Yelp.com

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing back.We forwarded your messages to the appropriate parties, and it looks like a manager[redacted] reached out to you to discuss your concerns. As you may recall, we are refunding you $97.98 for the advertising services that were delivered from November 23, 2015 to December 2, 2015.We hope you will continue to take advantage of the free features available to you on your business account to engage with the Yelp community. For guidance, please visit [redacted]Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Hi Daniel,Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for Clinical Massage Company. You asked for your business to be removed from Yelp; however, 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.That said, we think it's important for businesses to be part of the conversation, and have created a suite of free tools to help business owners get the most out of Yelp. By unlocking your business page and creating a Business Account, you can:- Communicate with your customers via direct message or public comment- Track the User Views on your business page- Add photos of your business- Convert Yelp users into customers by posting a Yelp Deal to your listing. To join the conversation, click here: [redacted]You also indicated that you would like your business to be removed from the Yellow Pages. We suggest you contact them directly with any issues regarding your business on their site, as Yelp is a separate business from the Yellow Pages.Regards,HelenYelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/01/12) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] & Spa.
We appreciate you bringing your concerns to our attention, and have forwarded your note...

along to the appropriate parties.
We also 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 http://www.yelp.ca/advertiser_faq and http://officialblog.yelp.com/2013/05/no-yelp-doesnt-extort-small-businesses-see-...⇄ to learn more.
Finally, it looks like our Sales team has noted 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.ca/support/contact/questions
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Hi [redacted],Thank you for your response. We're sorry to hear there may have been a miscommunication. If you have any additional information about this call, such as the phone number you called from, and the time and date of the call, please let us know so that we can look into this further.We also want to clarify that we don't send out emails to our advertisers when their promotional credit is about to be used up. However, we sometimes provide a notification if a business has yet to redeem a promotional credit and the expiration date is approaching. Additionally, we want to reiterate that your advertising program was a self-serve program, which means that business owners select their monthly budget and can turn off their ads at any time through their Yelp for Business Owners Account. As advertising services were delivered in accordance with the Terms you agreed to, we will not be able to offer you a refund. Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Hi [redacted],Thank you for your response.You have again alleged that Yelp is manipulating your reviews because you did not return a sales representative's call. However, with respect to reviews, paying businesses have absolutely no advantage. The 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.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 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.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]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.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:  After the blatant disregard for someone else's life that was shown toward me on that day I can assure you I would never do business with this company, as well as any family or close friends.  I am sure the owner of said business would consider that a detriment to his business.  Instead of allowing the owner to right the wrong which would prompt a deleted review or at least a positive update then we will just have to settle as disgruntled non-potential customers.  I read your content guidelines and a 'consumer firsthand experience' by definition does require an actual PURCHASE of goods or services.  So your example of someone calling for a price is not valid for a review by your own guidelines.  In result, your guidelines in whole are invalid.  Or like previously stated, you can treat each business fairly and remove those from my business that did not involve a purchase. Sincerely,[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
I have no issue with the agreement or terms of the service.  I was aware of all that.  My issue is that a running total was shown and I monitored that.  It showed how much of the $300 credit was used.  My issue is that it was reset at the beginning of the month.  By doing this, I never knew the full total.  This was done to make it appear that I had not reached my total.  This was because they know that people would stop the service at $300.  If there was actually one customer that called because of this ad, I would not be as upset, but with all the supposed ad clicks, nothing was accomplished.Sincerely,[redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/10/12) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] LLC.
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. Even though it inevitably affects legitimate reviews from time to time and misses some fake ones, too, it helps protect the integrity of the site both for consumers (who will be less likely to be led astray by bogus reviews) and business owners (who will spend less time worrying about whether their competitors are writing negative reviews about them).
It's important to note that the software applies the same analysis to everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviews. Please also understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a review. However, the system is not static reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors.
To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US
With regards to your comment, "Some negative reviews are directly affiliated with competition," 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).
You also wrote, "Yelp refuses to allow posting of our/ownership rebuttals." With a Business Account, business owners can privately message users or publicly comment on reviews of their business. It looks like some of your colleagues have already claimed the [redacted] LLC business page. We can assist in adding users with the consent of the account holder. If you don't know who claimed this business page, you'll need to pursue this matter internally to find out.
Please have the current account holder contact our team directly with a request to either share access to the page or to transfer access entirely and relinquish ownership:
http://www.yelp.com/support/contact/business_share
http://www.yelp.com/support/contact/business_transfer
Finally, you asked for your business to be removed from Yelp, but we actually don't remove business listing information. While some business owners might prefer to keep a lower profile, this kind of information is publicly available and its use is protected under the law. More importantly, we believe that the public benefits from sharing their experiences with local businesses.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Hi Alana,Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns. It appears your complaint is regarding the business page for The Shirtery, but if that is not the case, please feel free to send us a link to the business page you are referring to.We first want to address...

your comment, "According to a phone call that I made, were I to spend money in advertising, they would not only remove their competitors from a listing which I did not authorize to have in the first place, and that by spending money on advertising I would get more positive reviews." To clarify, Yelp offers programs that will remove competitor ads from your Yelp business page. However, Yelp treats advertisers and non-advertisers exactly alike with respect to reviews. Advertising only buys ads and never higher ratings, removal of negative reviews or promotion of positive reviews.You'll find plenty of Yelp advertisers with negative reviews, and plenty of non-advertisers with five-star ratings across the board. 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 a Yelp sales representative doesn't have any influence over when that might happen.Pease note that our recommendation software recommends both positive and negative reviews in an effort to show the most helpful and reliable reviews to our users. That said, Yelpers write more positive reviews than negative reviews, so it isn’t necessarily surprising that Yelp’s recommendation software might impact more positive reviews. We hope you’ll take the time to watch our video about the Recommendation Software: [redacted] and read more about common misconceptions here: [redacted]You also expressed concern with some negative reviews. If you come across content that you feel may violate Yelp's Content Guidelines [redacted]), please let our moderators know by reporting it. You can do so by finding the content in question, clicking the flag icon on the website or the More Options/Overflow Menu (3 dots) on the app. You'll need to be logged into your account to report content.To learn more, please visit: [redacted]While reporting content doesn't guarantee that it'll be removed, our team looks at every inquiry and carefully evaluates the content against our guidelines. Each case will be reviewed by our team in the order it was received.Typically, you will receive a response to your report of a review 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).If you have reported a review, received an email from us about our decision to leave it up, and would like us to take a second look, you can submit a new inquiry by providing the case number (this is provided in our previously emailed response to the content you reported) here:[redacted]You also asked for your business to be removed from Yelp; however, 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.Regards,HelenYelp Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because: There was absolutely no resolution. I still have only poor reviews and 3 times the amount of good reviews that have ALL been rejected.Sincerely,[redacted]

Hi Bryan,Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your advertising program for Just Pondering.We appreciate your feedback and have forwarded your message to the appropriate parties. A manager, Ry, reached out and spoke with you today, March 30,...

2018, and we are writing off the outstanding balance of $373.32.We hope you will continue to take advantage of the free features on your Yelp for Business Owners Account to engage with the Yelp community. With your account, you can post information about your business, upload photos, respond to reviewers, and more. We provide guidance for business owners at[redacted]Regards,HelenYelp Inc.

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted]. You expressed concern with a review. It looks like you are referring to the review by [redacted]., as you recently reported this review. To clarify, [redacted].'s...

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].'s new review of [redacted], and have elected to leave it up. If a review appears to reflect a user's personal experience and opinions, it is our policy to let the user stand behind his or her review.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Hi [redacted],Thank you for writing back.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.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 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 software picks up new information.We recognize that there have been other complaints alleging that Yelp manipulates reviews and ratings to reward advertisers, yet these allegations are not based in fact. Please consider:1. Third party research (such as [redacted]) has debunked this conspiracy.2. Courts have rejected the conspiracy due to the lack of any fact-based evidence.3. A simple search across the site proves that non-advertisers often have excellent 4 and 5-star ratings while many advertisers have low ratings.For more information about this issue, please visit [redacted]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 asked for your business to be removed from Yelp; however, we don't remove business information. While some business owners might prefer to keep a lower profile, this kind of information is publicly available and its use is protected under the law. More importantly, we believe that the public benefits from sharing their experiences with local businesses.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/09/14) */
Hi Dr. [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted] Dental Arts.
We realize you are frustrated, but it's important to distinguish between...

customers who have a negative experience and let the business know that they intend to talk about it on Yelp versus those who might go from business to business threatening to fabricate negative reviews for special treatment. That being said, it appears [redacted] S's review reflects his firsthand experience at [redacted] Dental Arts, and the review will be left intact. As you may recall from the correspondence you've had with the Yelp Support team, Yelp does not take sides in factual disputes. Rather, if a review appears to reflect the personal experience and opinions of the reviewer, it is our policy to allow the user to stand by his/her review.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/09/15) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
The review that [redacted] S has left for us is not about a firsthand experience. It's about receiving a refund. Please read the short review again. The reviewer does not discuss any experience on the visits leading to, during, or follow ups after the procedure (this operation is a long process not a single visit) at all but just the fact that he is entitled to a refund. Further, for your information, the procedure was done more than two years ago. The reviewer has no single prior review on Yelp explaining any other firsthand experiences. The review showed up only after our office called him to inquire about the unpaid portion of his bill. Apparently he was happy with the experience until he was asked to pay for it. We, unequivocally, believe Yelp is providing a platform for this reviewer to extort money from our practice. If Yelp is genuinely interested in getting to the bottom of the situation, it is very easy for us to provide proof that the reviewer is not sincere on his claim about our practice. Also, as you may recall from the same referenced correspondence we've had with the Yelp Support team, you mentioned our recourse would be to leave a public response to the review. We like you to let you know that is not an option in this case. By posting an X-ray which includes his first and last name, the patient has put his full identity right in the review. Any response to this review would be confirming his personal medical treatment that would put us in violation of state and federal privacy laws (e.g. HIPAA: http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/). I understand Yelp's general guidelines on this, however, unlike typical reviews on Yelp, this is not an anonymous one. Having the patient's full identity in the review, prevents any type of response we can provide, let alone discussing his treatment and why we think we are right. Given the situation, the choice of responding publicly is not an option. So we find ourself in an unfair disadvantage. And that is one more reason why we believe the review should be removed.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/09/21) */
Hi Dr. [redacted],
Thank you for your response.
You have again expressed concern with the review by [redacted] S. However, we don't take sides on factual disputes, so we can only therefore reiterate what we previously communicated to you: if a review appears to reflect the user's personal experience and opinions, we allow the user to stand behind their review. You also noted "the procedure was done more than two years ago," but please keep in mind that users are welcome to post reviews based on their experiences, regardless of when they occurred.
Additionally, while we appreciate your reservations to post a public comment, we encourage you to consider ways in which you might utilize this feature without revealing confidential information. You might, for example, ask the reviewer to contact you off the site to discuss these issues further or make general clarifications about your business.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2015/09/25) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Yelp did not propose ANY resolution! In fact, they have taken no step toward resolving the issue and do not seem genuinely interested in understanding and addressing it. From their generic responses, they do not seem to even have grasp of circumstances. E.g. They suggest to "ask the reviewer to contact you off the site to discuss these issues further". We have been in contact with the reviewer multiple times as clearly mentioned in the complaint and his only interest is to obtain a refund. We strongly believe in resolving misunderstandings through communication, however in this case, there is no misunderstanding on reviewer's part about the service received. He has set his mind on getting his money back. We have made that clear to Yelp through our communications with them and here again. By saying that over and over, Yelp is indirectly suggesting for us to pay the reviewer off. They are also suggesting, again and again, to leave a public comment to "make general clarifications about your business". As much as we have explained both directly to them and here, in this particular case, the review is not of a generic Yelp reviewer. It is of Mr. XXX XXXXX doing an exact procedure with medical X-ray of procedure posted. And the identity is publicly displayed on the X-ray picture of the patient. So unless our comment would be this is not about our practice (in case that would have been true), any other comment would be confirmation of Mr. XXX XXXXX's medical treatment in our practice. This is against state and federal privacy laws. We have previously brought to to Yelp's attention that we know of colleagues that are facing law suites for doing exactly that. In summary, we believe Yelp showed no interest in resolving the issue. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to communicate with them.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because: pictures are not removed from Yelp database. If you google my business name. My photos appear via yelp under google images. Other website webmasters removed my pictures.... Only yelp refuse to remove my photos. Sincerely,[redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/09/18) */
Hello,
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for The [redacted].
You expressed concern with a negative review that you recently reported. It looks like you are...

referring to the review by [redacted]. As you may recall from the message you received from the [redacted] Support team, the review has been evaluated and left up, as it was not found to be in violation of our guidelines. You claim that this review was written by an ex-employee; however, based on what we see in the review, we can't confirm that the user has a conflict of interest with the business. You also wrote that you "are willing to share all documents to prove this is an employee," but as frustrating as it may sound, we don't take the place of a court of law and make evidentiary determinations. 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 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 [redacted] 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] Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because: there is no logic to the software that you are referring to, it does not sort them out in any logical order, this is a complete lie, with no foundation to base/blame the "software" program. This is NOT a justification for your company to act in this manner.  I read complaint after complaint with the same issues as we are having- if we don't pay for advertising, we get poor reviews up front and you hide the good ones. Sounds like extortion of small businesses. If you cannot do anything about this I/we request our company be completely removed from your website, the good with the bad, you do not have our permission to even list our company to your YELP searchers.Sincerely,[redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/07/30) */
Hi [redacted],
Thank you for writing. We are glad to have this opportunity to address your concerns regarding your business page for [redacted].
We first want to make sure you know that a business's decision whether or not to advertise...

on Yelp does not affect how the reviews on its listing are treated. Businesses are not punished if they don't advertise, nor are businesses awarded with preferential treatment with regards to their reviews if they do advertise. We understand there are some misconceptions about this, so we invite you to visit http://www.yelp.com/advertiser_faq and http://officialblog.yelp.com/2013/05/no-yelp-doesnt-extort-small-businesses-see-...⇄ to learn more.
You also expressed concern with the recommendation software. As you may have read, the goal of Yelp's recommendation software is to showcase more reliable content. The recommendation software establishes an objective standard against which every review can be measured. Even though it inevitably affects legitimate reviews from time to time and misses some fake ones, too, it helps protect the integrity of the site both for consumers (who will be less likely to be led astray by bogus reviews) and business owners (who will spend less time worrying about whether their competitors are writing negative reviews about them).
It's important to note that the software applies the same analysis to everyone, and that it affects both positive and negative reviews. Please also understand that the recommendation software is automated: we cannot manually override the software to recommend or not recommend a review. However, the system is not static reviews may become recommended or not recommended over time as the system continues to make decisions based on a variety of factors.
To learn more about recommended reviews, please visit: http://www.yelp-support.com/Recommended_Reviews?l=en_US
Finally, you asked for your business to be removed from Yelp, but we actually don't remove business listing information. While some business owners might prefer to keep a lower profile, this kind of information is publicly available and its use is protected under the law. More importantly, we believe that the public benefits from sharing their experiences with local businesses.
Regards,
[redacted]
Yelp Inc.

Hi [redacted],Thank you for your response.You wrote, "I have nothing showing me the number of clicks or the price per click. A statement should have been sent if there were clicks involved and I have never received anything about it." To clarify, information about the number of ad clicks you received is available in your Yelp Business Account. You can access this information by logging in to your account at [redacted] and then clicking on the Yelp Ads tab. From there, you can select the appropriate dropdown menu options to view a breakdown of your ad spend per month.We've also included a breakdown of your charges below.July 28 - 31, 2016- You received 10 ad clicks at an average cost per click of $3.55, which cost a total of $35.49- Your prorated enhanced profile features cost $6.46- You were charged $41.95 on August 1, 2016August 2016- You received 38 ad clicks at an average cost per click of $7.24, which cost a total of $275- Your enhanced profile features cost $50- You were charged $325 on September 1, 2016September 2016- You received 24 ad clicks at an average cost per click of $11.46, which cost a total of $275- Your enhanced profile features cost $50- You are responsible for an outstanding balance of $325 for advertising services delivered in in SeptemberWith regards to the price per click, as noted in your contract, you signed up for a Cost-Per-Click (CPC) auction-based auto-bidding program, which means that you agreed to allow Yelp to set the bid price per click to keep you competitive in the market. It's important to keep in mind that the price fluctuated up or down depending on competition, relevance, and other factors. However, it was always the lowest price possible to win the click.We hope that clarifies the charges.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.

Hi [redacted],Thank you for your response.While we are sorry that you were not satisfied with your advertising program, we want to be clear 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, which included features such as competitor ad removal and a photo slideshow. Yelp delivered these advertising services in accordance with the advertising agreement you signed, therefore we will not be able to offer you a refund. Thank you for understanding.Regards,[redacted]Yelp Inc.