Yelp.com

Hi [redacted]Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for [redacted]We are sorry to hear you are 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 are electing to pay every time a user clicks on your ad impression. You are also paying for an enhanced profile, which includes features such as competitor ad removal and a photo slideshow.Additionally, we also want to clarify that ad clicks and Customer Leads are separate entities of information.An ad click is when a person clicks on your business's Yelp ad. When a user is searching on Yelp for a business in a certain area, we do our best to provide that user with a Yelp Ad applicable to their search. Yelp Ads appear above the natural search results, as well as on your competitors' business pages. The Yelp Ad is differentiated from the natural search results by a yellow border, and has the notation "Ad" in next to the business name. Clicking on your ad impression will take the user to your business page on Yelp, and you are only being charged when someone clicks on your ad.Once a user is on your business page (regardless of whether they found it through an ad impression or through another means, such as our natural search results), additional actions they take while on your page may appear in the Customer Leads and Activity Feed sections of your Business Account. Customer Leads are intended to show you how our users are adding and accessing information located in your Yelp business page after they've landed on the page. For example, Customer Leads activity includes mobile calls, directions, user uploaded photos, clicks to your website, Call to Action clicks, and bookmarks. Finally, we wanted to let you know that we have forwarded your message to the appropriate parties for their consideration, and it looks like our account management team will be reaching out to you soon.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/07/13) */
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 that your business owner photo had not yet been approved. We have...

systems in place to keep our data accurate and timely but from time to time, errors or delays can occur. We've gone ahead and approved your photo, and it looks like you've since been able to post a public comment.
You also wrote, "I also want Yelp to stop contacting me regarding premium accounts or upgrades." We've gone ahead and informed our Sales team that you no longer wish to receive any communication from them. If for any reason you continue to hear from them, please let us know at http://www.yelp.com/support/contact/questions
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 7, 2015/07/14) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for [redacted]You expressed concern with the pricing structure of your advertising program. To clarify, you signed up for an advertising program with...

$125 monthly fixed costs plus an ad click budget of $2,125, for a monthly maximum of $2,250. The monthly fixed costs were for your enhanced profile, a featured video, and call tracking. Your advertising program was a cost per click (CPC) program and your ad click budget was set at $2,125, which means you were only charged when someone clicked on your ad and you agreed to pay up to $2,125 a month for those ad clicks. If you did not reach your monthly budget cap, you would be charged for the ad clicks you received. However, if you did reach your monthly budget cap, we no longer delivered ads for your business for the remainder of the month so that you wouldn't have to pay more than you agreed to.As you may recall, your advertising program was billed in arrears. This means that we typically bill on the first of the month for advertising services that were delivered in the previous month. While your sales representative may have informed you that you could expect to see your first full bill on August 1, 2016, you would have seen a prorated bill on July 1, 2016 for advertising services delivered in June. Your advertising program began on June 24, 2016, so the bill you saw on July 1, 2016 was for advertising services delivered from June 24 - 30, 2016.While we typically require 30 days written notice to your account management contact if you wish to terminate your advertising program, as a courtesy, this requirement was waived and your advertising program was terminated on July 6, 2016. The early termination fee of $700 was also waived. However, as advertising services were delivered in accordance with your contract, we will not be able to waive the balance of $742.41 for advertising services delivered from June 24, 2016 to July 6, 2016. Once this amount is collected, you will not incur further charges. Thanks for understanding.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/06/30) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted].
You expressed concern that you have not been able to access your Business Account, stating, "yelp...

blocked our log in information so we can not reply to comments." Please note that the Business Account for [redacted] is still open, so you should be able to log in at https://biz.yelp.com
If you've forgotten the password ** your Business Account you can reset it by visiting https://biz.yelp.com/forgot. Once you've submitted your email address, you should receive an email message from us with instructions to reset your password [redacted] regain access to your account.
If you don't receive this message in your inbox, be sure that it didn't end up in your spam folder. You might want to add [redacted]@yelp.com to your contacts so that it reaches your inbox. If you also have a personal user account, be sure you're submitting the email address you used to create your Business Account.
Once you've logged in to your Business Account at https://biz.yelp.com/, you can respond to reviews by clicking on the "Reviews" link in the left-hand sidebar and then clicking "Send Private Message" or "Add Public Comment" below the specific review. Please note that in order to message users or publicly comment using your Business Account, we require business owners to upload a photo of themselves. Once you've uploaded the photo and it has been approved by our staff, this function will be enabled on your account. For guidance on using your Business Account, check out https://biz.yelp.com/support/using_business_account
We also want to make sure you know that a business's decision whether or not to advertise on Yelp does not affect how the reviews on its listing are treated. Businesses are not punished if they don't advertise, nor are businesses awarded with preferential treatment with regards to their reviews if they do advertise. We understand there are some misconceptions about this, so we invite you to visit http://www.yelp.com/advertiser_faq and http://officialblog.yelp.com/2013/05/no-yelp-doesnt-extort-small-businesses-see-...⇄ to learn more.
With regards to your concerns with the recommendation software, as you may have read, the goal of Yelp's recommendation software is to showcase more reliable content. The recommendation software establishes an objective standard against which every review can be measured. Even though it inevitably affects legitimate reviews from time to time and misses some fake ones, too, it helps protect the integrity of the site both for consumers (who will be less likely to be led astray by bogus reviews) and business owners (who will spend less time worrying about whether their competitors are writing negative reviews about them).
It's important to note that the software applies the same analysis to everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviews. Please also understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a review. However, the system is not static reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors.
To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US
You also wrote, "Yelp are allowing false information about our small business to be posted." If you believe a review violates Yelp's Content Guidelines (http://www.yelp.com/guidelines), you can report the content by clicking the flag icon next to it. You'll need to be logged in to your account in order to view the flag icon. For instructions on how to report content, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/article/How-do-I-report-a-review?l=en_US.
If you have already received an email from us about our decision to remove or leave up content you reported, please know that our team carefully evaluates each report we receive before we come to a final decision. If you would still 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 flagged) here: http://www.yelp-support.com/article/Can-I-request-a-second-evaluation-of-somethi...⇄ /> Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/07/06) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Hi [redacted],
You are missing my point. I did not say that I am having a problem accessing to my yelp account. What I said was that any time I am long in to my account and I wanted to respond to incorrect comments yelp is blocking my respond due to that it requires and image log in. I don't know why?
I did not forget my business account password. Again, once I logged in to my account successful. I am not able to respond on anything. The page is blocking me to respond to any comments in the past and still is doing the same.
You stated that (we require business owners to upload a photo of themselves) I uploaded many times a pictures of me or our business logo while still log in to our page. Once Again, yelp blocks my comments due to an image issue and sends me auto reply that says we will look in to the image changes. Few weeks later I will get another email from yelp that says your changes have been denied. If I am log in to our account why do I have to be denied to write and respond on comments?
In my opinion, I think we only had issue after we stop advertising with yelp. For example, we have been in business for 32 years and no complains. I am sure yelp was not there that long. How come we only notice and have issues after we stop advertising? With regards to your so call yelp recommendation software it also blocks all of our good reviews from customers that experienced our service. On my earlier emails directed to yelp customer service, I consistently complained about your software and how it is incorrect. I attached reservation from one of our customer that the software rejected his view even though, he got service from us. I just don't understand what the logic behind protection and integrity is when you rejecting reviews from customers who wants to post their experience with us. You are right we can click and flag an item but what is the Use of it when you send me auto reply that says we will look in to the issue. Few weeks later I will get another email from yelp that says we did not agree with you and we denied. I received an emails from yelp about their decision to remove or leave up content that I flagged and reported but there was never been one issue where yelp agreed with me the small business owner. With all the links highlighted with your respond not one link that you provided answer complains in regard to why you put our good comments under tittle called not recommended review.
Moving forward, I think it will be in good faith effort to have our current good comments from customers not be posted under the tittle called not recommended review. This creates doubt and confuses our future potential customers.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/07/14) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for your response.
You wrote, "any time I am long in to my account and I wanted to respond to incorrect comments yelp is blocking my respond due to that it requires and image log in." We require a photo showing your face to keep interactions between consumers and business owners as personalized as possible. We've also found that reviewers are much more receptive to dialogue when they can attach a face to their interactions.
We understand that uploading a real photo may not be for everyone, and we can certainly respect that, however if you would like to use the messaging or public commenting features of your Business Account, you will need to provide us with a real photo rather than a logo.
With regards to your comment, "I think we only had issue after we stop advertising with yelp," we want to reiterate with respect to reviews, paying businesses have absolutely no advantage. The 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.
You also wrote, "With all the links highlighted with your respond not one link that you provided answer complains in regard to why you put our good comments under tittle called not recommended review." 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.
We do understand the recommendation software can be frustrating at times, and your feedback is appreciated. When it comes down to it, all review sites face the same challenge: how to identify fake reviews among the many millions of legitimate reviews. It's no easy task, and there is always room for improvement. We hope to be able to continually improve on this issue.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
It is unfair and not right. With what you are saying I can go in on my competitors  or anyone I just don't like and give a bad review...just because I act like I had a bad experience. Yet I have seen some of our real clients give us a positive review and you reject it. This is the reason I will never give you a penny of my money when ya'll contact me wanting me to do business with you. I am asking you again to change your policy or at least do it right. I am not the only person who feels this way, I have seen reports of many reputable businesses that are harmed by your unfair policy. It would not be that hard to correct this. My time is valuable and I have spent much time to get this corrected....Do you think if what I have said isn't true, that I would waste my valuable time trying to get this ratified. I again am asking you to reconsider this case and do what is right. Sincerely,Judi [redacted]

Hi Judith,Thank you for your response.We want to reiterate that you went through the advertising sign up process and signed up for an advertising program with a $450 monthly Cost Per Click budget (or a $15 per day average) plus enhanced profile features which cost an additional $75 per month (or a $2.50 per day average), for total charges of up to $525 per month. This monthly maximum was also stated in the "Welcome to Yelp Advertising: Your Ads Are Now Live!" email we sent you after you signed up for this program, but it's possible this email may have ended up in your spam folder.Please note that if you wanted to receive billing notifications by email, you would have needed to opt in to this feature in the Account Settings section of your account. You can also view your billing statements by logging in to your your Business Owner's Account at[redacted] and then clicking on the "Billing" link in the menu on the left-hand side. With regards to your comment, "I have not ever received any list of clicks or actual indication that these so called 'clicks' were actually done - very ambiguous claims and not verifiable as I have asked numerous times for evidence," you can view the number of ads that have been delivered and the number of times your ad was clicked on by logging in to your account at [redacted] and clicking the "Yelp Ads" link in the menu on the left-hand side. However, we don't disclose additional information about the ad clicks due to privacy concerns.Regards,HelenYelp Inc.

Hi Jody,Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns. We appreciate your feedback, and apologize for the billing confusion. As you may recall, Jeff followed up with you on January 30 and 31, 2018 to let you know that he submitted a refund request for...

$650. Upon further review from our finance team, it looks like you filed also a chargeback dispute, so Yelp has accepted this dispute in lieu of the refund. Regards,HelenYelp Inc.

Hi Dr. [redacted]Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] [redacted]You expressed concern with a negative review. It looks like you are referring to the review by [redacted] We’ve looked at this review,...

and have elected to leave it up. If a review appears to reflect a user's personal experience and opinions, it is our policy to let the user stand behind his or her review.That said, you do have a voice on Yelp. With a Business Account, you can privately message the user or publicly comment on the review. You can also post information about your business, upload photos to your listing, and more.You can access your account by visiting [redacted]For guidance on using your Business Account, check out [redacted]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, "I want the other reviews to show," 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: [redacted]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.

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] K.'s review. We understand that a negative review about an experience you don't recognize is very frustrating. However,...

based on what we can see in the review and the information at hand, we weren’t able to confirm that this review is on the wrong business page.We noticed that you've already used your free business account to post a public comment on this review. Many reviewers respond favorably to business owners willing to engage in constructive conversation, and at the very least, other Yelp users appreciate seeing business owners take a proactive approach to dealing with customer concerns.You also expressed concern that the business name is incorrect. Our moderators need to be able to independently verify each name change that comes in. Not all updates are valid or fit our style guidelines, so we have to carefully evaluate each one and look for independent confirmation before we can approve the change. We want Yelp business pages to be simple, accurate, and generally reflective of the way consumers recognize a business. If you believe the business name is incorrect, please submit the change following the instructions given here ([redacted]) with an explanation (and any useful links; ie: website, [redacted] page) to help our moderators verify this information.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted].You expressed concern with [redacted] review. We’ve taken another look at this review you reported, and have carefully considered your concerns that the...

reviewer may have a conflict of interest. We are still unable to confirm the conflict using the information we have in our systems.You also wrote, "we have never provided service to this woman." We see a firsthand consumer experience as an event when someone interacts with a business, regardless of whether he or she completes a financial transaction, and will generally allow reviews that describe experiences like this to remain in place.I understand we did not provide the response you were hoping for. These decisions aren’t always easy, but please know we looked at this review closely before reaching our decision.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/01/19) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for Swimm Pool and Patio.
We've looked at [redacted] review, and since it appears to reflect the personal experience...

and opinions of the reviewer, we are leaving it intact.

While we share your concern about the possibility of a defamatory review on our site, we don't adjudicate disputes between businesses and their reviewers. Congress acknowledged this predicament by passing legislation that provides statutory immunity to online service providers such as Yelp for the content of third-party posts. See 47 U.S.C. §230. The case law is clear on this point in support of online service providers because of concerns that they would otherwise be forced to remove third party posts every time someone raised issue with their contents.[redacted]

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

We encourage you to contact the reviewer directly using the private messaging function on our site in order to constructively address your concerns. We do not recommend that you engage in anything other than a well-meaning dialog with the reviewer in order to sort out any misunderstandings.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/10/29) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns.
It looks like your Yelp for Business Owners Account access to Ray's Slots has been removed per your request.
With regards to your concern...

with the menu, to display Full Menus on Yelp's business pages, Yelp has partnered with the following menu data providers: Eat24, Locu, and SinglePlatform. This feature is automatically enabled on Yelp when a partner provides us with a digital version of the business's menu. In this case, it looks like the menu data was provided by Eat24, so we suggest you contact Eat24 directly at [redacted]@eat24.com with your concerns.
Additionally, we appreciate you bringing your concerns regarding your sales representative to our attention. We'll be sure to forward your note along to the appropriate parties.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Hi Jamil,Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for Quality Comfort Mattress & Furniture. You expressed concern with the review by Cat *. We have taken another look at this review and want to clarify our policies as...

they pertain to cases like this.The only people who can speak authoritatively to a situation are the people who were there when it happened, so our moderators aren't in a position to take sides when factual accounts differ. Additionally, if a reviewer appears to have had a firsthand consumer experience with the business they reviewed, our moderators aren’t in a position to verify or discount the contents of a review that a business does not recognize. Our moderators generally aren't able to consider outside information or arbitrate disputes, if there's a disagreement over the facts of a situation.With that in mind, we’ve taken another look and we stand by our original decision to leave the review up, as we did not find it to be in violation of our guidelines.We also want to be clear that Yelp treats advertisers and non-advertisers exactly alike with respect to reviews. Advertising only buys ads and never higher ratings, removal of negative reviews or promotion of positive reviews. You'll find plenty of Yelp advertisers with negative reviews, and plenty of non-advertisers with five-star ratings across the board. 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 hope you’ll take the time to watch our video about the Recommendation Software:[redacted]Regards,HelenYelp Inc.

Hi [redacted],Thank you for your response.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]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 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 fake reviews among the many millions of legitimate reviews. It's no easy task, and there is always room for improvement. We hope to be able to continually improve on this issue.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Hi [redacted]Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding the sales calls you were receiving regarding your business page for The [redacted] on Yelp.We've gone ahead and confirmed with our Sales team that you no longer wish to receive...

any communication from them. If for any reason you continue to hear from them, please let us know at [redacted]Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

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

voicemail and email. We also wanted to provide you with some additional information here.As you noted, you redeemed a $100 promotional ad credit. To redeem the $100 credit towards Yelp ads, you were required to sign up for our Cost Per Click (CPC) advertising campaign and put a credit card on file. You set your Cost Per Click monthly budget at $300. Once the promotion runs out, advertising continues until you stop your ads through your Yelp for Business Owners Account.Your advertising program was a self-serve program, which means that ads can be turned off by the business at any time through the Yelp for Business Owners Account. If you only wanted to use your $100 promotion, you would have needed to log in and end the program once that credit was used. During 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.Below is a more detailed description of how the promotion was applied:September 20 - 30, 2016- You received 0 ad clicks which cost a total of $0- $0 of your $100 credit was used and you paid $0October 2016- You received 2 ad clicks which cost a total of $45.59- $45.59 of your $100 credit was used and you paid $0November 2016- You received 1 ad click which cost a total of $36.62- You had $54.41 remaining promotional credit for this month because it was partially used in October- $36.62 of your remaining $54.41 promotional credit was used and you paid $0December 1 - 14, 2016- You received 3 ad clicks which cost a total of $216.53- You had $17.79 remaining promotional credit for this month because it was partially used in October and November- You paid $198.74 for advertising services delivered in DecemberYou can view a breakdown of how many ad clicks you received by logging in to your Yelp for Business Owners Account at https://biz.yelp.com/ and then clicking on the Yelp Ads tab.With regards to your concern with the variable price per click, as noted in the Terms you agreed to [redacted]), you agreed to allow Yelp to set the bid price per click to keep you competitive in the market. It's important to keep in mind that the price will fluctuate up or down depending on competition, relevance, and other factors. However, the price you pay will always be the lowest price possible to win the click. For more information about how Yelp's Cost Per Click ads work, please visit: [redacted]We also want to clarify that your advertising program was billed in arrears, which means that we typically bill on the first of the month for advertising services that were delivered in the previous month. Thus, advertising services delivered in December would typically be billed on January 1. It looks like we attempted to charge you beginning on January 1, 2017 for the advertising services you received in December, but that we were not able to successfully charge your card until February 1, 2017.You ended your advertising program on December 14, 2016. As advertising services have been delivered in accordance with the Terms you agreed to, we will not be able to offer you a refund. If you have further questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to our Account Management team directly.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/06/25) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for ** Beauty Salon.
We appreciate your feedback regarding your account managers and have forwarded your...

message to the appropriate parties. It appears that in February you and an account manager, **, discussed your options if you wanted to cancel your advertising program. Please note that we require notification on or before the 15th of the month in order to to terminate advertising at the end of that month. If you provide notice after the 15th of the month, then the advertising program will terminate at the end of the following month. It looks like you confirmed in late February that you wanted to cancel your ads, so your ads should have been cancelled at the end of March. However, as you noted, your ads actually ran through April, so we will be writing off $500 of the outstanding balance.
With regards to your concerns about the early termination fee, please note that early termination is subject to a fee per the terms of your contract. In your case, the early termination fee is $1,000. Thanks for understanding.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/07/13) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Thank you for the response, but it is woefully inadequate. I reviewed my emails with ** and I was clear that I wanted to cancel my advertising. I do not agree to paying an extra $500 for March when I asked for cancellation and explained that my business is in distress to multiple people at Yelp.
In addition, it appears the early termination fee of $1000 is something I cannot pay at this time due to distress. I may be able to make partial payment, but was told that if my business shuts down then the fee is waived. It is very likely that in the next month or two I will need to shut my business down, as it looks unlikely that I can renew my lease. At this time, I can agree to pay $250 to resolve this now, but am unable to pay more.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/07/26) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing back.
As noted previously, in order to cancel ads, a request must be received in writing before the 15th of the month in order for the cancellation request to take effect at the end of that same month. If a request is received after the 15th, the cancellation will take effect at the end of the following month. We do not appear to have a record of a written request to cancel ads prior to February 15, which is why your ads continued through March. (Due to an error, it appears ads also continued through April, but as noted in our previous response, we have waived the amount due for ads delivered in April.)
Regarding your comment that you "explained that my business is in distress to multiple people at Yelp," it appears your account manager addressed your concerns regarding the early termination fee (ETF) in an email back on February 24:
"[redacted], thanks for the response, as I explained, I can waive the ETF once you are out of business at the end of April, If I cancel you now your still would be charged for the month of March and you would be charged for the month of March. I can't do both waive your monthly and your ETF. Please reach out to if you need any further clarification."
At this time, we note that your business still appears to be in operation, and we certainly wish you the best.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because: This is the same reply they give us when we call them, "It's Our System That Auto Manages Reviews". We keep going in circles, if you read all the complaints against Yelp you would see that the majority of clients have this same problem. What's that response? "WE CAN'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT, BUT LET ME SHOW YOU HOW YOU CAN ADVERTISE TO IMPROVE YOUR RATING." Makes you wonder what they're after, happy clients or making money at whatever the cost. If the system is the problem, fix the system, it's your system. I do not remember the name of the lady I spoke to but honestly, if you call Yelp right now the person who answers will try to sell you on advertising to "Improve Your Rating". When simply, they can let reviews speak for themselves. Then, Yelp would do what it says it does "Voice The Customer's Opinion." Sooner or later a company will come to existence that listens to both the clients and their customers, and Yelp will be out the door. Really dissatisfied with their response.Sincerely,[redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/12/23) */
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 are not satisfied with your advertising campaign, and have forwarded...

your message to the appropriate parties.
We want to clarify while the goal of advertising on Yelp is to drive more traffic to the business page, which may ultimately result in more customers, it is important to keep in mind that results are not guaranteed. When advertising with a packaged Cost Per Click program, you are electing to pay every time a user clicks on your ad impression. You are also paying for an enhanced profile, which includes competitor ad removal and a photo slideshow.
We're also sorry to hear that you had trouble getting in touch with your account management team. It appears you were able to speak with [redacted] on November 6, [redacted] on December 1, and Genavie on December 11.
It looks like your advertising program is currently set to cancel on January 10, 2016. Since you are choosing to end your program before the end of the initial commitment period, an early termination fee of $650 will be assessed per the terms of your advertising agreement. Thanks for understanding.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
As the reply from yelp satates, the amount is "UP TO the certain amount". However,  when I complained I was told by yelp that it would be always 100%; I would have never accepted this knowing that they would charge 100% regardless if I would not see a single customer.  It is impossible to have that many clicks and not see one single customer.  Yelp design this advertising and program to deceive the businesses.  During the sale pitch they state on thing and don't put in the contract what they promised. Why are the recordings of the sale pitch not brought forward?  Yelp states that all the calls are recorded.  Yelp needs to be brought down and closed down.  Why doesn't any body do a complete criminal investigation on yelp?  I do not accept this response, yelp knows that they are deceiving and ripping off businesses with their criminal and deceiving practices.Sincerely,[redacted]