Yelp.com

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing again.We've forwarded your concerns to the appropriate parties. My colleague [redacted] reached out to you by email earlier today, March 24. Please reach out to [redacted] directly with any additional correspondence you had with [redacted] so that he can better understand the situation and take action where necessary.  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]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 [redacted]You also expressed concern with the recommendation software. As you may have read, the goal of Yelp's recommendation software is to showcase more reliable content. The recommendation software establishes an objective standard against which every review can be measured, and looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability, and activity on Yelp.It's important to note that the software applies the same analysis to everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviews. 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 [redacted],Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for [redacted].It looks like a manager, [redacted], was in touch with you on September 7, 2016, the day after you filed this complaint. As you may recall, we are refunding...

you $630.66. If you have further questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out directly to [redacted].Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/10/19) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business pages for The [redacted] Company.
You expressed concern that your old business locations are appearing on Yelp. To...

reflect a change in location, we will often mark the existing business page on Yelp as "moved" and create a page for the new location. The "moved" notation is meant to inform customers of this change and to direct them to your business's current location. While we don't remove business pages marked as moved in cases like this, businesses marked as moved eventually stop appearing in search results over time.
Existing reviews will generally stay put, as they describe experiences from before the move and won't necessarily apply to the new location. Customers who visit your new location are welcome to post their reviews on the new page.
Additionally, please note that customers can find the new location linked in the banner that appears on the old business pages:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/[redacted]
http://www.yelp.com/biz/[redacted]
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
It seems like your recommendation software is automated precisely to eliminate good reviews and leave only bad reviews - this is a pattern happening on our Yelp account. If bad reviews were
equally "not recommended" , we would accept your explanation. Unfortunately it is not the case. We are a small business and had a total of 5 reviews: 2 bad reviews which Yelp Recommended
and 3 good reviews that were Not Recommended, which are attached to this file.
Your recommendation software is bias and unfair. By eliminating and not recommending good reviews Yelp is damaging our business' reputation and overall ratings, that we worked very hard
to keep in a good standing. 
Sincerely,Ted [redacted]

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns.You expressed concern with a personalized email you received from us. We want to clarify that the content of such emails is generated from information such as your search history, check-in history, and...

bookmarking activity.To learn more about how Yelp handles user information, please visit our Privacy Policy at[redacted]Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Hi Josh,Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns. We were unable to locate your business page based on the information you provided. Could you please provide us with a link to the business page so that we can better understand your...

concerns? Regards,HelenYelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/08/20) */
Hello,
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns.
You expressed concern that some of your reviews of ** Apartments were removed. We allow users to post reviews, and rely on the Yelp community...

(which includes both users and business representatives) to report content that they believe is questionable. While reporting content doesn't guarantee that it'll be removed, our team looks at every inquiry and carefully evaluates the content against our Content Guidelines (http://www.yelp.com/guidelines) and Terms of Service (http://www.yelp.com/static?p=tos&country=US). If a review violates our Content Guidelines or Terms of Service, then our Support team will remove it.
As you may recall, some of your reviews of ** Apartments were removed because they did not provide enough detail about your customer experience. As noted in our Content Guidelines, "The best reviews are passionate [redacted] personal. They offer a rich narrative, a wealth of detail, and a helpful tip or two for other consumers."
That said, please note that your most recent review of ** Apartments has been left up.
With regards to your comment, "They refuse the remove the fake post (who gave the company 5 star) that could be IP traced to the ** property manager," we assume you are referring to the reviews by [redacted] L and [redacted] P, as you've previously flagged these reviews. As you may recall from the messages you've received from the Yelp Support team the reviews has been evaluated and left up, as they were not found to be in violation of our guidelines. You claim that these reviewers are affiliated with the business; however, based on what we see in the reviews, we can't confirm that these users have a conflict of interest with the business. If a review appears to reflect the personal experience and opinions of the reviewer, it is our policy to allow the user to stand by his/her review.
Thanks for understanding.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/08/24) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
"rely on the Yelp community (which includes both users and business representatives) to report content that they believe is questionable."
There was NOTHING unquestionable on my review. It was based on my experience.
The business clearly tried to manipulate the system by continuously reporting the feedback (hoping that I won't repost) and Yelp allowed this abuse by repeatedly removing my feedback for various bogus reasons. My feedback did NOT violate the terms & conditions and if you read your own terms & conditions you will see that! Nowhere in there it says I have to tell a 1 page story, with extreme detail. If I leave a negative feedback, I am entitled to be as brief as possible. In fact, look at your site and tell me you don't have 1 stars without even a single complete sentence written on it. So, give me a break.
"As noted in our Content Guidelines, "The best reviews are passionate [redacted] personal. They offer a rich narrative, a wealth of detail, and a helpful tip or two for other consumers."
Content guidelines are guidelines. That is all they are. They are not terms & conditions.I have a right to leave feedback that are not the "best." I don't work for you.
"That said, please note that your most recent review of ** Apartments has been left up."
After removing my feedback for 4-5 times, write a very long feedback (that I had no time for) and practically forcing me to report you to Revdex.com! So my feedback still being on there has nothing to do with how you violated my rights as a customer.

"we assume you are referring to the reviews by [redacted] L and [redacted] P, as you've previously flagged these reviews."
Referring to "[redacted] P." who had just signed up to leave a feedback that practically answered previous reviews' concerns (about how there are students). I mean it couldn't be clearer! I told you to check the IP that would show it was posted by the management team. But no. You don't do that but you remove my feedback for 5 times! What is going on here? Just because businesses may give you commission or ad revenue does not mean you can manipulate the reviews.
You don't even have an apology for all this abuse. Truly sad.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/08/28) */
Hi,
Thank you for your response.
We understand that you may be frustrated with our decision to remove your previous reviews of ** Apartments, but our position remains the same. As noted in Section 5.F. of our Terms of Service (http://www.yelp.com/static?p=tos&country=US), "We reserve the right to remove, screen, edit, or reinstate User Content from time to time at our sole discretion for any reason or no reason, and without notice to you. For example, we may remove a review if we believe it violates our Content Guidelines."
You have again claimed that the review by [redacted] P was "posted by the management team" and should be removed. However, we are not in a position to verify that this user has a conflict of interest with ** Apartments, so we can only therefore reiterate what we previously communicated to you: if a review appears to reflect the user's personal experience and opinions, we allow the user to stand behind their review.
Finally, we want to address your comment, "Just because businesses may give you commission or ad revenue does not mean you can manipulate the reviews." Please note 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.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2015/09/03) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Company finally admits that they discriminated against me, by saying:
"We reserve the right to remove, screen, edit, or reinstate User Content from time to time at our sole discretion for any reason or no reason, and without notice to you."
So, first it was because the Yelp users flagged it.
Then the scenario changed to "You violated terms & conditions"
And, after I proved I didn't violate it, they now say "Fine, we can remove whatever we want."
Case closed. In my favor. Because you can't just do whatever you want. I proved you were wrong.
You have again claimed that the review by [redacted] P was "posted by the management team" and should be removed. However, we are not in a position to verify that this user has a conflict of interest with ** Apartments, so we can only therefore reiterate what we previously communicated to you: if a review appears to reflect the user's personal experience and opinions, we allow the user to stand behind their review.
Finally, we want to address your comment, "Just because businesses may give you commission or ad revenue does not mean you can manipulate the reviews." Please note 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.
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] Co.We first 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. We understand there are some misconceptions about this, so we invite you to visit [redacted] to learn more.With regards to your 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: [redacted]Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/12/22) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for [redacted] Networks and Computer Repair.
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 packaged Cost Per Click program, you were paying for an enhanced profile (which included competitor ad removal and a photo slideshow) and you were electing to pay every time a user clicked on your ad impression.
Our records indicate you signed up for an advertising program on October 29, 2015. It appears you spoke with an account manager, [redacted], on November 11, 2015 about the possibility of canceling, but that you decided to continue your advertising program at that time. Our records also indicate that you provided another cancellation request on November 15, 2015, and since we require 30 days written notice to your account management contact if you wish to terminate your advertising program, your advertising program was terminated on December 15, 2015.
With regards to your comment, "They continue to bill my credit card for $325 a month," please note that your advertising program is billed in arrears, so the $325.00 you were charged on December 1, 2015 was for advertising services delivered in November. It appears there will be an additional balance of $157.27 due on January 1, 2016 for advertising services delivered from December 1 - 15, 2015. Additionally, as you have chosen to end your program before the end of the 3-month term, you are responsible for an early termination fee of $325 per the terms of your contract.
As advertising services have been delivered in accordance with your contract, we will not be able to offer you a refund. Thanks for understanding.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/07/30) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing - we are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns.
Our records indicate that you signed up for Yelp Advertising on June 12. The goal of Yelp advertising is to increase the exposure of a...

business listing through features such as targeted ad impressions. Obviously our hope for advertisers is that these ad impressions result in more visits to their Yelp pages, which in turn we hope ultimately result in more customers. However, it's important to note this is not something we can guarantee.
That said, it appears traffic to your Yelp page has certainly increased since you started advertising. Here is a snapshot of page views per month, for the last few months. Again, we note that you started advertising in June:
March: 49 views
April: 50 views
May: 47 views
June: 101 views
July: 102 (as of 7/30/15)
It looks like you signed up for a three-month program, and per your contract, there is an early termination fee should you choose to end your advertising program prior to September 12. However, should you wish to cancel, please note that your Account Manager would need to receive a request in writing.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/07/31) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I do not accept this response due to the following reasons: the Salesperson stated that I would earn back my investment, in which I did not. This program was not beneficial at all. As of today July 31, 2015. I've still had no business, and according to their "Statistics Chart", it shows that I've received the max clicks, and few calls. Realistically, I haven't got one call. I can show proof with phone call records from AT&T, which this cellphone provider does not have any falsification. There's absolutely no way that those charts are accurate.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 15, 2015/09/03) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing again.
You have again expressed concern with the calls listed in the Activity Feed of your business account, but we can only stand by our previous statements. When someone clicks on your phone number from the Yelp mobile app or the Yelp mobile website, that action will appear in your activity feed.
It's important to keep in mind that when advertising with a cost-per-click program, you are electing to pay every time a user clicks on your ad impression. We also want to reiterate that while it is our hope that advertisers will find success via the Yelp advertising program, results are not guaranteed. As noted in Section VI (Yelp's Disclaimer of Warranties) of your advertising agreement, "Yelp specifically disclaims all warranties and guarantees regarding (I) the performance, quality and results of the ad programs."
Thanks for understanding.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 17, 2015/09/07) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Like I've mentioned before. If things were actually effective, I wouldn't be debilitating my time to this complaint. The statistics that Yelp's chart were beyond inaccurate. I had to explain to [redacted] (2nd Account Manager assigned to me), that I've done a comparison on those supposedly phone calls, and none of them existed in my phone records. According to AT&T. There must've have been something corrupted on Yelp's end. If Yelp recorded their calls professionally, you can witness exactly what the Sale's Rep was stating. You can't expect a possible client of Yelp Advertising to stay on the phone and read through a five page contract, assuming that the Sales Rep basically summarized that verbally. That was our mistake for consuming falsified information that was provided, not to mention rush and pressure to signing up.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:  If this were an actual legitimate TRUE review I wouldn't be contacting the Revdex.com or Yelp about taking this review down.  We have had a negative review on yelp before from a man named [redacted], I never contacted Yelp for that review because it was true and that did happen, but when it comes to untruthfulness I'm sorry but I can not sit on the sidelines. The review is based off of all lies, he's never been here in my shop and  he must have a personal vendetta against myself or my brother to claim such things.  He says we are probably going to move to a new town and start are scam over again, excuse me but we are a legitimate business and have a good standing with the Revdex.com and have high morals and standards.  If this post is not taken down I will be forced to contact my lawyer and sue Yelp for defamation of character.
Sincerely,[redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/04/28) */
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 the two reviews of your business. As you may recall from the...

correspondence you've had with the Yelp Support team, we've looked at the reviews by [redacted] E and [redacted] C, and since they appear to reflect the personal experiences and opinions of the reviewers, we've decided to leave them intact. You wrote that "one of the reviews was by a stalker who had to be given a cease and desist notice," but please note that Yelp is not in a position to enforce such notices, and we believe such matters are better left to the courts.
You also claim that the other review "is from a scammer who gets free services by leaving terrible, untrue reviews to extort refunds." Reviewers shouldn't be threatening businesses with negative reviews (or offering to remove negative reviews they've already posted) as a way to extract a payment. Please note that we won't take action in situations where a customer is simply asking for a refund to remedy a bad experience, but we do want to hear about instances where someone expressly offers to delete their negative review (or not post one) as long as they get paid. We'll need hard evidence in order to take any action, so please contact our Support team at http://www.yelp.ca/contact and detail any proof that you can share.
Please also note that our ability to act is limited to activity on Yelp. If you are concerned about your safety outside of Yelp and believe you are being harassed or threatened, please consider contacting the authorities.
If you believe you are being threatened on Yelp, please flag the message exchange in question so it can be evaluated by our moderators (for Compliments, please send us a screenshot of the Compliment you received). You can prevent users from sending you any Compliments or private messages by clicking "Block User" next to their message or username.
You also wrote, "Yelp has removed good reviews, as some customers told me they placed reviews but Yelp would not leave them up." At this time, it does not appear that any other users have posted reviews to your business listing. If users are having trouble posting reviews, they can contact us directly at http://www.yelp.ca/contact
With regards to your comment, "While they claim in their literature that people should not ask for reviews, the customer service rep told me to just ask for good reviews from customers to bury these two reviews", 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:https://biz.yelp.ca/support/review_solicitation

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.
Additionally, 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. 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.
Finally, you wrote, "I wanted to close my listing, but they said that even if I drop my business listing, the reviews will remain." From publicly available sources such as Google, your business appears to be in operation. As you may recall from the correspondence you've had with the Yelp Support team, we publish business listing information so that consumers can share their experiences about businesses in their community. Business listings are public information and Yelp is also permitted to use business names, even if trade-marked, so that consumers may comment about businesses and their services. See, for example, Compagnie Générale des Établissements Michelin-Michelin & Cie v. National Automobile, Aerospace, Transportation and General Workers Union of Canada (CAW-Canada), 2 FC XXX (XXXX) (not trade-mark infringement to use trade-marked words "in reference to the company name itself"). That said, it appears the business account associated with your business listing has been closed. If you would like to create a new business account, you can do so by clicking on the "Claim this business" button, or the "Work here? Claim this business" link on your business' listing.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/04/29) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
This is not an acceptable answer, particularly the very last paragraph where they suggest they can use my business name without my permission, even if I remove my business listing with them. They do not mention any of this when one signs up for a business listing.
Also note that I have never had any interruption in my practice whatever, thus their new claim that I appear not to be in business is further evidence of the gross misrepresentation of facts they are engaged in. I take this to be a threat that they can go on and will go on, to try to ruin my business name by continuing to use it in order to continue to publish the harmful and untrue reviews.
In other words, the more sensational the review, the more impossible it will be to have it removed, because even if a business closes their business listing with Yelp, they will simply appropriate their business name and continue harming the business.
Neither of these two Reviewers have put their entire names, so the integrity of any such review is immediately called into question.
Secondly, anyone with common sense would recognize that a therapist would not care if a person crossed or uncrossed their feet during session, but one of the reviewers concocted this as part of her complaint.
Also note that both had the complete Program they contracted for and in fact, both had the long (2 hr) consultation session which took them through EVERY aspect of the Program they then signed up for PRIOR to the Program start. Both knew they would be required to sleep to a CD, to send progress reports weekly and that adherence to the Program was essential for positive outcomes...this was all discussed well in advance of their signing up for the Program.
When Reviewers use terms such as 'military precision', the company should know there is something amiss with the true agenda of such a Reviewer. The Program is specific and customized and the client is thoroughly apprised of every aspect of the Program in detail well before the Program starts, therefore that it was a precise program with specific steps to be followed for completion should not be grounds to put a twisted and unfair review.
Yelp is not interested in any evidence. I can send a copy of my letter to the stalker as proof that this person is merely retaliating and not writing a fair assessment. She completed the entire Program, I met all of my commitments under the Program...earned all of my fee. It should be interesting that she did not complain, but instead completed the program and only once I had to do something to end her stalking of me, did she write a negative review.
These are not just reviews...honest reviews. It can be clearly seen that the effort to get into the most absurd of story-telling with the most unlikely of details (crossing feet)is evidence of a true agenda of deliberate and concerted harm to a business.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/05/07) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for your response.
You have again asked that we remove your listing from the site, but we can only restate what was indicated in our prior message: Yelp doesn't remove business listing information.
With regards to your comment, "I have never had any interruption in my practice whatever, thus their new claim that I appear not to be in business is further evidence of the gross misrepresentation of facts they are engaged in," please note that I wrote that your business appears to be in operation. Because your business is still open, we plan on leaving the listing unchanged for the benefit of consumers. You also wrote, "I take this to be a threat that they can go on and will go on, to try to ruin my business name," but please be assured that that Yelp does not retaliate against businesses for any reason, including asking questions, expressing concerns or filing complaints.
You also expressed concern that "Neither of these two Reviewers have put their entire names," but please note that reviews on Yelp are displayed with the user's first name and last initial. Removing reviews is not something we take lightly, and it is only done when it violates our Terms of Service or Content Guidelines. We understand that you may be frustrated with our decision to keep these reviews up, but our position remains the same.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2015/05/12) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
This is not 'resolution', it is forcing a legitimate, hardworking business person to accept the unacceptable. It is not an accident that there are some 1,600 complaints against Yelp and their behavior.
First, they trap a business person and then keep repeating the same nonsense ad nauseam when the business person starts questioning their tactics. I was never advised clearly that if I opened a Yelp account, I would be at their mercy forever.
They claim to be so concerned about the quality of their Reviews, yet they show complete disregard for those who trust them to be reasonable.
A negative review is fine, but anyone who reads these two reviews would know that Yelp has not properly critiqued them...for example, what therapist cares if a client crosses their feet?
Further, Yelp is taking advantage of the fact that health care professionals are prohibited, under penalty of law, from disclosing any of the information on Reviewer's file that would show their reviews to be false and malicious.
If Yelp were in fact decent and conscientious as they claim, with no ulterior motives, they would ask both these Reviewers to be transparent and to provide a signed and dated Consent to Release their personal file information, so that their files could be released to Yelp for assessment of the facts, instead of forcing us to defend ourselves with both hands tied behind our backs.
Yelp is absolutely dangerous to any healthcare practitioner and something needs to be done about this.
I don't know if Revdex.com can organize a class action lawsuit, but this would help, since Yelp has no interest in rectifying the damage they have done and no interest in stopping this behavior.

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted].We appreciate your feedback, and are sorry to hear you have been running into trouble receiving the checks. It looks like you...

were in touch with my colleague [redacted] prior to filing this Revdex.com complaint, and, as you may recall from the email she sent you on November 2, our Finance team has processed this reissued payment, so you should be receiving it soon. Please allow up to 7 more business days from today, November 16, for the payment to arrive in the mail. Please note that we are unable to provide tracking information for this payment.If you don't receive the check within the above timeframe, please email [redacted] so that they can assist you further. We appreciate your patience in the meantime.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/08/11) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] Dental.
You expressed concern with [redacted] R's 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 not true; 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.
You 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. Please also understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a review. However, the system is not static reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors.
To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp, Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/08/17) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Yelp-
As I read the other complaints left by many companies against YELP, this is a common complaint concern. If you say it is a "software" issue, then it is your companies responsibility to evaluate that software and correct these issues that are in error. If that is not possible there has to be a way to remedy this situation for me and many other companies that are being negatively affected. Your software is not "showcasing more reliable content," about my office. It is only showcasing the first and only negative review about [redacted] Dental. There are seven reviews and only one registers in your system. Statistically speaking, if this were an unbiased "software," then at least one of the other reviews should register. It is harmful to my practice and could negatively impact my company. It is affecting legitimate reviews placed by other dental patients and affecting the integrity of [redacted] Dental. I am not satisfied by your response and would like additional steps taken to remedy this situation.
Sincerely,
Dr. [redacted] Dental
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/08/21) */
Hi Dr. [redacted],
Thank you for your response.
You stated that you are not satisfied with our explanation of the recommendation software, but we can only stand by our previous statements. Yelp's recommendation software is an automated algorithm that attempts to weed out less reliable reviews while showcasing more reliable ones. This means that when reviews are posted to your listing, not all of them will make the cut. We acknowledge that even some legitimate reviews will not be recommended, but we still believe that the software as a whole makes our site more trustworthy and useful to consumers.
As indicated in our prior response, the recommendation software is automated to help avoid the potential for human bias inherent in individual decision-making: we cannot reverse the software's decisions, either to suppress an active review or to restore one that isn't recommended. But once again, the system is not static reviews may come and go as the recommendation software picks up new information.
We do understand the recommendation software can be frustrating at times, and your feedback is appreciated. When it comes down to it, all review sites face the same challenge: how to identify fake reviews among the many millions of legitimate reviews. It's no easy task, and there is always room for improvement. We hope to be able to continually improve on this issue.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2015/08/25) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I do not accept the resolution. YELP has done nothing else to remedy this. [redacted] Dental is on many unbiased review sites on the internet, and to date your company is the only one that I have had this type of situation with. Again, it does not seem like it is an automated algorithm. There are multiple reviews and the only one that ever shows up is the negative review, and the first review that was placed with YELP. It is also biased to those people that did place a comment about the business. It does not register their review at all or their opinion about their person experience at our office. Also, why isn't there a person that you can actually contact at YELP or a phone number?

Hi Chris,Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for Larchmere Fire Works. It sounds as though you may be concerned about the possibility of fraudulent ad clicks. We use a variety of industry-standard measures to...

detect and prevent invalid traffic and click fraud. For example, we monitor our clicks and impressions for fraudulent activity, and frequently update our filters to exclude activity from known offenders. We also subscribe to the Internet Advertising Bureau's bot list, which gives us an industry-standard filter in addition to our own more rigorous ones.  If you are instead suggesting that Yelp is behaving fraudulently, Yelp denies any fraudulent actions, and there is zero factual basis for a claim that Yelp has fraudulently charged you for ad clicks.You can view the number of ads that have been delivered and the number of times your ad was clicked on by logging in to your Yelp for Business Owners account at [redacted] and clicking on the Yelp Ads tab. However, we don't disclose additional information about the ad clicks due to privacy concerns.Cost-Per-Click ads are delivered in categories matching your specific business, as well as other similar categories that our ad delivery system has identified as relevant. The price you pay per click is based on competition and relevance, but you'll always pay the least amount needed to win the click. 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 expressed concern that a user checked in to your business when your business was closed. Check-Ins are a way Yelp users can keep track of the local businesses they visit, and more information about Check-Ins can be found in our Support Center:[redacted]. That said, a user checking in to a business does not necessarily mean that the user has patronized or was inside the business, as a user typically only needs to be in the general vicinity of a business in order to check in. Please note that you are not being charged when a user checks in to your business.With regards to your comment, "my business doesn't always even show up in my local area and they can only tell me that it's about the algorithm." To clarify, when a user is searching on Yelp for a business in a certain area, we do our best to provide that user with a Yelp Ad applicable to their search. Yelp Ads appear above the natural search results, as well as on your competitors' business pages. The Yelp Ad has the notation "Ad" in next to the business name. If you are concerned because you did not see your ad, please keep in mind that you wouldn't have seen your particular ad appear every time. You bought a portion of the advertising space for your industry, so there are other advertisers that we must show as well. Sometimes you may see an ad for a different company, sometimes when conducting a search you may not see an ad at all. Separate from Yelp Ads are Yelp's numbered search results, which have absolutely nothing to do with who is paying us.  Yelp's natural search results algorithm is designed to provide the best results based on a number of different factors including review text, ratings, and number of reviews. While we can't guarantee specific results or business rankings, we are always working to improve our search tool so that we can deliver the most relevant local results to our users.We've forwarded your message to the appropriate parties, and it looks like a Customer Success Manager, Teresa, has recently emailed and left voicemails for your colleague Tina. Please feel free to reach out to Teresa directly to further discuss your concerns. 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], DDS.
We first want to be clear that a business's decision whether or not to advertise on Yelp, or...

a business's decision to downgrade their advertising program, does not affect how the reviews on its listing are treated. Businesses are not punished if they don't advertise or if they downgrade their advertising program, 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. 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 wrote, "all the valid reviews should be moved to the main reviews list," but please understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a review. However, the system is not static reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors.
To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US
You also expressed concern with a review of your business. We assume you are referring to the review by Laura K, as you've previously flagged this review. As you may recall from the message you received from the Yelp Support team, the review has been evaluated and left up, as it was not found to be in violation of our guidelines. You claim that this review is "falsified"; however, Yelp does not take sides in factual disputes. Rather, if a review appears to reflect the personal experience and opinions of the reviewer, it is our policy to allow the user to stand by his/her review.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

So far I didn't receive anything to resolve my complaint but an invitation to call them.
 
I'm out of the country and unable to respond back to the business.
I will call them on August 2nd when I'm back in US.
  
Sincerely,[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
So you guys don't think that a person who left 7 negative [redacted] (5 of them in one day) is only using yelp to threat the other businesses? or has some mental problem?
you really don't think that is a sort of weapon for the customer to reach her own desired purpose?
when she calls and threat us that either give me money or I will destroy your reputation on yelp, is that really fair and you will sit down and do nothing about that and you consider that as her experience? 
I explained you guys what experience she had, and I can not give the money back to some stranger because I could get into trouble with the person who bought the item.The invoice is under someone else and I can send you guys the information of the person who had bought and paid for the item and he did not want me to refund her, otherwise my company has no problem refunding the money to the buyer.
she had also put a picture of my employees private line which I do not want to go public and I want that to be removed ASAP.
t to custom jewelry or special orders.Form of Payment:Credit card - credit will be issued back to the accountWire transfer - will be refunded via company check
 
 
Sincerely,[redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/08/17) */
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 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. The software 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
You also expressed concern with [redacted] S's 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 "This man lies time and time again in his 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/her review.
With regards to your comment, "Yelp does not allow businesses to defend themselves against false statements in reviews," you do have a voice on Yelp. With a Business Account, you can privately message your reviewers or publicly comment on reviews, and we noticed you've already posted a public comment on [redacted] S's review. Many reviewers respond favorably to business owners willing to engage in constructive conversation, and at the very least, other Yelp users appreciate seeing business owners take a proactive approach to dealing with customer concerns. For guidance on using your Business Account, check out https://biz.yelp.com/support/using_business_account
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.