Yelp.com

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/08/03) */
Hi Juli,
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your review for Eye Pieces.
We would first like to clarify the difference between reviews that are not recommended and reviews that are...

removed by our Support Team. 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. It appears that your review is not currently recommended.
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
Regards,
Sasha
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/08/06) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Sasha-
This response appears to be a bunch of legal rubbish from Yelp's automated response system.
So I can better understand, please clarify with some detail on which one of the three reasons my reivew was pulled down by Yelp. Please provide me with exactly what part of the review content was in violation of "Yelp's Content Guidelines or Terms of Service" so I can correct it and repost my review. Thank you!
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/08/18) */
Hi Juli,
Thank you for your response.
To clarify, your review of Eye Pieces is not currently recommended by our automated recommendation software. As noted in our previous response, 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 a business listing, not all of them will make the cut. We acknowledge that even some legitimate reviews will not be recommended, but we still believe that the software as a whole makes our site more trustworthy and useful to consumers.
Please note we don't go into detail as to why a review is or is not recommended. We intentionally make the recommendation software difficult to reverse engineer -- otherwise, we would be overrun by reviews written by people hoping to game the system. So while it may be tough to decipher how the recommendation software works, the rules are actually the same for every business and every review.
As indicated in our prior response, the recommendation software is automated to help avoid the potential for human bias inherent in individual decision-making: we cannot reverse the software's decisions, either to suppress an active review or to restore one that isn't recommended. But once again, the system is not static -- reviews may come and go as the recommendation software picks up new information.
Regards,
Helen
Yelp Inc.

Hi [redacted],Thank you for your feedback.We want to reiterate that asking for reviews is not something we encourage. Our recommendation software attempts to identify reviews prompted by the business, so don’t be surprised if it fails to recommend the reviews you’ve asked your customers to write.We would much rather hear from Yelp users who are inspired to talk about their experiences without a business owner’s encouragement. More information can be found here: [redacted]Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
However colorful the reviewer wants to be is up to interpretation by the one reading, not YELP.  Years of verbal abuse has affected me dramatically and I consider this form of language to be bullying.  I will at this point copy and paste YELP's response and send copies along with my original complaint to the AG's office is in San Francisco and Consumer Affairs.  In addition I am considering this matter to be reviewed by the ACLU as well.  Due to my abuse I do not take this matter as lightly as YELP does.  I do not send messages to these type of folks as I do not want to engage an individual like that anyway.Sincerely,[redacted]

Complaint: 11840836I am rejecting this response because: Yelp did not provide the service according to its own terms. As previously submitted, we request a full refund and for any remaining account balance to be cleared. Details are provided in the attached document.Sincerely,Jenna Cross

Hi [redacted]Thank you for writing again.You asked, "How does this algorithm work exactly?" Please note we don't go into detail as to how the algorithm works or 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. That said, 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 also want to reiterate that, 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.Finally, with regards to your question, "Can you tell me is there a contact person at Yelp in which we can appeal to have our reviews listed?" As previously noted, we cannot reverse the software’s decisions to restore a review that isn’t currently recommended. 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. This also means that we cannot manually manipulate the recommendation software to favor an advertiser or punish a non-advertiser. That said, our recommendation software runs on a daily basis, so reviews that aren't currently recommended may be recommended in the future, and vice versa.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/07/30) */
Hi [redacted],
Thanks for writing; we are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns.
You wrote that your business "was placed on the site without our consent." While some business owners might prefer to keep a lower profile,...

business information is publicly available and its use is protected under the law. We list businesses in our directory to allow consumers to read and write reviews about those businesses. Even when a business owner has registered their business name as a trademark, the law protects the right of a website like Yelp to list the name, just as it protects the right of consumers to talk about what they like (and don't like) about a meal they ate, a plumber that they hired, or a car wash that they visited. The right to post such publicly available information falls under the "fair use" doctrine in trademark law.
You also expressed concern about a review. Yelp evaluates reported content against our Content Guidelines, however 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).
With regards to Yelp's removal of a comment the owner posted in response to a review, it appears to have contained false statements about Yelp. In the comment, it was written that " I believe this is YELP posting because this review came out immediately after a forced and aggressive discussion about paying for advertising." We know this is not trueYelp does not retaliate against businesses that elect not to advertisewhich is why it was removed.
Finally, we wanted to let you know your feedback about the sales calls you received has been noted; you should no longer receive calls about Yelp advertising.
Thanks for understanding.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for [redacted].We are sorry to hear you were not satisfied with your advertising campaign. We want to clarify that when advertising with a...

Cost Per Click (CPC) program, you were electing to pay every time a user clicked on your ad impression. You were also paying for an enhanced Yelp profile, which included features such as competitor ad removal and a photo slideshow on your Yelp listing.With regards to your comment, "He also promised a $2000 credit then after sending the contract he changed his mind and said his manager would not approve the credit," our records indicate that a promotional credit was actually applied, but had been incorrectly set up. Per the terms of your advertising agreement, you had a total monthly Cost Per Click budget of $2,125, and should have received an additional $2,000 towards your first month's Cost Per Click Budget. However, you actually received a total of $4989.02 worth of extra Cost Per Click ads spread over April, May, and part of June before the error was caught by our finance team. This error was written off so that you were not for the extra ad clicks you received.It looks like there is currently an outstanding balance of $6,854.59 for advertising services delivered from March 1, 2016 through July 19, 2016.You also alleged, "He also promised that Yelp would take down any negative reviews." 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. We understand there are some misconceptions about this, so we invite you to visit [redacted] to learn more.Additionally, you wrote, "I emailed cancellation before contract started." Our records indicate you signed your advertising agreement on February 23, 2016, with a service start date of March 1, 2016, and we were unable to locate a cancellation request from you for during that time frame. Could you please forward us the email (including headers) to [redacted], so that we can look into this further? Please be sure to indicate that it is in regards to Revdex.com case #[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 programs for [redacted]We are sorry to hear you were not satisfied with your advertising campaign. To be clear, while the goal of advertising on Yelp is to drive more...

traffic to the business page, which may ultimately result in more customers, it is important to keep in mind that results are not guaranteed. When advertising with a Cost Per Click program, you were electing to pay every time a user clicked on your ad impression. You were also paying for an enhanced profile and featured video.You expressed concern that "We have a very low and contact requests from Yelp, and the few that did contact us did so for services we do NOT provide." You also wrote, "I am beyond upset as I have NO control on my own keywords and search terms" Please note that ad delivery is not based on specific keywords, but rather the categories on your business page. When a user is searching for a business in a certain area, we do our best to provide that user with a Yelp Ad (above the natural search results) applicable to their search. That being said, as noted in Section VI (Yelp's Disclaimer of Warranties) of the advertising agreements you signed, "While Yelp will try to target ad impressions to particular users, types of users, user locations, user queries, or other user behaviors, Yelp may not be able to achieve a client's specific expectation of accurate ad targeting."You also expressed concern with the cost of a click. We want to clarify that you signed up for a cost-per-click auction-based auto-bidding program, which means that Yelp delivered a variable and unguaranteed number of ad impressions, and that the price per click fluctuated up or down depending on competition, relevance, and other factors. As noted in your contract, you agreed to allow Yelp to set the bid price per click price to keep you competitive in the market. However, the price you paid was always the lowest price possible to win the click. Our records indicate that you paid an average of $11.22 per click for your [redacted] location and an average of $10.00 per click for your [redacted]wood location during your advertising campaigns.You can view the number of ad clicks you received and the average cost per click you paid by logging in to your Business Account, selecting the appropriate business location, and then clicking on the Yelp Ads tab.Your advertising programs have been terminated. As advertising services were delivered in accordance with your contract, we will not be able to offer you a refund. You are responsible for a balance of $238.29 for advertising services delivered December 1 - 7, 2016 for your [redacted] and [redacted] locations. Once this amount is collected, you will not incur further charges. Thanks for understanding.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Revdex.com:I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. Sincerely, [redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/09/15) */
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. You signed up for 600 ad impressions per month, and these ads were delivered in accordance with your contract. Your advertising program also included additional features such as competitor ad removal and a photo slideshow.
It looks like you've recently spoken with [redacted] in our account management department, and, as you may recall from your conversation with her, we are refunding you the $700 early termination fee.
We hope you will continue to take advantage of the free features available to you on your business account to engage with the Yelp community. For guidance, please visit https://biz.yelp.com/support/using_business_account
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Hi Shaneka,Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for Great Flavor Restaurant. You claim that you requested to cancel at the end of your initial term in February 2018 when you spoke with Jesica in October 2017....

However, according to our records, it appears Jesica made it clear that if you wanted to cancel your ads at the end of your initial term in February, you would need to send us an email 30 days prior in order to prevent it from auto-renewing. It also appears that we did not receive a cancellation request from you until February 14, 2018. Per the terms of your advertising agreement, we require 30 days written notice to your account management contact if you wish to terminate your advertising program. As you provided your cancellation request on February 14, 2018, your advertising program was initially set to cancel as of March 16, 2018. That said, as you may recall from your conversation with Kelly on February 15, 2018, we have elected to move your cancellation date to February 28, 2018.While we are sorry to hear you were not satisfied with your advertising program, advertising services were delivered in accordance with the advertising agreement you signed, so we will not be able to offer you a refund. Your advertising program has been terminated as of February 28, 2018, and there is currently an outstanding balance of $398.73 for the advertising services you received in February. Once this amount is collected, you will not incur further charges. Thanks for understanding. Regards,HelenYelp Inc.

Hi Joevon,Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for County Plumbing & Rooter.You wrote, "I have been having our customers go online & post their recent experiences with my company, on Yelp in an effort to build my...

company's online reputation & almost ever recent post gets pushed to a 'reviews that are currently recommended' page." Please note that we expressly advise businesses not to ask their customers for reviews since most businesses tend only to ask their happiest customers, not the unhappy ones. These self-selected reviews tell only part of the story, and we don’t think that’s fair to consumers. You can find more information here: [redacted] It's important to note that Yelp uses automated software to recommend the most helpful reviews from the Yelp community. The software looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability, and activity on Yelp. Most of all, however, it's looking for people who are intrinsically motivated to share the wide range of rich and detailed experiences they have every day with local businesses (as opposed to people who were asked to write a review by a business owner). As a result, your best bet to get high quality and unbiased reviews about your business is to provide a memorable and amazing customer experience – it has nothing to do with asking your customers to post on Yelp.Because our recommendation software is automated, the Yelp Support team cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a review. 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. That said, our recommendation software runs on a daily basis, so reviews that aren't currently recommended may be recommended in the future, and vice versa. You also expressed concern with some negative reviews. 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. Additionally, please note that the Yelp Support team's evaluation of reviews against our Content Guidelines is separate from actions taken by Yelp's automated recommendation software. Each case will be reviewed by our team in the order it was received. Typically, you will receive a response to your report of a review 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] to your contact list).Regards,HelenYelp Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because telling me that I got the best price for the ONE click I recieved is obserd. I advertise in the EXACT same area on [redacted] and bing to men and women between 18 snd 65 years old. These other companies have earned me 100's of clicks and website visits and phone calls and the 4 other companies COMBINED did not equal the amount I was charged for ONE click with your company. Cutting off my account is not solving anything. Because of the amount you guys charged me I had to stop advertising on all the other sites due to advertising fund being competely used for the month by your one click. As a small business owner I would hope you know how important advertising is to my company and closing my account in no way fixed me losing an entire months worth of advertising.
Sincerely,[redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/11/09) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [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.ca/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, 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_CA
You also expressed concern with some negative reviews. We assume you are referring to the reviews by [redacted] as it looks like you've previously reported these reviews. The reviews have been evaluated by the Yelp Support team, and since they appear to reflect the personal experiences and opinions of the reviewers, we've decided to leave them intact. If you haven't already done so, we would suggest sending a friendly note to the reviewers with more information about your business or posting a public response in an effort to clear up any misunderstandings. You can do this fairly easily (and for free) by creating a business account on Yelp (https://biz.yelp.ca/)
You should also feel free to message any other reviewers you have. A lot of customers like to know that they've been heard, so a simple "thanks for the feedback" or clarification can go a long way. Don't fret over any particular review if it's obviously unfair and skewed in your eyes, chances are that those reading it will come to the same conclusion as you.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

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

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/06/26) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns.
We first want to clarify that 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.
As you may recall from the message you've received from the Yelp Support team on June 16, your review updates of Sweet Arleen's were removed because they did not contain a new firsthand experience or interaction with the business. Your original review has been left up, but it looks like it is not currently included among the Recommended Reviews for the business. 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 posts that I have written to be left up," 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, 2015/06/30) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I want my original review to be take off of the the reviews that weren't recommended and put back on the reviews that are recommended. I have the right to review a business without having Yelp decide if it meets their guidelines. As far as I can see I haven't violated any of those stated guidelines.
If you look at Yelp;s own reviews this seems to be a problem with many of the Yelp reviewers.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/07/08) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for your response.
To clarify, actions taken by the automated recommendation software are separate from the action the Yelp Support team takes on reviews that fall outside our Content Guidelines. If a review is not recommended, that does not necessarily mean it is in violation of our guidelines.
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.
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.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2015/07/10) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Yelp is a forum to be able to critique a business. It is unfounded to pull my recommendation to this business. It is my right to post with a truthful depiction of a business. How does Yelp determine whether a post can stay up or is taken down?
I had a post for a neurologist that was taken down prior to this review not being recommended.
If we are to be able to use Yelp to determine where we want to use a business based on other recommendations whether good or bad, we should be able to do so and be able to review said businesses as well.
Yelp doesn't have the right to determine whether I am a legitimate poster without some sort of written communication with me to verify if I am legit or not.
If Yelp doesn't comply with my wish to put my recommendation, good or bad, then I will spread the good word else where and also let everyone that I know thru various social media, etc. what a farce of a company that they are.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/12/18) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [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. 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
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 back.You wrote, "I would love how they can defend the reviews post that he had 3 haircuts the same day (as based on 3 reviews posted the exact same day, stating the same thing)." Please note that users are welcome to post reviews based on their experiences, regardless of when they occurred, so the date a review was posted isn't necessarily the date the user received the service.Please be assured that we've evaluated the content of S G.'s review of [redacted] and are allowing the user to stand behind their review. We've also looked at S G.'s review of Luxe Salon, 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. However, we've removed S G.'s review of The Loft because it falls outside our Content Guidelines.It also 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.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
Everything alleged in your response was a bald-faced lie, you DO hide my ads, you DO claim on my page that it is because I 'asked for them', which is also a lie, and you DO deliberately put my competitor's ads on my page, which proves it is not random in any way.
Also, you locked me out of my own page, which is just another way in which you are illegally acting on behalf of other stores who have paid your ransom.
You need to return my ads, unlock my page and stop lying about how you operate.
Sincerely,[redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 6, 2016/03/22) */ Hi [redacted], Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for The Law Office of [redacted] S [redacted]. You expressed concern with a review of your business. It looks like you are referring...

to the review by [redacted] R. We've decided to remove N[redacted] R's review because the content falls outside our Content Guidelines. Please keep in mind that the user may choose to post new content that doesn't violate our terms. Regards, [redacted] Yelp Inc. Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 8, 2016/03/24) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) I am pleased that the review was taken down. However, I'm utterly disappointed that Yelp failed to respond to my numerous requests to take down racially derogatory content for several weeks after I had provided notice of it and pointed out that it violated Yelp's policies. It wasn't until I filed a Revdex.com complaint that the review was taken down. There was an approximate 30 day window or more of time that I was defamed and my business harmed because Yelp allowed the content to stay on the Yelp site and the Internet. Potential clients and other viewers were able to see it which caused me harm. Final Business Response /* (4000, 10, 2016/03/30) */ Hi [redacted], Thank you for your feedback. According to our records, it appears N[redacted] R's initial review was removed a little over a week after you first contacted us. It looks like you first contacted our Support team using two different email addresses on February 29 and March 1, 2016. It appears my colleagues [redacted] and [redacted] responded to you on March 2 and March 4, respectively, with instructions on how to report the review by clicking the flag icon (Case #XXXXXXX and #XXXXXXX). It appears you then reported the review using the flag icon on March 4, and that our Support team removed the review on March 8 (Case #XXXXXXX). Additionally, our records indicate that the Revdex.com notified us of your complaint on March 10. Regards, [redacted] Yelp Inc. Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 12, 2016/03/31) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) I first contacted Yelp and requested that the profile be taken down on 2/29/16. I used 2 different email addresses because I kept being ignored and was trying to get yelps attention. I submitted the request at least 10 times. Upon still being ignored I contacted the Revdex.com.