Yelp.com

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/10/27) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted].
It looks like you are currently signed up for a self-serve Cost Per Click (CPC) advertising...

program. You can end your advertising program by logging in to your business account at https://biz.yelp.com/, clicking "Yelp Ads" in the left-hand sidebar, and then clicking "End Campaign."
However, please note that even if you end your advertising campaign, your business page will remain on Yelp as 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.
With regards to your comment, "they allow consumers to publish wrong prices," it sounds like you may be referring to the Price Range attribute. Please note that certain attributes, such as Price Range, are voted on by users who have reviewed this business. However, these can change over time as more users review the business and cast their own votes. If you have concerns about prices mentioned in a specific review, you might consider sending a private message to the reviewer or posting a public comment through your free business account. 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. Our hope is that by utilizing these means you will be able to rectify any misunderstandings and come to an amicable resolution.
You also wrote, "I have also received negative reviews on my business listing about other businesses." You can report a review that you think may violate Yelp's Content Guidelines (http://www.yelp.com/guidelines) by clicking the flag icon next to it. 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).
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Hi [redacted]Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concern regarding your business page for The [redacted] [redacted]You asked for your business listing be removed, but as you may recall from the previous correspondence you've had with the...

Yelp Support team (please forgive the repetition), 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).That said, we've gone ahead and removed the street address from your business page: [redacted]Additionally, we were unable to locate any duplicate Yelp pages for your business. Because Yelp is available in a number of different countries, we have different domains, but please note that the following URLs all link to the same business information and are not duplicate Yelp pages:[redacted]Finally, we cannot control what gets displayed on other websites. We suggest you contact those sites directly with any issues regarding your listing on their sites.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted]. We first want to clarify that a business's decision whether or not to advertise on Yelp does not affect how the reviews on its listing are...

treated. Businesses are not punished if they don't advertise, nor are businesses awarded with preferential treatment with regards to their reviews if they do advertise. We understand there are some misconceptions about this, so we invite you to visit [redacted] to learn more.With regards to your concern with the recommendation software, as you may have read, the goal of Yelp's recommendation software is to showcase more reliable content. The recommendation software establishes an objective standard against which every review can be measured, and looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability, and activity on Yelp.It's important to note that the software applies the same analysis to everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviews. Please also understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a review. However, the system is not static -- reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors.To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: [redacted]Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Hi [redacted]Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted].We first want to make sure you know that a business's decision whether or not to advertise on Yelp does not affect how the reviews on its listing are...

treated. Businesses are not punished if they don't advertise, nor are businesses awarded with preferential treatment with regards to their reviews if they do advertise. We understand there are some misconceptions about this, so we invite you to visit [redacted]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 that you want "the positive reviews to be recommended and factored in our overall rating," 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: [redacted]You also expressed concern with a negative review. It looks like you are referring to the review by [redacted]., as it appears this review was recently reported by you or one of your colleagues. We have taken a second look at this review but, after careful consideration, we reached the same conclusion as before and are unable to remove the review. If a review appears to reflect the reviewer’s personal experiences and opinions, it is our policy to let the user stand behind his or her review.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/10/30) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding the business page for [redacted] Church.
We first want to make sure you know that a business's decision whether or not to...

advertise on Yelp does not affect how the reviews on its listing are treated. Businesses are not punished if they don't advertise, nor are businesses awarded with preferential treatment with regards to their reviews if they do advertise. We understand there are some misconceptions about this, so we invite you to visit http://www.yelp.com/advertiser_faq and http://officialblog.yelp.com/2013/05/no-yelp-doesnt-extort-small-businesses-see-...⇄ to learn more.
You also expressed concern with the recommendation software. As you may have read, the goal of Yelp's recommendation software is to showcase more reliable content. The recommendation software establishes an objective standard against which every review can be measured, and looks at dozens of different signals, including various measures of quality, reliability, and activity on Yelp.
It's important to note that the software applies the same analysis to everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviews. You asked that we recommend the reviews that are currently not recommended, but please understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a review. However, the system is not static reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors. Additionally, please note that if a review is not recommended, that does not necessarily mean it is in violation of our guidelines.
To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US
You also expressed concern with [redacted] P's review of [redacted] Church. 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 "inaccurate"; however, Yelp does not take sides in factual disputes. Rather, if a review appears to reflect the personal experience and opinions of the reviewer, it is our policy to allow the user to stand by his/her review.
[redacted]ards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/11/05) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I really don't care what criteria YELP claims to use in accepting or rejecting a review as legit, which is how they justify placing it in the recommended or unrecommended section, because their criteria is obviously not followed equally for all reviews. I know this because they placed ALL POSITIVE reviews in the unrecommended section, reviews which contain no different personal type information than the ONE negative review, yet they have allowed the negative review to stay in the recommended section.
If YELP seriously followed a specific criteria, in our case the positive reviews would have remained in the recommended section since they all contain similar information as the negative review, or the negative review would have been sent into the unrecommended section as the positive reviews were.
ALL of the posted reviews, including the negative one, have personal experiences listed, some with names and some without names. Since all the positive/negative reviews contain similar information, there is no criteria that would require ALL POSTIVIE reviews to be eliminated from the recommended section while the ONE NEGATIVE review is allowed to remain in the recommended section.
And I do know for a fact that YELP does allow businesses to BUY their positive reviews (or eliminate the negative ones) because I've worked for a business where, when we paid YELP a monthly fee, they corrected reviews we could prove were false. Yet now, with [redacted] Church, when the negative review can easily be proven false just by going onto our site and looking at the picture of our choir, which is a racially mixed choirtotally contrary to [redacted] P's reviewthey have refused to correct it. Therefore, we do have proof that her review is false, yet YELP refuses to eliminate it.
My compromise:
(1) allow ALL REVIEWS (positive and negative) to be included in the "Recommended" section since they are all similar and therefore fit YELP's criteria (if [redacted] P's fits then so do the others), and if a review can be proven false, don't force the business/church to PAY a monthly fee in order to get the review removed.
(2) Since no one at our church even knows the identity of the individual who started our YELP page (WHICH COULD HAVE BEEN [redacted] P. herself), remove the page from your site.
COMPUTER GENERATED CRITERIA IS NOT AN EXCUSE FOR ALLOWING FALSE PUBLICITY AGAINST ANY ORGANIZATON/BUSINESS/CHURCH.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/11/16) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for your response.
You have again alleged 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.
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 wrote, "their criteria is obviously not followed equally for all reviews. I know this because they placed ALL POSITIVE reviews in the unrecommended section, reviews which contain no different personal type information than the ONE negative review, yet they have allowed the negative review to stay in the recommended section." Please note we don't go into detail as to why a review is or is not recommended, and keep in mind that the software looks at many different signals when determining whether or not to recommend a review. We intentionally make the recommendation software difficult to reverse engineer otherwise, we would be overrun by reviews written by people hoping to game the system. So while it may be tough to decipher how the recommendation software works, the rules are actually the same for every business and every review.
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.
With regards to [redacted] P's review, our team has taken a second look at the review. We reached the same conclusion as before and are unable to remove the review. We don't take sides in factual disputes; 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. These decisions aren't always easy, but please know we looked at this review closely before reaching our decision.
Finally, you asked for [redacted] Church 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.
[redacted]ards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2015/11/17) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I again repeat what I said before. Computer generated criteria is no excuse for allowing lies to remain online ... and I want a copy of your "computer generated criteria" to provide to our attorney because I do not believe they exist.
Why? Because here is [redacted] P's review: "There is no God in this church. It is only a social made up of very hateful community members. If they dont like your home, your skin color, or your looks they will not allow you in their group. I have went to services with "pastor [redacted]" in which there was NEVER a mention of God or the Bible. The church group simply wants money and community control."
What's different in [redacted] P's review than this one: (1) God is in this church, and the members care. The members are inviting and care for their community. The prayer list is an entire page in fine print most of which are for the community, our country, health of community members, foreign ministry, praises/giving thanks and for rain. If you know about Hanover weather rain is a prayer to be raised up... If I could ask for a group to come together in the family of God to pray for me I would ask the Hanover Church family to do so.
or this one ... (2) The message is of God, the music can move you and the children's church is growing with wonder. Every time I attend the church family is kind to me even though I do not attend regularly- I NEVER feel judged for my lack of attendance or that I am not the "best dressed'. They welcome ALL form single attendees such as myself to families of mixed race, young and 'old' alike. This church family LOVES others openly. They LOVE Lord and strive to be close to him.
Thank you to the members of this Church for showing me it is alive in [redacted].
or this one... (3) I've been going to this church for over 20 years and have never known someone that goes by a [redacted] P. I do not believe this negative review for several reason. We have couples active in the church that are bi-racial and are very welcome. Also, Pastor [redacted] has never given a sermon without God being the center of it. We will be praying for you. [redacted] does not preach sermons about giving money, rather relies on God to put on the hearts of each person what to give. God Bless.
[redacted]'s review mentions the pastor's name and so do some of the other reviews. Her review says God is not in the church, the other's say He is there. Her review says there is no prayer or Bible reading, the others counter that...as proved by the sermons that are posted on our website every week. Her review says God's name is never mentioned, the others counter that...again as proven by the same website sermons. There are eight more reviews that have similar information as these reviews, all similar in content to [redacted] P's except positive, and ALL have been sent to the unrecommended section. So what is the criteria that makes hers acceptable and these not?
I are not trying to "game" the system, I simply want the truthful reviews accepted in the recommended section along with [redacted] P's lie. Of course, I guess I could do what the business I work for had to do to get their false negative reviews removed from your site, I could pay Yelp as a client. And there's no need to give you the phone number, name, and date of this business as though someone lied to me, because I am the bookkeeper who paid the bills. When we gave up trying to reason with Yelp and became a paying client, we were finally given consideration to the false reviews, but until then, well, it's just like what I'm dealing with now. I guess becoming a client of Yelp worked for that business, perhaps it would work for the church, too.

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing back.I understand that you’re disputing the accuracy of the review of your business by [redacted]., and I wanted to let you know that our team has taken a second look at the review.We reached the same conclusion as before and are unable to remove the review. We don't take sides in factual disputes; 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.The only people who can speak authoritatively to a situation are the people who were there when it happened, so our moderators aren't in a position to take sides when factual accounts differ. 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. Our moderators generally aren't able to consider outside information or arbitrate disputes, if there's a disagreement over the facts of a situation.These decisions aren’t always easy, but please know we looked at this review closely before reaching our decision.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/11/16) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding regarding the reservation you made.
We forwarded your message to the appropriate party, and it looks like my colleague Betty...

contacted you on November 10 and 12. As you may recall from your correspondence with her, the refund has been processed and should be available to you within the next several business days.
If you have any further questions regarding your refund, please respond directly to Betty's email, and she'd be happy to assist you further.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted].You expressed concern with a review. It looks like you are referring to [redacted] review, which you previously reported. We have taken a second look at this...

review but, after careful consideration, we reached the same conclusion as before and are unable to remove the review. If a review appears to reflect the reviewer’s personal experiences and opinions, it is our policy to let the user stand behind his or her review.In some situations, business owners may want to message the reviewer privately, or post a public response to clarify any misunderstandings. You can access these features using our free accounts for business owners ([redacted]), and you can find more information about how to respond to reviews here: [redacted]These decisions aren’t always easy, but please know we looked at this review closely before reaching our decision.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted]We first want to be clear that a business's decision whether or not to advertise on Yelp does not affect how the reviews on its listing are...

treated. Businesses are not punished if they don't advertise, nor are businesses awarded with preferential treatment with regards to their reviews if they do advertise. We understand there are some misconceptions about this, so we invite you to visit [redacted] to learn more.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.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 [redacted]For more information about recommended reviews, please visit our Support Center: [redacted]Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Hi Dr. [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 $300. Once the promotion runs out, advertising continues until you stop your ads through your Yelp for Business Owners Account.Your advertising program was a self-serve program, which means that ads can be turned off by the business at any time through the Yelp for Business Owners Account. If you only wanted to use your $300 promotion, you would have needed to log in and end the program once that credit was used. During your ad setup there were Q&A's on the 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:March 9 - 31, 2017- You received 26 ad clicks which cost a total of $219.91- $219.91 of your $300 credit was used and you paid $0April 2017- You received 30 ad clicks which cost a total of $300- You had $80.09 remaining promotional credit for this month because it was partially used in March- The costs did not exceed your selected $300 monthly budget- You paid $219.91 for advertising services delivered in April.May 1 - 2 , 2017- You received 1 ad click which cost a total of $9.53- You had 0 remaining promotional credit for this month because it was used in March and April- You are responsible for $9.53 for advertising services delivered in MayYou can view a breakdown of how many ad clicks you received by logging in to your Yelp for Business Owners Account at [redacted] and then clicking on the Yelp Ads tab.You ended your advertising program on May 2, 2017. As advertising services have been delivered in accordance with the Terms ([redacted]) you agreed to, at this time we will not be able to waive the remaining balance of $9.53 for advertising services delivered in May. Once this amount is collected, you will not incur further charges. With regards to your claim you spoke with someone and "asked them to cancel my card and to not renew," we were unable to locate a record of such a conversation. If you are able to provide any additional information, such as the name of the individual whom you spoke with, their phone number, the phone number you called from, and the date and time of your conversation, please let us know so that we can look into this further.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Hi Kyle,Thank you for your response. You wrote, "There was no notification of charging my credit card. No receipts, no invoices." After you signed up for your advertising program, we sent you an automated email with the subject line "Welcome to Yelp Advertising: Your Ads Are Now Live!" that recapped your purchase and the details of your campaign, including the maximum you would be charged per month and what your billing date was. As stated in this email, "The payment method on file in your account will be charged monthly, up to a maximum of $375, and your programs will continue unless cancelled. Your Yelp Advertising program will be billed in arrears (after services are rendered). [...] Your billing date is the 1st of the month."Advertisers also have the option to opt in to receiving billing confirmation emails in the Account Settings section of their account. You can view your billing statements at any time by logging in to your account at [redacted] and clicking on the Billing tab.Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback, and we'll make sure to forward your concerns to the appropriate parties so that they can take your suggestions into consideration.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]We appreciate feedback, and have forwarded your concerns to the appropriate parties for their consideration.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, featured video, and call tracking features.You wrote, "Sometime in November I requested termination." Please note that per the terms of your advertising agreement, we require 30 days written notice to your account management contact if you wish to terminate your advertising program, and we were unable to locate a written cancellation request from you dated in November. If you submitted a written cancellation request in November, could you please forward us the email (including headers) to [email protected], so that we can look into this further? Please be sure to indicate that it is in regards to Revdex.com case #[redacted].We also want to address your comment, "In January I was billed $840 and thought that was termination and fees. Apparently not." To clarify, 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. According to our records, it appears we attempted to collect $420 for advertising services delivered in November 2016 beginning on December 1, 2016, and that we attempted to collect an additional $420 for advertising services delivered in December 2016 beginning on January 1, 2017, but that we were unable to collect this total of $840 until January 9, 2017.With regards to your comment, "The data shows that 'interest' came from California Oregon New York Tennessee," we want to clarify that the location listed in a user's profile might not reflect their actual location.Your advertising program was terminated as of March 26, 2017. 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. That said, we have forwarded your message to the appropriate parties for their consideration. Thanks for understanding.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Hi Judi,We stand behind our previous responses. Please keep in mind that the location listed in a user's profile is not necessarily their actual location. Additionally, Yelp reviewers are not required to use their real name on Yelp, and our moderators aren't in a position to arbitrate situations where a business cannot match up a reviewer's name to the records maintained by that business.Our moderators also aren't in a position to verify the facts of a reviewer's experience, and we'll generally defer to the reviewer him- or herself to share their experiences in their own words. 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. Our moderators generally aren't able to consider outside information or arbitrate disputes, if there's a disagreement over whether a review was posted to the correct business or if there's a disagreement over the facts of a situation.We're unable assist you further in this matter.Regards,HelenYelp Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: It is one thing to express your personal opinion and experience(as Yelp states) and it is another to flat out lie! There is a difference and we are asking that Yelp recognize this and remove the review based upon this. If [redacted] would have said  the work passed city inspection codes but he was still displeased than that would have been his personal feelings,experience and opinion. Instead [redacted] lied and said the work did not pass now how do you think that looks to a maybe potential customer? Where Is [redacted] rebuttal and proof backing this accusation? Also why isn't Yelp asking that [redacted] provide proof? 
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns, but please note that we were unable to locate your business page with the information you provided. 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.Even though it inevitably affects legitimate reviews from time to time and misses some fake ones, too, it helps protect the integrity of the site both for consumers (who will be less likely to be led astray by bogus reviews) and business owners (who will spend less time worrying about whether their competitors are writing negative reviews about them).It's important to note that the software applies the same analysis to everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviews. Please also understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a review. However, the system is not static -- reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors.To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: [redacted]Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
I did not put the page up for [redacted]/Art Studio. I wish to remain private. Because our son added the page, I did not know the terms and agreements and I wish to have the page removed. The consumer has rights, the small business owner has rights as well. I wish to take down my page.Sincerely,[redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/05/28) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted]
You stated that "Yelp enabled its users to make online reservations at our restaurant without our...

knowledge." However, as you may recall from the correspondence you've had with the Yelp Reservations team, the only way for the Yelp Reservations feature to be turned on is by the business through their Business Account. It looks like you have logged in to your Business Account and turned this feature off.
You also expressed concern with a negative review. We assume you are referring to the review by [redacted] H. 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. If a review appears to reflect the personal experience and opinions of the reviewer, it is our policy to allow the user to stand by his/her review.
You might consider posting public comment to this review through your free business account. 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. Our hope is that by utilizing these means you will be able to rectify any misunderstandings and come to an amicable resolution.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/06/04) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Please provide proof of us enabling this feature or giving Yelp the authorization to enable this. The negative review was the result of an error made by yelp; Enabling the online reservation feature without our knowledge. Therefor we could not accommodate since we didn't take reservations on that day. I guess this happened as a result of us canceling our advertising account ?
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/06/18) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for your response.
You wrote, "Please provide proof of us enabling this feature or giving Yelp the authorization to enable this." As indicated in our previous response, the Yelp Reservations feature can only be turned on by the business through their Business Account.
Our records indicate that [redacted] signed up for Yelp Reservations on April 23, 2015. On the Yelp Reservations setup page (which is accessed by logging in to the Business Account at https://biz.yelp.com/). the business account user provided the email address [redacted] and entered details about online reservation capacity, pacing, and what times the business would like to accept online reservations. After the business account user clicked "Finish", a confirmation email was sent to [redacted]. Our records indicate that the email address was confirmed on April 26, 2015, which enabled online reservations.
Once Yelp Reservations were set up, the settings could have been further reviewed and adjusted in the Business Account. For example, under Settings, you could have updated the email address and your email notification preferences. Businesses also have the option to set custom blackout dates under the Availability section. If your business did not wish to receive reservations on May 5th, you could have provided it as a custom blackout date.
Removing reviews is not something we take lightly, and it is only done when it violates our Terms of Service or Content Guidelines. We understand that you may be frustrated with our decision to keep [redacted] H's review up, but our position remains the same. Again, if a review appears to reflect the user's personal experience and opinions, we allow the user to stand behind their review.
Finally, we want to address your comment that "I guess this happened as a result of us canceling our advertising account ?" Please be assured that Yelp does not retaliate against businesses for any reason, including terminating an advertising program. Additionally, a business's decision whether or not to advertise on Yelp does not affect how the reviews on its listing are treated. Businesses are not punished if they don't advertise, nor are businesses awarded with preferential treatment with regards to their reviews if they do advertise. We understand there are some misconceptions about this, so we invite you to visit http://www.yelp.com/advertiser_faq and [redacted] to learn more.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Hi [redacted],Thank you for your response.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. Please also keep in mind that users can see reviews that aren't currently recommended by clicking on the link at the bottom of your business page.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 the most reliable and useful content amongst the millions of submitted 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.

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for St. [redacted] Preschool.You expressed concern with a review. It sounds like you are referring to the review by [redacted].** previous review was removed by our...

moderators because it violated our Terms of Service, but they weren't prohibited from posting a new review. In these situations, we allow reviewers to post an edited review, and will evaluate that review on its own merits if necessary.With that in mind, we've looked at [redacted].** current review and review udpate of St. [redacted] Preschool, and have elected to leave them up. If a review appears to reflect a user** personal experience and opinions, it is our policy to let the user stand behind his or her review. For future reference, if you come across content that you feel may violate Yelp** Content Guidelines [redacted], please let our moderators know by reporting it. You can do so by finding the content in question, clicking the flag icon on the website or the More Options/Overflow Menu (3 dots) on the app. You'll need to be logged into your account to report content.To learn more, please visit: [redacted]While reporting content doesn't guarantee that it'll be removed, our team looks at every inquiry and carefully evaluates the content against our guidelines. Each case will be reviewed by our team in the order it was received. Typically, you will receive a response to your report within a few business days. If you don't believe you've received our response, please be sure to check all email and spam folders (you may want to add [redacted] to your contact list). Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because: I appreciate your response. However, I do not understand how you can't fix or reverse the decisions of a machine YOU built. We have a legit review from a legit customer (we can prove it). Yet nothing can me done. This is pointless. Thank you.Sincerely,[redacted]