Yelp.com

I am sorry when I spoke to you guys in January the two times I stressed and December that no calls were coming in. I expressed that I was not happy with the services and that I wanted a refund. At end of January manager told me they were closing account. So I had no service for the month of January and you guys did nothing to make me as new customer happy and kept rebuttling everything I had to say rather then work with me. Also I was told I'd have help setting up profile which I never recieved. You guys took my money lied to me and did not deliver what was promised and didn't though explain your services.  When I complained about it you did nothing to fix the complaint. So I put stop to it. Again I will not compromise in this matter. You have training issues and false your sales approach. I want full refund. You need to get paid for services you promise and not under deliver your promise s and expect to get paid for something you didn't do of what you promised.
 
Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:Sincerely,[redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/03/16) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns.
It looks like you contacted our Support team the same day you filed this Revdex.com complaint, and that you've since been in touch with my...

colleague [redacted]. He is looking into the information you forwarded.
We also want to clarify that Yelp is primarily intended for the review of local businesses, rather than online businesses. It looks like your review of Fashion Nova was removed because it appeared to be about an online experience rather than an experience at the store location you posted to.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2016/03/18) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I have not been in contact with [redacted], as he never contacted me back. I explained to [redacted], and sent him proof that the company was trying to bribe me to remove the YELP review. After I refused to take the bribe from them, they contacted YELP who later on removed the review. I sent proof in the form of emails between myself and the manager at the company who gave me offers of discounts as well as a gift card if I changed my review of them. I said no, since I contacted the store several times in hopes for a refund, that I ended up getting only AFTER I told them I was filing a complaint, left that YELP review, and made a Revdex.com complaint. I also saw several complaints from people on your (Yelp's) Facebook page, about how you remove reviews based on what companies offer you. Which makes me wonder, why my review was removed well after this situation happened, and funny enough, in the benefit of the bribing liars. The company broke a " Yelp rule" for contacting me and offering a bribe to take down my review of them. What happens for that? Your company is dishonest, and untrustworthy.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2016/03/29) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for your response.
We first want to address your comments, "I explained to [redacted], and sent him proof that the company was trying to bribe me to remove the YELP review" and "The company broke a " Yelp rule" for contacting me and offering a bribe to take down my review of them. What happens for that?" Please note that anything you send us [redacted] be used publicly as evidence for our Consumer Alert program (https://www.yelpblog.com/2016/02/yelp-consumer-alerts-take-guesswork-online-rev...⇄ if we find that the business is offering compensation for reviews or the removal of reviews. If we do use what you send us, we will remove your name, email address, and other personal information prior to using it.
That said, we want to reiterate that your review of Fashion Nova was removed because it fell outside our Content Guidelines. Because Yelp is primarily intended for the review of local consumer oriented businesses, when reviewing, your review should pertain to the location you are posting your review to. It appears your review was about an online experience and not about an experience with Fashion Nova's Montebello location.
With regards to your comment, "I also saw several complaints from people on your (Yelp's) Facebook page, about how you remove reviews based on what companies offer you," we want to clarify that businesses can't pay us to remove or suppress their bad reviews. Additionally, 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 https://www.yelpblog.com/2013/05/no-yelp-doesnt-extort-small-businesses-see-for-...⇄ to learn more.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2016/03/31) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I would like to know if you have the emails I sent to [redacted] as proof of what they had done, and if you do have them, what will be the outcome of the FACT that they did try to bribe me before they contacted you to take the review down? This is a company that clearly attempted to bribe me. Also, I don't have to visit a site made by YELP for the benefit of YELP, explaining how YELP doesn't do something YELP clearly does...for instance, taking down reviews without contacting the yelper and understanding the entire picture, FIRST. I can easily go to your Facebook page, or any social media page related to any YELP in any area and interact with real live people who have had the same, or even worse experiences than I have had with YELP. You took down my review, and didn't even allow me to explain that they tried to offer me stuff to take it down before they contacted you. Furthermore, here are your content guidelines, please tell me where it says that I am not allowed to review said location, when I dealt with that location, since its the only one AND their customer service as well... guidelines:
General Guidelines
Yelp allows users to contribute different kinds of content, including reviews, photos, videos, events, votes, tips, private messages, and more. Playing nice isn't rocket science, but just in case, we've put together these general guidelines. Please also read the guidelines below for specific types of content that you might contribute to the site.
Inappropriate content: Colorful language and imagery is fine, but there's no need for threats, harassment, lewdness, hate speech, and other displays of bigotry.
Conflicts of interest: Your contributions should be unbiased and objective. For example, you shouldn't write reviews of your own business or employer, your friends' or relatives' business, your peers or competitors in your industry, or businesses in your networking group. Business owners should not ask customers to write reviews.
Promotional content: Unless you're using your Business Owners Account to add content to your business's profile page, we generally frown upon promotional content. Let's keep the site useful for consumers and not overrun with commercial noise from every user.
Relevance: Please make sure your contributions are relevant and appropriate to the forum. For example, reviews aren't the place for rants about a business's employment practices, political ideologies, extraordinary circumstances, or other matters that don't address the core of the consumer experience.
Privacy: Don't publicize other people's private information. Please don't post close-up photos or videos of other patrons without their permission, and please don't post other people's full names unless you're referring to service providers who are commonly identified by or commonly share their own full names.
Intellectual property: Don't swipe content from other sites or users. You're a smart cookie, so write your own reviews and take your own photos and videos, please!
Demanding payment: Beyond simply asking for a refund to remedy a bad experience, you should not use removing or posting your review as a way to extract payment from a business, regardless of whether you've been a customer.
and when I expanded them....
Expand All
Review Guidelines
The best reviews are passionate and personal. They offer a rich narrative, a wealth of detail, and a helpful tip or two for other consumers. Here are some additional thoughts for conscientious reviewers.
Personal experience: We want to hear about your firsthand consumer experience, not what you heard from your co-worker or significant other. Try to tell your own story without resorting to broad generalizations and conclusory allegations.
Accuracy: Make sure your review is factually correct. Feel free to air your opinions, but don't exaggerate or misrepresent your experience. We don't take sides when it comes to factual disputes, so we expect you to stand behind your review.
Review updates: Review updates should reflect a new experience or interaction with the business. Don't tell the same old story you've already told. If you'd like to add new insight to an old experience, just edit your review instead of creating a new update.
This is my PERSONAL experience. "Firsthand" is a very vague way to describe what we can and cannot write about, especially when the sentence says: "We want to hear about your firsthand consumer experience, not what you heard from your co-worker or significant other."
All that says to me is that you want to hear about the experience I MYSELF had, not the people I know.
You view it as "direct", clearly from what you stated. But I viewed THAT SENTENCE as just my personal experience, and since I am the one who dealt with the store by phone and customer service as well. Both sucked... I felt the review was appropriate.
Definition of firsthand

1
: coming right from the original source
The sentence, again, states NOTHING about location, or me having to physically be there AT ALL. The only thing it states is that the review should come from me, and not the people I know. You guys should clarify that.
And they did fall outside of your "guidelines" very clearly:
Don't ask for reviews and don't offer to pay for them either: Please don't ask your customers to review your business on Yelp. Over time, solicited reviews create bias on your business page a bias that savvy consumers can smell from a mile away. Learn why you shouldn't ask for reviews. You should also never offer compensation (discounts and freebies count too) in exchange for reviews.
YELP was wrong. Fashion Nova was wrong. Lastly, YOU are wrong. But I would still like to know what will be done as far as my experience with them and their attempted bribing, and them breaking the guidelines.
Patiently waiting.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/12/10) */
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 a manager, **, reached out to you on December 2, 2015, the day after you filed...

this Revdex.com complaint. As you may recall from your conversation with him, your advertising program has been terminated and the early termination fee has been waived.
We're sorry to hear you were not satisfied with your advertising campaign and that the address was not updated in a timely manner. It appears the address changes you submitted were initially rejected because our moderators could not verify the new information at that time. The address has since been updated: http://www.yelp.com/biz/bolt-mechanics-farmingdale-3.
Our records indicate that you signed up for an advertising program with $75 monthly fixed costs plus up to $275 monthly variable costs, for a monthly maximum of $350. The monthly fixed costs were for your enhanced profile, which included features such as competitor ad removal and a photo slideshow. Your your monthly cost per click budget cap was set at $275, which means you were only charged when someone clicked on your ad and you agreed to pay up to $275 a month for those ad clicks. If you did not reach your monthly budget cap, you would only 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. You can view a breakdown the number of ad clicks you received by logging in to your Yelp for Business Owners Account at https://biz.yelp.com/ and clicking on the "Yelp Ads" tab.
We also want to address your comment, "They log and subsequently charge users for actions such as consumer phone calls." We want to clarify that when advertising with a Cost Per Click program, you are electing to pay every time a user clicks on your ad impression. However, you are not being charged "for actions such as consumer phone calls." Please keep in mind that the activity you see in the Activity Feed feature is not necessarily from users who have clicked on your ad. This activity may also be from users who found your business page through other means, such as our natural search results.
We hope you will continue to take advantage of the free features available to you on your Yelp for Business Owners Account to engage with the Yelp community. For guidance, please visit https://biz.yelp.com/support/using_business_account
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/01/14) */
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 amount of your ad click budget. Our records...

indicate that you signed up for $150 monthly ad click budget and $75 in Enhanced Profile features (Call to Action button, photo slideshow, and removal of competitor ads) for a total monthly maximum of $225. Please note that we recently moved away from a monthly ad click budget to a daily ad click budget. You claim that you set your monthly budget at $15. However, when we were operating by monthly ad budget the minimum was $25 per month, and the minimum daily ad budget requirement now is $1 per day (making the monthly budget $30 or $31 per month), so it would not have been possible to set your monthly budget at $15.
You also expressed concern with the $204.40 you were recently charged. According to our records, you received $225 worth of advertising services ($150 in ad clicks plus $75 for your Enhanced Profile) in December. Your advertising program was billed in arrears, and because you had $20.60 of your promotional credit left in December, you were charged $204.40 for advertising services you received in December.
It appears you ended your advertising program on January 2, 2016 through your Yelp for Business Owners Account. As advertising services have been delivered in accordance with the Terms you agreed to, we will not be able to offer you a refund. However, your remaining outstanding balance of $4.44 for advertising services delivered in January has been waived, so you will not incur further charges.
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.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/08/10) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted]'s [redacted].
You expressed concern with [redacted] review of your business. 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 the review is false; 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.
We think it's important for businesses to be part of the conversation, and have created a suite of free tools to help business owners get the most out of Yelp. As a reminder, you can:
- Communicate with your customers via private message or public comment
- Track the User Views on your business page
- Add photos and a detailed description of your business
- Convert Yelp users into customers by posting a Yelp Deal to your listing
Please note that these tools are available with our free Business Owner Accounts. We want to clarify 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.
You can log in to your account here: https://biz.yelp.com/
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp, Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because: Hi, she never communicate on emails, instead, she called many times and cursed and threatened to leave negative review to ruin our reputation and so she did. well you guys are backing her up even though she is not our customer and she had nothing to do with this transaction. even her Ex-Fiance who bought the ring and paid for the ring and has the invoice under HIS name asked us NOT to refund/release the money to her, so please  understand our situation, thanks
Sincerely,[redacted]

Hi Jonathan,Thanks for writing back.We've forwarded your concerns to the appropriate parties and a manager, Kendra, reached out to you by email with further clarification about the charges and a copy of your advertising agreement. Your advertising program was billed in arrears, which in your case means that we typically bill on the 23rd of the month for advertising services that were delivered from the 23rd of the previous month through the 22nd of the current month. The outstanding balance of $450.66 we have been attempting to collect is for the advertising services you received from January 23, 2018 - February 16, 2018.You signed up for and received cost per click ad and enhanced profile features, so we will not be able to offer you a refund. Regards,HelenYelp Inc.

Hi Anthony,Thank you for your response. We appreciate your feedback, and have forwarded your concerns to the appropriate parties so that they can take your feedback into consideration.Regards,HelenYelp 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.
Based on the information you provided, we were unable to confirm that you purchased something from us at Yelp.
If you are referring to...

something you ordered from another company, we wanted to let you know your message did not reach its intended recipient.
If you are referring to something purchased from Yelp, could you please clarify if you are a business owner or a user? If you are a business owner, please send us a link to your business page on Yelp. Could you also let us know what you purchased and when, as well as the email address associated with the account you made the purchase from?
Thank you.
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 you bringing this to our attention, and have forwarded your message to the appropriate parties. As you may recall, an account manager,...

[redacted], reached out to you by voicemail and email on November 2 to let you know that he was immediately cancelling your advertising program as of November 2, 2016. Additionally, we are waving the early termination fee of $310 and writing off the $310 charge from November 1, 2016 for ads delivered in October. However, you will still be responsible for a balance of $310 for the advertising services that were delivered in September.If you have further questions or concerns regarding your advertising program, please reach out directly to [redacted].We also want to address your comment, "reviews I had on my yelp account by customers were listed as not recommended and then they were put back on when I purchase yelp ads." 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] 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]Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Hi Dean,Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for Florida Sunshine Shuttle. We want to assure you 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.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. We hope you’ll take the time to watch our video about the Recommendation Software: [redacted]We have placed your business on our internal Do Not Call list, and going forward you should receive no further sales communication unless you explicitly request otherwise. If for any reason you continue to hear from them, please let us know at [redacted]If you would like to update your email notification preferences, you can do so by following the instructions given here:[redacted]We also want to clarify that actions taken by Yelp's automated recommendation software are separate from the Yelp Support team's evaluation of reviews against our Content Guidelines. 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. 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).You also asked for your business to be removed from Yelp; however, we don't remove business 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,HelenYelp Inc.

Hi Jonathan,Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for Drone Air Video Technology. 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. Please note that you were not paying based on the amount of calls or contact you received through Yelp. You were also paying for enhanced profile features, such as a Call To Action button, a featured video, a photo slideshow, and competitor ad removal. You also expressed concern that "every month was the max charge." To clarify, we aim to maximize the number of clicks you get for your budget over the course of the month, and you should plan to have 100% of your budget fulfilled. Occasionally competitive demand prevents this, but you'll only be billed for the cost of the clicks you received in that monthly billing period.You also claim that "As soon as [you] signed up with Yelp [you] saw an increase in telemarketing calls to [your] business number." Please note that Yelp cannot control who calls your business, and the calls you received weren't necessarily from people who clicked on your ad. We also want to reiterate that you were paying when users clicked on your ad, and you were not paying based on the number of calls you received. Per the terms of the advertising agreement you signed, early termination is subject to a fee of $700. This fee was collected on February 14, 2018. Additionally, as indicated in the 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 January 17, 2018, your advertising program was terminated on February 16, 2018.As advertising services have been delivered in accordance with the advertising agreement you signed, we will not be able to offer you a refund or waive the outstanding balance of $450.66 for advertising services delivered from January 23, 2018 - February 16, 2018 at this time. Once this amount is collected, you will not incur further charges. We have also forwarded your message to the appropriate parties for their consideration. Thanks for understanding.Regards,HelenYelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/08/24) */
Hi Dr. [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted], MD.
You expressed concern that you "have been trying to reach a live person at YELP...

customer service for a long time." Please note that our Yelp Support team doesn't offer phone based support; however, they do provide email based support through our Support Center (http://www.yelp-support.com). We've tried to include detailed answers to the questions we most frequently receive in our Support Center, but there may be situations you encounter where you'll need to contact our Support team for assistance. For these specific situations, there are articles in the Support Center that include submission forms to inquire about the issue.
With regards to your question about resetting your password, it looks like your business page has not yet been claimed. You can get started by clicking on the "Claim this business" button or the "Work here? Claim this business" link on the business page, which will take you to a page where you can create a business owner account.
Please visit our Support Center for more info: http://www.yelp-support.com/article/How-do-I-claim-my-business-page?l=en_US
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 6, 2015/06/16) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business pages for [redacted].
You wrote, "After refusing to sign up for Yelps advertising service, Yelp removed all of our...

positive reviews and placed them under reviews not recommended." We want to assure you 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.
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 all of your "reviews both positive or negative be posted as 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
You also expressed concern with some negative reviews, stating, "When we checked the name of the person rating our business, we had no record of anyone by that name ever visiting our store locations. Some of the raters were not even in the same state as our business locations." Generally speaking, if a review appears to reflect the experience and opinions of a reviewer while adhering to our Content Guidelines, it is our policy to leave the review up. That said, 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...⇄ /> Finally, you asked for your business to be removed from Yelp; however, we don't remove business 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 Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 8, 2015/06/30) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Hi [redacted],
In response to your answer "Businesses are not punished if they don't advertise with Yelp", we have three locations and at our [redacted] location, we had ten recommended reviews. These ten positive reviews were posted between 9/13/2011 to 12/18/2014. As you stated, all ten positive reviews had been scanned by " Yelp's recommendation software ". All ten reviews positively recommended our business for a three year period.
In your response, you stated "Reviews can be recommended or not recommended days, weeks, or even months after they were first posted." It should be noted that these ten reviews were rated positively by Yelp's recommended software for Three years, which is well past the time frame you are giving for specific reviews to be marked as "not recommended".
After the third time that our business declined to sign up for Yelp's paid advertising, all ten positive reviews were removed and marked as "not recommended" for my business. These ten reviews were not removed one at a time, or even over a period of months or years. These ten positive reviews were removed all at once. This is not a common practice for Yelps software after leaving them marked as positively recommended for three years. This has left our business with ten reviews marked as " not recommended reviews" and can be verified per our account.
January 2015, I had a phone conversation with [redacted] from Yelp and her supervisor explaining the situation. We also began noticing false reviews from customers who were not in our data base listed under our two other business locations. They reviews were posted by people who never have purchased a service at any of our store locations. In one example, a review was left on our business using extreme profanity. This reviewer is located in California, and our business locations are in Florida. Yelp was notified of the situation and thought it was appropriate to mark it as "recommended for our business". Yelp was notified of these problems in writing on 10/11/2014, 12/17/2014 and again on 3/10/2015. Yelp was advised that the review did not meet their content guidelines. The following are two content guidelines posted by Yelp:
Accuracy: Make sure your review is factually correct
Personal experience: We want to hear about your firsthand consumer experience, not what you heard from your co-worker or significant other. Try to tell your own story without resorting to broad generalizations and conclusory allegations.
It is obvious that if you have not had a service in our business location, you could not possibly meet the "Yelp criteria" for the review. Profanity would also be prohibited in this case.
Yelp was notified in writing of these instances and responded back saying they would not remove the reviews.
It is clear that Yelp intentionally removed all ten recommended reviews that were posted for three years and placed them as "not recommended" after we declined to pay advertising fees. It is also clear that Yelp chose to leave false "not recommended" reviews containing profanity for our additional business locations after the reviews clearly did not meet Yelps content guidelines. Yelp claiming that their complex algorithm might have made a mistake, is not acceptable due to the fact we notified them in writing.
Based on the two above facts, we are asking Yelp to remove our business locations from their website. Yelp's business practices are not the standards our company expects, and we ask that we are not associated in any way with Yelp or their practices.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Final Business Response /* (4000, 10, 2015/07/08) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for your response.
You have again alleged that Yelp is manipulating your reviews because you declined to advertise. However, 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.
With regards to your comment, "It should be noted that these ten reviews were rated positively by Yelp's recommended software for Three years, which is well past the time frame you are giving for specific reviews to be marked as 'not recommended,'" we want to clarify that reviews can be recommended or not recommended years at any time after they were first posted. 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.
We do understand the recommendation software can be frustrating at times, and your feedback is appreciated. When it comes down to it, all review sites face the same challenge: how to identify fake reviews among the many millions of legitimate reviews. It's no easy task, and there is always room for improvement. We hope to be able to continually improve on this issue.
You also expressed concern with a review "using extreme profanity. This reviewer is located in California." It sounds like you are referring to the review by [redacted] L on your [redacted] location, although it does not appear that you flagged this review. While we recognize that each person has a different tolerance for strong language, Yelp generally lets reviewers tell their own story in their own words. With that in mind, we've looked at [redacted] L's original review and because this particular review appears to reflect the personal experience and opinions of the reviewer, we are leaving it up. However, we have removed / L's review update of [redacted] because it falls outside our Content Guidelines.
You have again asked that your business listings 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." See New Kids on the Block v. New America Pub., Inc., 971 F.2d 302, 306 (9th Cir. 1992).
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 12, 2015/07/17) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Our original complaint dealt with the fact that Yelp removed all of our positive reviews that were posted for three years as soon as we refused Yelp's paid advertising. In addition, Yelp continued to leave negative reviews that had extreme profanity and did not meet their content guidelines.
Yelp is punishing our business for making a Revdex.com complaint. On July 8th, 2015 Yelp altered the actual review by [redacted] L written on 2/26/15 by deleting portions of the conversation. After deleting the business owners response to [redacted] L written on 2/25/15 along with portions of [redacted] L response back to the business written on 2/26/15, the review no longer accurately depicted [redacted] L overall experience of the business.
During the Revdex.com complaint, we noted that the [redacted] L original post did not meet Yelp's content guidelines while using extreme profanity.
1) On 2/25/2015 [redacted] L. posted a comment about our business using extreme profanity giving our business a 1-star rating. Yelp was notified that we could not find this person in our database under the name used and the extreme profanity violated their content guidelines. On July 8th, 2015, Yelp responded by saying that the content was acceptable and that they believed this was a valid post.
2) On 2/25/2015 [redacted], the business owner responded to the same post attempting to gather additional information to try to help [redacted] L if she indeed visited the store. On July 8th, 2015, Yelp removed the business owner's response to the reviewer that showed the business wanted to assist [redacted] L with her complaint. There were no content violations, and this was an import part of the review.
3) On 2/26/2015 [redacted] L responded back to her original post stating everything was "ok" and gave the business a 3-star review. Yelp showed the overall review as three stars that accurately depicted the customers feeling's of the business. On July 8th, 2015, Yelp deleted this portion of the post that only left the original post that was the 1-star rating and admitted to doing it.
By deleting the business owner's attempt to satisfy the customer along with the reviewer's most recent post to the original review, Yelp is not showing how the situation was handled or the customer's most accurate feelings of their experience.
In yelps response they claim the following:
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.
Yelp responded to the [redacted] L review by saying the following:
"While we recognize that each person has a different tolerance for strong language, Yelp generally lets reviewers tell their own story in their own words. With that in mind, we've looked at [redacted] L's original review and because this particular review appears to reflect the personal experience and opinions of the reviewer, we are leaving it up."
After Yelp removed the business owner's response, and the Stacie L updated response, didn't they override the computers original recommendation and "suppress" an active review?
This is another example of how Yelp continues to be untruthful in their business practices.
Based on the original claims that continue to support the fact that Yelps business practices do not match our company's standards nor do they accurately account for customer experiences, we ask to be removed from the Yelp site.
Sincerely,
[redacted]
[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because: you did not explain why you removed or restricted my ability to login to the account. I created this account, but now you disabled my login simply because I said I wanted my page removed.   I explained that I needed privacy. Please delete my personal information on your website especially pictures. Sincerely,[redacted]

Complaint:[redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
At no point were the words "self-serve" mentioned during the many correspondence I had with the account manager that signed me up for the service.
If I had known I could end the service myself, I would have done so. Additionally, I could have been emailed that information in response to my request to close the account, in under 4 days I imagine.
If my campaign was "self serve," I should have been informed on how to close my account. But I was not, and I did not close my account, Yelp did. But did so 4 days after I requested it be closed.
Maybe I did agree to something in the terms and conditions that absolves Yelp of fault, but it was information that wasn't readily offered before or after creating my account. Or even after I requested the account be closed.
I didn't even get a response to my request to close the account.
 
Is it common practice to close a self-serve account, days after the request is made, without informing the business that they could close it themselves that very day?
Or to make no attempt at communicating how to close a self-serve account and that it takes 4+ days to do on Yelp's end?
Because it seems like Yelp should make an actual effort to communicate that information.
Or it appears like Yelp is content to let the ads run for an indeterminate amount of time just to make more money. 
While small business owners everywhere think they've closed their accounts and everything is squared away.
 
Then if you try to come to a resolution, and talk to somebody at Yelp, you get met with rude employees who will not let you talk to a supervisor or just hang up on you.
Very professional.
 
Sincerely,Jason [redacted]

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 Custom [redacted] & [redacted] Design, Inc.
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 asked that we show all your reviews, 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 Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/01/11) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] Hair Salon.
You expressed concern with [redacted] J's review of your business. After further evaluation,...

we've decided to remove the review by [redacted] J 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 /* (2000, 7, 2016/01/18) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
Thank you

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for [redacted].According to our records, it appears you increased your ad click budget on April 12, 2017, but did not end your self-serve advertising program...

until April 26, 2017.That said, we've forwarded your concerns to the appropriate parties. As you may recall, a manager, [redacted] reached out to you on May 16 to discuss your concerns. It also appears you emailed [redacted] earlier today, May 18, and that she replied to let you know she'd be happy to look over any information that indicated the cancellation of your campaign on April 12, 2017. If you haven't already done so, please reach back out to [redacted] directly with any additional information you may have, so that she can look into this further.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].'s review. We've taken another look at this review and have left it up, as it was not found to be in violation of our...

guidelines. You claim that this is a "false review"; 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 or her review.We also want to address your comment, "I reached out to many of my customers and asked if they would go online and leave me a review." Please note asking for reviews is not something we encourage. For one thing, most businesses tend to ask their happiest customers to write reviews, not the unhappy ones. These self-selected reviews tell only part of the story, and we don’t think that’s fair to consumers. We would much rather hear from members of the Yelp community who are inspired to talk about their experiences without a business owner’s encouragement. More information can be found here: [redacted]It's important to note that Yelp uses automated software to showcase helpful and reliable reviews from the Yelp community. As a result, you shouldn’t be surprised if our software fails to recommend the reviews that you’ve asked your customers to write.  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]Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.