to fall outside our eligibility guidelines, which does not appear to be the case here. That said, we've gone ahead and removed the street address and phone number from the page. For more information about our stance on removing business information, see[redacted]Additionally, you expressed a concern with a tip. We have removed Lola S.'s Tip of your business, as it falls outside our guidelines.Regards,HelenYelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/12/04) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing regarding your business page for Heights Veterinary Hospital.
We appreciate you bringing your concerns regarding your communications with our Sales team to our attention. We have forwarded your note along to...

the appropriate parties and have informed our Sales team that you no longer wish to receive any communication from them. If for any reason you continue to hear from them, please let us know at http://www.yelp.com/support/contact/questions
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 7, 2015/12/10) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/05/01) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted].
You wrote that Yelp "plays favorites based on advertising dollars." We want to assure you...

that a business's decision whether or not to advertise on Yelp does not affect how the reviews on its listing are 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.
With regards to your concerns about 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. We recognize that our approach is very different from other sites that tend to feature every single negative rant and positive rave. We do our best to nurture a community of users who actively contribute reliable and useful content.
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 reinstate reviews that are not currently recommended, but 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 Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/05/04) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Insufficient response in the face of numerous business complaints from myself, other business owners, and media outlets decrying the predatory practices of Yelp including:
Yelp uses suspicious tactics to punish cancelled ad accounts: http://[redacted]l
Restaurant Manager Says Yelp Is Killing His Business: [redacted]
Think Yelp is Unbaised? Think Again!: [redacted]
Is Yelp A Bully or Just Misunderstood: [redacted]
Turning a critical eye on Yelp: [redacted]
Putting Yelp in their rear-review mirror: [redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]
We Hate Yelp: [redacted]
Why Yelp sucks - Yelp survival guide: [redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]/XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Why Yelp Sucks: http://[redacted]
Clearly I am not the only business having issues and the entire company should be reviewed by an outside source to ensure fair and balanced practices towards businesses to maintain a semblance of security for small business which cannot opt out of Yelp and are already vulnerable to quick closure without the need for external and arguably fake sources chasing away customers before a business is even allowed to get in the door.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/05/13) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for your response.
It sounds as though you still believe 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.
Again, 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.
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 software picks up new information.
We recognize that there have been news stories and other posts alleging that Yelp manipulates reviews and ratings to reward advertisers, yet these allegations are not based in fact. Please consider:
1. Third party research (such as Harvard Business School) has debunked this conspiracy.
2. Courts have rejected the conspiracy due to the lack of any fact-based evidence.
3. A simple search across the site proves that non-advertisers often have excellent 4 and 5-star ratings while many advertisers have low ratings.
For more information about this issue, please visit http://officialblog.yelp.com/2013/05/no-yelp-doesnt-extort-small-businesses-see-...⇄ /> 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 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've previously reported this review....

We have taken a second look at [redacted] review but, after careful consideration, we reached the same conclusion as before and are unable to remove the review. If a review appears to reflect the reviewer’s personal experiences and opinions, it is our policy to let the user stand behind his or her review.These decisions aren’t always easy, but please know we looked at this review closely before reaching our decision.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:  Yelp has declared that all of my patients submissions are basically not up to their standards.  This is utterly ludicrous and does not make sense.  You indicate that the patients were prompted to respond by [redacted].  That is absolutely correct they were prompted to give my company a recommendation on Yelp.  If they hadn't been told where to give the recommendation I will guaranty to you that these senior citizens would have no idea who and what Yelp is.  All patients of [redacted] receive up to 50% off on Major Hearing Aids brands that is the reason for our existence...to undercut competition to benefit seniors pocketbooks.  Of course our patients like what we do as they save hundreds to thousands of dollars.  I am going to ask another patient to send in a review and see what happens.  I am going on seventy years old and this is tending towards a discrimination case.   Sincerely,[redacted]

Hi **,Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted]You express** concern that the updates you submitt** to your business page have not been approv**. While we enable users to submit changes to business...

pages on Yelp, our moderators evaluate those changes to ensure they meet our standards. In this situation, it looks as though we have not been able to verify that your business has relocat**. If information about your new location is available on your website or another public-facing source, please reply to this message with a link so we can verify it and update the business page on Yelp. Please note that in general, if a service-bas** business relocates, we will typically update the location on the existing business page, rather than marking it as clos**.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/11/20) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for [redacted].
It looks like you signed up for an advertising program with $100 monthly fixed costs...

plus up to $275 monthly variable costs, for a monthly maximum of $375. The monthly fixed costs were for your enhanced profile (which included features such as competitor ad removal and a photo slideshow) as well as for a featured video. Your advertising program was a cost per click (CPC) program and your monthly cost per click budget cap was set at $275, which means you were only 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 only be charged for the ad clicks you received.
According to our records, your advertising program began October 14, 2015 and was terminated on October 18, 2015. You were were charged a prorated amount of $20.98 for the advertising services you received during those dates.
As advertising services were provided in accordance with your contract, we will not be able to offer you a refund. 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, visit https://biz.yelp.com/support/using_business_account
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 7, 2015/11/24) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
Thank you.

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, 2015/06/05) */
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 two negative reviews. We assume you are referring to the reviews by...

[redacted] C and [redacted] K, as you've previously reported these reviews. As you may recall from the messages you've received from the Yelp Support team, the reviews have been evaluated and left up, as they were not found to be in violation of our guidelines. You wrote that "Proof of false accusations was provided"; 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 asked for your business to be removed from Yelp; however, we don't remove business 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, 2015/06/08) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
[redacted] K REVIEW:
#1VIOLATION of my rights as a senior citizen. Review from [redacted] stresses that the " owners are bother over 65" as if this was a reason not to use our services.....
#2 We believe this review was written by a former employee or an employee of our competitor
[redacted] C REVIEW:
This reviewer is using YELP to cyber bully us...
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/06/22) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for your response.
Removing reviews is not something we take lightly, and it is only done when it violates our Terms of Service or Content Guidelines. We understand that you may be frustrated with our decision to keep [redacted] K and [redacted] C's reviews up, but our position remains the same. Again, if a review appears to reflect the user's personal experience and opinions, we allow the user to stand behind their review. You also wrote, "We believe this review was written by a former employee or an employee of our competitor," but based on what we see in [redacted] C's review, we can't confirm that the user has a conflict of interest with your business.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2015/06/23) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Violation of my rights as a senior citizen on one review and internet bullying on [redacted]'s review. [redacted] has also called both hotels we work at and made false claims. He has harassed us to the point of seeking medical attention from our doctor. Becauae of YELP this sick individual can continue to harass and bully us....which is illegal. Should we continue on with legal proceedings, YELP will be named as his "enabler"....

Hi [redacted],Thank you for your response.We first want to address your comment, "That signature does not look like my secretary's signature." To clarify, generally speaking, an advertising agreement is sent to the business account holder's email address via Echosign, a program that collects electronic signatures for purposes such as remote contract signing. The agreement is then e-signed, meaning a name was typed in indicating acceptance of the terms of the agreement. With regards to the appearance of the “signature”, with Echosign, the program creates a stylized signature for the person who e-signs the agreement, which may be why you don’t recognize the signature's appearance.With regards to your comment, "it was for a 12 month run, with it ending after the that, any month to month was never mentioned," information about the month-to-month auto-renewal was on the first page of the contract [redacted] signed on June 25, 2013. You also wrote, "we never received that form that you submitted." If you are referring to the contract, our records indicate that on June 25, 2013 a copy of the contract was initially sent to [redacted] for signature, and then sent to [redacted] for signature instead. The document was viewed and electronically signed by [redacted], and a copy of the signed document was emailed to both [redacted] and [redacted]. Finally, you wrote, "we have not been at that location for over 3 years." Please note that the contract was signed over three years ago, on June 25, 2013. Since then, the address on your business page has been changed from your [redacted] address to your [redacted] address, but this did not affect your advertising program.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/11/24) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for teccrab Inc.
You expressed concern with the pricing of your advertising program. According to our...

records, you signed up for an advertising program with $75 monthly fixed costs plus up to $275 monthly variable costs, for a monthly maximum of $350. 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 monthly cost per click budget cap was set at $275, which means you were only charged when someone clicked on your ad and you agreed to pay up to $275 a month for those ad clicks. Additionally, it appears you received a promotional offer which made you eligible to receive up to $300 in free Yelp ad clicks in the first full month of your advertising program. This information was included in the Purchase Order and Ad Program Descriptions sections of the advertising agreement you signed.
If you did not reach your monthly budget cap, you would only 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 by logging in to your Yelp for Business Owners Account at https://biz.yelp.ca/ and clicking on the "Yelp Ads" tab.
You also expressed concern with the cancellation policy. Please note that 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. As it appears you provided your cancellation request on October 9, 2015, your advertising program was terminated on November 8, 2015. Because your advertising program is billed in arrears, the $138.87 charge you saw on November 1, 2015 was for advertising services delivered in October. As you have chosen to end your program before the end of the 3-month term, you are responsible for an early termination fee of $350 per the terms of your advertising agreement. Additionally, you will see a charge in early December for advertising services that were delivered in November. Once these amounts have been collected, you will not incur further charges.
While we are sorry to hear you were not satisfied with your advertising campaign, 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.ca/support/using_business_account
Finally, with regards to your request for your business to be removed, we publish business listing information so that consumers can share their experiences about local businesses, and because facts concerning your business are a matter of public record. Therefore, we plan on leaving the listing unchanged for the benefit of consumers.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/11/28) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
In my opinion Yelp is not taking the issue serious. They repeatedly using their contract, which was in my opinion made under false circumstances, as a cover. I want to be clear in my reply. I was called by the same Yelp sales representative in June as well as in September. When I spoke to him in June I mentioned that a $350 advertisement campaign is out of the question and not something we were interested in. When I was approached in September, by the same sales rep, he told me Yelp had listen to small business owners, like myself, and would offer a $75 package for 3 month as a form of a test ad. The contract was than send to me while I was on the phone with the sales rep, who said to me that he doesn't want to keep me to long and that I just have to sign the contract. He left me in the impression that I would pay just $75 per month. He did not mentioned any cancelation fee and left me in the dark with the additional fees that could add up to a total of $350.
Sending the contract over and over again instead of investigating the error makes me wonder if Yelps interest was only to get a small business owner signing up for the program and not caring what would come out of it. The dealings I am having with Yelp to this point even strengthen this feeling. I have clearly demonstrated my wish to cancel, right after the first fee was charged to my credit card. But instead of taking my cancellation serious Yelp continued having the ad live on their site resulting in additional charges. As online advertisement agency we are dealing with a variety of online advertisement provider. If I or one of our customers feels they wish to stop an ad on Facebook, Google or LinkedIn we can do this in less than one business day. Yelp on the other hand insist that it takes 30 days to cancel an ad and even charges a ridicules high cancelation fee. Please keep in mind that we are talking about a $75 per month for 3 month contract. A $350 cancelation fee is in no relation to the base fee communicated.
I am sorry but I feel that this business is taking advantage of small business owners, hoping they are intimidated by the size of Yelp. Their customer service even mentioned on the phone that it is a billion dollar company, giving me the feeling they can hire the best lawyers and making sure a small business owner such as myself will just give up.
I also wish to mention that with the privacy act from 2014 I, as a Canadian company owner, have the right to get my data deleted. A right to get my profile removed. Yelp is a privately held company, not a non for profit organization nor government institution. Therefore my demands of having my company profile removed are in my opinion legit. Refusing is in my opinion a valuation of the Canadian Privacy Act of 2014.
I would like to finish my response by mentioning that I will not pay any cancelation fee and that I demand getting a refund. I also demand that my profile gets removed from their website.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 21, 2016/02/05) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for your feedback.
You claim that you were "not made aware of any additional costs." However, according to our records it appears your sales representative explained that the cost of your advertising program could go up to a maximum of $350 a month depending on how many ad clicks you received. It also appears he informed you that early termination would be subject to a fee of $350. Additionally, the first page of the advertising agreement you signed states that your advertising program would have monthly fixed costs of $75 and monthly variable costs of up to $275, and that the early termination fee would be $350.
You also wrote, "I am now receiving notifications that you have tried to charge my credit card again for $43.42 not explaining what this amount is for." Our records indicate that this amount due is for advertising services delivered from November 1 - 8, 2015. $23.42 of this amount is for the 2 ad clicks you received in November at an average cost of $11.71 per click. The remaining $20 is a prorated amount for your enhanced profile for November.
You have again asked that we remove your listing from the site, but we can only restate what was indicated in our prior messages: We publish business listing information so that consumers can share their experiences about businesses in their community, and because facts concerning your business are a matter of public record.
With regards to your comment, "More than one small business claims that instead of checking false complains out you rather "suggest" them to pay you for getting bad reviews removed," 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 http://www.yelp.ca/advertiser_faq and http://officialblog.yelp.com/2013/05/no-yelp-doesnt-extort-small-businesses-see-...⇄ to learn more.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 23, 2016/02/08) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
It is obvious to me that your sales representative can not give you other details without fearing to loose his job. As stated many times before. He has called me in 2015 more than once and tried to sell me your "services". I told him every time that the price is to high. He then called with the proposal to "Try out" your "services" for ONLY $75 per month. No, he did NOT mention ANY additional costs. He also picked, in my opinion purposely, a busy moment to Email me the contract and rushed me to sing it. He did NOT give me the time to read the contract.
I am working with many online advertisement platforms for over 15 years. I have full control of my Google ads, Facebook ads and any other ads I am running or maintain for my clients. If an ad is not performing well I have the chance to reduce the budget on the fly, can make changes and DO NOT have to pay a ridicules high cancelation fee.
I also want to state that $11.71 per click is incredibly high click rate in my opinion. As stated before we are advertising on other platforms and never pay that much per click.
Since this is now going back and forth for a while now. I would like to know what you are proposing to settle this?

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 Cost Per Click program, you were electing to pay every time a user clicks on your ad impression. You were also paying for an enhanced profile (which included features such as competitor ad removal and a photo slideshow), featured video, and call tracking. It looks like your advertising campaign was terminated on May 23, 2016.We've forwarded your message to the appropriate parties for their consideration. That said, it appears at this time you are responsible for the remaining balance of $423.42 for advertising services delivered May 1 - 23, 2016.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
I appreciate you stating you will have someone e-mail me, however, I do not accept the lack of response as to why I was specifically denied a 2016 & 2017 Elite Yelp Badge when I had nearly 1,000 reviews, had over 400+ friends, and not only this, but several Yelp Badges that were accrued on top of being an active & respectful and honest Yelp Elite Member during the years of 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015. I deleted my Yelp Elite Account because of the several dozens to maybe hundreds of e-mails and phone calls that I made to try to resolve this issue with Yelp Elite and have my account reviewed for 2016 & 2017 Yelp Elite badges and was never given a valid and reasonable reason nor reply as to why I was denied. The Yelp [redacted] Elite Manager [redacted] is someone I have complained about multiple times to not only Headquarters, but to Yelp LA East and have complained about to other fellow Yelp Elite Members who have complained about [redacted]'s lack of allowing [redacted] Elite members to attend exclusive events for free, however, she purposely & maliciously made Yelp Elite events feel unwelcome to other Yelp Elite 5+ members other than myself & stripping me of commenting about her in my profile, to the point where I NEVER deserved to be denied 2016 & 2017 badges. It is due to her POLITICS that forced me to close my Yelp Elite account & lose many positive reviews with other businesses and not reinstating my closed account without ANY reason is just another form of political power of [redacted] in conjunction with Yelp. This had nothing to do with advertising with businesses, but rather, alienating Yelp Elite Members like me who have over 5+ years status then prevent me from being invited to Yelp Elite social events by denying me the 2016 & 2017 badges. Shame on Yelp Headquarters and Yelp [redacted]or NEVER contacting me to fairly reinstate my account and award me 2016 & 2017 badges, as I was very active and deserve these badges out of loyalty rather than [redacted] & the Yelp Elite committee awarding Elite Yelp badges randomly to people who are LESS active than myself. Now, Yelp just wants to say there is "no way to reinstate closed accounts" and it is just words of convenience with NO accountability NOR justifiable reasons as to why I was NOT awarded 2016 & 2017 badges for Yelp Elite status. Shame on Yelp for not addressing my complaints in a reasonable and fair and honest manner. Yelp has turned away PLENTY of previous Yelp Elite Members who were 5+ years members, all because of [redacted]'s POLITICS and FAVORITISM in allowing only her friends to attend the events but not other Yelp Elite 5+ year members. She is happy to give badges to new people because they don't call her out. Yelp hides behind the internet and the politics and shuts down events that used to be a fun place for writing honest reviews. There is NO free speech with Yelp.Sincerely,[redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/05/29) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns.
You expressed concern with [redacted] L's review of [redacted]. As you may recall from the message you received from the Yelp Support...

team, the review has been evaluated and left up, as it was not found to be in violation of our guidelines. You claim that "the customer also lied"; 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 might consider sending a private message to the reviewer or posting a public comment through a 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.
To create a free Business Account, go to: https://biz.yelp.com/
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/08/19) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for [redacted].
You claim that advertising services were not delivered. You signed up for a cost...

per click program, which means Yelp displayed ad impressions for your business and you elected to pay every time a user clicked on your ad impression. Your advertising program also included additional features such as a photo slideshow.
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, as well as on your competitors' business pages. The Yelp Ad is differentiated from the natural search results by an yellow border, and has the notation "Ad" in next to the business name. You expressed concern that you did not see your ad when you searched, but please keep in mind that you wouldn't have seen your particular ad appear every time. Sometimes you may see an ad for a different company, sometimes when conducting a search you may not see an ad at all.
You also wrote, "I had so many questions about the program and I didn't get a manager assigned to me until may,12,2015." However, our records indicate that you spoke with an account manager, [redacted], on December 22, 2014 and on January 20, 2015. [redacted] also sent you an email on January 20 with the subject line "Account Manager Information"; in that email she provided you with a phone number and email email address where you could reach our account management team.
Your advertising program has been terminated as of April 30, 2015. As advertising services were provided in accordance with your contract, we will not be able to offer you a refund. Thanks for understanding.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/08/21) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Thank you for assessing the issue although I did sign a contrary for a pay to click advertisement it still doesn't validate the fact that [redacted] sold me under false statement, when I specifically asked her if this Ad Campaign would position my business on the top of the search list for massage in my area, and she specifically told me Yes it will! But it Didn't and it doesn't like you mention in this response sometimes it doesn't even appear in the searc, that she didn't say at all, so I Beleive they sold me under false statements!!! And that's not an ethical way of doing business, also you mention my ad was canceled as of April XX-XXXX although I have a Charge from Yelp on my Amex on May of 2015.? I would like that to be refunded, I believe in doing business the right way, and keeping good ethical practices. Sincerely , massage maui style!
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/09/03) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for your response.
We again want to reiterate that Yelp Ads are separate from the numbered search results. To clarify, Yelp Ads appear above the number one result of natural search results and on your competitors' business pages.
If when conducting a search you did not see an ad for your business, your business may have still appeared in Yelp's numbered search results, which have absolutely nothing to do with who is paying us. Yelp's natural search results algorithm is designed to provide the best results based on a number of different factors including review text, ratings, and number of reviews. While we can't guarantee specific results or business rankings, we are always working to improve our search tool so that we can deliver the most relevant local results to our users.
We also want to address your comment, "you mention my ad was canceled as of April XX-XXXX although I have a Charge from Yelp on my Amex on May of 2015." Please note that your advertising program was billed in arrears, so the $200 you were charged on May 1, 2015 was for advertising services delivered in April.
Finally, you have again requested a refund. As previously noted, advertising services were provided in accordance with your contract, so we will not be able to offer you a refund.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Hi Rhys,Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for You Move Me Vancouver Island.As you may have read, one of the ways we try to help Yelp users discover local businesses is by using automated software with the goal of...

showcasing reliable reviews. This means Yelp doesn’t recommend every review from every user and is automated so that it can apply the same objective standards to every business and every review. This is very different from other sites that tend to feature every single negative rant and positive rave. The software looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability and activity on Yelp.  Because our recommendation software is automated, the Yelp Support team cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a review. Our recommendation software is automated precisely so that it can apply the same objective standards to every business and every review without being overridden by someone's personal preferences. That said, our recommendation software runs on a daily basis, so reviews that aren't currently recommended may be recommended in the future, and vice versa. We hope you’ll take the time to watch our video about the Recommendation Software: [redacted]You also expressed concern about a review "from a customer who we can't even confirm was actually a customer of ours." It looks like you are referring to the review by Gordon G. We have taken another look at this review and want clarify our policies as they pertain to cases like this.We encourage reviewers to use their real names on Yelp, but this isn't an absolute requirement and many people don't. As a result, it may be difficult to match up a reviewer's name to the records maintained by many businesses, and our moderators aren't in a position to arbitrate these situations. As long as a review appears to reflect the reviewer's personal experiences and opinions, we'll generally allow them to stand behind their review.With that in mind, we’ve taken another look 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.It looks like you or one of your colleagues has taken advantage of the messaging features on the business account to directly message the reviewer and publicly comment on the review. While it is ultimately up to the reviewer to decide if they wish to engage further, responding to your reviews can show both the reviewer and visitors to your Yelp page that you care about your business. To learn more about responding to reviews, visit [redacted]. And for additional guidance on using your business account, visit[redacted]Regards,HelenYelp Inc.

Hi [redacted],We stand behind our previous responses. You wrote, "I am merely asking that when I can PROVE from their own words that a customer is LYING, that you not allow their review to stand," but our moderators don't arbitrate disputes and generally aren't able to consider outside information or evidence. However, business owners have the opportunity to tell their side of the story by responding publicly to reviews.It also sounds as though you don't accept our explanation of the recommendation software, but we 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 a 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.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.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.With regards to your concern with the order of the reviews, the default oder for recommended reviews is Yelp Sort, which attempts to show reviews that help consumers make informed decisions. For example, the first review displayed for a business will be one that reflects the average star rating of a business. The order is determined by recency, user voting, and other review quality factors, which is why an older review may appear before a newer one. Keep in mind when viewing a business a user can sort the reviews in a few other ways -- by date, star rating, and those written by [redacted].Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.