Yelp.com

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

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, 2015/10/22) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] & [redacted] Inc.
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. Furthermore, there is zero relationship between the timing of when a review gets recommended and when a business decides to or declines to advertise: reviews can be recommended or not recommended days, weeks, or even months after they were first posted, and your Yelp sales representative doesn't have any influence over when that might happen. We understand there are some misconceptions about this, so we invite you to visit http://www.yelp.com/advertiser_faq and http://officialblog.yelp.com/2013/05/no-yelp-doesnt-extort-small-businesses-see-...⇄ to learn more.
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
To address your concern about how our content is monitored, we allow users to post reviews and photos, and rely on the Yelp community to flag 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.
Reviews on Yelp are ultimately the responsibility of each reviewer. To the extent that a review appears to reflect the personal opinion and experiences of the reviewer, we allow the reviewer to stand behind his or her review. That said, if you believe a review violates Yelp's Content Guidelines (http://www.yelp.com/guidelines), you can report the content by clicking the flag icon next to it. You'll need to be logged in to your account in order to view the flag icon.
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).
Finally, with regards to your request for someone to call you, 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.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/11/03) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Mr. [redacted],
I have never mentioned best moving & storage. The name of my business is [redacted] & [redacted]. I feel sorry for you for writing such a long response for the wrong business. Everything you wrote I know already. I have proofs of fake reviews that have been posted on our account, and you guys still see it as a legitimate review. I can show and approve you that there is one review that has been posted on 6/26/2015. And the user that wrote this bad review on us is basically a person that related to one of our competitors.
here is some links to my business, so you won't get confused again.
wwww.[redacted]
http://www.yelp.com/biz/[redacted]
Final Business Response /* (4000, 10, 2015/11/19) */
Hi [redacted],
Thanks for the clarification, and we apologize for the confusion.
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.
You also expressed concern with some of [redacted] P's reviews. You wrote that [redacted] P is "a customer who is attempting to gain monetary compensation from our company to remove a false review (as shown on attached file named 'final email') that he has placed on your site." 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. 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. With that in mind, we ask that you please forward the entire email thread, including headers, to [redacted]@yelp.com so that we can look into this further. When you forward the thread, please be sure to include a note indicating that this is in regards to Revdex.com Case #XXXXXXXX.
Additionally, we wanted to let you know that we have removed [redacted] P's reviews of Mercedes - Benz of Austin, First Texas Honda, and Mercedes-Benz of Houston Greenway, because they fall outside our Content Guidelines.
Finally, you expressed concern with [redacted] P's review of [redacted] & [redacted]. We've taken another look at this review, and have carefully considered your concerns that the reviewer may have a conflict of interest. However, we are unable to confirm the conflict using the information we have in our systems. These decisions aren't always easy, but please know we looked at this review closely before reaching our decision.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 12, 2015/11/26) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Thank you for your answer to the Revdex.com complaint. We also appreciate your candor by admitting that your review process is unbalanced. What strikes us as alarming is the fact that an algorithmic automated response weeds out the reviews and yet we actually proved how that algorithm failed with Mr [redacted] P in that he had positive reviews of his own business enterprise that he authored. Yet in an act of transparent duplicity, Mr. [redacted] permits Mr. [redacted] P's negative reviews of [redacted] to remain. Once it is demonstrated that a reviewer has submitted false information in a public forum, how can anything else be deemed as reliable. In fact virtually every court in America permits juries to be instructed when deciding credibility that they can reject all testimony of a witness based upon one falsely proven fact. The concept- "Falsus in uno, falsus omnibus" is a Latin phrase meaning false in one thing, false in everything. What it means is that once a liar, always a liar. Notwithstanding this concept, Mr S has still decided to promote Mr. [redacted] P's negative reviews regarding [redacted]. How was Mr. [redacted] P's credibility restored? Did the robotic algorithm tell him so, or did Mr. [redacted] use some other tool to measure Mr. [redacted] P's credibility such as a polygraph, or worse yet, did Mr. [redacted] just ignore everything and decide to let the review stand and do nothing at all. Even more interesting are the attachments that we provide herein where Mr. [redacted] P was offered initially $200 to settle the matter, then $200 plus a promise the repair damaged items, then an outright settlement of $1,000 (that Mr. [redacted] P said he would accept only to be rejected with another demand for $2,000!). What reason did Mr. [redacted] P have to reject the 1,000 offer that he had previously accepted other than to see this as an opportunity to extort another 1,000 from [redacted]. On top of this, Mr. * accused [redacted] of holding his items hostage which was never true. All of this clearly proves that Mr. [redacted] P was merely seeking leverage to extort an inflated settlement of his virtually merit-less claims. Any reasonable claims adjuster would have readily concluded that the damages were minimal if not non-existent. With regard to the [redacted] P review, Mr. [redacted] states that Yelp "carefully considered your concerns that the reviewer might have a conflict of interest." What precisely was undertaken to determine this fact. How was it investigated. Who is [redacted] P? Who does she work for? Certainly, these facts should be known to Mr. [redacted] since if they are not, it is somewhat reckless to publish them without verifying their authenticity. The First Amendment does not shield the press from reckless conduct in reporting and Yelp should be held to no less a standard. In short, the response of Mr. [redacted] and Yelp does nothing to resolve this claim. Mr [redacted] should remove all of Mr [redacted] P's reviews and identify who [redacted] P is (or remove her reviews as well) and further specify precisely what was done to verify the authenticity of her review. Free speech does not exist in a vacuum. None of us can enter a crowded movie cinema and shout "fire." Likewise, sham reviews and false reviews must be thoroughly investigated. We do so in our own internal reviews of moves via our customer service department. As a business, we know that reviews will be both good and bad. Nevertheless, bad reviews should not be tolerated that are based upon defamatory allegations that damage our business.
In conclusion, customer service is our highest priority. We love to receive feedback about how we do. Every customer can write and share his experience with us. (like [redacted] did), however, we will not tolerate any extortion or defamation regarding staging on your website. Here are the reasons why [redacted]'s and [redacted]'s reviews should be removed immediately:
[redacted] review:
-this account has been clearly opened to defame [redacted] and All My Sons and give a "good review" to A-1 all state movers
- This lady called us to ask about rates, and we did call one more time for a follow up and that is it.
- Her review is duplicated. Same review for both companies [redacted] and All My Sons.
- Same review and same content. However, [redacted]'s review appears as a legitimate review on the [redacted] page, but on All My Sons page this review has been filtered as "not recommended'. And it is the same exact content.
- On the day when she opened the account, she submitted the review on [redacted] and All My Sons, and since then never used it again. SUPER ODD.
[redacted]'s Review:
- Has been caught submitting false reviews, on his work places.
- Emails show in how he try to extort money in a methodical way to remove the bad review.
- Emails show all the damages he got which is 4 pieces of furniture. In a move of two truck.
- We never stole anything from him nor took his stuff hostage. He got delivered at the same day time he requested.
- Emails show that we tried to solve the problem with him, by giving him generous offer, but instead he keeps asking for more money.
The reasons above clearly demonstrate that those emails should be removed. In the interim, all we do is document everything that we can to show America how unfair your system.

Complaint:[redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
The answer does not address the issue - why YELP allowed a non existing client to post defamatory statements about my services.  At this point I am concern that a YELP representative/associate posted the review after my reluctance to use YELP's paid advertising. 
Again and again, I cannot (and should not be allowed to) review YELP if I never personally dealt with them.  However, YELP is trying to hide behind the First Amendment.  The First Amendment never intended to create organizations like YELP, where anyone can provide false information about other business.  YELP can name  the review as they wish, but in reality it is simply a derogatory statement of non existing client, with the purpose of defamation to my law firm..  
Yelp claims that "we don't adjudicate disputes between businesses and their reviewers." In actuality, they do by refusing to remove the review and simply siding with a non existing client, which I am starting to believe could be someone associated with YELP.
The "statutory immunity to online service providers such as Yelp for the content of third-party posts" is simply not an applicable argument.  The issue is not YELP themselves, but their refusal to remove a review form their site.
Yelp continues  "More importantly, we believe that the public benefits from sharing their experiences with local businesses."  How is the public benefiting from a false statement.                  
 
In short, YELP's response is same as they have done in the past - cut and paste of inapplicable case and statutory law in attempt to avoid responsibility of wilful refusal to serve the truth.
Sincerely,Vassil [redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because: I do not believe a word they are saying and I do not believe that they coincidentally started recommending a review that their own software flagged as suspicious, and that they promised not to recommend  (also many business have flagged this reviewer as suspicious) when I refused to return their sales reps call. This is not a coincidence. You are about to be looking at a lawsuit under the consumer fraud act and unconscionable acts and yes it applies to businesses too.  Keep it up as I am keeping track of all the fraudulent Yelp acts. Not only that there are many reputable review sites now so consumers really don't need Yelp anymore! [redacted] is ethical as they allow consumers to respond with no limitations and customers find them to be more reputable too.  Sincerely,[redacted]

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 the Yelp Deals voucher you purchased for ** [redacted].According to our records, it looks like you were refunded $155.00 for this purchase on December 15, 2015. It appears my colleague...

[redacted] emailed you on December 15, 2015 to let you know we were refunding your credit card:  ----------DEC 15, 2015  |  10:07AM PSTHi [redacted],Thanks for contacting Yelp!We're sorry to hear that you weren't able to use the Yelp Deals voucher you purchased for ** [redacted]. We're canceling the voucher and refunding your credit card $155. Please allow 5-10 business days for this to be reflected on your statement.We hope you get a chance to use a Yelp Deal soon! Regards,[redacted]Yelp SupportYelp Official Blog | http://officialblog.yelp.comYelp Support Center | http://www.yelp-support.comFor your reference this is Case #: [redacted]----------It also looks like my colleague [redacted] emailed you on May 27, 2016 (the same day you filed this complaint) to confirm you were refunded:----------MAY 27, 2016  |  10:21AM PDTHi,Thanks for using Yelp Deals. To confirm, you were refunded for this purchase on 12/15/2015 (for $155.00). This refund went towards your VISA [redacted] account. If you have any other questions, I'd be happy to assist. Regards,[redacted]Yelp SupportYelp Official Blog | http://officialblog.yelp.comYelp Support Center | http://www.yelp-support.comFor your reference this is Case #: [redacted]----------If you have further questions or concerns regarding this refund, please contact out Support team at [redacted]@yelp.com, and they'd be glad to assist. 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.

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.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/08/25) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for [redacted] Computer Repair.
You claim that advertising services were not delivered. You signed up for a...

cost per click program, which means Yelp displayed ad impressions for your business and you elected to pay every time a user clicked on your ad impression. Your advertising program also included additional features such as a photo slideshow.
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 is differentiated from the natural search results by an yellow border, and has the notation "Ad" in next to the business name.
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 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. As stated in the advertising agreement you signed, "Please note that businesses cannot pay to remove, reorder, or otherwise impact reviews. If you decide not to enroll in a Yelp Ad Program, that won't affect your reviews, either."
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 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
You also expressed concern about possible click fraud. We employ 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.
You also claim that "no emails were responded to"; however, our records indicate that members of our Account Management team repeatedly reached out to you by phone and email in June, July, and August.
Additionally, 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.
Your advertising program is set to cancel as of August 31, 2015. You are responsible for an outstanding balance of $450 for advertising services delivered in June and July. Because your program is billed in arrears, there will be an additional balance due on September 1 for services delivered in August. An early termination fee of $225 will be also assessed per the terms of your contract. Once these fees have been collected, you will not incur any further charges. Thanks for understanding.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/09/01) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Unfortunately, it does not matter what is in the contract...of which I did not actually sign. I never received anything from them to physically sign. They claim that I received something electronically, but I don't remember signing anything. I checked the copy of the document they sent me, and there is a signature, but it is not mine. It is in generic handwriting.
But beyond that, I was told so many things on the phone, that just seemed to good to be true. I was called numerous times over the course of a week, in an attempt to get me to try Yelp advertising services. I was told that I could opt out at any time without penalty, and that my listing would definitely show up when someone searched Yelp.com for a computer repair service in Whittier, Ca. Of course I found this to be not true at all later on.
As I did my research into Yelp's fraudulent activities, it became apparent that they control all aspects of an account...even the clicks. Right through the first 30 days, there was no activity, and then in a flurry of activity, during the last few days, 15 clicks showed up and I was at my max monthly charge.
I called Yelp numerous times and notified them of this, and they claimed it was simply coincidence, and that there was nothing funny going on.
However, I have screen prints of said action on my account to verify what I am saying.
I also called many times to cancel my account and to prevent further charges from being accrued, and because no one ever answered my calls, and I had to leave messages, nothing ever happened. I never once had a call returned, until the middle of the month of August. When I spoke with Yelp then...again several times, one of those times the customer service lady claimed that they had no record of me ever calling and leaving any message, nor did they have a record of me emailing them, which I also did at least 5 separate occasions. I also have copies of those.
Then, when I was escalated my voice a bit, the customer service lady told me to hold on...and that sho could now see 1...sic of my emails to them. But still would not address my concerns, and denied that I had ever called in to request any cancellation before the first part of August.
I have evidence that I called, emailed and answered the phone when they called me, and wrote down their responses to me.
All I am looking for is for Yelp to delete my business from their fraudulent database, and to cease and desist all collection efforts and communications, to send me a letter stating that I do not owe anything.
I have asked them this in my emails and on the phone, and they have denied me...citing that it's against the law for them to delete my business info. That is a lie, and they will not cite any single law that proves they are correct.
Additionally, I want to go on record insisting that Yelp NEVER called me in June, July or August, because they didn't want me to quit. They make it impossible to do so as you can clearly see.
It would be in Yelp's interest to drop all efforts to try and collect money from me, because they never gave me the opportunity to quit.
Apparently, there are thousands of other people online who have writtne about their similar experiences with Yelp, and I don't think thousands of people are wrong...in fact, they bolster my case and claims.
[redacted]
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/09/21) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for your response.
You wrote, "I never received anything from them to physically sign. They claim that I received something electronically, but I don't remember signing anything. I checked the copy of the document they sent me, and there is a signature, but it is not mine. It is in generic handwriting." Generally speaking, an advertising agreement is sent to the business owner's email address via Echosign, a program that collects electronic signatures for purposes such as remote contract signing. The agreement is then e-signed, meaning a name was typed in indicating acceptance of the terms of the agreement. With regards to the appearance of the "signature", with Echosign, the program creates a stylized signature for the person who e-signs the agreement, which may be why you don't recognize the signature's appearance.
You also expressed concern with the click activity. Our records indicate you signed up for a cost-per-click auction-based auto-bidding program, which means that Yelp delivered a variable and unguaranteed number of ad impressions, and that you elected to pay every time a user clicked on your ad impression. As noted in your contract, you agreed to allow Yelp to set the bid price per click price to keep you competitive in the market. It's important to keep in mind that the price will fluctuate up or down depending on competition, relevance, and other factors. However, it will always be the lowest price possible to win the click. We also want to reiterate that Yelp employs a variety of measures to detect and prevent invalid traffic and click fraud.
You also wrote, "Yelp NEVER called me in June, July or August," but according to our records, several account managers were in touch with you during those months. For example, [redacted] emailed you on June 15 and spoke with you on June 24, [redacted] left you a voicemail and followed up with an email on July 8, [redacted] left you voicemails on July 17 and 27, and Morgan emailed and spoke with you on August 7.
You have again 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." See New Kids on the Block v. New America Pub., Inc., 971 F.2d 302, 306 (9th Cir. 1992).
Finally, we forwarded your messages to our Account Management team, and it looks like the $225 early termination fee has been waived.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

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.

*i [redacted],T*ank you for writing. We are glad to *ave t*is opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted]. We first want to address your comment, "Once I declined, and canceled advertising wit* t*em, all of my 5 star reviews written from past real...

customers, w*o *as pictures as proof t*at t*ey *ad service wit* us- *as been deleted from my yelp account due to t*ere automated software." We want to clarify t*at a business's decision w*et*er or not to advertise on Yelp does not affect *ow t*e reviews on its listing are treated. Businesses are not punis*ed if t*ey don't advertise, nor are businesses awarded wit* preferential treatment wit* regards to t*eir reviews if t*ey do advertise. We understand t*ere are some misconceptions about t*is, so we invite you to visit [redacted] to learn more.As you may *ave read, t*e goal of Yelp's recommendation software is to s*owcase more reliable content. T*e recommendation software establis*es an objective standard against w*ic* 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 t*at t*e software applies t*e same analysis to everyone, and t*at it affects bot* positive and negative reviews. Please also understand t*at t*e recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override t*e software to recommend or not recommend a review. *owever, t*e system is not static -- reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as t*e system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors.To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: [redacted]We also want to be clear t*at actions taken by our automated recommendation software are separate from t*e Yelp Support team's evaluation of reviews against our Content Guidelines. We allow users to post reviews and p*otos, and rely on t*e Yelp community to report content t*at t*ey believe is questionable. If someone reports a review by flagging it, our Support team will evaluate t*e review against our Content Guidelines ([redacted]) and will remove t*e review if it is found to be in violation of our guidelines.You expressed concern wit* Edit* E.'s review of your business. We understand t*at a negative review about an experience you don’t recognize is very frustrating. We *ave taken anot*er look at t*is review but, after careful consideration, we reac*ed t*e same conclusion as before and are unable to remove t*e review as it does not appear to fall outside our Content Guidelines. If a review appears to reflect t*e reviewer’s personal experiences and opinions, it is our policy to let t*e user stand be*ind *is or *er review.You also asked for your business to be removed from Yelp; *owever, we don't remove business information. W*ile some business owners mig*t prefer to keep a lower profile, t*is kind of information is publicly available and its use is protected under t*e law.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/10/02) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for [redacted] & Recovery.
We are sorry to hear you were not satisfied with your advertising campaign. To be...

clear, while it is our hope that advertisers will find success via the Yelp advertising program, it is important to keep in mind that results are not guaranteed. When advertising, you are either paying for the delivery of a certain number of targeted ad impressions (when doing an impression-based program), or you are electing to pay every time a user clicks on your ad impression (when doing a "cost per click" program). According to our records, you initially signed up for an impressions-based program that included 500 ad impressions per month, and then switched to a cost per click program beginning July 1, 2015. Yelp delivered ad impression in accordance with your contracts. Your advertising programs also included additional features such as competitor ad removal and a photo slideshow.
We also want to clarify the difference between Yelp Ads and our natural search results. 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 is differentiated from the natural search results by an yellow border, and has the notation "Ad" in next to the business name. It's important to keep in mind that you wouldn't have seen your particular ad appear every time. Sometimes you may see an ad for a different company, sometimes when conducting a search you may not see an ad at all.
You expressed concern that "I also repeatedly searched myself and only ever made it on the third page of there yelp web page tow company search." Please note that Yelp Ads are separate 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.
You also expressed concern with the early termination fee, but as noted in your contract, early termination is subject to a fee. Since you chose to end your program before the end of the 11-month term of your most recent contract, an early termination fee of $600 was assessed.
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, visit https://biz.yelp.com/support/using_business_account
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.

Hi Judith,Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for Judith Adamick - Personal Real Estate.Our records indicate you redeemed a $300.00 promotional ad credit on May 6, 2017. To redeem the $300 credit towards Yelp ads,...

you were required to sign up for our Cost Per Click (CPC) advertising campaign and put a credit card on file. You set your Cost Per Click monthly budget at $450. You also signed up for enhanced profile features which cost $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 on and 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 that recapped your purchase and the details of your campaign. However, sometimes this email may end up in your spam folder. It looks like you have since been in touch with our account management team, and that they resent you this email on December 5, 2017. 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 the charges and how the promotion was applied: May 6 - 31, 2017- You received ad clicks and enhanced profile features which cost a total of $426.58- $300 of your $300 credit was used and you paid $126.58June 2017- You received ad clicks and enhanced profile features which cost a total of $426.58- You had 0 remaining promotional credit for this month because it was used towards your May ads- You paid $525 for advertising services delivered in JuneJuly 2017- You received ad clicks and enhanced profile features which cost a total of $525- You paid $525 for advertising services delivered in JulyAugust 2017- You received ad clicks and enhanced profile features which cost a total of $525- You paid $525 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 $525- You paid $525 for advertising services delivered in OctoberNovember 2017- You received ad clicks and enhanced profile features which cost a total of $525- You paid $525 for advertising services delivered in NovemberDecember 1 - 5, 2017- You received ad clicks which cost a total of $43.14- You are responsible for $43.14 for advertising services delivered in DecemberYou can view ad click and billing statements in the Yelp Ads and Billing tabs of your Yelp for Business Owners Account at [redacted]You ended your advertising program on December 5, 2017. As advertising services have been delivered in accordance with the Terms [redacted]) you agreed to, we will not be able to waive the remaining balance of $43.14 for advertising services delivered in December. Because your advertising program is billed in arrears, you should expect to see a bill for this amount on January 1, 2018. 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 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.

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.

Hi [redacted],Thank you for your response.You wrote, "We cancelled as of 4/26 online, via email and via phone." However, your advertising program was a self-serve program, which means that business owners cannot cancel their ads by email or phone; rather, they must log in to their Yelp for Business Owners Account in order to turn off their ads. It also looks like you may have been responding to automated emails that came from a no reply email address ([redacted]), and we were unable to locate a record of the April 26 and May 1 calls you are referring to.Our records indicate that an account manager, [redacted], spoke you on May 11, 2016 to discuss your concerns about your ads. It appears [redacted] informed you that she had some recommendations, but that she also let you know that you could end your advertising program. It appears you directed [redacted] to reach out to your marketing person so that she could go over recommendations for your business page with her. According to our records, [redacted] then reached out to [redacted] by phone and email on May 11 to go over recommendations and the ad program.While are sorry to hear you were not satisfied with your advertising campaign, we want to be clear that you were electing to pay every time a user clicked on your ad impression. 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.As advertising services were delivered in accordance with the Terms you agreed to, you are responsible for the remaining balance of $499.68 for advertising services delivered from April 8 through May 21, 2016. Thanks for understanding.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:I have not received a voicemail from [redacted] on my personal phone or business phone.Sincerely,[redacted]

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 regarding your advertising program for Photography by [redacted].
We are sorry to hear you were not satisfied with your advertising...

campaign. To be clear, while the goal of advertising on Yelp is to drive more traffic to the business page, which may ultimately result in more customers, it is important to keep in mind that results are not guaranteed. When advertising with a Cost Per Click program, you are electing to pay every time a user clicks on your ad impression.
You also expressed concern with the pricing of your advertising program. To clarify, you initially signed up for an advertising program with $125 monthly fixed costs plus up to $275 monthly variable costs, for a monthly maximum of $400. The monthly fixed costs are for a featured video ($50 per month), call tracking ($25 per month), and your enhanced profile ($50 per month), which includes features such as competitor ad removal and a photo slideshow. These costs were all outlined in the advertising agreement you signed. Your monthly cost per click budget cap is set at $275, which means you are only charged when someone clicks on your ad and you agreed to pay up to $275 a month for those ad clicks. If you do not reach your monthly budget cap, you are only charged for the ad clicks you received. However, if you do reach your monthly budget cap, we no longer deliver ads for your business for the remainder of the month so that you won't have to pay more than you agreed to.
We also want to address your comment, "most of the clicks I've been paying for were coming from California, and other states far away, which are obviously from Yelp Employees working on my listing. A good amount of clicks I paid for that are in my area, are from myself." Please be assured that Yelp ads clicked on from a Yelp IP do not count towards the ad clicks you see in your Yelp for Business Owners Account. Please also keep in mind that you are only being charged when someone clicks on your Yelp Ad, and not when someone finds your page through another means, such as our natural search results. Additionally, it's important to note that the activity you see on the Activity tab of your Yelp for Business Owners Account isn't necessarily from users who clicked on your ad. This activity may also be coming from users who found your page through other means.
It appears you recently spoke with an account manager, Alli, on January 11, and that she sent you a new advertising agreement to remove the featured video and call tracking features from your advertising program. It looks like you signed this new contract on January 13, 2016, and it will be effective beginning February 1, 2016.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.