Yelp.com

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 clicked on your ad impression. You were also paying for an enhanced profile and the call tracking feature.Our records indicate 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. $50 of the monthly fixed costs were for your enhanced profile, which included features such as competitor ad removal and a photo slideshow, and the other $25 of the fixed costs were for the call tracking feature. Your advertising package included 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.We have forwarded your message to the appropriate parties, and it looks like a manager, [redacted], sent you an email on December 8, 2016 to thank you for your feedback and to confirm that your advertising campaign was cancelled on July 24, 2016.As advertising services were delivered in accordance with the advertising agreement you signed, we will not be able to offer you a refund. It looks like there is currently an outstanding balance of $990.79 for advertising service delivered from May 1 - July 24, 2016. For further assistance with this balance, please reach out to TrueAccord, a third party collection agency we are using, at [redacted].Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:My wish to be removed from a Yelp because it is illegally put all my business's positive reviews to "non-recommended list" was rejected.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Hi [redacted]Thank you for your response.Please be assured that your advertising program was a cost-per-click auction-based auto-bidding program. We want to reiterate that the price you paid per click was based on competition and relevance, and was always the least amount needed to win the click. We aimed to maximize the number of clicks you got for your budget over the course of the month. Advertisers should plan to have 100% of their budget fulfilled, and you were never charged more than the $300 per month you agreed to. Additionally, while we understand your concerns about the amount of fluctuation you saw in the price per click, please note that neither the sign up flow nor the Ads and Upgrades Terms indicated a minimum or maximum cost per click.Advertising services have been delivered in accordance with the Terms you agreed to, so we will not be able to waive the outstanding balance of $142.76 for advertising services delivered in November. Thanks for understanding.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/08/14) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] Plumbing LLC.
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, 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, "We would like our completely valid positive reviews to be accepted," 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
With regards to your comment, "There are also users who are using Yelp in a threatening way to get what they want," it's important to distinguish between customers who have a negative experience and let the business know that they intend to talk about it on Yelp versus those who might go from business to business threatening to fabricate negative reviews for special treatment. Yelp's Terms of Service prohibit compensating someone or being compensated to write or remove a review. You can read our Terms of Service here: http://www.yelp.com/static?p=tos&country=US. Obviously, we don't condone such conduct and would want you to share any other information you have about this kind of behavior so that we can take action if we deem it appropriate. For example, if you have correspondence you can forward related to your claims, please send it to [redacted]@yelp.com and be sure to indicate that it is in regards to Revdex.com Case #XXXXXXXX.
You also expressed concern with [redacted] T's review. 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 fake; 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 your free business account. Many reviewers respond favorably to business owners willing to engage in constructive conversation, and at the very least, other Yelp users appreciate seeing business owners take a proactive approach to dealing with customer concerns. Our hope is that by utilizing these means you will be able to rectify any misunderstandings and come to an amicable resolution.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/08/17) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Yelp states that their recommendation software evaluates reviews base on quality, reliability and user activity. We have 9 reviews that are currently "not recommended". Of those 9 reviews, 8 of them are positive and 1 is negative. (The negative one was only placed in "not recommended" after we flagged it as a fake as we have no record of performing service for that customer by name, description of services or the $ amount listed). Of those positive "not recommended" reviews, one customer has 3 reviews on Yelp, another has 2, another has 5, another has 14, and another has 4. There are only 2 reviews where the customer has not posted any other reviews on Yelp. If Yelp's software considers user activity, why were the above listed positive reviews "not recommended" all by users with 2 or more reviews, however the two negative reviews that were recommended come from one user who has only posted 2 reviews (of which ours is one) and a user who has only posted 1 review (ours). Yelp also states that approximately 75% of reviews are recommended by the software, however ours is only about 55%. 100% of negative reviews have been recommended and only 42% of the positive reviews have been recommended. It does not seem as if the software is doing what you insist it does.
The other issues under complaint were not resolved either (reviews by fake customers, customers threatening bad reviews if you don't "give them what they want", etc.) We flagged these items and submitted our issues previously to Yelp and even offered invoices to prove our side, however we got the same automated response listed above.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/08/24) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for your response.
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.
Please note we don't go into detail as to why a review is or is not recommended. We intentionally make the recommendation software difficult to reverse engineer otherwise, we would be overrun by reviews written by people hoping to game the system. So while it may be tough to decipher how the recommendation software works, the rules are actually the same for every business and every review.
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.
With regards to your comment, "The negative one was only placed in 'not recommended' after we flagged it as a fake," we want to clarify that the action that the Yelp Support team takes is separate from actions taken by Yelp's automated recommendation software. If a review is brought to the attention of the Yelp Support team and is found to fall outside our Content Guidelines, the Yelp Support team will take appropriate action, such as removing the review. However, the recommendation software is automated to help avoid the potential for human bias inherent in individual decision-making: the Yelp Support team 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 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.
You also wrote, "The other issues under complaint were not resolved either (reviews by fake customers, customers threatening bad reviews if you don't 'give them what they want', etc.) We flagged these items and submitted our issues previously to Yelp and even offered invoices to prove our side, however we got the same automated response listed above." As frustrating as it may sound, we don't take the place of a court of law and make evidentiary determinations. Additionally, 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. Thanks for understanding.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2015/08/27) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
No resolution was offered.

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 clicked on your ad impression. You are also paying for an enhanced profile, which included features such as competitor ad removal and a photo slideshow.We also want to address your comment, "even though they said they charge only base on number of clicks, however, no matter what, it will always be maxed out." Your advertising package included a Cost-Per-Click (CPC) program with an ad click budget of $275, which means you paid for ad clicks you received and that 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. We aim to maximize the number of clicks you get for your budget over the course of the month, and advertisers should plan to have 100% of their budget fulfilled.Additionally, please note that the price per click is variable. 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. 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.For a more information about how Yelp's CPC ads work, please visit: [redacted]You also wrote, "Income project thing is also a big sweet dream scam. They limited the min of number you need to input, therefore you will always have positive and greater number than what you pay for every month, in face, there is nothing like that at all." It sounds like you may be referring to the Revenue Estimate feature. The Revenue Estimate is an estimate of the amount of gross revenue resulting from Yelp user activities, based on Customer Leads, the average customer spend, visits per customer, and lead conversion rate. Customer Leads include phone calls, website clicks, map views and directions, and other indicators that potential customers are engaging with your business on Yelp. We've provided a range of typical values from other businesses in your category for the average customer spend, visits per customer, and lead conversion rate fields to get you started, but these fields are customizable so you can change the information to reflect your business. That said, it's important to keep in mind that this is an estimate.Please note that per the terms of the advertising agreement you signed, 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 January 17, 2017 and your advertising program is set to cancel as of February 17, 2017.As advertising services are being delivered in accordance with the advertising agreement you signed, we will not be able to offer you a refund. However, we have forwarded your concerns to the appropriate parties, and are waiving the early termination fee of $650. Thanks for understanding.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/12/21) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] Inc.
You expressed concern with [redacted] D's review. We've taken another look at this review, and, based...

on what we can see in the review and the information at hand, we weren't able to confirm that this review is on the wrong business page. 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 or her review.
We noticed that you've already used your free business account to post a public comment on this review. Many reviewers respond favorably to business owners willing to engage in constructive conversation, and at the very least, other Yelp users appreciate seeing business owners take a proactive approach to dealing with customer concerns.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/12/23) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
We appreciate a human reply after over 1 year+ of attempting to communicate with yelp. In summation, the building we occupy is home to dozens of companies who share a common address. Our company Gemstar Inc. is a medical supply wholesaler that has zero on line selling presence. A reviewer of yours made an assumed connection to defame our reputation. Why did they not review directly under the name of the company they transacted with. Let them produce an invoice or financial transaction from our organization. We saw one reference to an email url which was determined by Verizon wireless to be a simple set up error due to the close proximity of dozens of companies sharing the space. We demand the reference to our company Gemstar Inc. be completely removed. Your reviewer can offer his opinion under the name of whomever he actually transacted with but not Gemstar Inc. We will pursue whatever legal means are at our disposal. We will organize a social media campaign to look for we are sure thousands of other improperly reviewed businesses. The aim of which will be to eventually bring a class action law suit against yelp.
We have tried to reason with you amicably and hope this will give cause for you to take action upon our request. [redacted] COO Gemstar Inc.
Complaint Response Date bumped because: Holiday
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2016/01/04) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing back.
We've looked at [redacted] D's review again, and since it appears to reflect the personal experience and opinions of the reviewer, we are leaving it intact.

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

That said, we will revisit your request if you provide to us a final judicial determination that the contents of a review are defamatory and will, at our discretion, take appropriate action with respect to the review and the user responsible for the review.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2016/01/06) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
They did not address the main thrust that there are two separate legal entities involved. One is the company whom the reviewer actually did the legal transaction with. The other whom the reviewer left the transaction for who had nothing to do with the reviewer. we are not asking the review to be removed, we are asking to simply file it under the business name of whom the reviewer actually did business with gadgetclick.

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, "My [redacted] ([redacted]) changed from a law office to a consulting firm ([redacted]). [...] remove...

my business listing for both my law office ([redacted]) and consulting firm ([redacted]) immediately since both are closed businesses." While we enable business owners 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 your suggestions have been rejected because we could not verify these changes or closures. If that information is available on your website or another public-facing source, please reply to this message with a link so we can verify it. Please note that in general, if a business undergoes a major change – such as a renovation or rebranding that dramatically changes the nature and customer experience of that business, Yelp will generally update the business page to reflect those changes, which can include adding one of several special banners that specifically call out those changes, or an entirely new business page to reflect a significant change.With regards to your request for your business page to be removed, as you may recall from our[redacted]), 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 [redacted]You also expressed concern with the review by [redacted]. Please be assured that we've evaluated the content of [redacted] June 9, 2016 review, and are leaving it up, as it does not appear to violate our Content Guidelines. Evaluating reviews for inappropriate content isn’t easy and we recognize that each person has a different tolerance for strong language. Generally, what we don’t tolerate on our site are serious threats and hate speech. We do have a fairly high bar for colorful language and try to allow users to tell their story in their own words, whether or not they had a positive experience with a business, and regardless of our own personal tastes. We hope you can understand why we ultimately didn’t conclude that the review you reported violates our terms.That said, [redacted]. is welcome to log in to her account to edit or remove her review if she so chooses. If [redacted]. is having trouble accessing her account, she can contact our Support team directly via our Support Center[redacted] with her concerns.We also noticed that there were a number of other accounts also under the name [redacted]. that had reviewed your business. Those accounts were found to be in violation of our Terms of Service and have therefore been closed.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Complaint[redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
I feel I was made promises that did not materialize. It is important to me - even though I feel I was completely cheated by Yelp - to stay in integrity. I would like to achieve a settlement for $800 as balance owed and payable in two payments of $400, one in December and last in January. I have lost a lot of money due to this and no means to pay the amount they are asking for. I am desperate and I need help. Sincerely,Anke [redacted]

Hi [redacted],Thank you for your feedback.We have forwarded your concerns to the appropriate parties so they can take your feedback regarding billing notifications and credit card information into consideration. Additionally, while businesses do not currently have the ability to remove their credit card information themselves, we have removed your credit card information for you.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/07/27) */
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.
If you believe, however, that an individual has provided you with different information, we would like to investigate further. To that end, please provide us with the name of the individual whom you spoke with, their phone number, and the date and time of your conversation with them, if known.
You also 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
You also stated "Yelp created a review page for our business, unauthorized by us." 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, 2015/07/30) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
This is a general response that gives no resolution to our complaints. "Recommendation Software" was created by Yelp, and therefore should be under their control. A company that uses such software to filter reviews is not giving the public the opportunity to make their own decisions about which to believe and which to ignore. Yelp is making this decision for them. Again, our page has 4 reviews total, and the two that were positive were filtered out. This is blatant discrimination and a very unethical business practice.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 11, 2015/08/17) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for your response.
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.
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.
With regards to your comment, "A company that uses such software to filter reviews is not giving the public the opportunity to make their own decisions about which to believe and which to ignore," please keep in mind that users can see reviews that aren't currently recommended by clicking on the link at the bottom of your business page.
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 about your business page for [redacted].You expressed concern with a review. It looks like you are referring to the review by **, which you've previously reported. I understand that...

you’re disputing the accuracy of this review, and I wanted to let you know that our team has taken a second look at the review.We reached the same conclusion as before and are unable to remove the review. We don't take sides in factual disputes; if a review appears to reflect the reviewer’s personal experiences and opinions, it is our policy to let the user stand behind his or her review.If you are concerned about your safety outside of Yelp and believe you are being harassed or threatened, please consider contacting the authorities.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
I do not accept the business's (Yelp.com) response because they are refusing to post positive reviews from patients in the “recommended” section of their website. They say this is because their “software” decides on which reviews are trustworthy?! Computers and software are operated by human beings, who can do whatever they want with them. Computers cannot decide which reviews are reliable, it is not possible. I can certainly prove which reviews are reliable and authentic. I see that some of my patients have gone on Yelp to write positive reviews about me. Just because my patients are not regular “Yelpers” doesn't mean they are not real patients and they have a right to free speech just as much as the negative reviewers- who mostly incidentally don't seem to be regular Yelpers either. My patients also have the right not to be told by a computer( or actually by the people who control the computer) that their opinion is not worth anything if they give a positive review or that they are not trustworthy!
You claim that people can see all the reviews in the “not recommended” section at the bottom of the page, however not many people would come across these as it is not at all obvious- you have to scroll down past ads for other dentists etc first and even if they do come across it by accident they are wondering why they are not recommended and would most likely think they are fake or simply wouldn't know what to think or believe, plus the note above them states they “don't make the cut”. Thus giving a bad impression and wrong impression. A regular person who is not a business owner would not be aware of this or aware that Yelp manipulates reviews. Furthermore when someone searches my business or my name on for instance their iPhone the first result that comes up is Yelp showing a one star rating, not my true rating. I currently no longer advertise on the internet and have gone back to the dark ages of solely word of mouth referrals from the times doctors were not allowed to advertise, this of course is still the best way to advertise, but other options should be open to me in this day and age of the internet. There is simply no point in me advertising on the internet with this negative(and incorrect) representation. Not only that but several people who decided to write something vicious( and factually untrue) about my business get to tell not only their friends they talk to but the whole entire world. Although these reviews are libelous, defamatory and untrue and many intelligent prospective patients are likely to disregard them, it is also the case that many people are put off by them because they are already scared to go to the dentist, so not going to take a chance if they only see bad things a few people wrote about me, instead of the true picture about my business which obviously includes positive reviews as well, as I said before I would not be still in business after so many years if nobody ever had a good word to say about me. You are denying the public the right to receive reliable information about me and my business, this should certainly be illegal.
I have had incidences of new patients making an appointment, then going to look me up on the internet, seeing Yelp reviews and then calling to cancel their appointment after reading them. You are damaging my reputation and the ability to grow my business, you are damaging my business.
If I claim my business on Yelp.com to reply to reviews I would have to agree to your Terms of Service in order to do so, which involves “giving up my legal rights”. I should not have to give up my rights in order to claim my own business on Yelp, a site I didn't want to be on in the first place. If I am forced to do this in an attempt to save my reputation and business by being able to respond to reviews I would be agreeing to those terms under duress as I do not agree to give up my legal rights described in your Terms and Conditions and I do not agree to Yelp being able to use and manipulate my reviews in any manner they wish.
I notice that the person replying to this complaint “[redacted]” does not give her full name.
Thank you for your attention,
[redacted]Sincerely,[redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/12/22) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding the advertising program for [redacted]
According to our records, it appears your colleague [redacted] signed up for an advertising program on...

June 26, 2015. The advertising program began on June 27, 2015 and was terminated on September 11, 2015.
With regards to your concerns about the pricing of the advertising program, to clarify, [redacted] signed up for a program with $45 monthly fixed costs plus up to $730 monthly variable costs, for a monthly maximum of $775. The monthly fixed costs were for an enhanced profile, which included features such as competitor ad removal and a photo slideshow. The advertising program was a cost per click (CPC) program and the monthly cost per click budget cap was set at $730, which means [redacted] was only charged when someone clicked on the ad and she agreed to pay up to $730 a month for those ad clicks. If she did not reach her monthly budget cap, she would only be charged for the ad clicks she received. However, if she did reach her monthly budget cap, we no longer delivered ads for the business for the remainder of the month so that she wouldn't have to pay more than she agreed to.
You also expressed concern with the variable price per click. As you noted, and as stated in the advertising agreement, [redacted] signed up for a Cost-Per-Click (CPC) auction-based auto-bidding program, which means that she agreed to allow Yelp to set the bid price per click price to keep her competitive in the market. It's important to keep in mind that the price fluctuated up or down depending on competition, relevance, and other factors. However, it was always the lowest price possible to win the click.
Additionally, please note that the advertising program was billed in arrears, so the $775.00 that was charged on August 1, 2015 was for advertising services delivered in July. It also appears the final outstanding balance of $1,059.17 ($775.00 for advertising services delivered in August plus $284.17 for services delivered from September 1 - 11, 2015) was collected on November 8, 2015, and that [redacted] will not incur further charges.
Finally, per the terms of the advertising agreement, we require 30 days written notice to your account management contact if you wish to terminate your advertising program. As [redacted] provided her cancellation request on August 11, 2015, the advertising program was terminated on September 11, 2015. While early termination is subject to a fee per the terms of the advertising agreement, it appears that an account manager, Megan, has waived the early termination fee.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/12/24) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
24 December 2015
Revdex.com Case #: XXXXXXXX
Your records are correct. My colleague [redacted] signed up for an advertising program sold to her by [redacted]. The program was not adequately explained, her questions were not adequately answered and when she asked about the charges was led to believe that the program would be $45 per month. While I see that you have attempted to explain the CPC program both on your website and in your response to this complaint, I still have yet to understand exactly how much those clicks actually cost. Apparently you do not either as you cannot provide a number. However it was very easy to add it up to the maximum that you set as her budget. It is interesting how in September you simply divided the maximum by 30 and prorated the month. How did the CPC's figure in to that?
After receiving the first over charge, [redacted] wanted to cancel as this is not what she had agreed to. When she got no help from Yelp, she turned to American Express and told them not to pay the charge. Yelp simply charged her account under a different business name and number to circumvent the block. Companies that operate in an ethical manner do not need to have multiple entities to gain access to their clients accounts. That is a very questionable practice indeed!
We have received NO business at all from our advertising with YELP. Per my original complaint I called Yelp to discuss on XX-X-XX at 12:45pm and left a message and STILL (it is now XX-XX-XX) have not had a call back from [redacted] in Finance.
Following is a breakdown of what [redacted] expected to be charged versus what she was actually charged and the difference between the two:
Month # of days Expected Charged Difference
June 4 6.00 103.33 97.33
July 30 45.00 775.00 730.00
August 30 45.00 775.00 730.00
September 11 16.50 284.17 267.67
112.50 1937.50 1825.00
As you can see that is a significant difference. Particularly when; no one can explain what the charges are for in terms of an actual cost, the agreement was entered into in a very high pressure and unfair manner, and worst of all no revenue has been generated. We believe that tactics were used to bait and switch; to believe we would pay one thing and then be charged another when it was too late. We would like the difference ($1825.00) between what was fair and expected ($112.50), and what we were charged ($1937.50) to be refunded.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2016/01/11) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for your response.
You wrote, "I still have yet to understand exactly how much those clicks actually cost." Below is a more detailed breakdown of the costs:
June 27-30, 2015
- The business received 118 ad clicks at an average cost per click of $0.82, which cost a total of $97.34
- The enhanced profile cost $6.00, a prorated amount
- [redacted] was charged a total of $103.34 for advertising services delivered in June
July 2015
- The business received 456 ad clicks at an average cost per click of $1.60, which cost a total of $730.00
- The enhanced profile cost $45.00
- [redacted] was charged a total of $775.00 for advertising services delivered in July
August 2015
- The business received 463 ad clicks at an average cost per click of $1.58, which cost a total of $730.00
- The enhanced profile cost $45.00
- [redacted] was charged a total of $775.00 for advertising services delivered in August
September 1-11, 2015
- The business received 168 ad clicks at an average cost per click of $1.59 which cost a total of $267.67
- The enhanced profile cost $16.50, a prorated amount
- [redacted] was charged a total of $284.17 for advertising services delivered in September.
[redacted] can view a breakdown of the ad clicks received by logging in to her Yelp for Business Owners Account at https://biz.yelp.com/ and then clicking on the "Yelp Ads" tab. Additionally, as we previously noted, the the price per click will fluctuate up or down depending on various factors including relevance and competition, but price you pay will always be the lowest price possible to win the click.
With regards to your comment, "We have received NO business at all from our advertising with YELP," we are sorry to hear you were not satisfied with your advertising campaign. To be clear, while the goal of advertising on Yelp is to drive more traffic to the business page, which may ultimately result in more customers, it is important to keep in mind that results are not guaranteed. When advertising with a packaged Cost Per Click program, you are paying for an enhanced profile and you are electing to pay every time a user clicks on your ad impression.
We also want to reiterate that per the terms of the advertising agreement, we require 30 days written notice to your account management contact if you wish to terminate your advertising program. According to our records, [redacted] provided her cancellation request on August 11, 2015, so the advertising program was terminated on September 11, 2015.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Hi Shane,Thank you for your feedback.We want to reiterate that in order to redeem the $300 promotional ad credit, you had to sign up for an advertising program and put payment information on file. If you did not wish to be charged, you would have needed to log in and terminate the program before or once the promotional credit was used. You could have logged in at any time to monitor your campaign or terminate the program. With regards to your comment, "I approved, under the promotion, of $15 per day as you can see from the cancellation email attached," it appears the cancellation email you are referring to did not get attached to your message. You are welcome to send us the attachment so that we may take this information into consideration. That said, during the signup process, you selected a $15 per day average, or a $450 per month maximum. This monthly maximum of $450 was also stated in the "Welcome to Yelp Advertising: Your Ads Are Now Live!" we sent you after you signed up for this program. Additionally, the signup process did not state that you were selecting a maximum price per click. We also want to reiterate that you were paying when someone clicked on your ad. Clicking on your ad would take the user to your business page on Yelp. You can view the number of ads that have been delivered and the number of times your ad was clicked on by logging in to your Yelp for Business Owners account at [redacted]/ and clicking on the Yelp Ads tab. However, we don't disclose additional information about the ad clicks due to privacy concerns.Please note that you were not paying based on the number of customer leads you received or for clicks to your business's website. It is important to keep in mind that the information you see in the Activity page of your account may be from users who found your page through your Yelp ad as well as from users who found your page through other means, such as Yelp's natural search results.We also want to clarify that when a user conducts a search on Yelp there are two fields they must complete – Find and Near. In other words, the user must input what they are looking for and where they would like to look for it. When a user conducts such a search, we do our best to provide that user with a Yelp Ad relevant to their search. Please note that the Near field in the search bar is separate information from the location a user inputs in their user profile. Regards,HelenYelp Inc.

Hi [redacted],Thank you for your response.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.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.Additionally, you have again stated that the review by [redacted]. is "fraudulent" and 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.

These are lies. This is the only way they can make money. Manipulating reviews is how they do it. If they didnt profit from it, they would be like [redacted] and NOT manipulate reviews in ANY way! They are extortionists and racketeers. They need not contact me again
Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:Sincerely,[redacted]

Hi [redacted]Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns.We understand you find the language used in [redacted] business owner comment to [redacted] review of [redacted] to be offensive and are frustrated that we have left the...

comment up.Evaluating business owner comments for inappropriate content isn’t easy and we recognize that each person has a different tolerance for strong language. Please note that Yelp does not take sides in factual disputes, and in general, what we don’t tolerate on our site are serious threats and hate speech. We do have a fairly high bar for colorful language and try to allow users and business owners to tell their story in their own words, whether or not they had a positive experience with each other, and regardless of our own personal tastes. We hope you can understand why we ultimately didn’t conclude that the comment you reported violates our terms.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Hi Dominique,Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for Courier Maxx.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 clicked on your ad impression. Your advertising program included page upgrades such as a Call to Action button, photo slideshow, and competitor ad removal. Our records indicate you signed up for an advertising program with monthly maximum cost of $2,135. Cost-Per-Click ads are delivered in categories matching your specific business, as well as other similar categories that our ad delivery system has identified as relevant. The price you pay per click is based on competition and relevance, but you'll always pay the least amount needed to win the click. We aim to maximize the number of clicks you get for your budget over the course of the month, and you should plan to have 100% of your budget fulfilled. Occasionally competitive demand prevents this, but you'll only be billed for the cost of the clicks you received in that monthly billing period. Your advertising program was terminated on September 13, 2017. As advertising services have been delivered in accordance with the terms and conditions you agreed to, we will not be able to offer you a refund at this time. That said, we have forwarded your concerns to the appropriate parties for their consideration. Thanks for understanding.Regards,HelenYelp Inc.

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns.We wanted to let you know we've taken another look at [redacted] review of [redacted]. Upon further evaluation, the review was found to be in violation of our Content Guidelines and it has...

been removed.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Hi Heather,Thank you for your response.Per the terms and conditions you agreed to, after your initial 6 month term, the agreement automatically renews on a month-to-month basis. If you wanted to cancel your ads, we require 30 days written notice to Yelp's account management team.With regards to your comment, "$160 per month was what your representative said to me and that was definitely not applied to the account," we want to reiterate that the promotion was applied to your account and ran from October 27, 2017 - January 26, 2018. Please note that this promotion was a bonus ad budget, and not a discount. Additionally, this promotion was separate from your $275 monthly Cost Per Click budget and your enhanced profile features which cost an additional $75 per month. The promotion was for $160 in free ad clicks each month for up to 3 months in total, and you received a total of $480.01 worth of free clicks from October 27, 2017 - January 26, 2018. The promotion was applied to the following billing statements as follows: October 18, 2017 – November 17, 2017- You received $113.55 worth of free ad clicks from October 27, 2017 - November 17, 2017November 18, 2017 – December 17, 2017- You received $160.00 worth of free ad clicks November 18, 2017 - December 17, 2017December 18, 2017 – January 17, 2018- You received $160.00 worth of free ad clicks from December 18, 2017 - January 17, 2018January 18, 2018 – February 17, 2018- You received $46.46 worth of free ad clicks from January 18, 2018 - January 26, 2018You can confirm this information by viewing your billing statements in your account. To do so, you can log in to your your Business Owner's Account at[redacted]/login, click on the "Billing" link in the menu on the left-hand side, and then click on the dates of the statements you would like to view. Advertising services and the promotion were delivered in accordance with the terms and conditions you agreed to. Thus, we will not be able to offer you a refund or waive the remaining balance of $17.72. Thank you for understanding.Regards,HelenYelp Inc.