Yelp

2/7/2015

Yelp will be out of business as they continue to hide positive reviews. This business model is not not only unethical it is in unsustainable. It's a pity because they could make billions without hiding positive reviews its unnecessary. As the public gets more and more educated and discover that the "filter" is skewed to show only negative reviews for those who don't advertise the integrity and reputation of the site will crumble. Yelps own low ranking is telling because they don't filter it to try to appear honest, they are smart but the truth will come out.

8/13/2014

I have used Yelp quite a bit over the last year mostly for local places. I use it to check out restaurants that are new to me before trying them out. It has been pretty useful because there seems to be a wide range of types of people that posts reviews and tips. After a while you find out who has similar tastes and can follow them for a better guideline

It has also been a great deal of fun to meet new people thru Yelp. Many I have met in person at some unique Yelp events and some I know only thru texting questions about certain restaurants or areas I was traveling to

Last month Yelp really became very fun. My husband and I used it a lot while on vacation  on the big island in Hawaii.  Using it to find places to eat and places to go site seeing.  It was nice to find out from locals some less expensive places to eat and to find some really great food that often is under the radar on regular travel sights.

Yelp isn't just for home, use it when you travel

1/14/2015

Yelp extorts small businesses and punishes them with negative reviews when they refuse to pay. They are no better than petty criminals roughing up business owners for "protection" money.

1/7/2015

Do not trust this company when they call with 'free' advertising credit. They awarded me free credit. They told me I had 1 month to cancel before I would get charged. Within 2 weeks they started charging me money and they will not refund the extra charges. And, they will only communicate via email regarding this issue. They leave short emails that do not have any real information, just telling me that I am wrong. I cannot believe their customer service is so poor that a supervisor cannot even call me. I really feel that I was manipulated and I wish that I never accepted their offer for free credit. They have a really strong sales team (who bends the truth), and a really weak customer support team. It's a bad combination.

8/26/2014

I joined Yelp about 4 years ago hoping to find some folks in a similar situation as I, childless, retired in my mid 40's with time and money to waste.  I have not found that, but I have found a ton of new restaurants I had no idea existed.  

I live in the Burbs and normally don't go into Portland unless I have to.  Now I venture into Portland all the time to try new Restaurants.  I also found a few restaurants in my neck of the woods I had no knowledge of either.

I consult Yelp before I do anything, pick a new Restaurant, a Painting Company, Plumber, etc.  It has replaced Angie's list for me, I trust the reviews.

Yelp talk has helped me gain a thicker skin and stand up for myself.  

Overall I give it 4 stars, I love Yelp and will continue to participate and explore new places.

My only wish is there were more Elite events that don't involve alcohol as I don't drink.

10/16/2014 Updated review

You came up with a great idea....  Community ratings for businesses.
But why do you have to be such a douche about it?

11/12/2014 Updated review

As a quick update, just tried searching for our business based strictly on geography (not quantity of reviews, quality of reviews, etc).  Businesses next door and across the street show up within the first 10 listings, where as we show up past 30.  There are businesses that have not been claimed on Yelp by their owners, have zero reviews, and are not even in the same city showing up in the search results before us.  What gives Yelp?  Because I asked not to be called anymore by your sales folks?  Because I wrote a crappy review of Yelp the services they have attempted to sell our business in the past and they connected the dots?

Keep up the garbage work, Yelp.  I'll be sure to stay far, far away from spending any money with you until the shady antics cease.

1/17/2015

Yelp deletes all the 5 star reviews on my business because I don't pay them. They claim that they are not filtering them like that but they always seem to leave the negative reviews up. They say its because the users who left the review are not yelp users. I don't believe that for a second. The very first review I ever left remains number 1 on the list on there and was not removed despite the fact I wasn't a yelp user prior.

Yelp sucks.

7/16/2014

Instead of being a genuine crowd sourced reviews site, it seems as though Yelp has become biased. So many negative experiences are banished to the Not Recommended section, but I don't think I've seen a single positive one there. The "scores" for some businesses are perhaps being artificially inflated...? Check it out and see for yourself.

The second star is for the few remaining months of relevance for Yelp before the dishonesty pushes its users away.

8/3/2014

My big 300! Who knew I'd still be Yelping this long. What started out as a casual way to keep track of places I want to eat/visit online became one my favorite hobbies in the last few years. I'm happy to have met some new friends through the Yelp community, especially through Yelp Elite events.

Yelp has helped me discover many diverse places to eat and visit -- from hometown favorites in the Bay Area to new cities across the country. I especially love how they have developed the mobile app over the last year, making it remarkably convenient to access all of Yelp's information on the go.

And I would like to offer a little insight onto my own Yelp philosophy:

+ I review to allow others to understand my holistic experience at a business. That includes the good, the bad, and everything in between.

+ You should take some reviews with a grain of salt (i.e. reviewers with only 1 star reviews or 5 star reviews). Treat them as anomalies or outliers.

+ In the end, it's your own personal experience that counts for /you/. So if you don't go try out a place, how will you know what you're missing? Take the initiative to go out and get your own opinion, and if you feel like sharing with the world, write your own review!

In conclusion...

Looking for a happy hour place after work?
Quick lunch break near the office?
Romantic date locations?
Doctor, dentist, optometrist nearby?

*YELP IT ALL*

12/25/2014 Updated review

YELP is a scam.
A brutally unfair and biased scam.
This breaks my heart, because I LIKE Yelp. R and I research restaurants on Yelp, and I post restaurant reviews on Yelp. I think it is a great concept, but sadly has been corrupted along the way in search of the almighty dollar.
Let me explain.
Anybody can establish a Yelp page for their business- it is free. Once the page is established, reviews can be posted. Yelp has some type of screening software that tries to weed out what might be bogus reviews.
You can PAY Yelp monthly to promote your business; what this essentially does is cause them to post an internal link to YOUR business at the BOTTOM of a yelp page of your local competitor. FYI- at the bottom of MY Yelp page are 5 other mortgage companies, under the heading
'Best of Yelp'. These are all paid Yelp advertisers.
At one point I ran a six month contract with Yelp- I think the cost was around $300+ per month, maybe more- to be honest I do not want to pull out my bank statements and be reminded of the $2000 or so that I threw in the garbage, because it did not result in ONE SINGLE contact. They DID film a promotional video for me, which I like very much. After the six month run was over, to allow me to continue to use the video on my sight, even though I am no longer a paid advertiser, I pay them $125 per month.
Although my clients, almost to a one, have been very satisfied and appreciative of my services, for whatever reason they do not choose to post this on Yelp, either because they do not use Yelp, do not think of Yelp as a forum for much beyond restaurants, or simply because- who knows. I had one client well over a year ago that actually said "Where can I give you a good recommendation?" I directed her to Yelp. HOWEVER- Yelp does NOT show this review when you go to my Yelp site, NOR does it incorporate this rating (I think it was 5 out of 5 stars) into my published 'star' rating. When I called Yelp and asked them why, they informed me that the screening software kicked this review out, and there was nothing they (or anybody else) could do about it; I assumed since I only had ONE rating it may have appeared suspicious. Since then I have had two other clients review me on Yelp. They both gave me high ratings (4 or 5 stars) with positive reviews. THESE WERE ALSO SCREENED OUT- SO I officially have ZERO stars and ZERO reviews.
Here is the infuriating part; of the 5 mortgage companies, whose info appears at the bottom of my Yelp page, 4 of them have only 1 review, and one of them has 2 reviews. HOWEVER- they are paid advertisers, and I am not. I called my 'YELP' account manager after discovering this, and left him a strongly worded message. I will let you know what happens, but my guess is that what will happen is that I will delete my restaurant reviews and stop paying Yelp $125 a month.
Buyer beware.

1/7/2015 Updated review

Update:
So I did a little bit of research and realized that one of my favorite donut spots and friend whom is the business owner, I helped to get them setup with a check in offer which may have something to do with this case as they have removed my review to not recommended from their establishment. I understand that this could have flagged me but it was only done in helping the establishment because they did not know how to do it so I set it up for them and provided a video on how to do it themselves as I do not manage any business accounts. It would just be nice if Yelp would actually communicate their issues with my interactions instead of just leaving one to guess what it is that they done wrong. If Yelp got away away from the clicky type mentality aka mob mentality and actually helped embrace business owners with their services I think they would be a lot more successful in it business venture.

7:37 PM
JAN 08, 2015  |  04:37PM PST
Hi there,

We're writing you today because we've received your nomination for the Yelp Elite Squad.

We have reviewed your case and while we greatly appreciate all of your contributions to the site, we're unable to welcome you to the Elite Squad at this time.

Regards,
Yelp Elite Squad Messenger
San Francisco, California

I guess I was drinking the kool-aid for to long in thinking this site actually rewarded the people who are daily contributors to its site. I guess I was wrong as I was denied my Elite 14 renomination for Elite 15 and my renomination since that denial. I will no longer be in denial (not the river in Egypt) in thinking that Yelp cares even a second about anything or anyone but its own bottom line. Your denial is without basis as my online profile metrics far exceed many of the reviewers you gave Elite 15 badges to in my local area! Worry not this 100th review update will be my last contribution to your site! Happy Yelping!

Quoth the Raven Nevermore!

10/10/2014

I don't understand why a group of powerful lawyers or businessmen don't go up against Yelp.  It's destroying a lot of family shops.  Or advertise in the NY or LA Times what I'm about to write to discredit Yelp.  

Who goes on Yelp and complains?  That says A LOT about the complainer!  Then who goes on Yelp and actually wants a business to be shut down because they received so-called bad service, not treated like a king or queen?  That's ridiculous!  The floor's not clean enough?  The cashier didn't smile at you? The waiter didn't put any whip cream in your mouth?  The devil's list goes on and on.

Good and average companies don't get reviews.  It's only the losers in our society who are mistreated go and then start yelping smacks.  And these same losers are less than 1 percent of the visited customers at any single restaurant!  It's like the news and tabloids.  You CAN'T believe everything you read or hear!  And EVERY company has it bad and good days!  No way a company can please EVERYONE, not Zappo or Amazon.  That's called life!

Disclaimer: People who yelp are losers.  They represent less than 1 percent of our society and of any company's business.  Yelp is a medium for losers to visit and gather like cockroaches in a hole.

Yelp must be forced to put a disclaimer stating what I just stated above, like Hooters disclaimer that their boobs are BIGGER than they appear!

How do you like them, Yelps!!!

1/19/2015

I wrote an accurate and somewhat negative review for a company.  I posted it on Yelp.  Three days later the review completely disappeared as if it was never writen.  I have attempted twice to post a review of this company , however in each instance the review is invisible.

I can post reviews on other company's but not on the first one.  Somehow yelp has stopped be from reviewing the first company after I entered a negative comment.  I wonder if Yelp is receiving some sort of consideration from the company.

Yelp appears to be a waste of my time

11/27/2014

What I like about Yelp is that it's helped me find a lot of great deals. I also like Yelp because it gives me the chance to reward good businesses if I've genuinely received great service there, and small businesses fuel our economy, so I'm generally a lot nicer towards small businesses than larger establishments. Yelp has helped me find a great dentist, and a great tailor/dry cleaners.

What I don't like is that sometimes Yelp can feel unfair for small business owners, as I've read on news articles. Sometimes I myself notice how positive reviews for a business are filtered and the negative reviews are moved up top. It's way too easy for disgruntled employees or just trolls writing negative reviews on businesses, and get away with it. People need to be held more accountable for their reviews and business owners already deal with a lot of pressure, so negative word of mouth can really, really wreck someone's business.

10/8/2014

Just got robbed by Yelp with their big promises of sending my business skyrocketing into mountains of money!!  More like they got $1200 from me and I got $0!
Kept taking reviews off my biz....
I didn't get one more view when I paid than when I didn't.  Kept telling me Rome wasn't built in a day...just keep giving us your money is what they meant.
Yelp is a rip off!!  
Oh, and when I went to sign in they erased the whole review (good thing I saved it)
Unfortunately there's no ZERO STAR level!!

7/2/2014

Yes, you can Yelp Yelp. *Yelp!*

I love the concept of Yelp. We really needed a public forum for consumers to be more informed about businesses. I started Yelping many years back and my reviews were very polarized. I wanted to spread the good word about great businesses and warn people against the bad ones. Slowly it became a habit and now I'm Yelping Yelp as my 200th review. Thanks for this great platform, I have met may friends and had many good meals because of Yelp.

See you in San Fran for the 10th anniversary celebration!

10/8/2014

Not happy with Yelp.  I have gotten a call from the advertising section of this company every 6 months and have refused advertising every time.  I just got called again today and was told by 'Chris' that according to their notes,  I've only been called once.  

Also,  like most people here,  since I refused advertising for my  business, of my total 7 reviews (all at 5 stars) 5 have been marked as hidden.  I'm tired of getting called about advertising and the blatant lack of customer service for those of us who refuse to pay more than for a free account.

1/16/2015

Yelp is 100% biased and filtered a 5 star review that I got from a client that shopped my business and a competitor.   The client wrote great reviews and gave my competitor and I both 5 stars but ultimately, the review on my company was filtered but the review for my competitor was not filtered.  We do not pay for services offered by yelp and I found out from a former employee of my competitor that they pay yelp for advertising.  How would you explain this Yelp?  Algorithms, I think not but perhaps extortion is the case!  This will be my last review and the last time I use yelp and I urge you all to do the same, spread the word!

10/8/2014 Updated review

Love Botto, Hate Yelp!

Hi Yelp:

Please note that in response to your removing my review of Botto Bistro along with thousands of other reviews, at this time I will be removing the other 85 reviews that I have written on Yelp. Except for this one. As a former small business owner, I stand with Botto. I will direct my future reviews to other websites.

Yelp has become very oppressive towards it contributors and intolerant of free expression. It rules in an arbitrary fashion which devalues its reviewers and does its readers a disservice.

1/10/2015

1 star only because I can't choose 0. Yelp sucks and lies, they'll probably delete this and blame it on the algorithm. They take away true 5 stars and replace it with 1 star reviews from over two years ago.

1/4/2015

Don't sign up for Yelp business services!  I signed as a business owner and I can not even get any help from my supposedly contact person. They are real pushy when selling services but trying to get a hold of them sucks no phone call returns or e-mail as they prefer. My biggest problem my Business get tons of legitimate reviews from customers and all gets block unlike my competitors who gets 3-4 reviews a week and never gets blocked or reviewed. Competition reviewers seems newer reviewers  without pics and other reviews. I guess I am the sucker who pays monthly for YELP into not helping me. If you or anyone from yelp reads call me to discuss my Service plan or I will have to contact my credit company to cancel payment,. Thank you.

10/8/2014

It saddens me that Yelp does business this way. I think its best to just not use this site any more.

So long Yelp, helloooooo Google!

12/9/2014

Yelp is generally a useful service.

It allows customers to post reviews of businesses, and businesses to remove all the negative reviews.  This is how you prop up the economy.

10/10/2014

I don't understand all the negativity from business owners who are pissed off about yelp placing relevant ads on their pages, this is how the internet works really, if you search for shoes anywhere on the web you will get ads for shoe stores no matter where you go (facebook, google, yahoo and every website on the google AdSense network which is more than 50% of the internet) At least yelp gives you the option to remove ads from your page for a small fee, I mean c'mon they're a huge company they need to sell you something to stay in business and make a profit after all...

As a small business owner Yelp has been a god send! My page gets about 10 hits a day on average which translates to 50+ leads a month, for a new business like mine this is very substantial. My family also owns a similar business, even though their business is 23 years old they're not lost or forgotten thanks to websites like yelp and facebook!

The power of sharing that consumers have now days is keeping businesses on their toes and forcing them to improve. You'd be surprised how much marketing value a simple facebook check-in or an honest positive yelp review has, these forms of marketing are a 100 times more effective than any advertising you can pay for. For example, Samsung estimated that ellen's oscar selfie (which was taken with one of their phones and retweeted 3 million+ times) to have over $1 billion in marketing value. So keep up with the times, step up your game and quit complaining.

1/8/2015

You stink and only work along side of the many companies that deceive and cheat the consumer. That is the reason you remove things about a company because they do pay to have bad reviews about them removed.  Who needs you any way true wird of mouth and other internet site work better than you anyway.

1/6/2015

I don't get it - I posted two reviews for the first time, following Yelps guidelines and they never posted.  I think there are filters in place for certain restaurants- just saying.

10/8/2014

My 1,000th Yelp review!  What does this mean?  I have no life?  I'm too damn opinionated?  Yelp is now mailing me a 1099 tax form to start paying me for my reviews?

If I parallel my life from when I joined in 2007 to the life of Yelp as a company it is filled with a lot of rapid changes.   I had just moved to Austin a few months prior to joining Yelp that September 2007 and was super excited to find a website that would allow me to express what I felt about this dear, new city.  I was already on Citysearch and was bored.  Yelp had color, and flair.  And seemed fun because I could get canned 'compliments' that said stuff like "you're so cool polar bears wear sweaters around you".  Citysearch didn't have this.  Zagat was too stuck up and didn't give me a voice in the process.  Yelp filled this void and made me feel like I belonged to some greater cause of informing the masses (clever, guys.  really clever).  As more people like me joined Yelp their popularity grew, to the point where Yelp went public in 2012 and has become another Silicon Valley success story.

But beyond these logical facts are greater heart truths that weave into what we call life.  For me, Yelp went beyond being just a website to review things and turned into a mechanism where I made actual non-virtual friends.  I didn't have any community when I joined Yelp because I was recently divorced after a relationship that had lasted almost a decade and I had just moved to Austin without knowing anybody.  To complicate things further my job was one that involved a lot of travel so I wasn't home much in this new town to build friendships.  It was a difficult challenge to find community in a town where you knew nobody and was gone all the time from.  Enter Yelp!  

Yelp's Austin Elite community is known for being one of the coolest in the nation, and it wasn't long after joining that I discovered an amazing community of people.  These people were bright, funny, and FUN!  Not only did I start to develop friendships from those in the community but I also started going to Yelp events and Yelp sponsored things that lead me to meeting more friendships and more friends of friends.  The circle widened even further and Yelp was the initial catalyst for this.  What a remarkable thing.  No longer do people have to belly up to brick and mortar communities like VFW posts, Elk's lodges, or even churches or bowling leagues.  Now you can meet people initially via a website and then find yourself going on road trips to fun cities like New Orleans to celebrate and have fun with other people from the same website who came in from all across the US.  And in the process develop insane memories like the hilarious SXSW day parties Yelp used to throw back in the day (some of my favorite SX parties ever) plus fill your closet with Yelp swag like sunglasses, lip balm, lunch boxes and even beach towels that are sure to become collector's items some day.

Since people like to complain in general you will find a lot of griping about the business practices of a website that makes millions off of local opinions.  And I hear ya.  But I feel that what Yelp offers in terms of feedback, and community and friendships is far more valuable than its flaws.  You don't have to like it if you don't like it.  You don't have to write reviews or read reviews if you don't want to.  Nobody is forcing you to be a part of the Yelp community in any shape or fashion online or offline.  But good people abound in this community, and if you want to try something different maybe you might just learn something new or meet somebody that you never thought you'd meet before who could have an impact on your life.  If anything, you will at least learn something or get a chuckle or two by stopping in to read some of the useful, funny and cool stuff out there.

10/5/2014

I have a small business and despite having been in business for over 18 years and doing 20-25 projects a week, we have only 6 reviews.  This just isn't something our typical customer does when they are pleased; however, I do have a story about a good review disappearing.

I, like many here, had an experience where soon after declining to sign up for overpriced paid advertising on yelp.com, one of my good reviews disappeared.  While we get several visits (at least according to the yelp email I receive each week), it doesn't lead to many jobs so it's not critical; however, a negative rating on yelp can still impact a sale so this issue is important to me.

I was interested to see that a class action lawsuit was recently filed against the company as a result of this practice and it not having been disclosed to investors.  

The article is linked below.  So if you've had issues like this or concerns about yelp's business practices, please check it out.  Hopefully some good will come from the suit.

valleywag.gawker.com/law…

2/6/2015

I got a call yesterday from yelp advertisers, while I'm running around doing a million things I tell the very aggressive man I am not interested in advertising with yelp. The next day all negative reviews are posted on the front page and three very good reviews which are much newer then the negative ones are posted under not recommended reviews. Now isn't this strange? Is this how yelp operates?

1/6/2015

Help.  Yelp!   I recommend using Trip Advisor for your vacation travel and plans!  Yelp - This is what you get!  You can not call them about a review that a person who you did not actually use your service has been online to post.  Let alone that 9 other great positive reviews are hidden from the public.  Why you ask?!   Because they have some type of proprietary software that tells you which one they want to see!   I have responded to the reviewer 3 times and no response.   I asked yelp to flag it and they "think" it is ok!   Ok.  If it is real how do I prove that person was using my service!?   So 9 our of 10 reviews are 5 star!  One 1 star review!  That is the one that pops up and that is the one people see.   Because it is "Not recommended"  By their Proprietary software!   Go figure!  Have a great day!

10/9/2014

Dear yelp,
How sad you have become.  I used to appreciate what I thought was a great resource for sharing customer experiences with others in the community. Little did I know that you would become a vehicle for punishing businesses who refuse to advertise, filtering reviews, and even becoming a member of ALEC - an incredibly rightwing lobby organization that every yelp user should research to understand what the company is putting its voice (and resources) behind.  I suppose, given the recent turn of events, it's no surprise that you would support a lobby group that denies climate change and advances an overall extreme right agenda.

So, when I decided to join many others in supporting the business recently in the media for fighting back against your bullying practices (filtering reviews in a disadvantageous way for those  not agreeing to advertise), I wasn't surprised to receive this response from you (below).  Yelp, you are quickly digging your own grave with these types of practices.  The dustbin of history awaits you.

And, yes, this is a *real* review, based on a "core consumer experience." I won't be using you anymore, yelp. I eagerly await your replacement.

Email from yelp, received yesterday, Oct, 8, 2014 (in response to a review written by me and many, many others in support of Botto, one of yelp's most recent (and outspoken) victims:

Hi,

We wanted to let you know that we've removed your review of Botto Italian Bistro. Though we understand this business has recently received media attention, your review was removed because it lacks a core consumer experience. Please note that at this time we will be removing any repostings from you to this business listing.

Please visit our Content Guidelines for more information (yelp.com/guidelines). We hope you'll help us keep Yelp fun and useful for everyone!

Regards,
Clarence
Yelp Support
San Francisco, California

10/4/2014

They remove your review if the business does not pay them for the "free" account.
It is a scam rather than a honest business. What a shame!
Definitely, this is the last time I am using it.
To be fair, a few days after my critical posting the reviews reappeared.

12/27/2014

Yelp, your current checkin model is falling behind the times. Badges are not cutting it in the current environ what with reward apps like shopkick, checkpoints, and mplaces offering rewards for checkins I think you need to update it

2/2/2015

I am a business owner. 55 of our yelps are listed as not RECOMENDED! 45 of them are 5 star 3 are 1 star. How strange! I have repeatedly tried to get help to remove yelp terrorists to no avail! Who knows maybe I will end up not RECOMENDED!

6/15/2014

My 200th review is dedicated to Yelp!

Yelp, you have been a life-changing addition to my life.  Wherever I am, I know I can rely on you to find a good place to eat, hang out or to find the scoop on a local business.  For all of this, I am very thankful.  Yelp has now become my favorite website, and truly a go-to, albeit an obsession.  Now that there is a handy-dandy cell phone application, it now enables me to check-in, read reviews on the fly, and read up on other Yelper whereabouts instantaneously.  For me, it doesn't get better than this.

While I have yet to attend an Elite event yet, I cannot wait to move closer to a metropolitan area to take advantage of this privilege.  I think that it is so cool that there are so many cool events where Yelp Elites are treated out to a nice meal, movie preview, or grand opening, so that we can then spread the word...it's a genius idea!

I will continue to use Yelp religiously and to promote it.  Thank you for being such a great resource!

8/7/2014

I joined Yelp on a whim back in 2013 while on vacation.  I was in Ft. Lauder-dale, FL on my last night of a busy week attending a friends wedding.  My wife and I had not had one meal out on our own, and we wanted to find the best food in town.  I remembered Yelp from episodes of Bar Rescue, and DL'd the app right away.  

That night, we had the best meal we may ever eat.  We sat on the inner coastal water way at sunset and drank wine and had the best night we have had in a very long time.  

I didn't start reviewing for another year or so, but quickly became obsessed with the site after that.  It has become a go to app for me, and it has opened our eyes to an amazing number of opportunities in our own area here in St. Louis, MO.  We have discovered so much thanks to Yelp, and it only gets better as we become more involved.  Yelp events have given us the chance to meet a lot of new people, and develop relationships with like minded adults in our area.  Just last week at an Elite event I sat for hours talking to someone I had only just met that evening.  What a wonderful experience.  (If I were single, I'd join Yelp before an online dating site!)

Speaking of Elite events, these just add a whole new dimension to the Yelp experience.  Parties and learning events that both educate and entertain, these events have given my wife an I plenty of new flavor in our "dating" options.  Yes, some events are Elite only, but the exclusive events are fantastic and well worth ditching the wife for a night!

Thanks Yelp, for adding some spice to an other wise boring life!

8/7/2014

Overall Yelp is about writing reviews that show your personal experience with a business and sharing that with others to help them make a positive choice when looking for a place to spend their hard earned dollars. However Yelp is much more than reviews, it's more of a community allowing users to share, exchange reviews, and have open discussions regarding their local community all while meeting new and interesting people.

I first joined Yelp in 2010, however I never really became an active reviewer until 2012/2013, I even started attending Yelp events where I have met many new friends. Overall Yelp has been good to me over the last two years, I look forward to the next future, new friends, and seeing what new hidden gems Yelp will help me to discover.

Thanks Yelp!

10/30/2014

Beyond a place to post my endless ramblings, Yelp is a great tool I use nearly every day. From choosing where to head for lunch, curing boredom on YT, finding out about cool local events to making friends (and getting to party with them at events), Yelp I totally owe you a beer. Let's do happy hour sometime.

1/2/2015

So Yelp says that businesses can't pay to remove reviews but apparently all it takes is complaining.  I wrote a review that was honest,  true to fact and scathing but because the Yosemite Property Management of Merced threw a big temper tantrum (they threatened to sue me and would assume Yelp as well), Yelp just rolled over and removed ALL of their reviews.  While they still have a 1 star rating, there are no warnings to unsuspecting customers.  What is the point of this whole process if all you have to do is complain or threaten to sue to avoid any consequences to your poor customers service and bad policies.  Way to go Yelp!