Yelp.com

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/12/07) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. we are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns.
If a review is not appearing on the main Yelp page of a business, it would be for one of three reasons: the review is currently not recommended...

by Yelp's automated recommendation software (which affects both positive and negative reviews); the review was found to be in violation of our Content Guidelines or Terms of Service and has been manually removed by the Yelp Support team; or the user elected to remove the review him/herself.
If a review is brought to the attention of the Yelp Support team and is found to fall outside our Content Guidelines, the Yelp Support team will take appropriate action, such as removing the review. That said, please note the action that the Yelp Support team takes is separate from actions taken by Yelp's automated recommendation software. If a review is not recommended, that does not necessarily mean it is in violation of our guidelines.
As you may have read, one of the ways we try to help Yelp users discover local businesses is by using automated software with the goal of showcasing reliable reviews. The software looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability and activity on Yelp. This means that solicited reviews may not be recommended by our software, but sometimes a legitimate review may not be as well. What is recommended can change over time, and a review that is not currently not recommended may be recommended on another day.
Please visit our Support Center for more info: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/12/14) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
There was a new complaint about there dog was treated and died. It was a really bad review. It was telling everyone not to go there. It was on the most resent reviews. A couple of days later it was removed.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/12/17) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for your response.
We are unable to locate the review you are referring to based on the information you provided. Please respond to this message with a link to the business page and the name of the reviewer so that we can better address your concerns.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2015/12/22) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I know that Yelp had it removed. I don't remember her name. I know to it be true. One of the employees personally told me about the death of the dog.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because: Not satisfactory and to add insult the Yelp tried to charge my amex while we were in this negation to mediate a fair settlement. We have disputed the charge and it is our position that we owe Yelp nothing. We would be satisfied if we get our charge back from amex and settle with a zero balance. Yelp has lost a good customer that was, at the time wanting to suspend one account. At this point our position is both accounts be canceled (which seems to be done now) and the amex charge be reversed with a zero balance on all accounts. We wish no further contact with anyone from yelp. Because of the poor customer NO service we will not use the service at any time for our business in the future.  Sincerely,Steve [redacted]

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing again.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. We want to reiterate that Yelp is allowed to publish business names and publicly available information about businesses under the well-established fair use doctrine, as well as First Amendment principles. Generally speaking, this means that we can display business names and trademarks "for purposes of comparison, criticism, point of reference, or any other such purpose." [redacted]Thanks for understanding.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/06/03) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We appreciate you bringing this to our attention.
We've gone ahead and informed our Sales team that you no longer wish to receive any communication from them. If for any reason you continue to hear from...

them, please let us know at http://www.yelp.com/support/contact/questions
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 7, 2015/06/05) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for [redacted]We appreciate your feedback, and have forwarded your concerns to the appropriate parties. We are sorry to hear you were not satisfied with...

your advertising campaign. To be clear, while the goal of advertising on Yelp is to drive more traffic to the business page, which may ultimately result in more customers, it is important to keep in mind that results are not guaranteed. When advertising with a Cost Per Click program, you were electing to pay every time a user clicked on your ad impression. You were also paying for an enhanced profile.According to our records, you signed up for an advertising program with $50 monthly fixed costs plus up to $275 monthly variable costs, for a monthly maximum of $325. 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 monthly cost per click budget cap was set at $275, which means you were charged when someone clicked on your ad and you agreed to pay up to $275 a month for those ad clicks. If you did not reach your monthly budget cap, you would be charged for the ad clicks you received. However, if you did reach your monthly budget cap, we no longer delivered ads for your business for the remainder of the month so that you wouldn't have to pay more than you agreed to.We also want to clarify that the $400.06 charge you saw on August 3, 2016 was for advertising services you received from May 20 - June 30, 2016. Your advertising program was billed in arrears, which means that we typically bill on the first of the month for advertising services that were delivered in the previous month. Our records indicate you received $75.06 worth of advertising services from May 20 - 31, 2016 and $325.00 worth of advertising services from June 1 - 30, 2016. We attempted to charge you for those services beginning June 1, 2016 and July 1, 2016, respectively. However, the charge did not go through until August 3, 2016.You can view a breakdown the number of ad clicks you received by logging in to your Yelp for Business Owners Account at [redacted]/ and clicking on the "Yelp Ads" tab.As advertising services were delivered in accordance with the advertising agreement you signed, we will not be able to offer you a refund at this time, but we have forwarded your message to the appropriate parties for their consideration. Thanks for understanding.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/09/18) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] & Self Wash.
You expressed concern with the reviews by Tina S and Bob B. As it appears Tina...

S's review pertains to an experience with the old location of [redacted] Dog Spa & Boutique at [redacted] Hwy, we've gone ahead and moved her review to that page for that location: http://www.yelp.com/biz/[redacted]?no_redirect=1.
With regards to Bob B's review, 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 review is not meant for your business, but based on what we can see in the review, we can't confirm that it was posted in error. If a review appears to reflect the personal experience and opinions of the reviewer, it is our policy to allow the user to stand by his/her review.
We noticed that you've already used your free business account to post a public comment on Bob B'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.
You also expressed concern with the previous listings for [redacted] & Self Wash. 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 the business's current location. Similarly, to properly reflect major changes to a business, we'll often create a new page and mark the old one as renovated.
While we don't remove business pages that have been marked as moved or renovated, please note that business pages marked as moved or renovated eventually stop appearing in Yelp's search results over time.
For more on how we handle business changes, check out our Support Center: http://www.yelp-support.com/Reporting_Business_Changes?l=en_US
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/09/16) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding the 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. You wrote, "We would like all positive reviews to be posted," but please understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a review. However, the system is not static reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors.
To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

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 reviews by [redacted]. As you may recall, several of [redacted].'s reviews of [redacted]...

[redacted] have been removed because they fall outside our Content Guidelines. We’ve also taken another look at [redacted].'s current review, and have carefully considered your concerns that the reviewer may have a conflict of interest. Unfortunately, we are still unable to confirm the conflict using the information we have in our systems.I understand we did not provide the response you were hoping for. These decisions aren’t always easy, but please know we looked at this review closely before reaching our decision.You also wrote, "I would like my business page taken down from Yelp." Please note that we don't remove business information. While some business owners might prefer to keep a lower profile, this kind of information is publicly available and its use is protected under the law. More importantly, we believe that the public benefits from sharing their experiences with local businesses.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/09/30) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We appreciate you brining your concerns to our attention.
We've taken another look at your photo of MTA - Metro Blue Line that was removed, and our decision to keep the photo removed remains the same. Our...

Support team has taken a look at the other photos on that business page, and has removed the photos which were found to violate our Content Guidelines.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/10/01) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Business ignored by request. Business response is vague and unhelpful.
Please advise what SPECIFICALLY about the photo(s) in question violated the "content guidelines".
As I mentioned in my previous statement, the photo(s) provide an accurate description of the consumer experience using the Metro Blue Line, and by removing my photo(s) you are censoring the truth.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/10/13) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for your response.
While we welcome our reviewers to share their experiences and to be as descriptive as possible in those accounts, we ask that they avoid taking their grievances to a personal level. In this case, it looks like one of the photos you posted contained an inappropriate caption. Additionally, as noted in our Content Guidelines, we ask that you "Please don't post close-up photos or videos of other patrons without their permission."
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/06/30) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] Products.
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.
With regards to your comment, "Yelp.com shows a disproportionate number of negative reviews to positive reviews," it's important to note that the software applies the same analysis to everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviews. You asked that we "display ALL user reviews," but please understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a review. However, the system is not static reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors.
Additionally, while we understand your concerns, we want to make sure you are clear that federal law bars lawsuits against websites like Yelp for the decisions they make about which reviews to post or remove. See Carafano v. Metrosplash. com. Inc., 339 F. 3d 1119 (9th Cir. 2003); Zeran v. America Online, Inc., 129 F.3d 327 (4th Cir. 1997); Barrett v. Rosenthal, 40 Cal. 4th 33 (Cal. 2006).
To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US
You also asked for your business to be removed from Yelp, but as stated in the previous correspondence you've had with the Yelp Support team, we don't remove business listing information. Yelp is allowed to publish business names and publicly available information about businesses under the well-established fair use doctrine, as well as First Amendment principles. Generally speaking, this means that we can display business names and trademarks "for purposes of comparison, criticism, point of reference, or any other such purpose." See New Kids on the Block v. New America Pub., Inc., 971 F.2d 302, 306 (9th Cir. 1992).
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for [redacted]As you noted, you redeemed a $300 promotional ad credit. To redeem the $300 credit towards Yelp ads, you were required to sign up for our Cost Per Click...

(CPC) advertising campaign and put a credit card on file. You set your Cost Per Click monthly budget at $150. 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 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 right side of the page explaining that you could stop your ads any time through the Yelp for Business Owners site.Below is a more detailed description of how the promotion was applied:November 4 - 30, 2016- You received 11 ad clicks which cost a total of $132.81- $132.81 of your $300 credit was used and you paid $0December 2016- You received 8 ad clicks which cost a total of $150- You had $167.19 remaining promotional credit for this month because it was partially used in November- $150 of your credit was used and you paid $0January 2017- You received 14 ad clicks which cost a total of $150- You had $17.19 remaining promotional credit for this month because it was partially used in November and December- $17.19 of your credit was used and you paid $132.81February 1 - 5, 2017- You received 0 ad clicks which cost a total of $0You can view a breakdown of how many ad clicks you received by logging in to your Yelp for Business Owners Account at https://biz.yelp.com/ and then clicking on the Yelp Ads tab.You ended your advertising program on February 5, 2017. As advertising services have been delivered in accordance with the Terms you agreed to, we will not be able to offer you a refund. We also forwarded your message to the appropriate parties. As you may recall, a manager, [redacted] emailed you on February 15, 2017 to let you know that we have removed your credit card information per your request. Please feel free to reach out to [redacted] directly if you have further questions. Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because: the sales pitch initially conducted by [redacted] showed extremely good results in the very first month of signing up. None would sign up to pay for exposure unless some kind of RETURN ON INVESTMENT was involved, and therefore some kind of implied or expressed guarantees that leads would be produced. We have closed ZERO cases (or received referrals!) since signing up with Yelp, while we invested a great deal of money. It seems hard to believe that so many people would click and not convert into leads. We also advertise with Google, and are very familiar on how CPC works, but Google offers a return on investment or at least it generates tangible leads that we are then responsible for closing. According to Yelp, based on the amount we spent, we should have grossed 12k over that period of time, if the conversion rate was as low as 10%!!!! I think Yelp advertising is ineffective, and their sales pitch is deceptive and misleading. We understand that Yelp incurred costs and labor costs, so we would be willing to negotiate a refund that suits both parties. But "taking care" of merely $200 after our complaints have started as early as the first month is quite offensive. Sincerely,[redacted]

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 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.If you believe, however, that an individual has provided you with different information, we would like to investigate further. To that end, please provide us with the name of the individual whom you spoke with, their phone number, and the date and time of your conversation with them, if known.You also expressed concern with the recommendation software. As you may have read, the goal of Yelp's recommendation software is to showcase more reliable content. The recommendation software establishes an objective standard against which every review can be measured, and looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability, and activity on Yelp.It's important to note that the software applies the same analysis to everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviews. Please also understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a review. However, the system is not static -- reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors.To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: [redacted]With regards to your comment, "Just as a persons personal credit report, after a certain amount of time, the law says these items can and should be removed," currently, there is no expiration date for reviews on Yelp, but users can sort the recommended reviews to show the most recent reviews first.You also wrote, "Several names listed, I have never serviced and have no record of them." We encourage reviewers to use their full names on Yelp, but this isn't an absolute requirement and many people don't. As a result, it may be difficult to match up a reviewer's name to the records maintained by many businesses, and our moderators aren't in a position to arbitrate these situations. As long as a review appears to reflect the reviewer's personal experiences and opinions, we'll generally allow them to stand behind their review.That said, if you come across content that you feel may violate Yelp's Content Guidelines ([redacted]), please let our moderators know by reporting it. You can do so by finding the content in question, clicking the flag icon on the website or the More Options/Overflow Menu (3 dots) on the app. You'll need to be logged into your account to report content.To learn more, please visit:[redacted]While reporting content doesn't guarantee that it'll be removed, our team looks at every inquiry and carefully evaluates the content against our guidelines. Each case will be reviewed by our team in the order it was received.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because: Because I feel that this company will only do what is negative against our company! I will proceed to create reviews about my negative experience with this company. Also, we will never do business with this company, and also let all the companies we do business with and let them know about our negative experience. They neither have understood or even tried to apply good customer relations! Yelp is a joke, lol! Oh well I guess we will just have to bulk email everyone we know this situation! Good luck Yelp as you lose more business!Sincerely,Steve[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because: Lies should not be able to pass as opinions. One of the reviewers was angry because we sent him a proposal that was more than he wanted to pay. He was demanding to be compensated for having had to wait for the proposal and if we would not pay his demand, he would see us in court. We withdrew the proposal in a very civil and respectful manner - and within hours, he's telling the world that we are trying to keep him from finishing his project. That is just one example. Another reviewer stated that we charged her for our time to procure a paint match, which we did not, and I can show you the email with the invoice that states we did not charge for either our time or the paint. But this lie is allowed to stand. At the award ceremony where we received the Revdex.com's Torch Award for Marketplace Trust in [redacted], the keynote was about business ethics. The speaker talked about how a guest at a botanic garden, incensed because schoolchildren were allowed in the venue, suggested the CEO's head should be chopped up and used for mulch!
Our society encourages people today to feel entitled: to what they want, when they want it, at the price they want it; and empowered: to make your life miserable if they don't get what they want. Yelp is contributing to this by allowing opinion to pass as fact, and, in the words of [redacted], to give the appearance of solidity to pure wind. It used to be, if someone wanted to spread slander wider than his own circle, he had to pay to take out an ad in the newspaper -- and laws against slander prevented such. Now any hothead with a data plan can spew venom in an attempt to ruin businesses. And there is no recourse. Sincerely,[redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/11/12) */
Hi Ms. [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted].
You wrote, "They call offering to "help" with reviews (shake me down for what they...

assess as a percentage of my income) and add more bad reviews if I don't comply. Over the years they have repeatedly contacted me with this ploy." We want to clarify that a business's decision whether or not to advertise on Yelp does not affect how the reviews on its listing are treated. Businesses are not punished if they don't advertise, nor are businesses awarded with preferential treatment with regards to their reviews if they do advertise. Additionally, please be assured that members of the Yelp Sales team cannot post Yelp reviews because of the inherent conflict of interest this would present. We understand there are some misconceptions about this, so we invite you to visit http://www.yelp.com/advertiser_faq and http://officialblog.yelp.com/2013/05/no-yelp-doesnt-extort-small-businesses-see-...⇄ to learn more.
If you believe, however, that an individual has provided you with different information, we would like to investigate further. To that end, please provide us with the name of the individual whom you spoke with, their phone number, and the date and time of your conversation with them, if known.
You also expressed concern with the recommendation software. As you may have read, the goal of Yelp's recommendation software is to showcase more reliable content. The recommendation software establishes an objective standard against which every review can be measured, and looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability, and activity on Yelp.
It's important to note that the software applies the same analysis to everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviews. Please also understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a review. However, the system is not static reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors.
To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US
If there are specific reviews on your business page that you think may violate Yelp's Content Guidelines (http://www.yelp.com/guidelines), you can report them by clicking the flag icon next to the reviews. You'll need to be logged into your account in order to view the flag icon.
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).
With regards to your comment, "Several months ago I submitted my complaints to IC3 (Complaint Id: IXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX) and the FTC. As you can see, since then, "Yelp" has made their fraudulent rating of my business even worse," we want to assure you that Yelp does not retaliate against businesses for any reason, including asking questions, expressing concerns or filing complaints.
Finally, you wrote, "I have made several attempts to delete my account, to no avail." Please note that we 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.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/11/17) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Every word of this response is a lie. The evidence I have provided is more than sufficient proof of this.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/11/25) */
Hi Ms. [redacted],
Thank you for your response.
It sounds as though you still believe that Yelp manipulates reviews to favor advertisers. However, with respect to reviews, paying businesses have absolutely no advantage. The automated recommendation software does not distinguish between advertisers and free listings, and the revenue side of our business operates independently of the content side of our business, just as a newspaper might put a firewall between their advertising and reporting functions.
That said, if you believe that an individual has provided you with different information, we ask that you provide us with some additional information (the name of the individual whom you spoke with, their phone number, and the date and time of your conversation with them) so that we can investigate further.
It also sounds as though you don't accept our explanation of the recommendation software, but we can only stand by our previous statements. Yelp's recommendation software is an automated algorithm that attempts to weed out less reliable reviews while showcasing more reliable ones. This means that when reviews are posted to your listing, not all of them will make the cut. We acknowledge that even some legitimate reviews will not be recommended, but we still believe that the recommendation software as a whole makes our site more trustworthy and useful to consumers.
As indicated in our prior response, the recommendation software is automated to help avoid the potential for human bias inherent in individual decision-making: we cannot reverse the software's decisions, either to suppress an active review or to restore a review that isn't currently recommended. This also means (and I can say this with 100% certainty) that we cannot manually manipulate the recommendation software to favor an advertiser or punish a non-advertiser. But once again, the system is not static reviews may come and go as the recommendation software picks up new information.
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, 2015/11/26) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I have already provided sufficient evidence proving the alleged impartiality and software filtering to be a lie. My words stand and will bear up under investigation.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/07/14) */
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 a negative review. Its sounds like you are referring to the review...

by Tom O. We've looked at this review, and since it appears to reflect the personal experience and opinions of the reviewer, we are leaving it intact. Based on what we see in the review, we can't confirm that the user has a conflict of interest with your business.

While we share your concern about the possibility of a defamatory review on our site, we don't adjudicate disputes between businesses and their reviewers. Congress acknowledged this predicament by passing [redacted] that provides statutory immunity to online service providers such as Yelp for the content of third-party posts. See 47 U.S.C. §230. The case law is clear on this point in support of online service providers because of concerns that they would otherwise be forced to remove third party posts every time someone raised issue with their contents. See Carafano v. Metrosplash. com. Inc., 339 F. 3d 1119 (9th Cir. 2003); Zeran v. America Online, Inc., 129 F.3d 327 (4th Cir. 1997); Barrett v. Rosenthal, 40 Cal. 4th 33 (Cal. 2006).

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

We encourage you to contact the reviewer directly using the private messaging function on our site in order to constructively address your concerns. We do not recommend that you engage in anything other than a well-meaning dialog with the reviewer in order to sort out any misunderstandings.
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. 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 Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/12/11) */
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 regarding your interactions with our Sales team, and will forward...

your message to the appropriate parties. We've also gone ahead and informed our Sales team that you no longer wish to receive any communication from them. If for any reason you continue to hear from them, please let us know at http://www.yelp.com/support/contact/questions
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because: I created the Yelp listing to begin with and it is my right as a business owner to ask you to take it down. Furthermore, you have my business category listed as Editorial Services and my business needs to be listed under Resume Services instead. I also mentioned in my initial report that since I created this Yelp listing, that I have had over 150 Google listings that competing companies have created that use all or part of my business name and take people to their websites. A lot of these Google listings are coming from outside the United States. Now that I know you created international Yelp listings this increases the likelihood that Yelp has something to do with what is occurring and/or that my information is being used by fraudulent companies. I have lost thousands of dollars in the last six months due to these Google and the other Internet listings that have your Yelp advertisement banner at the top. Most of the other companies do not have contact or web master information. And the companies that I have contacted that have your Yelp advertisement banner at the top are also refusing to take the ads down, correct the errors, or delete select or address information. Yelp and all of these other advertising companies should not be allowed to damage the businesses that you supposedly are trying to promote. 
You need to take all of these listings down. This is completely unacceptable and unethical. If you do not do what I am requesting then you should be liable for the lost revenue that I have experienced as a result of this matter, not to mention the over 500 hours I have spent trying to resolve this issue.
 
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Hi [redacted],Thank you for your feedback.While we understand you are concerned that some reviews are not currently being recommended on your listing, it's important to keep in mind they might be recommended on another day.You have again expressed concern with a review "which was not written by a customer." We have taken a second look at [redacted].'s 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.You have also asked that your business listing be removed, but as previously stated, we don't remove business listing information. Yelp is allowed to publish business names and publicly available information about businesses under the well-established fair use doctrine, as well as First Amendment principles. Generally speaking, this means that we can display business names and trademarks "for purposes of comparison, criticism, point of reference, or any other such purpose." [redacted]Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.