I have great reviews but the sales guy for our area spelled my company name wrong three times, closed my store, harasses me, put my last name on my history which I did not authorize, and I had good reviews filtered out. They have no number to contact someone directly and hide out behinde the web while hurting other owners.

At least on my business review page and 11 others that I know, the owners response icon on the bottom of the review section is disable. And if I want to make any comment , goes to yelp rather than being open to public. This happened almost 6 months ago when I posted the comment against untruth statement which was posted by the first 2 negative input. The point here is, we as business owner have not equal right to use or respond to a certain comment. I guess in legal term translate as equal opportunity. We need to gather more and more of people who are in this position and warn Yelp for legally binding rolls.

I've been in business for over 30 years with thousands of satisfied and repeat customers. I do not need a low class website like Yelp to "help me get customers". I was contacted by a Yelp salesman claiming that my business listing on yelp was getting hundreds of clicks per month from potential customers. I explained to him that we are as busy as we've ever been and would not be interested in advertising on their website. Suddenly, a one-star rating from reviewers with fake names and even people who claimed they've used my business in states where we've never done business. I've tried to send a certified letter to the only address that I could find for them (in San Francisco) but it was returned as undeliverable. It's funny how shady these people are when you can't find a valid address or even a phone number for these frauds. I hope Jeremy Stopplelman can hide his millions as well as he hides his company location, because I will definately join any class action lawsuits to strip him of every last cent he's scammed from people through his fraudulant website.

If I had known how bad Yelp was I would have never put a business listing with them. They are bad for small merchants. They attract complainers, cowards, and people that can't communicate with their merchant. They filter out the good reviews and put the bad at the top. I hope they go out of business. No merchant should sign up with them.

One more thing to add to the previous posting.

Go to

http://www.google.com/places

and claim your free business listing.
These listings often fall above the Yelp listings and none of
the reviews are filtered, Google does not solicit you and
they listen if you have a complaint.

I'm not a business owner (yet) but, as an honest foodie, I've been seriously put off by Yelp lately.

If I write a good review for a favorite place, it gets "filtered".

I have to try not to be *too* positive, or *too* negative, to have any of my posts accepted.

SO! Why bother in the first ******* place?

This is ridiculous. I am supposed to trust THEM? When they don't trust ME?

***************** (I used my own swear filter so you can imagine whatever you want there....)

Yes, you are right, Yelp sucks, but what are you going to do now? Run? Hide? You and your business have to survive so the only thing to do is take action to reduce the impact of Yelp. Here are some constructive suggestions:

1). Review Yelp on their own website. They have 4300 reviews.
Believe me, you will feel better and they do not filter these reviews.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/yelp-san-francisco

2). List your business with as many alternative directories as possible.
http://bit.ly/GRmp5Z

3). Once you list with alternative directories, put their links on your
website. The more links they have, the higher they are in search rankings. Tell others in your business community to support the directories which give you honest reviews. Promote the directories at the place of your business.

4). Take a pro-active approach to customer service and sign up free with: ownerlistens.com It won\'t kill the fraudulent reviews, but it
will let you act on the bad ones you can avoid. It\'s a great program.

5). Add a link to aroundmeapp.com to your website. It is called the
Yelp killer as they have more monthly searches than the Yelp app. The more people who download it, the better it is for everyone.

6). Promote saveusfromyelp.com where ever you can. Mention it in e-mails, on blogs and twitter.

7). Distribute these suggestions to anyone who has a beef with Yelp. Complaining will not achieve anything, but action to preserve your business will help you be successful in spite of Yelp.

8). If you have lost money on Yelp advertising or think they scammed you, write a review at ripoffreport.com

9). Read the articles below and know you are not alone. Print them out. Share them. Distribute any that you find appealing. Post the links on Facebook, twitter and your websites.


http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-03-01/tech/31115588_1_yelp-business-insider-click

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-03-01/taking-stock-of-yelps-ad-sales

http://venturebeat.com/2012/02/06/yelp-advertising-is-a-rip-off-for-small-advertisers/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/how-yelp-is-killing-chain-restaurants/2011/10/03/gIQAokJvHL_blog.html

http://www.bayareaseo.net/is-yelp-advertising-worth-it/

http://blog.agrawals.org/2012/02/18/yelp-advertiser-agreement

http://www.mercurynews.com/columns/ci_20376476/culture-shlock-yelp-is-way

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2012/03/07/yelps-in-pain.aspx

http://yelp-sucks.com/is-yelp-ripping-small-business-owners-off/

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/for-yelp-investors-its-look-out-below-2012-03-09

http://caps.fool.com/Ticker/YELP.aspx

http://allthingsd.com/20120411/analysts-give-yelp-a-lukewarm-review

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/06/EDKN1NGO74.DTL

http://www.raymondfong.net/misc/a-candid-yelp-advertising-review-is-yelp-ripping-people-off/

http://thestir.cafemom.com/food_party/125685/google_buys_zagat_and_dominates

http://247wallst.com/2012/04/11/yelp-analysts-warn-that-stock-is-fully-valued-yelp

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavitz/2012/04/11/yelp-analysts-at-4-bankers-pick-up-coverage-zero-buy-ratings

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/yelp-and-the-business-of-extortion-20/Content?oid=1176635

http://www.yelp.com/topic/austin-yelp-advertising-is-a-rip-off

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-02/stoppelman-standing-up-to-investors-leads-to-yelp-ipo.html

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/03/20/shout-it-from-the-rooftops-avoid-yelp

http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2012/03/is-yelp-still-strong-arming-merchants.html

http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/05/local-search-app-aroundme-trumps-yelps-mobile-apps-with-6m-monthly-users/

I would not give Yelp 1 star. They are running a business of extortion. I can't believe they screen out all the good reviews. They to be review themselves. They do not give a company a fair shot. I will be contacting my senator about this scam.

YELP in HELL!
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/yelp-and-the-business-of-extortion-2%200/Content?oid=1176635
We pray to The LORD that YELP EXTORTION continues to be exposed in the media, blogs and Courts! YELP manipulation (algorithm) of reviews for a $ is extortion! Our LORD will show no mercy for all the damage and EXTORTION they have inflicted upon small business owners and the children they support. If you or your family own a small business, DO NOT PAY any extorsion fees to YELP. The word is out - In 2011, Yelp lost $16.7 million with revenue of $83.3 million. YELP and Jeremy Stoppelman are a brood of snakes and scorpions and deserve to BURN ALIVE for their lies, extortion, and slander.
If you have been damaged by YELP - PRAY PSALMS 119 FOR THEIR DESTRUCTION! Say five times: "Archangel Gabriel destroy YELP Now!"
YELP WILL BE BANKRUPT SOON! ALL PRAISE TO YHWH! The Righteous, Just and Almighty LORD of man and earth!

This will get you. I tried to put my business on yelp. I filled out all the information clicked the email to activate. A day later a sales person called me and tried to sell me advertising. When I told them I couldn't afford it right now she ok thats fine. I keep trying to find my business on yelp its not there. Its been two weeks and know one from yelp will answer my emails.

I despise Yelp. Someone I never met, from across the country (I'm strictly local)wrote a scathing review and Yelp wouldn't remove it, claiming its legal rights over my right to control my own advertising. I see I'm far from alone in this. Yelp seems to be a haven for disenchanted people to write whatever they want without caring how they affect us.

I can't believe it but after reading all the blogs and posts it's seeming more and more like YELP is definitely out for extortion.
We have a great family run business and we work hard at making it the best around. We respond to every review we work hard at making things right for all our customers. We recently added up our reviews and found that they have filtered 54% of our reviews (we haven't been open for even a year) Of those filtered reviews 75% are genuine 5 stars. They have only kept 25% of our unfiltered 5 stars. Something doesn't add up. The pushy sales guys told me in the begining " don't worry the more reviews you get the not so good ones will be buried" Not sure how that's works when they filter all our good reviews and keep all the bogus ones. My husband wants to give in and pay their extortion fee. I disagree. Why give in???? Something is so not right. It makes me sick to my stomach.

Yelp's filtering system is either seriously flawed or tiltled towards paying advertisers - I've had several reviews filtered - I am the customer, I am human - Yelp is not unbiased.

Basically, the algorithym works like this, if you pay there 300 dollar a month extortion, they filter the bad reviews, and let the good ones stay, and if you don't, lol, well, we don't need to be rocket scientists, your sleeping with the fishes. That I believe very close to the definition of raqueteering. I'mm calling my senator today.

I have been extremely upset since yesterday, and I really can't sleep, which is why I started writing this at 5:30am in the morning, I apologize if I ramble. My family runs a small interstate moving business named AAA Moving Company out of South Weymouth. We only run a couple of trucks, and as everyone, we have been struggling with the economy. We have been in business for over 40 years and I am the owner's son. I was brought up in the business, and take pride in my work. Yelp has been approaching me, very aggressively, to take out a 300 dollar a month advertising package from them. I tried to explain to them that I was interested, and if times were better I would love to try it out. But, when your trying to keep a mortgage paid, heat, electricity, phone, gas for cars, diesel for trucks, etc etc. I physically do not have 300 dollars a month to give them. These salesmen that YELP has are real sharks though. I kept telling them call me in a few months, we will see where I am at. I finally told them I can't afford it please stop calling me. Almost immediately our great 5 star review, that I was very proud of earning was removed, and suddenly there was a 1 star review from someone in NH that read "Called this company to discuss a quote. Received startlingly rude and unprofessional treatment. Customer respect does not seem to be a priority. Avoid." YELP tipped their hand, I believe their salesmen are instructed to erase all good reviews, and show bad ones, also, if there are not any bad ones, write a bad one! We do not advertise in NH, it is illegal for us to move to NH. This person from NH is a made up fake by Yelp, I'm telling you it has to be. It's driving me nuts, I'm a good person who works hard, now if you look my company's name up in google a 1 star review shows 40 years of family work. It's enough to make you throw in the towel.

Finally a site where I can vent. I cannot believe this. Everyone is saying basically the same thing! I have only been on yelp for a little over a year and my business is in a small town in the midwest. I own a 60 year old thriving business with an impeccable reputation. Six customers have written 5 star reviews about us on yelp.com. One person wrote a very negative bogus review. You guessed it only the negative one shows up and the positive ones are filtered. What a bogus site. They have ignored repeated attempts contacting them. I'm on a mission now. Tried to acquire the site yelpsucks.com but they already own that one, I'll keep trying.

I agree. However their hidden address is not so hidden anymore: Here is the address in SF: 706 Mission Street SF 94103 Names: ROB KROLIK or Laurence Wilson general counsel. They Also have the Cooley Goddard high power lawfirm and the company is not that big-they have to becuase of the massive complaints against the CO. People are fighting back. What I do is I claim the listing and then write a very detailed rebuttel.Phone numbers for them: 415-908 3801

Please, everyone: Keep a file on your Yelp complaints. Take screen shots of their reviews ("Ctrl+Print Screen", then "paste" or "Ctrl+V" into Word or Notepad). Keep these screen shots of positive reviews that post and are then soon buried and screen shots of the negative pages upon search engines (Screen shots will show dates). Also keep those emails from Yelp as well.

Don't let Yelp fool you by using the word "algorithm" as if its supposed to disarm people by making them feel stupid! Algorithms must first be created by people and they must be ethical, professional and factual.

Their time is coming and you will want to be part of the payout from a class-action lawsuit based upon your evidence.

In the meantime, laws need to be changed and loopholes need to be corrected so that justice can prevail and these scumbags get shut down, lose their money and are forced to go out and find "real" jobs like the ones that they slander on a daily basis!

I signed my moving company up with them for free. I had one good review at the time. Later customers wrote three more good reviews about our company. All three of these have been filtered. Funny how I have been asked by Yelp to advertise with them, and I have refused. Now my customers cannot get any positive reviews published on Yelp. All are being filtered.

Of course they allowed a horrible, unfair, dishonest review to be published. They lady who wrote it was a prevaricater and a shake down artist. Three days after the move she E-Mailed me asking for a refund of $300 or she was going to sue me! I told her that since I have an A+ rating with the BBB and Angies List and a reputation of honesty and competency that I would be happy to see her in court. She never sued me, but instead has written lousy reviews about us on Yelp, Google, Yahoo and etc. I still have her original E-Mail trying to shake us down for $300.

So yelp will not publish our good reviews, but leaves this one horrible review at the top of our Yelp Page.

I would never ever pay to advertise on Yelp. They are diry rotten scoundrels and deserve to be sued big time!!!!!!

John Hathaway

ANNOUNCEMENT:

We have recently implemented a system to outsmart yelp from hiding our filtered reviews:

Step 1- First of all, if you\'re advertising with yelp, we suggest you stop doing so and shift that money to optimize your own web site instead

Step 2- Have a graphic designer make a yelp badge that is placed on your web site. It should say \"we have ...... filtered and unfiltered reviews on yelp\".

Step 3- When a visitor clicks on the badge, it will go to another page ON YOUR OWN WEB SITE (instead of going to yelp\'s. (why help them get traffic and rank higher anyways)?

Step 4- On this page have your graphic designer get a screen capture (picture) of all your filtered and unfiltered reviews and have them pasted together onto one page (in 2 sections, the top section to be unfiltered reviews, leave a space, and then the lower section the filtered reviews). 

Now, all your reviews (filtered and unfiltered) will be visible to all your web site\'s visitors.

5- Add the following words on the top: 

\"for your convenience, we have combined all of our filtered and unfiltered reviews on one page for you to view. If youd like to go to our live yelp page, please click here -------\"

This is done so that your potential clients will not feel like you\'re trying to hide something or trying to cheat the system. 

6- Be sure to update your unfiltered yelp page every few weeks. 

Advantages of doing this:

1- Your visitors will stay on your web site instead of being re-directed to yelp\'s

2- Your visitors can\'t be redirected to your competitors page (unless they choose to go to your live yelp page). 

3- No more being a slave to yelp\'s algorithm

4- Yelp would not benefit from getting traffic from you and higher rankings on google. 

5- This system cost us only $150 to implement 

Just be sure to shift that $300 per month on yelp advertising and put it into KEYWORDS that people will search for. 

**Please pass this on to all small business owners that may benefit from this.