Yelp.com

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding the business page for [redacted].You expressed concern with [redacted] review of this business. Upon further evaluation, the review was found to be in violation of our Content...

Guidelines and it has been removed. That said, please note the user may choose to post a new review that no longer violates our guidelines.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. 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.You expressed concern with the pricing structure of your advertising program. To clarify, you signed up for an advertising program with $60 monthly fixed costs plus up to $275 monthly variable costs, for a monthly maximum of $335. The monthly fixed costs were for your enhanced profile. 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 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.You also expressed concern with the early termination fee. Since you have chosen to end your program before the end of the 6-month term, an early termination fee of $335 was assessed per the terms of the advertising agreement you signed.Your advertising program was terminated as of July 15, 2016. As advertising services were delivered in accordance with the contract you signed, we will not be able to offer you a refund. Thanks for understanding.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Hi [redacted]Thank you for writing again.You wrote, "Yelp did you see the attachments I put on the previous response? You did not mention anything about the attachments in your response." As we noted in our previous response, we don't make evidentiary determinations, nor do we take sides on factual disputes. Since [redacted].'s review appears to reflect the personal experience and opinions of the reviewer, we are leaving it intact.While we share your concern about the possibility of a defamatory review on our site, we don't adjudicate disputes between businesses and their reviewers. Congress acknowledged this predicament by passing legislation 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.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 Guaranteed Roofing & Prouty Construction.We first want to be clear that a business's decision whether or not to advertise on Yelp does not affect how the reviews on its...

listing are 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://[redacted] to learn more.Please note asking for Yelp reviews is not something we encourage. For one thing, most businesses tend to ask their happiest customers to write reviews, not the unhappy ones. These self-selected reviews tell only part of the story, and we don’t think that’s fair to consumers. We would much rather hear from members of the Yelp community who are inspired to talk about their experiences without a business owner’s encouragement. More information can be found here: https://[redacted]It's important to note that Yelp uses automated software with the goal of showcasing helpful and reliable reviews from the Yelp community. As a result, you shouldn’t be surprised if our software fails to recommend the reviews that you’ve asked your customers to write. Your best bet to get high quality and unbiased reviews about your business is to provide a memorable and amazing customer experience, rather than asking customers to post on Yelp.As you may have read, 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: http://[redacted]Finally, as you may recall from the conversations you've had with our account management team, we require 30 days written notice to your account management contact if you wish to terminate your advertising program. As you provided your cancellation request on May 6, 2016, your advertising program is set to cancel as of June 5, 2016. Please note that as you are choosing to terminate your advertising program before the end of the 12-month term, there will be an early termination fee of $700.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 business pages for [redacted].
You asked for your business pages 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.
With regards to your comment, "They harass you to advertise with them and when you don't, they remove your 5 start reviews," we want to clarify that a business's decision whether or not to advertise on Yelp does not affect how the reviews on its listing are 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. Furthermore, there is zero relationship between the timing of when a review gets recommended and when a business decides to or declines to advertise: reviews can be recommended or not recommended days, weeks, or even months after they were first posted, and your Yelp sales representative doesn't have any influence over when that might happen. 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.
As you may have read, we use automated software developed by our engineers to recommend reviews from the Yelp community, with the goal of showcasing more reliable 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: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US
With regards to your comment, "They also allow anonymous users to slander your business and say anything they please and then they will not remove it when you report them," it does not appear that you have previously reported a review using the email address you provided. If you believe a review violates Yelp's Content Guidelines (http://www.yelp.com/guidelines), you can report the content by clicking the flag icon next to it. You'll need to be logged in to your account in order to view the flag icon. If you already reported the content using another email address, 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: http://www.yelp-support.com/article/Can-I-request-a-second-evaluation-of-somethi...⇄ /> Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: Yelp has decided to not show the reviews our company has earned. The only review showing, out of 7 total, is the one negative review we have.The reply included nothing but a repeat of information I heard on the phone before. I guess they train all of their staff to explain why they're crooks in the same way...Yelp has not attempted to resolve the issue. They seem to be hiding behind their backwards policies instead.  It's unfortunate that I checked their Revdex.com rating after I signed up to advertise with them. They don't deserve a penny they got form us.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted]It looks like you contacted Yelp the day before you filed this complaint. As you may recall from the message you received from my colleague [redacted] on...

June 9, 2016, after further consideration we have removed the review by [redacted]. Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

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]

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response becauseYelp is blatantly lying. We cancelled as of 4/26 online, via email and via phone, This included a follow up phone call on 5/1 we indicated to the rep who contacted me that we were not interested. My phone system has 0 calls from Yelp which flies directly in the face of what we were told. During setup we indicated no additional features, and received no contact from anybody. 
If Yelp is going to portray themselves as "Legitimate" why in 500+ "Clicks" was there 0 contact? Sounds pretty fishy if you ask me. 
 
If Yelp would like to continue this course of action and deny my request I will forward this to the attorney general with a copy of my phone system records (the only place that number was listed was with yelp) and to my attorney's for full legal action under California Law.
Sincerely,[redacted]

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising programs for [redacted]We've forwarded your message to the appropriate parties. As you may recall, a manager, [redacted], reached out to you by...

voicemail and email on November 16 to schedule a time to discuss your concerns. Please reach out to [redacted] so that she can assist you further.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:I spoke with him from [redacted] I don't remember date and time, I didn't think I would be going threw this so I didn't write it down. You should be ashamed of yourself for no refund. Take a look how many complaints you guys have at Revdex.com. It is obvious that you guys lie and deceive your clients, I am not the only one with this issue, the complaints are full of your guys deceitful ways. SHAME ON YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Hi Anthony,Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for Costello Psychotherapy.Our records indicate you redeemed a $300 promotional ad credit on October 29, 2017. To redeem the $300 credit towards Yelp ads, you were...

required to sign up for our Cost Per Click (CPC) advertising campaign and put a credit card on file. You set your Cost Per Click monthly budget at $300 (or a $10 per day average). You also signed up for enhanced profile features which cost an additional $75 per month (or a $2.50 per day average). Once the promotion runs out, advertising continues until you stop your ads through your Yelp for Business Owners Account.Your advertising program was a self-serve program, which means that ads can be turned off by the business at any time through the Yelp for Business Owners Account. We want to clarify that the promotion could be applied to both your monthly click budget and your enhanced profile features, but you only wanted to use your $300 promotion, you would have needed to log in and end the program once that credit was used. During your ad setup there were Q&A's on the page explaining that you could stop your ads any time through the Yelp for Business Owners site.Additionally, after you signed up for your advertising program, we sent you an automated email (with the subject "Welcome to Yelp Advertising: Your Ads Are Now Live!") that recapped your purchase and the details of your campaign. As stated in the Terms and Conditions section of that email, "Thank you for your purchase of the following products: Ad Campaign, Call to Action, Slideshow & Restrict Competitor's Ads. The payment method on file in your account will be charged monthly, up to a maximum of $375, and your programs will continue unless cancelled."Below is a more detailed description of how the promotion was applied:October 29 - 31, 2017- You received ad clicks and enhanced profile features which cost a total of $27.13- $27.13 of your $300 credit was used and you paid $0November 1 - 22, 2017- You received ad clicks and enhanced profile features which cost a total of $354.28- You had $272.87 remaining promotional credit for this month because it was partially used towards your October ads- You paid $81.41 for advertising services delivered in NovemberYou can view ad click and billing information in the Yelp Ads and Billing tabs of your Yelp for Business Owners Account at [redacted]You ended your advertising program on November 22, 2017. Because your advertising program is billed in arrears, the $81.41 you were charged on December 1, 2017 was for the advertising services you received from November 1 - 22, 2017.As advertising services have been delivered in accordance with the Terms [redacted]) you agreed to, we will not be able to offer you a refund. Thanks for understanding.Regards,HelenYelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 6, 2015/10/15) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing regarding your advertising program for [redacted] Design & Build. We are still looking into this and will respond with additional information soon. We appreciate your patience in the...

meantime.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 20, 2015/11/23) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for your response.
While it appears you initially expressed in July that you wished to cancel, please keep in mind that if your ads had been terminated prior to the end of the initial commitment period (March 1, 2015 - September 10, 2015), then an early termination fee of $325 would have been assessed. It appears that [redacted] suggested in July that you continue your advertising program so that you would not have to pay this early termination fee. We also want to reiterate that according to our records, it looks like [redacted] let you know on July 23, 2015 that your ads were set to continue per the terms of your agreement. It appears the next written cancellation request we received from you was on August 19, 2015 and that in that message you confirmed that you wanted your advertising program to continue into September, so per the terms of your contract your advertising program was terminated 30 days from that date on September 18, 2015.
We also want to address your comment, "this pay per click is just spy bots clicking away. We have a website tracker. There is no way this generated any leads." 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 clicks through to your website and in more customers, it is important to keep in mind that results are not guaranteed. We also want to reiterate that when advertising with a Cost Per Click program, you are electing to pay every time a user clicks on your ad impression, not when someone clicks through to your website.
Additionally, we employ a variety of industry-standard measures to detect and prevent invalid traffic and click fraud. For example, we monitor our clicks and impressions for fraudulent activity, and frequently update our filters to exclude activity from known offenders. We also subscribe to the Internet Advertising Bureau's bot list, which gives us an industry-standard filter in addition to our own more rigorous ones.
Finally, you expressed concern with the change in the average price per click. 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 price to keep you competitive in the market. As noted in your contract, your bid price per click varied based on relevance, competition, and other factors.
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 about a review. It looks like you are referring to the review by [redacted]., as you've previously reported this review. We...

understand that a negative review about an experience you don’t recognize is very frustrating.We have taken a second look at this 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.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/12/10) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding you advertising program for [redacted]
As you noted, you redeemed a $100 promotional ad credit on September 22,...

2015. To redeem the $100 credit towards Yelp ads, you were required to sign up for our Cost Per Click (CPC) advertising campaign and put a credit card on file. You set your Cost Per Click monthly budget at $100. Once the promotion runs out, advertising continues until you stop your ads through your Yelp for Business Owners Account. You ended your ad campaign on December 1, 2015.
Your advertising program was a self-serve program, which means that ads can only be turned off by the business through the Yelp for Business Owners Account. If you only wanted to use your $100 promotion, you would have needed to log in and end the program once that credit was used. You wrote, "Without informing me, they then continued to charge my credit card once the credit ran out despite the fact that I did not authorize this," but when you signed up for Yelp self-serve advertising, in Step 3 of your ad setup there were Q&A's on the right side of the page explaining that you could stop your ads any time through the Yelp for Business Owners site: "Can I stop any time? Yes. There's no commitment or obligation. Just come back to the Yelp for Business Owners site and stop your ads. You will be billed at the beginning of the next month for any clicks you bought before you cancelled."
As advertising services were delivered in accordance with the Terms you agreed to when you signed up for your advertising campaign, we will not be able to offer you a refund. Thanks for understanding.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/12/14) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
This is an underhanded way for businesses to charge consumers without their knowledge. Yelp did not send account statements until after the funds were already charged to my credit card, so I had no warning or notice as to when the $100 promotional credit would run out and when Yelp would start charging me. This is an unethical manner of conducting business and I still expect a refund.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/12/18) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for your response.
You wrote, "Yelp did not send account statements until after the funds were already charged to my credit card, so I had no warning or notice as to when the $100 promotional credit would run out and when Yelp would start charging me." While we appreciate your feedback, you could have logged in to your account at https://biz.yelp.ca/ at any time to see the status of your campaign and monthly budget from the Yelp Ads tab. As noted in the Q&As when you signed up for your self-serve advertising program, advertising continues until the business ends their ads through the Yelp for Business Owners Account, so we will not be able to offer you a refund.
Thank you for understanding.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2015/12/22) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Yelp is clearly demonstrating that they care more about cheating customers out of their hard-earned money than running an ethical service. I earned no business from this ad that was supposed to be free and was tricked into the charges. If Yelp cares about ethics they would alert customers when their credit had run out and their card would be charged. If they cared about ethics they would want to earn money from providing services rather than this underhanded tactic. I expect a refund or I will contact my credit card company to dispute these charges.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
 
         Dear Miss;
 
         I'm starting to get frustrated with this back and forth and the bad communication that is happening between you and other people in your company one of the reviews that I'm claiming is back on top of my page which is better than nothing I'll contact the owner of the other review I'll ask him for a notarized statement where he will state that before the review I had never worked for him that I didn't know him and that the review is truthful how's that? if even with this you can't help your algorithms then give me my refund for all the time that I have used yelp please, does it sound out of context? I'm sure, well your answer sounds the same to me.....Sincerely,[redacted]

Hi Angie,Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for Cornet Carpet.Our records indicate you signed up for an advertising program with a $450 monthly Cost Per Click budget (or a $15 per day average) plus enhanced profile...

features which cost an additional $75 per month (or a $2.50 per day average), for total charges of up to $525 per month. This monthly maximum was stated in the "Welcome to Yelp Advertising: Your Ads Are Now Live!" email we sent you after you signed up for this program.Your advertising program also included a Yelp Boost promo of up to an additional $150 in free Yelp ad clicks be applied each month over 6 months.For more information about Yelp's Cost Per Click advertising program, please visit our Support Center: [redacted]You ended your advertising program on December 5, 2017. We've forwarded your concerns to the appropriate parties for their consideration, but as advertising services have been delivered in accordance with the Master Advertising Terms[redacted] you agreed to, we will not be able to waive the outstanding balance of $31.55 for advertising services delivered from December 1 - 5, 2017 at this time. Because there is currently an outstanding balance, we are unable to remove your credit card information at this time. Once this amount is collected, you will not incur further charges. Thanks for understanding.Regards,HelenYelp Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because: I am unable to do what is asked and frankly concerned if I mention the company I work for I will be fired. Their direction to give them the opportunity to possibly remove the post isn't possible. As I understand it, the direction I was given by the Revdex.com is not to identify myself or the other party personally. I am stuck on what I should do to proceed.Sincerely,[redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/08/28) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for[redacted] & [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.
With regards to your comment, "The 'review' is obviously from one of their vindictive staff members," we want to assure you that Yelp does not retaliate against businesses for any reason, including asking questions, expressing concerns, filing complaints, or declining to advertise. Furthermore, every Yelp salesperson signs an agreement that s/he will not write reviews of any business while employed by Yelp. We trust our teammates in sales to live up to this commitment. We also have several monitoring systems in place to help us ensure nobody (accidentally or otherwise) crosses this line.
You also wrote, "our business WAS CLOSED for good when this supposed person's 'wife' received hair services from us," but please note that the date associated with the review is the date the review was posted, not necessarily the date the user had the experience. Users are welcome to post reviews based on their experiences, regardless of when they occurred. It sounds as though you are referring the the review by [redacted] L. 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 this review is false; 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.
Finally, you asked for your business to be removed from Yelp; however, we don't remove business information, even if a business has closed. 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. That said, closed businesses eventually stop appearing in Yelp's search results over time.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/09/03) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
My position still stands. We NEVER EVER served this client or his"wife". The timing of this posting corresponds with Yelp's vindictive sales policies. This posting from a false customer occurred immediately after we complained about Yelp's several months ago with the Revdex.com! It occurred after we refused to purchase their 350/ mo advertisement. The documentation of our prior complaint is in Revdex.com records. The timing is obviously indicative of fraud on Yelps part.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/09/14) */
Hi [redacted],
Thanks for writing again.
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, and businesses are not punished if they choose not to advertise. 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. We also want to reiterate that Yelp does not retaliate against businesses for any reason.
It sounds as though you still feel the review by [redacted] L 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.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2015/09/16) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
My wife NEVER worked on this fictitious person's wife. The one lady she worked on and cursed on her yelp review paid with a cc!
We, as a result, KNOW her name,address and phone number. We know the last four digits of her cc. We have the time and date stamped detailed email correspondence - with the internet tracing marker from her -> where she literally admits to removing her braids HERSELF! Months before this fake review from this fake person. We are more than willing to take this evidence to Superior Court and sue yelp for 1000's with this hard evidence. We are also reporting this to incident to every consumer Protection agency, the FCC and the US government agencies that regulate and prosecute fraudulent practices

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because: This is the typical canned response Yelp post to all complaints. I will contact the Attorney General in their jurisdiction and pursue a criminal racketeering investigation. Sincerely,[redacted]