Yelp.com

Hi [redacted]Thank you for writing again.We first want to address your comment, "That seems like Yelp is able to manipulate the system at their discretion." We want to assure you that our recommendation software is automated precisely so that it can apply the same objective standards to every business and every review without being overridden by someone's personal preferences.You also asked, "how was it able to allow the review then change it to not recommended?" Our recommendation software runs on a daily basis, so the results can change day-to-day. For example, the software might pick up new information as time goes by that makes a reviewer seem more trustworthy, or the information we have about a reviewer can grow stale.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/08/20) */
Hello,
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] Kids.
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. You asked that we recommend the reviews that are not currently recommended, but please understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a review. However, the system is not static reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors.
To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/08/31) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
The man we spoke to worked in the advertising department in the San Francisco office I am unsure of what his name was but he did contact us so it should be in your record somewhere it is completely unacceptable and unexplainable that all of our good reviews are being put on the unrecommended page.
We have tried going through the process that yelp has recommended to us. This has resulted in no resolution and the second suggestion we are getting from yelp is That we should consider advertising ! Although we've already been told that it's an automated filtration system and therefore cannot be bias or changed. We unable to expect this and strongly feel as if yelp is participating in in fair business practices .
The only resolution we are willing to except is post all of our reviews without filtering or completely remove us from your website.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/09/10) */
Hello,
Thank you for your response.
It sounds as though you still believe that Yelp manipulates reviews to favor advertisers. However, with respect to reviews, paying businesses have absolutely no advantage. The automated recommendation software does not distinguish between advertisers and free listings, and the revenue side of our business operates independently of the content side of our business, just as a newspaper might put a firewall between their advertising and reporting functions.
It also sounds as though you don't accept our explanation of the recommendation software, but we can only stand by our previous statements. Yelp's recommendation software is an automated algorithm that attempts to weed out less reliable reviews while showcasing more reliable ones. This means that when reviews are posted to your listing, not all of them will make the cut. We acknowledge that even some legitimate reviews will not be recommended, but we still believe that the recommendation software as a whole makes our site more trustworthy and useful to consumers.
As indicated in our prior response, the recommendation software is automated to help avoid the potential for human bias inherent in individual decision-making: we cannot reverse the software's decisions, either to suppress an active review or to restore a review that isn't currently recommended. This also means (and I can say this with 100% certainty) that we cannot manually manipulate the recommendation software to favor an advertiser or punish a non-advertiser. But once again, the system is not static reviews may come and go as the recommendation software picks up new information.
We do understand the recommendation software can be frustrating at times, and your feedback is appreciated. When it comes down to it, all review sites face the same challenge: how to identify fake reviews among the many millions of legitimate reviews. It's no easy task, and there is always room for improvement. We hope to be able to continually improve on this issue.
Finally, you asked for your business to be removed from Yelp, but we actually don't remove business listing information. While some business owners might prefer to keep a lower profile, this kind of information is publicly available and its use is protected under the law. More importantly, we believe that the public benefits from sharing their experiences with local businesses.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2015/09/24) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
We've gone through all the hoops yelp has suggested and tried to be as proactive on the site as possible. Still no resolution after reaching out to yelp and customers, red flags ect. I can't just accept that yelps software just has a mind of it own (filter) and decides what stays what gos. Thats like me saying my 4 year old said so, period. This situation is poor and its a good thing people in our community don't rely on yelp and know our reputation to be what it is and always has been over the last 12 years. Give me a solution that will repair online business image that we are deserving of. If a human looked at our yelp page one would see we have an abundance of positive reviews. We will only be satisfied if all opions were reWe don't deserve this reputation.
Thanks [redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because: I do not agree or accept the response.Sincerely,[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
Your company does not practice fair business. You have tried to compromise my business by intercepting as a 3rd party on other search engines...sneaky. You only approved my photo after several attempts by me and after this complaint was filed. After filing this complaint, the 1 positive review that was allowed by you, suddenly disapppeared. You are forcing businesses to go to these extremes because they want no association with your practices and behaviors. You do have a choice as to what businesses appear in your search engine so please remove mine.
 
 
Sincerely,[redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/11/13) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted]
You expressed concern with [redacted] R's review. We've taken another look at this...

review, and have carefully considered your concerns that the reviewer may have a conflict of interest. However, we are still unable to confirm the conflict using the information we have in our systems. Additionally, please note that 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. You also wrote, "She can't support her words with documents and I can," but as frustrating as it may sound, we don't take the place of a court of law and make evidentiary determinations.
In some situations, business owners may want to message the reviewer privately, or post a public response explaining their own version of events. You can access these features using our free accounts for business owners (https://biz.yelp.com/), and you can find more information about how to respond to reviews here: http://www.yelp-support.com/Responding_to_Reviews?l=en_US.
These decisions aren't always easy, but please know we looked at this review closely before reaching our decision.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/11/18) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Hello,
Thank you for your response. I do not agree with Yelp response.
Let's use the common sense. [redacted] R said that I operated my Day Care without license but I hold my State License since September 2005! What else should I tell or proof? On my offer to show it Yelp responded : " we don't take the place of a court of law and make evidentiary determinations"?! But WHY Yelp makes determinations on which comment is not recommended or must be deleted if they don't take the place of a court of law??? Yelp must leave all comments but they sort comments in their own way making favor for some businesses and disadvantage for the others. To me it looks like the "double standards".
I understand why many people call Yelp a SCAM becauseYelp Calls Lying "Personal Opinion" even if you can proof them that the other party is lying.
I have the very successful business with the waiting list for 3 years until October 2018. I do not need anybody opinion especially if it is not true. Yelp doesn't let me close my page saying : "Our moderator will take a look ..." for a week already. It is my business and my decision to where to advertise it! Yelp is not the Government Authority which can tell me what to do with my business.
Kindly, please consider my complain and force Yelp to leave me alone!
Best Regards,
[redacted] owner/director of Valley Village Little School
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/12/01) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing back.
You have again expressed concern with the review by [redacted] R. 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.
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. Please also understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a review. However, the system is not static reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors.
To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US
With regards to your concern about the order of the recommended reviews, the default order is Yelp Sort, which attempts to show reviews that help consumers make informed decisions. For example, the first review displayed for a business will be one that reflects the average star rating of a business. The order is determined by recency, user voting, and other review quality factors, which is why an older review may appear before a newer one. Keep in mind when viewing a business a user can sort the reviews in a few other ways by date, star rating, and those written by Elites.
Finally, you asked for your business to be removed from Yelp, but we actually don't remove business listing information. While some business owners might prefer to keep a lower profile, this kind of information is publicly available and its use is protected under the law. More importantly, we believe that the public benefits from sharing their experiences with local businesses.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/01/05) */
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 a review is not appearing on the main Yelp listing of a business, it would be for one of three reasons: the review is currently not recommended by Yelp's automated recommendation software (which affects both positive and negative reviews); the review was found to be in violation of our Content Guidelines or Terms of Service and has been manually removed by the Yelp Support team; or the user elected to remove the review him/herself.
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. That said, please note the action that the Yelp Support team takes is separate from actions taken by Yelp's automated recommendation software. If a review is not recommended, that does not necessarily mean it is in violation of our guidelines.
As you may have read, the goal of Yelp's recommendation software is to showcase more reliable content. The recommendation software establishes an objective standard against which every review can be measured, and looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability, and activity on Yelp.
It's important to note that the software applies the same analysis to everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviews. Please also understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a review. However, the system is not static reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors.
To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/01/05) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for The [redacted]
We first want to make sure you know that a business's decision whether or not to...

advertise on Yelp does not affect how the reviews on its listing are treated. Businesses are not punished if they don't advertise, nor are businesses awarded with preferential treatment with regards to their reviews if they do advertise. We understand there are some misconceptions about this, so we invite you to visit http://www.yelp.com/advertiser_faq and http://officialblog.yelp.com/2013/05/no-yelp-doesnt-extort-small-businesses-see-...⇄ to learn more.
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 want our not recommended Yelp reviews to be posted and part of our rating system," but please understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a review. However, the system is not static reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors.
To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US
You also expressed concern with a negative review. It looks like you are referring to the review by [redacted] C, as you've recently written in about this review. As you may recall, two of [redacted] C's reviews of The [redacted] Company have been removed because they fall outside our Content Guidelines. However, [redacted] C's most recent review of The [redacted] Company doesn't appear to violate our Content Guidelines so we're leaving it up. 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.
Finally, if you no longer wish to be contacted by our Sales team, please let us know.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for i.d. gym.It looks like you were previously signed up for the slideshow feature, which allowed you to set the order of your photos in a slideshow. It appears you are no...

longer enrolled in this feature, so the order in which photos appear on your business page (including the main photo) is determined by different factors, such as votes from the community and how recently the photo was taken. We also automatically disperse any available videos of the business throughout the photos.If you come across content that you feel may violate Yelp's Content Guidelines ([redacted]), please let our moderators know by reporting it. You can do so by finding the content in question, clicking the flag icon on the website or the More Options/Overflow Menu (3 dots) on the app. You'll need to be logged into your account to report content.To learn more, please visit: [redacted]While reporting content doesn't guarantee that it'll be removed, our team looks at every inquiry and carefully evaluates the content against our guidelines. Photos that represent a more unique personal experience may be removed from the business’s photo gallery but still appear alongside the user’s review if they’ve written one. Each case will be reviewed by our team in the order it was received. Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/07/07) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for California Solar.
You expressed concern with a review. We assume you are referring to the review by [redacted] C,...

as you've recently flagged this review. As you may recall from the message you received from the Yelp Support team, we've looked at [redacted] C's review and are leaving it up. Based on what we can see in the review, we're unable to confirm that it was posted in error, but we've reached out to the reviewer to let him know he may have posted to the wrong 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 reviewers. Congress acknowledged this predicament by passing [redacted] that provides statutory immunity to online service providers such as Yelp for the content of third-party posts. See 47 U.S.C. §230. The case law is clear on this point in support of online service providers because of concerns that they would otherwise be forced to remove third party posts every time someone raised issue with their contents. See Carafano v. Metrosplash. com. Inc., 339 F. 3d 1119 (9th Cir. 2003); Zeran v. America Online, Inc., 129 F.3d 327 (4th Cir. 1997); Barrett v. Rosenthal, 40 Cal. 4th 33 (Cal. 2006).

That said, we will revisit your request if you provide to us a final judicial determination that the contents of a review are defamatory and will, at our discretion, take appropriate action with respect to the review and the user responsible for the review.

We encourage you to contact the reviewer directly using the private messaging function on our site in order to constructively address your concerns. We do not recommend that you engage in anything other than a well-meaning dialog with the reviewer in order to sort out any misunderstandings.
You can access your account by visiting https://biz.yelp.com/
For guidance on using your Business Account, check out https://biz.yelp.com/support/using_business_account
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/07/14) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
NEVER TRUST YELP!!!!!! HERE IS WHY.......
Its very simple! If YELP can't figure out we don't work in an area 400 miles away! I think it is a shame that YELP has there head so far up there [redacted] that they can't even comprehend straight.
Like I said in the complaint we NEVER installed this persons system and we NEVER even contacted them!
I understand why now YELP has so many complaints against them at the B.B.B.
YELP needs to get a grip of there complaints and them self!
YELP you are a scam and a lying company that will find themselves in a defamation case.
You won't remove it we will have our legal team now going after you for damages as well as the customer who responded to this bogus claim!!!!!!!
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/07/24) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing back. We understand you believe [redacted] C. posted to your listing in error. While we do not take sides in factual disputes, the user's response to our messaging indicates that he believes he posted to the correct business. As such, we are leaving the review intact.
As you've already used your business account to publicly comment on the review, we would again encourage to privately message the reviewer to attempt to resolve any concerns. We provide guidance on responding to reviews at https://biz.yelp.com/support/responding_to_reviews
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: You failed to address the issue. The issue is we have SEVERAL customers tell us they posted a 5 star review only to have yelp remove the positive comments and only leave negative comments up. Again, my mom and my aunt posted positive reviews and it's nowhere to be found so she posted it again, it stays up for 1 day then it gets taken down by yelp. So how do you explain this? This is over 20 reviews we're talking about but all you show is 1 negative review. We can prove this is happening but I'm sure you'll just reply with a lie. If you don't want all the negative feedback from businesses maybe you should stop being such a corrupt untrustworthy company. We don't mind negative reviews the issue is yelp removing positive reviews and only leaving up negative ones. You are very bad people.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/05/19) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] - N - [redacted] School.
You expressed concern with the review by [redacted] L. As you may recall from the...

correspondence you've had with the Yelp Support team, the review has been evaluated and left up, as it was not found to be in violation of our guidelines. You claim that "A competitor had a friend write a scathing review with untruths"; 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.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Hi [redacted],Thank you for your response. We have forwarded your message to the appropriate parties. A manager, [redacted], has reached out to you via voicemail and email to discuss your concerns. Please feel free to reach out to [redacted] at your convenience.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because: Yelp has missed an important aspect to this problem.  I was lied to.  I did not get what I paid for from the beginning.  Yelp has not conceded that there was a possible human error on their part.  That salesperson shouldn't have made that promise.  That person told me I would be placed on the 1st or 2nd page of the listings.  And that didn't happen.  I tried to reason with your support staff when my ad appeared that I wasn't getting what I signed up for.  This would make my contract with Yelp not valid for that reason. I am very disappointed w/ Yelp.  I know there is no guarantee about business - I wasn't unhappy with my add, I was mislead about my listing placement.  No one will go through over 100 listings before they get to see mine.   I've documented all my phone calls with their support people and I know they're aware of my problem from the beginning.Sincerely,[redacted]

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for [redacted]We are sorry to hear you were not satisfied with your advertising campaign. To be clear, while the goal of advertising on Yelp is to drive more...

traffic to the business page, which may ultimately result in more customers, it is important to keep in mind that results are not guaranteed. When advertising with a Cost Per Click program, you were electing to pay every time a user clicks on your ad impression. You were also paying for an enhanced profile (which included competitor ad removal and a photo slideshow) and a featured video.We also want to be clear that a business's decision whether or not to advertise on Yelp does not affect how the reviews on its listing are treated. Businesses are not punished if they don't advertise, nor are businesses awarded with preferential treatment with regards to their reviews if they do advertise. We understand there are some misconceptions about this, so we invite you to visit [redacted] to learn more.As you may have read, the goal of Yelp's recommendation software is to showcase more reliable content. The recommendation software establishes an objective standard against which every review can be measured, and looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability, and activity on Yelp.It's important to note that the software applies the same analysis to everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviews. Please also understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a review. However, the system is not static -- reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors.To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: [redacted]We also wanted to let you know that we've forwarded your message to the appropriate parties. It looks like an account manager, [redacted], reached out to you by phone and email. As you may recall, your advertising program has been terminated as of August 3, 2016 and the early termination fee has been waived. As advertising services were delivered in accordance with your advertising agreement, you are responsible for the remaining balance of $570 for advertising services delivered in July 2016. Once that amount is collected, you will not incur further charges. Thanks for understanding.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/10/27) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted].
It looks like you are currently signed up for a self-serve Cost Per Click (CPC) advertising...

program. You can end your advertising program by logging in to your business account at https://biz.yelp.com/, clicking "Yelp Ads" in the left-hand sidebar, and then clicking "End Campaign."
However, please note that even if you end your advertising campaign, your business page will remain on Yelp as we actually don't remove business listing information. While some business owners might prefer to keep a lower profile, this kind of information is publicly available and its use is protected under the law. More importantly, we believe that the public benefits from sharing their experiences with local businesses.
With regards to your comment, "they allow consumers to publish wrong prices," it sounds like you may be referring to the Price Range attribute. Please note that certain attributes, such as Price Range, are voted on by users who have reviewed this business. However, these can change over time as more users review the business and cast their own votes. If you have concerns about prices mentioned in a specific 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.
You also wrote, "I have also received negative reviews on my business listing about other businesses." You can report a review that you think may violate Yelp's Content Guidelines (http://www.yelp.com/guidelines) by clicking the flag icon next to it. You'll need to be logged into your account in order to view the flag icon.
While reporting content doesn't guarantee that it'll be removed, our team looks at every inquiry and carefully evaluates the content against our guidelines. Each case will be reviewed by our team in the order it was received. Typically, you will receive a response to your report within a few business days. If you don't believe you've received our response, please be sure to check all email and spam folders (you may want to add [redacted]@yelp.com to your contact list).
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp 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.With regards to your comment, "I am unable to delete or change my business photos, etc," please note that you can remove photos that you’ve posted to your business page, but we won’t remove a photo that someone else has posted to your page unless it violates our Content Guidelines. In this case, it looks like the photos currently on your business page were uploaded by you through your personal user account instead of your Business Account, so you can remove these photos by logging in to your user account at [redacted]To remove your photo(s) from yelp.com:1. Go to the Business Photos section ([redacted]) of your user account2. Select the photo you want to remove3. Click Delete photo4. Click RemoveTo remove your photo(s) from an iPhone or Android device:1. Locate the photo on the business page or in your profile2. Tap the More Options icon on iPhone or Overflow Menu on Android (the three dots)3. Tap Delete PhotoWe also want to address your comment, "the owner must post an approved photo from you to respond to a review. [...] Meanwhile, the reviewers do not have to submit their photo with a comment." We appreciate your feedback, but it's important to note here that there is a difference between a user account on Yelp, and a business account. A user account is meant for personal, non-commercial purposes, and is used to participate in the Yelp community (write reviews, post in Talk forums, etc). A business account is used to manage a listing on Yelp. Just as there is a difference in the accounts, the guidelines for acceptable photos differ as well.We require business owners to use a photo showing their face for two main reasons. The first reason is for your benefit as a business owner. We believe your messages will be received more warmly if there is not an attempt to disguise your appearance, because we have found that users tend to respond more favorably when they can attach a face to name.  In our experience, most reviewers appreciate feedback from business owners and sometimes re-write their reviews if they feel the business owner went out of their way to respond to their concerns (legitimate or not). The second reason is for the benefit of the reviewer. From a consumer perspective, a message from a business owner whose face can not clearly be seen may be perceived incorrectly. We believe customers respond more favorably when they can see who is contacting them.Finally, you have again asked that your business listing be removed, but as previously stated, we don't remove business listing information. Yelp is allowed to publish business names and publicly available information about businesses under the well-established fair use doctrine, as well as First Amendment principles. Generally speaking, this means that we can display business names and trademarks "for purposes of comparison, criticism, point of reference, or any other such purpose." [redacted]Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
 
You are asking for more money? Really? You have already charged me a $700.00 cancellation fee and closed my account? How would I owe you for any more services? The "you cant control" who clicks through my site argument is very weak.  I had never experienced any contact via email or activity on my website that can be sourced to yelp.  The only thing Yelp provided was solicitations and telemarketers directed to my site.  I have recordings of every robot caller hanging up.  
In addition to this I have provided a snapshot of my inbox with repeated attempted charges to my credit card from Yelp after they charged me a 700$ cancellation fee and closed my account.  Is it normal for Yelp to hit a credit card five times after they have charged a shockingly high cancellation fee with account closure? Are these the actions of an ethical company?  
Considering your false advertisement, your over charging, and repeated attempts to charge my card after account closure I do not accept these terms and stick to my original request of a 2500.00 refund.  
 
 
Sincerely,[redacted] Desisto

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because: I appreciate your response. However, I do not understand how you can't fix or reverse the decisions of a machine YOU built. We have a legit review from a legit customer (we can prove it). Yet nothing can me done. This is pointless. Thank you.Sincerely,[redacted]

Hi [redacted]Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concern regarding your business page for The [redacted] [redacted]You asked for your business listing be removed, but as you may recall from the previous correspondence you've had with the...

Yelp Support team (please forgive the repetition), we don't remove business listing information. Yelp is allowed to publish business names and publicly available information about businesses under the well-established fair use doctrine, as well as First Amendment principles. Generally speaking, this means that we can display business names and trademarks "for purposes of comparison, criticism, point of reference, or any other such purpose." See New Kids on the Block v. New America Pub., Inc., 971 F.2d 302, 306 (9th Cir. 1992).That said, we've gone ahead and removed the street address from your business page: [redacted]Additionally, we were unable to locate any duplicate Yelp pages for your business. Because Yelp is available in a number of different countries, we have different domains, but please note that the following URLs all link to the same business information and are not duplicate Yelp pages:[redacted]Finally, we cannot control what gets displayed on other websites. We suggest you contact those sites directly with any issues regarding your listing on their sites.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/04/30) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted].
You stated that this business has changed ownership and expressed concern with some of the...

reviews. As you noted, we do not create new listings or remove reviews for businesses that change ownership or management but continue to use the same business name used by prior ownership or management. From a consumer perspective, the businesses appear to be the same. That said, as you may recall from the correspondence you've had with my colleague [redacted], we have removed the public comments posted by [redacted] P so that you can post new public comments, which it appears you have done.
With regards to the photos, after further evaluation, we have removed the photos by [redacted] O because they fall outside our Content Guidelines.
Additionally, you suggested that we have "A place on the business page front and center when someone looks at it that indicates UNDER NEW OWNERSHIP and a date." While we don't currently have such a feature, we'll make sure to forward your note to our product team so that they can take your suggestion into consideration.
You also wrote, "I decided to start asking my customers to yelp about us..good, bad or ortherwise." As you noted, we do not encourage business owners to ask for reviews, but there are ways to let your customers know you're on Yelp without being overly solicitous. With regards to your comment, "don't you guys actually supply businesses with tags for our website and stickers for our door stating see us on yelp," we do send "People Love Us on Yelp" window clings in an automated direct mail batch twice a year to businesses that qualify for this program. We don't issue (or re-issue) these window clings upon request, but if your business qualifies next time around you can be sure you'll be receiving one. You can learn more about our guidelines for using Yelp's logos, reviews, and star ratings (and request other Yelp materials for your business) here: http://www.yelp.com/brand
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/05/18) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Hi
First I want to say thank you for doing 2 things.
1. taking down irrelevant photos
2. Removing [redacted]'s comments, so I could leave comments that we are under new ownership.
It is a shame that it took a Revdex.com complaint to get this done, because all of this was requested many months ago and it wasn't until I filed the complaint, that this actually occurred.
However there is a larger issue that had not been addressed and that is the fact that I have 11 reviews in the "unrecommended" section. Mostly all positive and all but I think 2 were left AFTER I took over.
Now before you tell me about your computer generated system for recommending reviews. I know that already and it is truly a bad system. Because right now not only do you have outdated reviews, your "computer system" seems to only like negative reviews.
Just yesterday a review was left. 1 star. someone who just signed up for yelp and has only left 1 review.
I have several positive reviews from people who also have only left 1 review.
Can you explain to me why all my positive reviews are hidden and the negative review..which by the way is clearly bogus based on the info they provided is right on the front page.
Also, I find it again extremely anti business that the "not- recommended" reviews do not allow you to make if you find them helpful, funny or cool...why is that????
I have flagged this one star review, because if you look at my response you will see not only does it contain mis information, it co-incides with a law suit I am involved in with the former owner and an employee that I recently let go and they are both launching negative attacks on facebook reviews, google reviews and now yelp.
This is where yelp shows how much it does not care about small businesses.
Do you realize you can help put someone out of business because of fake reviews?
We work very very hard at this bakery and for yelp to allow a bogus review saying damaging things like we sell moldy cakes is honestly baffling.
Meanwhile my valid positive reviews are hidden away. valid customers who know we sell a good product.
Also, it is very suspicious seeing that prior to all of this. I had a very long conversation with a sales person and when I decided to not buy your very expensive advertising....I have a bunch of wonderful valid reviews from customers that remain hidden....
Oh, and your theory that in the customers eyes when a business changes ownership from a consumer perspective nothing changes??? Has anyone at yelp owned a small business????
If you went to a restaurant and they were horrible, and new owners took over..wouldn't you want to go to see if it got better?
That is what I am contending with. There was an owner here who was rude, nasty and sold less then fresh baked goods. We are the complete opposite and the "consumers" that we have spoken with in the area are thrilled to hear it is under new ownership and are trying us again to great results.
So yelp has this completely wrong, people DO want to know
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/06/01) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing again.
You expressed concern with the recommendation software and asked, "Can you explain to me why all my positive reviews are hidden and the negative review..which by the way is clearly bogus based on the info they provided is right on the front page." 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. The software (which affects both positive and negative reviews) looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability, and activity on Yelp.
To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US
You also expressed concern that reviews that are not currently recommended cannot be marked as Useful, Funny, or Cool. We appreciate your feedback regarding this feature, and will forward your note to our product team so that they can take your suggestion into consideration.
With regards to your concerns about a one star review, we assume you are referring to the review by [redacted] R. As you may recall from the message you 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 guidelines. You claim that this review is fake; however, Yelp does not take sides in factual disputes. Based on what we see in the review, we can't confirm that the user has a conflict of interest with the business. 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.
With regards to your comment, "it is very suspicious seeing that prior to all of this. I had a very long conversation with a sales person and when I decided to not buy your very expensive advertising," we want to be clear that a business's decision whether or not to advertise on Yelp does not affect how the reviews on its listing are treated. Businesses are not punished if they don't advertise, nor are businesses awarded with preferential treatment with regards to their reviews if they do advertise. Furthermore, there is zero relationship between the timing of when a review gets recommended and when a business decides to or declines to advertise. Reviews can be recommended or not recommended days, weeks, or even months after they were first posted, and a Yelp sales representative doesn't have any influence over when that might happen. We understand there are some misconceptions about this, so we invite you to visit http://www.yelp.com/advertiser_faq and http://officialblog.yelp.com/2013/05/no-yelp-doesnt-extort-small-businesses-see-...⇄ to learn more.
Finally, you expressed concern with "your theory that in the customers eyes when a business changes ownership from a consumer perspective nothing changes." While we understand some aspects of a business may change when a business changes ownership, if the core customer experience and the core elements of the business's brand remains the same under the new management, there's generally no need to create a new business page to reflect the management change. Thanks for understanding.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2015/06/09) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
It is very clear that YELP is a company that likes to support cyber bullying.
You are always scripted in your responses which tells me that YELP has no human intellect involved in making decisions and once again..the small business world is at your mercy.
I again bring up the BOGUS 1 star review from [redacted] R.
Had an intelligent human being reviewed my complaint they would have clearly seen it is false, but I am guessing you like negative reviews because that one sits right up front when my positive reviews are all hidden.
[redacted] R's review was left the day after a former disgruntled employee, another ex- employee and the former owner who I am in a legal dispute with had dinner. I clearly explained that the point about the "manager" was something only discussed with that former employee prior to her quitting..no one in the public had any knowledge of this fact because she quit 1 week later.
The former owner has taken to facebook and slandered me and here you are allowing slander to occur again!
moldy cakes??? We DO NOT sell moldy cakes and again, any intelligent human being would read the fact that "[redacted] R" was not bothered for that 'mistake" of getting a moldy cake, but that her was more upset I was supposedly not around???
Let me ask you this...wouldn't you be very upset you got a moldy cake? Wouldn't you want your money back?
As of today '[redacted] R" has neither contacted me, asked for money back and at no time have I not been at the bakery because I am short handed because my disgruntled former employee quit!
To say you don't "take sides" no one is asking you to take sides, but to allow a slanderous comment that is not true to stay up on your site when I clearly explained myself and any intelligent person reading the review can see it is not valid as it does not reference anything specific and is written in such a way to be absurd is taking sides.
I should say the correct term is LIBEL...putting something in writing that is not true with intention to inflict harm
So why are you allowing someone to libel my business?
NO ONE complained about a moldy cake..that is a lie...the review is libel.
And as for your response about a business changing hands, obviously no one at yelp has every owned a small business, because it is ignorant to think that when a business changes hands it stays the same???
This is where you are wrong, but again, you guys have no concept on running small businesses. for you to say
"the core customer experience and the core elements of the business's brand remains the same under the new management, there's generally no need to create a new business page to reflect the management change"
is so far off the mark. It IS a new brand, there IS a different customer experience and core elements HAVE changed. The only thing that remains the same is we make baked goods and the name. THATS IT.
I have had to change everything because the old owner ran the business into the ground with her poor customer service and poor quality products.
So I will ask again..why are the comments still up from the old owner when I have changed the brand, the core customer experience and core elements?
Clearly the person who reviewed and took down all the photos that were of product we no longer make understood that our core elements changed.
We don't make the same things the old owner did....how is that NOT changing the customers "core experience" and how is that NOT changing the "brand"
Yelp is just a playground for cyberbullies and it is sad that you are so against small businesses