Yelp.com

Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because: I do not accept the response of Yelp.com for several reasonsThey claim that their software shows more reliable content, however this is simply not true- one of the reasons they say it is more reliable is that they display in the recommended section reviews by more established usersI can see in my case that only of the reviewers appear to be even remotely more established users and the others displayed in the recommended section clearly are notI also don't see why someone has to be a more established user in order to have their review displayed and their opinion taken into account in my rating on your siteThis is a violation of the first amendment rights of the reviewers whose reviews are hidden away in the “not recommended” section where they are not only unlikely to be found by the average person looking at reviews on Yelp but they are also classed as “not recommended” meaning they are accused or insinuated as being phony when they are notWhen reviews are manipulated in this way it can hardly be regarded as free speechTheir first amendment right is further violated as their opinion is not reflected in the rating of my business which means they are not given a voice on your siteIt is discrimination against some reviewers for daring to have a good opinion of my business and for not being allowed to express it in the same way as other negative reviewers on the Yelp site I highly doubt any of the reviews originated from the same computer, the only way I can see that would occur is if someone saw their review mysteriously go missing and decided to write another one in the hope that it would stick You should not be able to decide which users reviews you recommend, your computer does not know anything about any of the reviewers, just because someone placed a bunch of reviews on your site and goes on it a lot doesn't mean they are anymore real or significant than someone that goes on now and again to check out a business or write a review about a business on there because your site came up in the search results as somewhere they could write something You say over and again that your software “is not perfect”, well if that is the case don't use itIt simply is not fair practiceUnfortunately it will never be perfect as it just cannot be using the criteria you express hereIt will only be perfect if you use a private investigator to investigate the authenticity of every reviewer which a piece of software cannot possibly and clearly does not do remotely in any way shape or formAgain even if what you say is true and made any sense (which it doesn't) there is no way that consistently only negative reviews would appear for my business and no positive reviews with such a large number of reviews hidden as “not recommended”It is plain to see there is something very fishy about your “approach” The business practices of Yelp may or may not be legal at present ( they certainly should be illegal), however they are in my opinion definitely immoral Sincerely, [redacted] ***

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2015/11/05) */ Hi ***, Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] Cremation You expressed concern with [redacted] B's review of your businessAs you may recall from the messages you've received from the Yelp Support team, the review has been evaluated by the Yelp Support team and left up, as it was not found to be in violation of our guidelinesYou claim that this review contains "information"; however, Yelp does not take sides in factual disputesRather, 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 also want to address your comment, "Yelps only response was basically too bad, maybe you as the business owner should consider advertising with Yelp was the only thing they suggested." 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 treatedBusinesses are not punished if they don't advertise, nor are businesses awarded with preferential treatment with regards to their reviews if they do advertiseWe 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 furtherTo 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 Thank you Regards, [redacted] Yelp Inc Initial Consumer Rebuttal / [redacted] (3000, 7, 2015/11/09) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) 1) The listing is false, [redacted] Cremation is a viable, licensed business now for over years and there are several years of reviews on Yelp for this business to prove that fact to Yelp, the Revdex.com and the public, so please explain how that is clearly not FALSE? 2) The business listing has NEVER changed for availability on YELP or my webiste, ever...again, anouther statementAgain, Yelp KNOWS this to be true on my listing on their site, so Yelp should have a responsibility to verify that my listing has never said weekend availability on their own site, let alone a simple phone call to the webiste ownerAgain, Yelp using information 3) This person NEVER spoke with me, left any messages for Blue Creek and they DID NOT DO business with Blue Creek, DEFAMATORY and MISLEADING Just these items alone should be adequeate to remove this review as they all are able to be verified just by yelp without any other outside additional information There is nothing in this review that is true, look at the many years of reviews, this alone should verifiy that this is a real business...Again, licesncses and permits are all available for review There should be at least a business to customer relationship or contact of some sort required by Yelp for someone to write and derogatory statements, as you have listed customers "personal experience"...there was no personal experience, this person never contacted Blue Creek at allThat is just not fair in any way when a business is fully legal and licensed and your company refuses to remove and misleading informationThis should be illegal A full explanation from Yelp of how none of this is false, defamatory and misleading given the FACTS to prove otherwise would seem to be required in order to leave up information from someone I never even spoke with I would be more than happy to provide any and alll licesnses also Final Business Response / [redacted] (4000, 11, 2015/11/16) */ Hi ***, Thank you for writing back We understand that you're disputing the accuracy of [redacted] B's review of your business, and our team has taken a second look at the reviewWe reached the same conclusion as before and are unable to remove the reviewWe 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 reviewAdditionally, as frustrating as it may sound, we don't take the place of a court of law and make evidentiary determinations You also asked for your business to be removed from Yelp, but we actually don't remove business listing informationWhile some business owners might prefer to keep a lower profile, this kind of information is publicly available and its use is protected under the lawMore importantly, we believe that the public benefits from sharing their experiences with local businesses Regards, [redacted] Yelp Inc

Hi Steven,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concernsYou expressed concern with Anita Fand John C.'s reviews of [redacted] It looks like you reported these reviews on the same day you filed this Revdex.com complaint, and as you may recall from the messages you've since received from the Yelp Support team, we've removed the reviews by Anita Fand John Cbecause they fall outside our Content Guidelines.Regards,HelenYelp Inc

Hi [redacted] ,Thank you for your feedbackWe have written off the outstanding balance of $742.41, so you will not incur further chargesRegards,***Yelp Inc

Hi [redacted] ***,Thank you for your feedback.While we understand you are concerned that some reviews are not currently being recommended on your listing, it's important to keep in mind they might be recommended on another day.You have again expressed concern with a review "which was not written by a customer." We have taken a second look at [redacted] *.'s review but, after careful consideration, we reached the same conclusion as before and are unable to remove the reviewIf 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.You have also asked that your business listing be removed, but as previously stated, we don't remove business listing informationYelp is allowed to publish business names and publicly available information about businesses under the well-established fair use doctrine, as well as First Amendment principlesGenerally speaking, this means that we can display business names and trademarks "for purposes of comparison, criticism, point of reference, or any other such purpose." [redacted] Regards,***Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2015/09/21) */ Hi [redacted] , Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] Grooming You expressed concern with the recommendation softwareAs you may have read, the goal of Yelp's recommendation software is to showcase more reliable contentThe 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 reviewsPlease also understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a reviewHowever, the system is not static reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US You also expressed concern with a negative review of your businessIt looks like you are referring to the review by [redacted] D, as you reported this review to Yelp on the same day you filed this Revdex.com complaintAs you may recall from the message you've 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 guidelinesYou claim that this review is from an ex-employee, but based on what we see in the review, we can't confirm that the user has a conflict of interest with the businessIf 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 With regards to your request for your business to be removed from Yelp, we actually don't remove business listing informationWhile some business owners might prefer to keep a lower profile, this kind of information is publicly available and its use is protected under the lawMore importantly, we believe that the public benefits from sharing their experiences with local businesses Finally, while our Yelp Support team doesn't offer phone based support, they do provide email based support through our Support Center (http://www.yelp-support.com)We've tried to include detailed answers to the questions we most frequently receive in our Support Center, but there may be situations you encounter where you'll need to contact our Support team for assistanceFor these specific situations, there are articles in the Support Center that include submission forms to inquire about the issue Regards, [redacted] Yelp Inc Initial Consumer Rebuttal / [redacted] (3000, 7, 2015/09/25) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) I [redacted] I am the owner of t and j pet groomingI raise high concern about this matter.we have had some good review over the past few months that the same day they write them they are put in a none recommend file how is that good for my business it is not good for my businessJust to let you know we have had people look us on yelp this month alone and not even one lead from that came in in to our store how aare you helping me with that u are not yelp is not doing there job right maybe yelps software needs to be updateTo help out with small businesses owned company like mine yelp need to go thru my reviews and look at them closer and see that all of our good review are not fake and the review need to be update and all of the and review need to be put in a none recommend file since they are one to two years old there need to be a new refesh review on my page not old ones from two years ago that is hurting my business this matter needs to be fixed and the system update on my profileIf not fixed in a timely matter I will take further action on yelp company thanks for understanding hopefully yelp will fix my issue Final Business Response / [redacted] (4000, 9, 2015/10/05) */ Hi [redacted] , Thank you for writing again It sounds as though you don't accept our explanation of the recommendation software, but we can only stand by our previous statementsYelp's recommendation software is an automated algorithm that attempts to weed out less reliable reviews while showcasing more reliable onesThis means that when reviews are posted to your listing, not all of them will make the cutWe acknowledge that even some legitimate reviews will not be recommended, but we still believe that the software as a whole makes our site more trustworthy and useful to consumers You asked that we recommend the newer reviews for your business, but as indicated in our prior response, the recommendation software is automated to help avoid the potential for human bias inherent in individual decision-making: we cannot reverse the software's decisions, either to suppress an active review or to restore one that isn't recommendedBut once again, the system is not static reviews may come and go as the recommendation software picks up new information Additionally, there is currently no expiration date for reviews on Yelp but users can sort the recommended reviews to show the most recent reviews first We do understand the recommendation software can be frustrating at times, and your feedback is appreciatedWhen it comes down to it, all review sites face the same challenge: how to identify fake reviews among the many millions of legitimate reviewsIt's no easy task, and there is always room for improvementWe hope to be able to continually improve on this issue Regards, [redacted] Yelp Inc

Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because: its garbage! How on earth can I have un-recommened reviews, all of which are raving about the company & the only one you seem to want to show is the bad one In addition, usually my clients do become friends as I have just helped them through a stressful time and they are tickled So your responses as to why my reviews aren't showing up and factored into my total star count, in my opinion is a load of crap! Sincerely, [redacted] ***

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2015/09/14) */ Hi Dr [redacted] , Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] Dental Arts We realize you are frustrated, but 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 treatmentThat being said, it appears [redacted] S's review reflects his firsthand experience at [redacted] Dental Arts, and the review will be left intactAs you may recall from the correspondence you've had with the Yelp Support team, Yelp does not take sides in factual disputesRather, if a review appears to reflect the personal experience and opinions of the reviewer, it is our policy to allow the user to stand by his/her review Regards, [redacted] Yelp Inc Initial Consumer Rebuttal / [redacted] (3000, 7, 2015/09/15) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) The review that [redacted] S has left for us is not about a firsthand experienceIt's about receiving a refundPlease read the short review againThe reviewer does not discuss any experience on the visits leading to, during, or follow ups after the procedure (this operation is a long process not a single visit) at all but just the fact that he is entitled to a refundFurther, for your information, the procedure was done more than two years agoThe reviewer has no single prior review on Yelp explaining any other firsthand experiencesThe review showed up only after our office called him to inquire about the unpaid portion of his billApparently he was happy with the experience until he was asked to pay for itWe, unequivocally, believe Yelp is providing a platform for this reviewer to extort money from our practiceIf Yelp is genuinely interested in getting to the bottom of the situation, it is very easy for us to provide proof that the reviewer is not sincere on his claim about our practiceAlso, as you may recall from the same referenced correspondence we've had with the Yelp Support team, you mentioned our recourse would be to leave a public response to the reviewWe like you to let you know that is not an option in this caseBy posting an X-ray which includes his first and last name, the patient has put his full identity right in the reviewAny response to this review would be confirming his personal medical treatment that would put us in violation of state and federal privacy laws (e.gHIPAA: http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/)I understand Yelp's general guidelines on this, however, unlike typical reviews on Yelp, this is not an anonymous oneHaving the patient's full identity in the review, prevents any type of response we can provide, let alone discussing his treatment and why we think we are rightGiven the situation, the choice of responding publicly is not an optionSo we find ourself in an unfair disadvantageAnd that is one more reason why we believe the review should be removed Final Business Response / [redacted] (4000, 9, 2015/09/21) */ Hi Dr [redacted] , Thank you for your response You have again expressed concern with the review by [redacted] SHowever, 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 reviewYou also noted "the procedure was done more than two years ago," but please keep in mind that users are welcome to post reviews based on their experiences, regardless of when they occurred Additionally, while we appreciate your reservations to post a public comment, we encourage you to consider ways in which you might utilize this feature without revealing confidential informationYou might, for example, ask the reviewer to contact you off the site to discuss these issues further or make general clarifications about your business Regards, [redacted] Yelp Inc Final Consumer Response / [redacted] (4200, 11, 2015/09/25) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) Yelp did not propose ANY resolution! In fact, they have taken no step toward resolving the issue and do not seem genuinely interested in understanding and addressing itFrom their generic responses, they do not seem to even have grasp of circumstancesE.gThey suggest to "ask the reviewer to contact you off the site to discuss these issues further"We have been in contact with the reviewer multiple times as clearly mentioned in the complaint and his only interest is to obtain a refundWe strongly believe in resolving misunderstandings through communication, however in this case, there is no misunderstanding on reviewer's part about the service receivedHe has set his mind on getting his money backWe have made that clear to Yelp through our communications with them and here againBy saying that over and over, Yelp is indirectly suggesting for us to pay the reviewer offThey are also suggesting, again and again, to leave a public comment to "make general clarifications about your business"As much as we have explained both directly to them and here, in this particular case, the review is not of a generic Yelp reviewerIt is of MrXXX XXXXX doing an exact procedure with medical X-ray of procedure postedAnd the identity is publicly displayed on the X-ray picture of the patientSo unless our comment would be this is not about our practice (in case that would have been true), any other comment would be confirmation of MrXXX XXXXX's medical treatment in our practiceThis is against state and federal privacy lawsWe have previously brought to to Yelp's attention that we know of colleagues that are facing law suites for doing exactly thatIn summary, we believe Yelp showed no interest in resolving the issueThank you for giving us the opportunity to communicate with them

Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because: They are strong arming me into paying a service that I feel I did not even benefit from in the leastNot only have will I never advertise through this company ever I have had several of my clients stop and go to another service because of unethical, unsympathetic, and money hungry this company isI know as a business owner I would NEVER charge someone who is unhappy as I amI am not going to pay for a service I did not benefit from nor had the knowledge of it running in the background charging up a billGood companies like google or Facebook don't move forward with a debt being owned at the end of the monthbut this company willfor months! And since I wasn't receiving any customers from their "advertising" I had no idea this was even runningthis company should like most and in my case like google once the promo is up it stopsthis company instead uses this as a way to swindle your moneyI feel 100% wronged by this company and its practices!! Sincerely,Jared [redacted]

Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because: The information provided is not in keeping with my own knowledge I have no contract and feel that YELP has exploited me and my small business Sincerely,Eddie [redacted]

Hi ***Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns.We appreciate you bringing this to our attention, and have informed our Sales team that you no longer wish to receive any communication from themIf for any reason you continue to hear from them, please let us know at [redacted] Regards,***Yelp Inc

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2015/07/14) */ Hi ***, Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] *** You expressed concern with a negative reviewIts sounds like you are referring to the review by Tom OWe've looked at this review, and since it appears to reflect the personal experience and opinions of the reviewer, we are leaving it intactBased on what we see in the review, we can't confirm that the user has a conflict of interest with your business While we share your concern about the possibility of a defamatory review on our site, we don't adjudicate disputes between businesses and their reviewersCongress acknowledged this predicament by passing [redacted] that provides statutory immunity to online service providers such as Yelp for the content of third-party postsSee U.S.C§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 contentsSee Carafano vMetrosplashcomInc., F3d (9th Cir2003); Zeran vAmerica Online, Inc., F.3d (4th Cir1997); Barrett vRosenthal, Cal4th (Cal2006) 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 concernsWe do not recommend that you engage in anything other than a well-meaning dialog with the reviewer in order to sort out any misunderstandings You also expressed concern with the recommendation softwareAs you may have read, the goal of Yelp's recommendation software is to showcase more reliable contentThe recommendation software establishes an objective standard against which every review can be measuredIt's important to note that the software applies the same analysis to everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviewsPlease also understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a reviewHowever, 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

Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because: I have a few reviews and you will only post the negative oneI have positive reviews that you will not show with the negative ones Your company consistently calls my business and tries to market their business I have asked to be not called back and put on do not call list you do not listen to that You are hurting my business with the negative review that post soon as my business is googled Why does it come up under mapquest and yelp It’s very annoying that you single out only negative reviews and will not post any positive review when my company is searched This is a complaint I am sure you hear all the time You are destroying small businesses reputation and demand money to to complete reviews against other competitors Please take all my reviews off or post all over them it’s pubic information like you said or remove my business Sincerely,Rick [redacted]

(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)I am pleased that the review was taken downHowever, I'm utterly disappointed that Yelp failed to respond to my numerous requests to take down racially derogatory content for several weeks after I had provided notice of it and pointed out that it violated Yelp's policiesIt wasn't until I filed a Revdex.com complaint that the review was taken downThere was an approximate day window or more of time that I was defamed and my business harmed because Yelp allowed the content to stay on the Yelp site and the InternetPotential clients and other viewers were able to see it which caused me harm

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2015/12/11) */ Hi ***, Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] We appreciate your feedback regarding your interactions with our Sales team, and will forward your message to the appropriate partiesWe've also gone ahead and informed our Sales team that you no longer wish to receive any communication from themIf 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 Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 6, 2015/07/10) */ Hi Dr [redacted] Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] C [redacted] , MD You wrote, "The negative reviews actually started after the first two years, during which they called our office multiple times each week, asking our company to subscribe to monthly paid service with them 'to improve online reviews about our company'." To be clear, a business's decision whether or not to advertise on Yelp does not affect how the reviews on its listing are treatedBusinesses are not punished if they don't advertise, nor are businesses awarded with preferential treatment with regards to their reviews if they do advertiseWe 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 furtherTo that end, please provide us with the name of the individual whom you spoke with, their phone number, the phone number that received the call, and the date and time of your conversation with them, if known You also expressed concern with the recommendation softwareAs you may have read, the goal of Yelp's recommendation software is to showcase more reliable contentThe recommendation software establishes an objective standard against which every review can be measuredIt's important to note that the software applies the same analysis to everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviewsPlease also understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a reviewHowever, the system is not static reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US You also expressed concern with some negative reviewsIf 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 itYou'll need to be logged in to your account in order to view the flag iconWhile reporting content doesn't guarantee that it'll be removed, our team looks at every inquiry and carefully evaluates the content against our guidelinesEach case will be reviewed by our team in the order it was receivedTypically, you will receive a response to your report within a few business daysIf 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] @yelp.com to your contact list) For instructions on how to report content, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/article/How-do-I-report-a-review?l=en_US You asked for your business to be removed from Yelp, but we actually don't remove business listing informationWhile some business owners might prefer to keep a lower profile, this kind of information is publicly available and its use is protected under the lawMore importantly, we believe that the public benefits from sharing their experiences with local businesses You also expressed concern that "They post that Dr [redacted] is an optometrist, instead of an ophthalmologist." We have systems in place to keep our data accurate and timely but from time to time, errors can occurWe've corrected your category and apologize for any inconvenience: http://www.yelp.com/biz (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) Dear Business Complaints Division (Regarding complaints against Yelp.com): Specifically, I wish to file the two complaints below, on behalf of my ethical business and every other ethical business which has suffered from the irresponsible journalism that is slanderous, inaccurate, unverified, anonymous, dishonest resulting from the yelp.com business model that is designed to financially benefit from one-sided, inaccurate, unethical reviews onlineI will elaborate on these specific slanderous and defamation of character practices which Yelp.com engages in, in the paragraphs which follow the below listed complaint summaries (see A & B): A) unethical, deceptive, negative, slanderous, and defamation of character, unsubstantiated/unverified online business reviews generated and propagated by Yelp.com company who persists in practicing irresponsible journalism and inaccurate business reviews B) Request for our company to be included in any current or future litigation against Yelp.com, suing for damages/business revenue losses resulting from unethical and inaccurate reviews from anonymous posting persons, allowed by Yelp.com I accuse of Yelp.com (business name) of deceptive and untruthful business reviews propagation, defamation of character, slander and refusing to post corrections, accurate reviews based on truthful facts from and real patients/clients, and willful, repeated refusals despite six years of requests by telephone and online to reliably post true patient positive reviews on their websiteYelp hides and/or buries or deletes all positive reviews, only posting prominently negative reviews (forever), often from negative attitude persons who were not even established or real customers or clients and allows these persons to post these reviews anonymously so that anyone can post lies and deceptive reviews without accountabilityOur company cannot pursue these individuals for slander and defamation of character and we have no options for legal recourse due to Yelp's anonymous review policy and thus we are unable to seek reimbursement for crimes committed by these cowardly anonymous reviewers who slander rival businesses and fear no retribution for untruthful and deceptive, vicious reviews that appear on Yelp's websiteYelp repeatedly blocks all new positive reviews from new and established clients, repeatedly telling our company Yelp has determined that these positive reviews are "unreliable"Yelp also has refused to delete (or allow me to delete) my company profile from their Yelp online website, despite my multiple, repeated requests the past six years, resulting in irreparable harm to my business and business reputation onlineI consider their arrogant behavior and deceptive reviews unethical and slanderousYelp hides and/or buries or deletes all positive reviews, only posting prominently negative reviews (forever), often from negative attitude persons who were not even established or real customers or clients and allows these persons to post these reviews anonymously so that anyone can post lies and deceptive reviews without accountabilityOur company cannot pursue these individuals for slander and defamation of character and we have no options for legal recourse due to Yelp's anonymous review policy and thus we are unable to seek reimbursement for crimes committed by these cowardly anonymous reviewers who slander rival businesses and fear no retribution for untruthful and deceptive, vicious reviews that appear on Yelp's websiteYelp repeatedly blocks all new positive reviews from new and established clients, repeatedly telling our company Yelp has determined that these positive reviews are "unreliable"Yelp also has refused to delete (or allow me to delete) my company profile from their Yelp online website, despite my multiple, repeated requests the past six years, resulting in irreparable harm to my business and business reputation onlineI consider their arrogant behavior and deceptive reviews unethical and slanderousThe negative reviews actually started after the first two years, during which they called our office multiple times each week, asking our company to subscribe to monthly paid service with them "to improve online reviews about our company"We respectfully and repeatedly declined their excessive and unwanted cold marketing telephone calls which were unsolicited and abusiveAfter two years of telephone harassing calls to our office, yelp.com resolved to post only vicious and slanderous reviews with daily online defamation of character reviewsPlease automatically enroll our company in any pending or future litigation against Yelp.com, with this letter as proof of authorization for you to do so on behalf of our company, and please mail (to our company address listed below) any present or future group litigation that is currently in process or planned for the future so that we may join in any lawsuit against yelp.com for irresponsible and unethical, deceptive, slanderous business practices by Yelp.comYelp.com should go out of business or be forced to go out of business by an enormous law suit which remunerates the myriad businesses who have been unjustly monetarily damaged by inaccurate reviews by Yelp.com from unverifiable sources that are only displayed prominently by Yelp's website if they are vicious, inflammatory and overwhelmingly negativeMyriad companies, such as my own company, work hard every day to provide excellent customer serviceOur company, specifically, strives to preserve vision in patients with sight-threatening diseases and to optimize patient's vision to both enrich their lives and achieve the maximum amount of excellent visual functioning possible that will allow patients to live long, happy and productive lives without progression to preventable blindnessYelp.com's mission statement seems to be the following: "let's accept anonymous, unconfirmed reviews from only the most negative and vicious people writing online reviews and post them forever without letting the companies who are being maligned have any option to delete their company from Yelp.com's website and with no recourse to correct and defend their good name and company reputation without sounding petty and argumentative by responding to incredulous and untruthful reviews by bitter and vindictive Yelp.com online reviewersYelp.com is the epitome of irresponsible journalism, slander, defamation of character for businesses worldwide and pretends to be an ethical companyInstead they have become experts in generating anonymous, negative, inaccurate reviews of businesses which they post forever and they engage in the practice of burying or discarding all positive reviews from prominent areas of their company review pages online, and then attempt to harass the very companies the pretend to be concerned for by cold marketing telephone calls and emails, hoping to charge these same businesses they are slandering "to improve that business's online reputation", which Yelp.com originally sulliedAgain, you have our company permission to include us if any current or future lawsuits against Yelp.comWe have lost many thousands of dollars from the defamation and slanderous accusations which are untruthful and unsubstantiated but published without verification by Yelp.comMore importantly, patients with serious eye disease who would have derived sight-saving eye care have been turned away from this eye care as a result of Yelp's singular focus on destroying businesses reputations throughout the world and then, in an ambulance-chasing manner, trying to follow these damaged businesses (which Yelp injured via irresponsible publishing of hostile, untruthful, subjective, one-sided online business reviews by malicious persons with evil intent) and profit monetarily by having these business pay Yelp to improve online reputations that Yelp destroyedTruly, yelp has a wicked business model that deserves to be entangled in lawsuits until yelp.com is forced out of business and into bankruptcy or exposed by businesses who unite and take action in conjunction with state government agencies and the federal government responsible for prosecuting businesses engaging in daily fraud! Until Yelp.com removes completely my business and all past, present, and future yelp reviews of me and my business from the internet, I will consider this matter unresolved and consider any and all opportunities to individually or jointly unite other maligned companies to pursue litigation against yelp.com for irresponsible slander and defamation of character, and unethical business conduct and irresponsible and inaccurate journalism which engages in no fact finding and purposely perpetuates non-factual reviews of businesses and only regards vicious reviews as reliable for their first screen yelp reviews of businesses while simultaneously burying positive reviews from real clients who were actually clients of the busin Final Business Response / [redacted] (4000, 10, 2015/08/05) */ Hi Dr [redacted] , It sounds as though you don't accept our explanation of the recommendation software, but we can only stand by our previous statementsYelp's recommendation software is an automated algorithm that attempts to weed out less reliable reviews while showcasing more reliable onesThis means that when reviews are posted to your listing, not all of them will make the cutWe 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 recommendedBut 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 appreciatedWhen it comes down to it, all review sites face the same challenge: how to identify fake reviews among the many millions of legitimate reviewsIt's no easy task, and there is always room for improvementWe hope to be able to continually improve on this issue Additionally, while we share your concerns, we don't adjudicate disputes between businesses and their reviewersCongress acknowledged this predicament by passing [redacted] that provides statutory immunity to online service providers such as Yelp for the content of third-party postsSee U.S.C§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 contentsSee Carafano vMetrosplashcomInc., F3d (9th Cir2003); Zeran vAmerica Online, Inc., F.3d (4th Cir1997); Barrett vRosenthal, Cal4th (Cal2006) That said, we will revisit your request if you provide to us a final judicial determination that the contents of a review are defamatory and will, at our discretion, take appropriate action with respect to the review and the user responsible for the review We encourage you to contact the reviewers directly using the private messaging function on our site in order to constructively address your concernsWe do not recommend that you engage in anything other than a well-meaning dialog with the reviewers in order to sort out any misunderstandings Lastly, you have again asked that your business listing be removed, but as previously stated, we don't remove business listing informationYelp is allowed to publish business names and publicly available information about businesses under the well-established fair use doctrine, as well as First Amendment principlesGenerally speaking, this means that we can display business names and trademarks "for purposes of comparison, criticism, point of reference, or any other such purpose." See New Kids on the Block vNew America Pub., Inc., F.2d 302, (9th Cir1992) Thanks for understanding Regards, [redacted] Yelp, Inc

Hi ***,Thank you for writing again.You wrote, "The range in cost per click is grossly unacceptable and is by default designed to max out the cost to my company." 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 marketIt's important to keep in mind that the price will fluctuate up or down depending on competition, relevance, and other factorsHowever, the price you pay will always be the lowest price possible to win the clickWe 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 fulfilledFor more information about how Yelp's CPC ads work, please visit: [redacted] We also want to address your comment, "not a single lead was generated from thisNo contact, no opportunity to sell." While we are sorry to hear that you were not satisfied with your advertising program, we cannot guarantee a certain level of resultsAs indicated in Section VI, Yelp's Disclaimer of Warranties, of your advertising agreement, "Yelp specifically disclaims all warranties and guarantees regarding (I) the performance, quality and results of the ad programs"With regards to your comment, "The potential for a sale is reflected on your dashboard where the potential revenue is listedThis is misleading," it sounds like you are referring to the Revenue Estimate featureThe 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 rateCustomer Leads include phone calls, website clicks, and other indicators that potential customers are engaging with your business on YelpWe'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 businessThat said, it's important to keep in mind that this is an estimate.Additionally, you wrote, "When I discovered this service was ineffective I cancelled the service[...] Waiving of the remaining balance which I dispute is the solution to the problemThis balance is not accurate as service was cancelled." We want to reiterate that per the terms of the advertising agreement you signed, we require days written notice to your account management contact if you wish to terminate your advertising programWe also provided this information about our cancellation policy to you via email on March 10, Our records indicate you provided your cancellation request on November 4, 2016, so your advertising program was canceled on December 4, in accordance with the terms of your contract.As advertising services were delivered in accordance with the advertising agreement you signed, we will not be able to waive the remaining balanceRegards,***Yelp Inc

Hi Dennis,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for Whit's Auto RepairOne 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 reviewThis is very different from other sites that tend to feature every single negative rant and positive raveThe software looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability and activity on YelpWhat 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 usersThat said, Yelpers write more positive reviews than negative reviews, so it isn’t necessarily surprising that Yelp’s recommendation software might impact more positive reviewsWe hope you’ll take the time to watch our video about the Recommendation Software: [redacted] You also expressed concern with the negative reviewsIf you come across content that you feel may violate Yelp's Content [redacted] ), please let our moderators know by reporting itYou can do so by finding the content in question, clicking the flag icon on the website or the More Options/Overflow Menu (dots) on the appYou'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 guidelinesEach case will be reviewed by our team in the order it was receivedTypically, you will receive a response to your report within a few business daysIf 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 ***Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] ***.You expressed concern with a reviewIt looks like you are referring to the review by [redacted] *, as you've previously reported this reviewThe Yelp Support team has taken another look at this review and left it up, as it was not found to be in violation of our guidelinesYou claim that this review is "false"; however, Yelp does not take sides in factual disputesRather, 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 reviewMany 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,***Yelp Inc

Hi ***,Thank you for writingWe are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for [redacted] ***As you noted, you redeemed a $promotional ad creditTo redeem the $credit towards Yelp ads, you were required to sign up for our Cost Per Click (CPC) advertising campaign and put a credit card on fileYou set your Cost Per Click monthly budget at $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 AccountIf you only wanted to use your $promotion, you would have needed to log in and end the program once that credit was usedIn Step 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? YesThere's no commitment or obligationJust come back to the Yelp for Business Owners site and stop your adsYou will be billed at the beginning of the next month for any clicks you bought before you cancelled."Below is a more detailed description of how the promotion was applied:November - 30, 2016- You received ad clicks which cost a total of $443.26- The costs did not exceed your selected $monthly budget- $of your $credit was used and you paid $143.26December 1, 2016- You received ad clicks which cost a total of $19.15- You had remaining promotional credit for this month because it was used in November- You are responsible for $for advertising services delivered in December.You can view a breakdown of how many ad clicks you received by logging in to your Yelp for Business Owners Account at [redacted] and then clicking on the Yelp Ads tab.Your advertising program has been terminatedWe have forwarded your concerns to the appropriate parties for their consideration, but at this time, as advertising services have been delivered in accordance with the Terms you agreed to, we will not be able to waive the remaining balance of $for advertising services delivered on December 1, Once this amount is collected, you will not incur further chargesThanks for understanding.Regards,***Yelp Inc