Yelp.com

Hi Beth,Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for Ng Computer Services.  Our records indicate you redeemed a $300 promotional ad credit on May 31, 2017. To redeem the $300 credit towards Yelp ads, you were...

required to sign up for our Cost Per Click (CPC) advertising campaign and put payment information on file. You set your Cost Per Click monthly budget at $450. You also signed up for enhanced profile features which cost an additional $75 per month. Once the promotion runs out, advertising continues until you stop your ads through your Yelp for Business Owners Account. Your advertising program was a self-serve program, which means that ads can be turned off by the business at any time through the Yelp for Business Owners Account. If you only wanted to use your $300 promotion, you would have needed to log in and end the program once that credit was used. During your ad setup there were Q&A's on the page explaining that you could stop your ads any time through the Yelp for Business Owners site.Additionally, after you signed up for your advertising program, we sent you an automated email with the subject line "Welcome to Yelp Advertising: Your Ads Are Now Live!" that recapped your purchase and the details of your campaign, including that the payment method on file in your account will be charged monthly, up to a maximum of $525, and your programs will continue unless cancelled. Billing statements were available in the Billing tab of your account, and advertisers also have the option to opt in to receiving billing confirmation emails in the Account Settings section of their account. Below is a more detailed description of how the promotion was applied: May 31, 2017- You received ad clicks and enhanced profile features which cost a total of $0.53- $0.53 of your $300 credit was used and you paid $0June 2017- You received ad clicks and enhanced profile features which cost a total of $241.68 - $241.68 of your remaining $299.47 credit was used and you paid $0July 2017- You received ad clicks and enhanced profile features which cost a total of $474.58- $57.79 of your remaining $57.79 credit was used and you paid $416.79August 2017- You received ad clicks and enhanced profile features which cost a total of $517.49- You had 0 remaining promotional credit for this month because it was used towards you May, June, and July ads- You paid $517.49 for advertising services delivered in AugustSeptember 2017- You received ad clicks and enhanced profile features which cost a total of $525- You paid $525 for advertising services delivered in SeptemberOctober 2017- You received ad clicks and enhanced profile features which cost a total of $403.15- You paid $403.15 for advertising services delivered in OctoberNovember 2017- You received ad clicks and enhanced profile features which cost a total of $404.74- You paid $404.74 for advertising services delivered in NovemberDecember 1 - 25, 2017- You received ad clicks and enhanced profile features which cost a total of $398.02- You are responsible for $398.02 for advertising services delivered in DecemberYou can view ad click and billing information in the Yelp Ads and Billing tabs of your Yelp for Business Owners Account at [redacted].We also want to address your comments, "I tried to stop the ad campaign (that I do not believe I signed up for) and was unable to do so from the business account page" and "I sent a message asking Yelp to end my ads in October, but it was never acknowledged." Instructions on how to cancel your ads were available in the Support Center:[redacted], we were unable to locate such a message from you from October, but if you provided a written cancellation request in October, could you please forward us the email (including headers) to[redacted], so that we can look into this further? Please be sure to indicate that it is in regards to Revdex.com case[redacted]You ended your advertising program on December 25, 2017. As advertising services have been delivered in accordance with the Terms[redacted]8) you agreed to, we will not be able to waive the outstanding balance of $398.02 for advertising services delivered in December at this time. Once this amount is collected, you will not incur further charges. Thanks for understanding.Regards,HelenYelp 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 some reviews. It looks like you are referring to the reviews by [redacted] as you previously...

reported those reviews. We have taken a second look at these reviews but, after careful consideration, we reached the same conclusion as before and are unable to remove the reviews. If a review appears to reflect the reviewer’s personal experiences and opinions, it is our policy to let the user stand behind his or her review.Additionally, it looks like this business page has recently been marked as closed. While we don't remove business pages in cases like this, closed businesses eventually stop appearing in search results over time.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 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]You also wrote, "Remove comments that either have nothing to do with our business, but rather are from disgruntled customers of OTHER insurance companies." 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.For reporting reviews, 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 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).With regards to your comment, "We want reviews from prior to the company overhaul to either be removed completely or hidden," please note that we do not create new listings or remove reviews for businesses that change ownership or management but continue to leverage the goodwill in the name used by prior ownership or management. From a consumer perspective, the businesses appear to be the same. Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
(1)  You expressed concern with a negative review. It looks like you are referring to the review by **. that you previously reported. We understand that a negative review about an experience you don’t recognize is very frustrating. We have taken a second look at this review but, after careful consideration, we reached the same conclusion as before and are unable to remove the review. If a review appears to reflect the reviewer’s personal experiences and opinions, it is our policy to let the user stand behind his or her review.Response:  This review is fake, fraudulent and was written by an individual under the age of 18 purporting to be someone other than the actual person they claim to be in direct violation of Yelp Terms and Conditions (TAC) as illustrated below:
1.   Using the Site
A. Eligibility
To access or use the Site, you must be 18 years or older and have the requisite power and authority to enter into these Terms.
D. User Accounts
Your account is for your personal, non-commercial use only. In creating it, we ask that you provide complete and accurate information about yourself to bolster your credibility as a contributor to the Site. You may not impersonate someone else (e.g., adopt the identity of a celebrity or your next-door neighbor), create or use an account for anyone other than yourself, provide an email address other than your own, or create multiple accounts.
 
5. Content
A. Responsibility for Your Content
You may expose yourself to liability if, for example, Your Content contains material that is false, intentionally misleading, or defamatory; violates any third-party right, including any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, moral right, privacy right, right of publicity, or any other intellectual property or proprietary right; contains material that is unlawful, including illegal hate speech or pornography; exploits or otherwise harms minors; or violates or advocates the violation of any law or regulation.
F. Other
User Content (including any that may have been created by users employed or contracted by Yelp) does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Yelp. 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. We have no obligation to retain or provide you with copies of Your Content, nor do we guarantee any confidentiality with respect to Your Content.
 
6. Restrictions
A. You agree not to, and will not assist, encourage, or enable others to use the Site to:
Violate our Content Guidelines, for example, by writing a fake or defamatory review, trading reviews with other businesses, or compensating someone or being compensated to write or remove a review;
Violate any third party's rights, including any breach of confidence, copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, moral right, privacy right, right of publicity, or any other intellectual property or proprietary right;
 
(2)  Additionally, you wrote, "Yelp has purposefully and with malice intent, removed positive five (5) star reviews that were posted by real people who were actual customers and who were Not requested by us to write a review. Yelp unethically manipulates reviews to force businesses to pay to advertise through them to maintain positive reviews." We want to be clear that a business's decision whether or not to advertise on Yelp does not affect how the reviews on its listing are treated. Businesses are not punished if they don't advertise, nor are businesses awarded with preferential treatment with regards to their reviews if they do advertise. We understand there are some misconceptions about this, so we invite you to visit [redacted] to learn more. As you may have read, Yelp uses automated recommendation software with the goal of showcasing 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.
Response:  This is blatantly and verifiably untrue.  We have secured forensic cyber evidence that demonstrates that Yelps mysterious algorithm is not scientifically nor statistically valid or reliable.  This is a smokescreen and constitutes false advertising.  They habitually remove negative reviews from businesses that advertise with them and remove "positive" reviews from those who do not advertise through them.
(3)  We also want to address your comment, "We are required to post a photo of ourselves to respond to reviews while other businesses, such as [redacted], can use a corporate logo." We appreciate your feedback, and we do allow businesses with a large number of locations to use a logo rather than a real  photo. However, we ask that business owners who do not have a large number of locations use a real photo to keep interactions between consumers and business owners as personalized as possible. We've also found that reviewers are much more receptive to dialogue when they can attach a face to their interactions.Response:  This is another example of discriminatory practices wherein Yelp does not apply uniform standards to all businesses but favors large entities.  Also, Yelp makes no effort to require reviewers to post a photo to write about a company, which in our case is false and does not represent an actual experience by an actual customer.  Yelp does not definitely identify reviewers to authenticate the legitimacy of the content posted but requires business personnel responding to the review to post a photo "unless" they are a large company with multiple locations.
In sum, Yelp abuses the responsibility it has to businesses that are affected by reviews that are posted by individuals whose age and identification have not been verified.  The response we received from Yelp to this complaint is further evidence of their practice to promote themselves as being one thing while in fact being something completely different.  This was a stock response and a placation that demonstrates the degree to which they perpetuate irresponsibility to the small business community.  Their service is a disgrace and a disservice which does harm to businesses by allowing fake, fraudulent and unverified reviews to be posted by underage reviewers pretending to be someone other than who they actually are in complete violation of Yelp's  stated Terms and Conditions (TAC) which are meaningless because they are not enforced.  Sincerely,[redacted]

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for [redacted]We've forwarded your message to the appropriate parties. As you may recall, a manager, [redacted], reached out to you by voicemail and email on November 15 to let you know that we have waived the remaining balance of $10.47 for advertising services delivered November 1 - 3, 2016, so you will not incur further charges. [redacted] has also submitted a request for your credit card information to be removed.We also want to clarify that not all features on the Yelp for Business Owners website [redacted] are currently available on the Yelp for Business Owners app. For example, in order to manage and end self-serve advertising campaigns, business owners must log in to the Yelp for Business Owners website rather than the mobile app. For more information about the Yelp for Business Owners app, please visit: [redacted]If you have further questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to [redacted] directly.  Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Hi [redacted],Thank you for your response.We appreciate your feedback, and have forwarded your message to the appropriate parties.You expressed concern that you received calls from telemarketers. We want to clarify that you were not paying for phone calls, rather, you were electing to pay every time a user clicked on your ad impression. Additionally, please keep in mind that the calls you are referring to may not necessarily have been from users who clicked on your ad. This activity may have been be from users who found your business page through other means, such as our natural search results.You also expressed concern with the variable price for a click. While your sales representative may have given you an estimated price per click, we want to reiterate that the price will fluctuate up or down depending on competition and relevance. However, it will always be the lowest price possible to win the click. Information explaining that the click price varies was available in the Terms ([redacted]) you agreed to when you signed your advertising agreement. Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/01/21) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns.
You wrote, "Yelp has created a monster,allowing people to complain about a business without any regulation." To clarify, we allow users to...

post reviews, and rely on the Yelp community to report content that they believe is questionable. If a review violates our Content Guidelines (http://www.yelp.com/guidelines), then our Support team will remove it.
If you feel that something may violate our Content Guidelines or Terms of Service (http://www.yelp.com/static?country=US&p=tos), we encourage you to let us know by clicking the flag icon next to the review. 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.
While reporting content doesn't guarantee that it'll be removed, our team looks at every inquiry and carefully evaluates the content against our guidelines. Each case will be reviewed by our team in the order it was received. Typically, you will receive a response to your report within a few business days. If you don't believe you've received our response, please be sure to check all email and spam folders (you may want to add [redacted]@yelp.com to your contact list).
You also wrote, "businesses are getting black mailed by consumer. Consumers are threatening businesses with bad reviews in order to get whatever they demand." It's important to distinguish between customers who have a negative experience and let the business know that they intend to talk about it on Yelp versus those who might go from business to business threatening to fabricate negative reviews for special treatment. That said, Yelp's Terms of Service prohibit compensating someone or being compensated to write or remove a review. You can read our Terms of Service here: http://www.yelp.com/static?p=tos&country=US. Obviously, we don't condone such conduct and would want you to share any other information you have about this kind of behavior so that we can take action if we deem it appropriate.
If there is a specific review you are concerned with, you can report it following the instructions above, or you can respond to this message with a link to the business page and the name of the reviewer.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Complaint[redacted]I am rejecting this response because: You have ONLY rejected my positive reviews from my clients. This is unethical! I will only accept all my reviews being shown!Sincerely,Michael [redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/07/15) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] Service.
Please note that if a review is not appearing on the main...

Yelp listing of a business, it would be for one of three reasons: the review is currently not recommended by Yelp's automated recommendation software (which affects both positive and negative reviews); the review was found to be in violation of our Content Guidelines or Terms of Service and has been manually removed by the Yelp Support team; or the user elected to remove the review him/herself. It appears the review you are referring to is currently not recommended by Yelp's automated software.
Please also note the action that the Yelp Support team takes is separate from actions taken by Yelp's automated recommendation software. If a review is not recommended, that does not necessarily mean it is in violation of our guidelines.
That being said, we first want to make sure you know that a business's decision whether or not to advertise on Yelp does not affect how the reviews on its listing are treated. Businesses are not punished if they don't advertise, nor are businesses awarded with preferential treatment with regards to their reviews if they do advertise. We understand there are some misconceptions about this, so we invite you to visit http://www.yelp.com/advertiser_faq and http://officialblog.yelp.com/2013/05/no-yelp-doesnt-extort-small-businesses-see-...⇄ to learn more.
If you believe, however, that an individual has provided you with different information, we would like to investigate further. To that end, please provide us with the name of the individual whom you spoke with, their phone number, and the date and time of your conversation with them, if known.
It appears 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. 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, 2015/07/17) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
This is an unacceptable response.
First, your company has had numerous complaints against it. Your process is not working.
If you would like an example. Since this was filed, every single positive comment on our page has been removed, along with many others that have been left, yet you continue to leave the negative comment. I have contacted my clients about the fact that your company has removed their positive responses and they are NOT HAPPY! Not only did you remove their reviews, you left a photograph up on our page. Their picture!!!! They posted it along with their two dogs that we have taken care of for over 7 years.
You also failed to comment on the other two businesses in this complaint. We have three and they are all experiencing this problem. This does not serve the consumer in any good way when those companies that advertise have their positive comments posted and negative ones sent to the bottom of the list.
I want someone to review this account and manually adjust these reviews. If not, I want my company permanently removed from your site. Your site is not good for anyone, if your "automated software" determines whether a review is valid, since it is obviously, not working! We are looking in to other options, but if this is not resolved, we will be proceeding with our clients to make more people aware of how Yelp is operating. We have already contacted our local TV station that does stories about this type of situation, but we are waiting to try and resolve this with Yelp. We have also sent letters to the executives of your company, bringing attention to this problem. To us this should not be answered here, but by contacting the business and resolving it. You might find fewer complaints on the internet and here if you were more proactive and not let it get to this point. I will continue to work on this on my end, but I want someone to contact me so that this can be resolved in a business like manner.
Thanks
[redacted]
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/08/03) */
Hi [redacted],
It sounds as though you don't accept our explanation of the recommendation software, but we can only stand by our previous statements. Yelp's recommendation software is an automated algorithm that attempts to weed out less reliable reviews while showcasing more reliable ones. This means that when reviews are posted to your listing, not all of them will make the cut. We acknowledge that even some legitimate reviews will not be recommended, but we still believe that the software as a whole makes our site more trustworthy and useful to consumers.
As indicated in our prior response, the recommendation software is automated to help avoid the potential for human bias inherent in individual decision-making: we cannot reverse the software's decisions, either to suppress an active review or to restore one that isn't recommended. But once again, the system is not static reviews may come and go as the recommendation software picks up new information.
We do understand the recommendation software can be frustrating at times, and your feedback is appreciated. When it comes down to it, all review sites face the same challenge: how to identify 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.
Regarding your client's photo, since they have uploaded the photo themselves, they can also remove the photo by going into their user account and clicking on the "Delete" link next to the photo in question.
We also wanted to clarify that while our Yelp Support team doesn't offer phone based support, 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.
Lastly, you asked for your business to be removed from Yelp, but we actually don't remove business listing information. While some business owners might prefer to keep a lower profile, this kind of information is publicly available and its use is protected under the law. More importantly, we believe that the public benefits from sharing their experiences with local businesses.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2015/08/09) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Yelp continues to bully businesses that don't advertise with the company and will result in more class action lawsuits.

I just had 9 letters returned that were sent to Yelp. I will now contact our news media about this and pursue other actions!
This company has one of the lowest Revdex.com ratings of any company out there. Their stock is plummeting because people are catching on to how bad this review system is. Without any way of contacting executives about the problems, I can only assume that more and more people will continue to loose interest in this company. In the mean time, I will do everything in my power to make others aware of just how bad this company is.
Your days are numbered Yelp and I will be one of the first people jumping up and down since you won't listen to the people that actually give you a platform to exist. Trip Advisor and other rating sites are more reliable.
You have unleashed a very unhappy business owner!

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns.We first 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 [redacted] and [redacted] to learn more.You also expressed concern with the recommendation software. As you may have read, the goal of Yelp's recommendation software is to showcase more reliable content. The recommendation software establishes an objective standard against which every review can be measured, and looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability, and activity on Yelp.It's important to note that the software applies the same analysis to everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviews. Please also understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a review. However, the system is not static -- reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors.To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: [redacted]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 [redacted] Clinic.
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, 2015/08/26) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Dear Mr. [redacted],
Consumers turn to Yelp because many people want to find out if a business has an excellent reputation. I know I myself turned to Yelp and read reviews about Vet Playas before I made the terrible decision to go there because Yelp had nothing but glowing 5 Star reviews for Vet Playas, which I now know, in no way reflects the truth about this incompetent and dishonest veterinary clinic.
While I appreciate your response, I have to say I am disappointed. I find your software to be unacceptable for such a successful company. Is this the best you can do, being that you are a prosperous giant, when it comes to the business of consumer reviews?
According to your website, Yelp states: "Your trust is our top concern, so business can't pay to alter or remove their reviews." Really? Not a single person (several people have complained) can even post one 1 star review for Vet Playas. They are automatically hidden.
If a consumer's trust was your top concern, you would allow consumers to post 1 star reviews about Vet Playas, and ask all those who posted positive reviews for Vet Playas for verifiable proof of purchase, to determine if any of these posting 5 Star Vet Playas Reviews have ever even made a single purchase at Vet Playas.
If this was a retail store or a restaurant, it would not be so egregious. However, a 5 star (fake?) Yelp review and score for an incompetent so called emergency Vet clinic in Mexico, can result in not only someone's fur baby dying and suffering inhumanely at Vet Playas, which is what happened to my 7-year-old yellow lab, but will only cause extreme heartache to those who love their companion animal. Do you not love pets? I ask you to please reconsider. My review, which is true and correct, was deleted several times and hidden.
Please do not let Vet Playas take advantage of people during an emergency by allowing them to have a score that does not truly reflect the bad reputation that they actually have. I would hate to see anyone or any pet suffer because of this place. The American public really should be warned about Vet Playas.
I believe 5 star fake reviews for an incompetent and dishonest Emergency Veterinary Clinic is extremely dangerous and should be a crime against those who post them.
The owner of Vet Playas, [redacted]s, has admitted in a written statement, that he flags all negative Yelp reviews. In another written statement, [redacted]s has stated that his Vets are afraid to go to Vet Playas at night for fear of getting robbed or kidnapped, yet the various Vet Playas websites states "it's safe." This statement is false, just like all the numerous false statements that are currently on the various Vet Playas websites.
A 1 star review which is accurate, and (which I am certain receipts can be provided) may harm the reputation of Vet Playas, but no beautiful animal will be harmed as a result, nor will their family unnecessarily suffer a loss.
Consumers deserve a review site that has honest 5 star veterinary emergency clinic reviews (that aren't paid for by the company itself) and accurate negative reviews that are not deleted by the company in an effort to cover up the truth.
The worst part about all of this is that [redacted]s, the owner, has no remorse, and still refuses to take down all of the false statements that are currently on his various Vet Playas websites. [redacted]s and Vet Playas can't be sued for fraud, false advertisement or Veterinary negligence under US law, due to its jurisdiction, even though they have been committing this.
[redacted]s has admitted in writing that he flags negative Yelp reviews, and that his vets are afraid to go to Vet Playas at night for fear of being robbed or kidnapped, yet the various Vet Playas website falsely states "it's safe".
Please I ask you to do what's best for innocent animals and those who love them - so they don't fall victim to Vet Playas.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/09/08) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for your response.
We're sorry to hear you had an unfavorable experience with this business, and we appreciate your feedback regarding the recommendation software. While we recognize that the recommendation software is not a perfect system, the goal of the software is to showcase more reliable content. The software applies the same analysis to everyone, and it affects both positive and negative reviews. 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.
We also want to be clear that a business's decision whether or not to advertise on Yelp does not affect how the reviews on its listing are treated. Businesses are not punished if they don't advertise, nor are businesses awarded with preferential treatment with regards to their reviews if they do advertise. We understand there are some misconceptions about this, so we invite you to visit 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.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because my personal address and contact information is being displayed. 
Sincerely[redacted]

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns.You expressed concern that your Yelp account was closed. We understand that you may be frustrated with our decision to close your account, but our position remains the same. Our records indicate that your...

account was closed on May 24, 2016 for repeated Content Guidelines violations, and that we notified you by email on May 9, 23, and 24, 2016 that continuing to repost content to certain business pages may result in the closure of your account (Case Numbers [redacted]). Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing again.We appreciate your concerns but, after careful consideration, we ultimately reached a different conclusion than you about whether this review violates our terms. As you noted, we don't take sides on factual disputes, so we can only therefore reiterate what we previously communicated to you: if a review appears to reflect the user's personal experience and opinions, we allow the user to stand behind their review.You also wrote, "In the spirit of judicial economy, our firm is DEMANDING Yelp provide any and all information it has to help our firm identify and locate [redacted]." Please note that we don't disclose user information under these circumstances due to privacy concerns. Please see our Privacy Policy ([redacted]) for more information about how and when we might disclose this kind of information.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Hi [redacted]Thank you for your response. We appreciate your taking the time to share your feedback.We want to reiterate that the terms of the cancellation policy were stated in the advertising agreement you signed. Additionally, it appears an account manager went over the terms of your advertising agreement, including the cancellation policy, when she spoke with you on July 6, 2016.With regards to your comment, "One of the clicks showed that a potential customer clicked in yelp to my website. Well, I do not have a website," it appears you previously had a website listed on your business page, but that the website link was removed because the site was no longer up.We also want to address your comment, "yelp stated that a man from California clicked for directions to my cleaners. Why would anybody want directions to my cleaners from California?" Please keep in mind that the location a user lists on their profile might not be their actual or current location.Additionally, you expressed concern that you were charged the monthly maximum. To clarify, you signed up for an advertising program with $50 monthly fixed costs plus an ad click budget of $475, for a monthly maximum of $525. The monthly fixed costs were for your enhanced profile, which included features such as competitor ad removal and a photo slideshow. Your advertising package included a cost per click (CPC) program and your ad click budget was set at $475, which means you were charged when someone clicked on your ad and you agreed to pay up to $475 a month for those ad clicks. 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.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. Enhanced profile features and cost per click ads were delivered in accordance with the advertising agreement you signed.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 [redacted]Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because: I do not understand how you can consider people I do not know and have never been clients as reliable sources of information. I do not agree with this. Sincerely,[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because: I did not like the fact that they showed no sympathy towards me. According to this short letter, they said my Yelp account closed on the 24th of May but my email clearly says Yelp closed my account on May 25th, 2016. They still owe me for my time spent on Yelp. Seeing as they do not like the reviews I posted in the first place, either they can get their act together by not being = hypocrite. Sincerely,[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because: What you say is not relevant to my business.  These people may or may not have been at my business.  Eitherway, since you know I am the owner, how can you leave a review that complains about an owner but not with my name.  Obviosly, there is some problem with the whole business profile and whoever took it over for the simple purpose of doing this.
 
Additionally, you say absolutely nothing of all the 5 star ratings you conveniently either hid or now completely removed.  So your statements about the publics right to information etc. is quite interesting, since it isn't information from peoples experiences at all but rather what you want people to see.  I am sure that I have rights as a business to opt out of any service.  I have a right to say who I want my name associated with or not and unfortunately Yelp is not a company I want any affiliation to.  You are not unbiased and thus I don't beleive that you are doing a service to people. You are re-directing traffic to who you want and not letting the market follow its true direction.
You also state that we can talk to clients, unfortunately, you don't provide any real names so really, I don't beleive you have any knowledge of whether or not these are legitimate or not.  I have to follow HIPPA laws anyway and so cannot coment on the whether they really were or not clients of ITS.  Eitherway, you are just a giant company following money and not at all trying to bring true information to the public.  
Since you took down the 5 star comments you can clearly also take down the 1 star ratings that you purposefully left on the site.  If you don't I will have to figure out my rights as a business as to how you can on purpose take down good ratings but refuse to take down the rest.  We are not a public entity so your comments make zero sense.  I have a right to refuse your services and I do so!!!!
Sincerely,[redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/05/29) */
Hi Dr. [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding the reviews of [redacted]
You expressed concern with a negative review. We assume you are referring to the review by Alina G. We...

wanted to let you know we've removed this review by [redacted] G because it falls outside our Content Guidelines.
You also asked "for the opportunity to submit evidence showing how many of our other reviews were left by our competitor." 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.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/07/13) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted]
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.
With regards to your concerns with the recommendation software, as you [redacted] 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, "We are just asking YELP to show all of our responses in the recommended section," 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 [redacted] 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, 2015/07/14) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Please explain why SIXTEEN QUALITY REVIEWS were ignored and not recommended and one negative review is the only one posted? Also, why was a previous five star recommended then removed? It seems your software is not functioning properly. We have not asked people to give us good reviews, we occasionally ask people to give us a review and leave the quality rating to their discretion. I find it difficult to swallow that 16 five star reviews are being ignored and one bad review is all that is recommended, giving the impression our store is far inferior than our 38 year growing history shows.
We are receiving approx. 9 hits per week at Yelp, giving the impression we are only a one star rated company, which is defamatory mAking it appear that our store is a one star rated store. We have 22,000 clients nationally who think very highly of us and give us reviews based on their experiences with us. It is only right that they are not discriminated against for their good opinion of our store.
Sixteen to one is not an algarythym that works on any level at all. Please correct this and post the honest reviews of our regular clients. Your previous canned answer is nothing different than what we heard when we reached out to you originally. It was not acceptable then and it is not acceptable now.
My complaint seems to be consistent with many, many others in this same predicament. I want the reviews recommended or I want to be removed from yelp completely.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/07/23) */
Hi [redacted],
It sounds as though you don't accept our explanation of the recommendation software, but we can only stand by our previous statements. Yelp's recommendation software is an automated algorithm that attempts to weed out less reliable reviews while showcasing more reliable ones. This means that when reviews are posted to your listing, not all of them will make the cut. We acknowledge that even some legitimate reviews will not be recommended, but we still believe that the software as a whole makes our site more trustworthy and useful to consumers.
As indicated in our prior response, the recommendation software is automated to help avoid the potential for human bias inherent in individual decision-making: we cannot reverse the software's decisions, either to suppress an active review or to restore one that isn't recommended. But once again, the system is not static reviews [redacted] come and go as the recommendation software picks up new information.
We do understand the recommendation software can be frustrating at times, and your feedback is appreciated. When it comes down to it, all review sites face the same challenge: how to identify fake reviews among the many millions of legitimate reviews. It's no easy task, and there is always room for improvement. We hope to be able to continually improve on this issue.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp, Inc.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2015/07/24) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
The software algorithm must be flawed if fifteen or sixteen good reviews go us recommended and one bad review is all that is recommended. I therefore want MSG Jewelers, Inc. in its entirety REMOVED FROM YELP IMMEDIATELY. I do not trust this site and believe we were misled from the beginning. Take MSG Jewelers, Inc. down and I will be satisfied. Nothing more and nothing less will be acceptable.