Yelp

12/14/2014

Reviews "Filter" needs to go. It does nothing but hurt small business.  Open up all reviews to everyone. Other than that, I love the yelp community.  The local yelpers in my town are great, it's just yelp doesn't always publish their reviews where you can see them.

9/26/2014

Yelp is a great source for locating good restaurants auto mechanics etc. However, if you have a problem with Yelp it is impossible to get in touch with them to rectify a problem such as mine. A women claimed my company did her wrong and I have to suffer having my name personally slandered when you google my name on the internet. There are always 2 sides to a story and unfortunately Yelp won't listen to mine. I'm trying to hire a lawyer to sue Yelp for slander. Hopefully this can be rectified soon

1/5/2015

I tried the mobile Yelp app to find a business within 5 miles from me. It showed me a bunch of places 10+ miles away! Not very useful!

9/4/2014

One star is gratuitous! After receiving two slanderous false reviews about my business, I contacted Yelp for their help in removing them. Not only did they fail to do an investigation and their due diligence, they refused to remove them after I provided proof of the fraudulent origin.

     In addition, I am disappointed with Yelps customer service and lack of professionalism and the ability to escalate the complaint past a service representative.

     For a site to promote a consumer purpose; "To connect people with great local businesses" they have come up short of the mark. Very dissatisfied business owner!

    Please have a manager call me so that I can share my proof of claim in the first paragraph of this complaint. Thank you.

9/26/2014

I will start off my review with saying that I love Yelp and always have.  I've been a very loyal member and elite member for technically 5 years.  But you can't tell that by my badges.  Therein lies the problem.

I eat at ALOT of places including internationally and it's true that I do not necessarily write my reviews in a timely manner - or at all sometimes.  I've moved A LOT for work:  Chicago, Phoenix, Seattle and now East Bay, California.  If you check my reviews, you can see that I yelped and reviewed in all of those places.  Because of my day job, I'm on a plane constantly and well, sometimes I forget.  Then on a Saturday, I'll bang out a bunch of reviews.  

That was until my Gold Elite Badge was taken away.  Unexpected.  Shocking.  Poof!  Just gone.

I emailed your region person for Seattle and although she feigned regret at my loss, she was chipper enough to say  "hey just come back next year!!" (double exclamation points intended).  Well how about a big fat "No Thank You" to that?

Taking away the badge was just plain wrong and it's a terrible new policy.  If you tried to use it as incentive for elites to keep writing, there are other ways to do that.  If you tried to use it as a punishment, that definitely worked extremely well.  Rather than give something and take it away, don't give it out in the first place.  If a business did what you all did to me, everyone would give them a 1-star rating.  Looking at the average of your ratings however, looks as though you have some definite work to do...

The badge costs you nothing and buys you a ton of loyalty - which frankly I do not have anymore.

9/3/2014 Updated review

Oh Yelp, you're totally boned now! There's an article about your lawsuit on Yahoo! now. You know what that means? You'll be talked poorly about on Yahoo!, better get on there and flag all the bad press!!!

Noooo bad reviews!

12/11/2014

i will pray to god . very soon yelp will go to hell . no one is there to listen complaints every one is hiding behind each other. yelp is only for negative things if you are not paying them .i will pray morning and evening yelp will go out of business soon. amen...

9/12/2014

As a new business owner, I understand Yelp is a necessity.  Whether I like it or not (and I like it) customers and potential customers are going to look us up to see what others have to say.  We take great pride in offering a first rate customer experience, and are a quite disappointed that Yelp censors some reviews in order to, as Jermaine Sneed (Yelp Advertising) explained: "We must have recommended and non recommended reviews.  Without it our users would not trust us and we would not have the audience to make our advertising valuable to our customers."

I respectfully disagree with Yelp's explanation, and instead would think that by censoring reviews based on keeping some sort of "ratio" - or doing so because Yelp must do so, does less good than what it's intended to do.  

Personally, Yelp's biggest benefit is to give consumers an added element to aid in the decision-making process.  By taking some of that feedback away, they're negating the accuracy with which they can do so.  Censor away all of the employee, and family reviews to boost up 5-star ratings you may see out there - I won't complain about that, but please don't take away the ones we've rightfully earned.

1/30/2015

i love yelp and i agree with some of these other 5 stars. the only people writing low reviews are owners who fail to give good service :)

8/31/2014

I love how yelp has a 2.5 star rating and looking at the reviews the only reason it is this high are reviews from the Elite 14... I wonder did they pay them or threaten to take away their status if they did not post reviews?

I made the mistake of taking yelp up on a $100 free advertising. A few hidden 5 star reviews suddenly, almost like magic re-appeared in the recommended section. I then stopped after the one month. Suddenly more 5 star reviews became un-recommended than had been restored. We then received a call from a sales rep attempting to sell us advertising. After refusing the sales pitch they have re-recommended many of our poor reviews while keeping the good ones hidden.

8/31/2014

Yelp likes to hurt small businesses.  I left a great review and it was sent to the not recommended section.  There were 19 in there all 5 star.  3 showed up in the recommended section and 1 was a one star ( the ONLY one given in all 22 reviews) and two 5 star ones.  So this company unfairly got a 3.5 out of 5.  The local competition had a 5 star review with only 4 reviews total and NONE in the not recommended slot.  What gives?!

Funny enough I tested this on a totally unrelated local business that is not even in business anymore and COPIED and the PASTED my review that was flagged as not recommended and guess what....it showed up in the recommended section.  Why the unfairness?  Why hurt a local business by not allowing the reviews that were relevant ( yes I read all 22 reviews) be shown.

11/14/2014

Yelp is the biggest business builder I have. Unfortunately, their customer service is horrendous. Takes 2-3 days for them to return an email, and that's when you actually find an email for them.

I wish I could be CEO of yelp at some point, because I feel like I could really help the way they advertise, help solve the misinformation the public has about paying for reviews, and make it even more loved than it is currently.

However, I get TONS of business from yelp due to happy clients reviewing me, so I have to give it 4 stars.

9/1/2014

If I could leave zero stars I would.  I dislike that this site even exists. All it does is give people who have no control in their life a reason to leave negative reviews

Yelp took a full year to fulfill my edit request that my business is by appointment only when they had it listed as walk ins welcome

They filter my reviews. I only have 8 showing at a time when other businesses I know have a few dozen showing. They hide half the reviews listed.  I should have 14  reviews with 5 stars and then 2 reviews that people unfortunately left because they were disgruntled. Keep in mind NEITHER of the 1 star reviews were people who had a experience in my business. One was a guy who asked if we could take a walk in haircut and when I said we are appointment only he signed up for help and left a 1 star review saying we are rude and not accommodating. The other 1 star review is a woman who left a review based on her not liking her husband's side burn length and she wasn't even in the shop

Yelp calls me all the time and wants me to pay money to advertise and when I say no and I ask why they filter my reviews they accuse me of asking friends to write them for me.

4/18/2014

YELP - I raise my glass and #500 review to you!  I can't believe it's been a decade. Had you come into my life during grammar school, high school, and college years, life would have been more adventurous for a kid growing up in SF.  Now that I am a working mom, mother, wife, cancer survivor, YELP has been cheaper than therapy, stilettos, red wine, and designer handbags.  I'd like to share with YELP just how much you mean to me...

...Y - stands for Yearbook (not Yoga for all the Yoganites out there, nor is it Yoda for Star Wars fans), as I flip through all the years of unforgettable memories
...E - stands for Eat or Explore, as I do both simultaneously ;-)
...L - stands for Living, as all of us should truly embrace Life and Love one another - don't sweat the small stuff
...P - stands for Pulse, as long as I have a pulse, I will be Yelping for a lifetime!!!

Thank you YELP for allowing me to connect with diverse people and businesses all  over the world while sharing our stories and experiences.  Big shout out to all your energetic CM's, Ambassadors, and the entire Yelp Team for doing great work, always a JOB WELL DONE!  I love my city, and you've made it more interesting.  I can't wait to explore Nashville in May at YSB, life is way too short, keep on Yelpin' & SYOY!!!

YELPE DIEM

11/10/2014

Like a long list of things in life, Yelp has its benefits and its flaws.

However, Yelp has provided consumers with a tool of accountability. There are businesses that provide terrible products, overcharge, provide bad service or perhaps all or some combination of these things. On the flip side, there are businesses that have terrific value, have wonderful products and provide wonderful service. Yelp is how we can know before plopping down our hard-earned dough.

Usually, people are very straightforward and since they do it on their own time with their own interest and will, even if they aren't as concise as they should be, its still great. Photos and other criteria, tips and lists help clarification become greater.

There are people that abuse Yelp ratings and they should be dealt with. People abuse lots of things in life, whether it's their oven or their spouse. So to speak, we get burned in life by constraining our lives to things that have perfect safety. But we still cook and get married, because the chances of problems are minimal and we want to enjoy ourselves.

One important thing to know is that if 100 people review a place, one person's review is less meaningful. The reviews are an aggregate of everyone's view, so by the time there is a huge number, a comprehensive picture can be seen. One person might be wrong, but when 99 people feel a certain way, a certain conceptualization of a business probably reaches a diverse cross section of people.

Yelp also provides talk forums. People are like neighbors, unlike on Facebook which has lots of people that are a cut above XBox Live speak.

Now, there are ways to better understand Yelp reviews. Know what you want out of a place and search in the search bar or try to find reviews that address you're criteria. There's also lots of filters.

Yelp has been really helpful to consumers in the course of finding a local business. You can read so many exciting things about places to go and imagine yourself dining there. Where will I dance tomorrow or where will I drink on Sunday are the questions along with what kind of Austrian place is in town.

Yelp is a valuable tool in the digital age.

3/7/2014

So...in general I like Yelp but I had a ridiculous experience with Yelp HQ last week.

I added a new location for a business I visit weekly. So far, so good.

A few days later, I get an email from Yelp claiming the photo I uploaded is for the wrong business. The photo had been deleted from the listing, leaving it with no photos at all.

Given that I was the one standing out front taking the picture and uploading it, I'm not sure how some desk jockey in SF determined the picture was of the wrong business.

I took the time to write an explanation to Yelp customer service to see if this was just a mistake. Btw, figuring out how to contact them takes done effort since all support emails come from a no-reply address.

Anyhow, I got a response from another rep, claiming again that the photo was not of the business I uploaded for and that I should read the policies.

Seemed really arrogant and offensive. I replied with my feeling about the treatment I received and got silence in return.

Starting to wonder why I'm bothering to spend my time giving Yelp all this free data for virtually nothing in return.

9/11/2014

So I wrote a very factual and first hand experience regarding a restaurant , and that review obtained a certain amount of criticism from the restaurant's staff in question. I posted this fact, as it related to my first hand experience and interactions with the staff, and Yelp pulled it citing a guidelines violation. Yelp's problem was this review was due to the review not being directly related to the restaurant experience, even though the guidelines says "Review updates should reflect a new experience or 'interaction with the business.'"

Hellooooo??? Do you even read your own guidelines? I'm at a loss for words.

-4 stars for not reading your own guidelines.

8/27/2014

It's so funny to see that Yelp is rated with 2.5 stars from the same people who have Yelp accounts. Eh, first world problems - look at all of us complaining about our reviews being filtered out, while Yelp is ignoring and resorting to "less than reputable business ethics to extort money from small business owners".

If I were in Yelp's position - I would just keep doing all of this. Piss off users, and let them vent on your site - you can always apologize later and in the meantime you get better retention. I mean look at my example: I logged into my account to bookmark places I want to visit, saw that my reviews were being filtered, and after complaining on forum this is now probably like 10th returning visit in last 10 days.

Treat us like dirt our dear masters and we'll love you even more. Social networks are more profitable than simple review sites so push us into whole social aspect and let us make you even more money, dear o, dear Yelp. You need advertising dollars more than we need to be able to express ourselves.

1/24/2015

Very high pressure sales tactics for a company that OVER PROMISES and UNDER PERFORMS. I am so glad that we did not sign a one year contract and were able to negotiate a 3 month deal. We had the impressions contract and, even though nearly all of our customers live within a 3 mile radius of our site, our impressions were showing up 30-40 miles away from the site just to meet quotas. They are quick to bill a credit card in advance (Google charges in arrears) but not once did I get a receipt without having to ask for it even though I was set up to receive one. Funny that our rep left the company shortly after we signed our contract. NEVER AGAIN!

3/3/2014

Yep, it is a fantastic resource, especially for people like me who travel to new places constantly. Not sure what's nearby for dinner? Yelp. What is that hotel going to look like so I can find it? Yelp. Need to know if that lawn guy is any good? Yelp. Click through for directions? Yelp!

Like anything with humans involved, there are going to be people trying to game the system. Just look at a moving company or a car dealership, loaded up with five star reviews by people who've never reviewed anything else.

And like anything with computers involved, there are going to be people and businesses that get chewed up in the system and spit out. A colleague's wife runs a business that has had some Yelp problems. I want to believe that Yelp is innocent and the continuing stories that pop up of Yelp sales people coercing businesses into buying advertising are just bad people. But those stories persist. And I know someone who had it happen to them.

Yet I keep reviewing because I want Yelp to be as good as it can be. Real people, real reviews. I'm a real person. And this is my real review of Yelp. Four stars, not five. "I'm a fan" but "It's not as good as it gets."

6/2/2014

Yelp.
I can hardly have a conversation these days without bringing up an event, a person I met on the site, or a place I have bookmarked.

It started about a year and a half ago.  

I'd seen Evil Dead: The Musical ...5 times?  6?  The director said to the audience one night "Hey guys, let us know what you thought of the show by writing a review on Yelp."  

So I thought...I love the show...I've seen it a bunch of times, why not.  So, I signed up, but completely forgot to post my review!!

Fast forward about 9 months, and I was looking up restaurants for an upcoming vacation...and I pulled up Yelp.

We happened to be slow at work that day, so I wrote my Evil Dead review.   And then thought...'That was fun!  Lets do it again!"

In 4 months, I wrote 100 reviews, started getting involved in Yelp Talk, and then nominated myself for Elite status.  (Yeah, I did. lol)  

I was so excited when I got my elite badge!

My first event was nerve wracking...I haven't gone out and not known anyone in at least 6 years.  I always know at least one person whenever I go anywhere, so going to a Yelp event by myself without knowing a single soul made my poor introverted heart beat like I was going to die.

But EVERYONE was amazing!  Our CM Drew, who is sadly, moving back to NY has set up so many amazing events!  I've met some incredible people here, and am really happy for the new friendships that I'm developing.

Yelp has helped me to plan vacations, meal and bar spots...even helped me find a new tea store!  

There will always be drama, and fake people...people attacking people, etc...but I look past all of that nonsense and focus on a great site that helps me to find new places to eat/drink/workout, etc....and introduces me to some pretty amazing people too.  :)

4/22/2014

I started yelping in 2007 after two friends got married and the bride found her hair colorist off Yelp.

7 Years and 1,200 reviews later and I'm still going strong!

My first few years I was an East Bay Yelper, then for a couple years I was based in San Francisco and now I'm South Bay and proud! But one thing has never changed, my love of Yelping and of finding new and fun places to Yelp!

With the advent of the smartphone Yelp's app makes it easier on me to add new venues and check in at local hot spots, but it also makes it easier to keep track of where I've been. With my many years reviewing, it's nice to go back and visit old experiences and to remind myself it's been far too long!

In the last 7 years Yelp has introduced me to a host of new spaces, appetizers and music and a slew of new people. It's been a way to have new fun experiences and keep up my writing after college.

But most of all, Yelp helps new business, locations and projects grow to become even more well known, making my neighborhood (no matter where it may be;) colorful and exciting.

And with that, may I be around after the next 7 years, to see Yelp itself grow even bigger!

12/7/2014

I loved using Yelp as an individual. But when I started a business three years ago I found out what Yelp is really about.

When I started my business, I reached out to my clients asking then to write a review for my company on Yelp. As soon as I received my first review, within a matter of DAYS, I also received a phone call from a sales person at Yelp. I was actually happy that Yelp called me since my first review wasn't showing up and I couldn't figure out why that was. The woman basically told me I would have to pay for advertising to Yelp for my reviews to show up. It's a TOTAL SCAM! I refused to pay them a dime and have advised my 50+ clients to do the same. Since that day I've received two more reviews (3 total) and not one of them show up. But my business is thriving so I'm fine either way. It's just a shame that the work my clients spent creating accounts on yelp and writing reviews, was totally pointless and a complete waste of time. I haven't asked for reviews from my clients since that time three years ago and, until Yelp changes it's practices, I will continue warning about Yelp. There are way better, more honest marketing companies to go to.

12/10/2014

Why can a business owner remove a negative, yet completely true, review?  I thought that wasn't possible but I have seen it happen with the Dog House Inn and a review my ex wife wrote about the neglect our dog received there in August.  It says right on the page....Business Owners cannot remove negative comments but that is exactly what happens.  Makes me not trust Yelp anymore.

9/9/2014

Yelp removes reviews and says its due to not following the guidelines. Pretty sad that I had an actual interaction with the business yet my review is removed. Just because I didn't step foot in the door doesn't mean my review is bogus.

All I get is an email from Yelp saying I'm not following the guidelines with no email or phone number to respond to. Seems a little fishy to me.

Feedback 2771600

My Review:

First let me say I never got a chance to visit this business. This review is simply based on a Facebook interaction I had with them.

Whom ever runs this place seems to be very unprofessional. They posted a status about a rather disturbing topic that didn't seem appropriate for a children's play place. When I commented they replied back basically saying they didn't care if they offended me or anyone else.

As a small business you have to care if you offend people. You will simply not stay in business if you don't care about your customers.

I have already called and received a refund from groupon. I have also shared this with the 500 mommies that are in a local Facebook group with me.

I'm sure this business can careless that they lost me as a potential long term customer. However, if their business outlook continues as such they will lose more.

8/25/2014

Yelp is a terrible review site.
I work for a private veterinary practice and our last positive review that made it to the front page was in 2012 - over two years ago!
Since then, we have had several reviews - both good and bad, but mostly good - all of the unfavorable reviews have been factored into our overall rating, but none of the positive. Coincidentally, this all began when we declined to advertise with them a couple years ago.
I don't know if it's extortion or a crappy algorithm - either way, these reviews do not paint an accurate picture of our practice. It is possible that we are even losing business because of it.
On another note, they are nearly impossible to contact. When you do get ahold of someone, they are pretty much useless when it comes to helping with your concerns.

9/28/2014

Ha Ha Funny that YELP.com does not poached their own business. Those YELP sale persons should contact their CEO. to buy ratings.
Boo to YELP.com tactic to manipulate ratings. We all know $$$, could never be enough to anybody but would you willing to sink this awesome ship?  
Most people could careless about Angie's list at this point due to their business practice, is that soon to be YELP future?
To all business owners, may be this is a good time to start up a new business that does not manipulate reviews and let market place take care of itself.

9/6/2014

These fuckers take down your positive reviews for your business if you don't feed them a monthly payment. Wtf? Thats the shadiest business practice possible for a business that is supposed to provide information for consumers.  If I could rate 0 stars I would. They take down your good reviews and leave the shitty ones up if you dont pay them!!!

They de-recommend your good reviews so they don't factor into your star rating anymore. So yelp can claim that advertising doesn't play a roll in what reviews show up wen it really does. Pay and you get the good software that recommends more of your good reviews. Stop paying them and you get the shitty algorithm that de recommends your good reviews.

12/9/2014

It's almost inconceivable how dishonest and deceptive Yelp is to businesses that advertise with them. If you are a business thinking of signing a Yelp contract, I urge you to think long and hard before doing so.

Something is seriously broken in the management structure of this company. They make it virtually impossible to contact anyone on the phone when there is an issue and from what I've witnessed there are also serious ethical issues regarding the conduct of the sales people and account managers.

I was helping my friend Kelly market her business (therapeutic massage) and she signed with Yelp after our sales person Akeem, assured us that Yelp could provide Kelly with an account manager who spoke Mandarin Chinese and/or Korean, the languages Kelly is most fluent in. Akeem told us that Yelp had an office in Arizona staffed with account managers that were multilingual for clients just like Kelly.

Akeem had his colleague Jessica (who speaks Korean) speak with Kelly. Kelly felt comfortable signing the trial contract with Yelp (3 months at $375 per month) after her conversation with Jessica. After the contract was signed, Jessica never returned any of Kelly's voicemails or emails. A few weeks later, Kelly got an email from her new Yelp account manager, Joe Nixon, who doesn't speak Korean or Mandarin Chinese. At this point we were angry that both Akeem and Jessica mislead us and told Joe that we would not be renewing after the 3 month contract expired.

I've read claims from other people that Yelp uses practices that amount to extortion when a business cancels an advertising contract with them, and now I've witnessed it firsthand. All of the positive reviews for Kelly's business were filtered (literally the very next day after we canceled the contract) including a review that had been up for nearly 4 months.

To add insult to injury, Yelp continued to charge Kelly's credit card on the fourth and fifth month ($750!), even after we were promised the account would be canceled on multiple occasions. At that point we told the credit card company to decline any future charges from Yelp to prevent any more fraudulent charges.

Finally, there wasn't even one sales lead generated from our contract with Yelp. NOT ONE! It was a complete waste of money. It was a good thing that the contract was only for 3 months instead of the 12 month contract that Akeem pushed for.

If it was just a matter that we didn't see any return on investment (ROI) advertising with Yelp, we would have just chalked it up as a failed marketing expense. But the dishonesty we experienced with all 3 of the Yelp employees we dealt with is what compelled us to write this scathing review.

I personally will no longer use Yelp, nor will I write anymore reviews for a company that is staffed with employees that have seriously questionable ethics.

3/6/2014

I use Yelp a lot.  You can see that from the number of reviews and photos I have contributed.

It's sad that the company can't get their data right.  I have often found duplicates or mistakes in the business information, and often changes go undone or like earlier today, something totally weird happens.  In this case, rather than change the incorrect road to the correct road, they decided to "move" the whole business.

Besides that, I see odd things happening, like when one of my Yelp friends outside Philly had all of his reviews hidden suddenly.  There is zero wrong with them, and they're sincere, so why are other reviews like "Im a fan." allowed to continue while something genuine is struck by the filter?

I'm still wondering why votes don't appear, even though the reviews with no numbers appear, say between 6 and 5 votes.

I still like Yelp a lot and it's likely I will continue to use it (unless of course, all of my reviews are hidden behind the filter), but it is extremely frustrating at times.

8/24/2014

Hey Yelp - PLEASE RELEASE MY REVIEWS! THEY'RE REAL PEOPLE, REAL CLIENTS, REAL HAPPY WITH MY SERVICE. WhoTFAreYou to say otherwise?

True or not, the perception on the street is that Yelp penalizes businesses who do not spend advertising $$$ with Yelp, while it rewards those businesses that pay money to Yelp.

This certainly seems to be my experience.

I own a photography business in Las Vegas.

Currently my business has 14 legitimate reviews - all 5 star - from actual customers. Well, one of the reviews is from me (*￣￣) so let's deduct that from the total count.

So I have 13 legitimate reviews from actual, very happy customers, and Yelp has hidden all but two.

Yelp once spent at least an hour trying to convince me to spend money with them, to no avail. The sales person kept hinting that advertisers do better than non-advertisers, but always backed away from that when I tried to get clarification.

Regardless of the truth, the perception among my peers in the wedding industry is that Yelp punishes businesses with free accounts, while it rewards its advertisers. For giggles I'm thinking of paying for advertising, just to see what happens to all of my hidden reviews.

While my business has only positive 5-star reviews (nearly all of them hidden by Yelp), Yelp seems very pleased with itself subjecting businesses to the hot light of burning criticism, counseling those sad businesses to pay attention to the criticism.

HEY YELP! YOU'VE GOT AN AWFUL LOT OF 1-STAR REVIEWS. HOW COME? WHAT ARE YOU DOING WRONG? WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO FIX YOUR PROBLEM?

12/8/2014

I moderate the yelp reviews for a small family business and also they advertise with yelp. Not only does YELP call you hot and heavy and very frequently when your contract is about to be up (my sales rep is Damian Barrios who let me know that if didn't buy a more costly service for the citrus heights location they would not extend the "we will make and produce a video for your company" even though iParts has been advertising for a few years with yelp and in fact was one of the first in the area to even pay yelp for a service that essentially should be free because the bottom line is they review your place of business and then relay their experience) Why any of that should cost anyone any revenue i have no clue but essentially you can advertise and pay yelp a sum of anywhere from 350/month on up. Along with that you are to receive a video production of your business. Initially i was told by my new sales rep Damian that the only way i was going to be able to receive that on my original account was to switch to a "pay per click" type of service. "what?????"' what are you talking about Damian? He went on to tell me that he was confident that if i upped my service from $350/month to upwards of 1100/month with pay per click that not only would it ensure that i would be receiving all of the traffic that "he personally manages" for our business (there are 4-5 other outfits that have the same business model that were not even in business in our area at the time we decided to give money to yelp for their service that is supposed to be a "free service for consumers that have since started advertising with yelp) but that was the only way we would be able to get an updated video since we had started with them in 2011. What????  Shady.  They let people that have never visited a place of business write fake reviews of a business. There are no checks and balances of this service it can completely kill a business.  
youtu.be/6FMRDIOzmNA this is just one example of how some unsavory people used this free service to their advantage and there was no moderation by YELP. It is possible to go in and flag a review that a person, I won't say customer because it doesn't have to be a customer, it just has to be a person who writes a review, nobody has to come up with proof as to if they were ever in the establishment, and they get PUBLISHED! So as I stated yes you can flag a review and bring it to Yelps back door attention and say "hey, this person isn't in the database" and they will just say, yeah it's ok it's staying there, thanks for bringing it to our attention. No. Thank you Yelp, for allowing people who do not visit a business write a review. Unfortunately the owners of the company I work for somewhat believe in your service and I still don't know why, I don't. I wouldn't recommend it and frequently try and talk them out of using the bogus yelp service.  OK back to work.....the work of trying to talk these people out of paying yelp to let people write bogus reviews about everything from their policies, procedures and warranties. It really is just disgusting. I've deleted all of my reviews and tips off of yelp because I see how it really works.

Signed, a disgusted x yelper who doesn't believe in the service anymore.

8/21/2014 Updated review

The only thing I really can say good for it is it's free. But you get what you pay for.
Anyone can write a review even if they've never been a customer. Even if they're not real.
Businesses are punished with the filter if they don't pay for yelps advertising.
Customers can go into a company that's paying for advertising and expect a good result and not notice the bad reviews that were filtered away.
I wish the filter was honest. My business has three bad reviews from people who I don't think exist. And ten five star reviews filtered. Noticeably less work lately. Wish my review made any difference in how they ran things

11/25/2014

Thanks Yelp for letting us have a voice! Sure wish you could censor the crazy that happens now & then but c'est la vie.

2/16/2014

It should be readily apparent that I've been a big fan of Yelp, having posted just short of 1,100 reviews over seven years.  Thanks to Yelp, I've been exposed to many great restaurants and dishes.  I think it's fair to say too that, thanks to Yelp, I've been spared the agony of more than a few one and two star experiences.  And I've met some remarkable people on Yelp that I can call good friends.

But really, the best part of Yelp for me has been being able to use the website as a personal journal that I can reference.   People often wonder why I post reviews to a website while not getting paid.  Actually, it's a two-way street.  While I "work for free", I don't have to pay a penny for Yelp website maintenance, which ensures my reviews are accessible in an organized fashion.  

But stuff is happening to Yelp's web design that has cooled my ardor for a favorite pastime.  When Yelp took away the ability on a business search to show forty results on a page, instead now forcing me to go through 4 pages of 10 reviews, I sighed and moved on.  When Yelp removed the capability to see the pie chart on my profile that showed, by %, my reviews by city, I sighed and moved on.

But the latest change, implementation of a dreadful new business page, is over the top and could well be a deal breaker.  I guess we're supposed to be impressed by the pretty pictures that now hog the top of the business page.  Product Manager Brad M's disingenuous (more like dishonest) boasting on the Yelp blog about the new design's reputed greatness fails to mention some aspects of the change:

- You can no longer sort a business's reviews by votes.  This really irks me.

- Business info is now splattered all about the page, like a Jackson Pollock painting.  Plan on scrolling down now to get to business info that used to conveniently be at the top.

- Business reviews are now stupidly squeezed into a long skinny column that discourages reading the reviews.

I'll leave alone how a business page now hangs (with a pulsating Yelp icon) as it struggles to load its kludgy awesomeness.  Didn't this design change undergo any kind of review?  Epic fail.  However, I suspect I'm in the minority in objecting to this update because I've only seen limited remarks in Yelp Talk on the layout change.  If other Yeeps don't care, fine.  

But I think that these insidious page changes may be based on darker intent.  By making reviews posted by Yeeps less visible and harder to access - and attempting to boil down all the reviews to two or three little statements sitting below the massive pictures on the business page - Yelp is saying that they don't really care about the reviews posted (or the Yeeps that write the reviews).

8/28/2014

#1000th review!!!  Can I get a wha wha?! I've bookmarked and waited for this moment!!!!
I've been yelping since 2011.  I just got my IPhone 4 around that time and don't know how I stumbled on this app.  No one recommended it to me nor did I use Foursquare or Urban Spoon. It was in the "free" section in the app store so I uploaded it. I was cleaning up my phone and deleting stuff that I don't use.  I pulled up Yelp and was browsing.  A lot of useful information and loved the fact that the reviews were coming from real people.  I decided to hang on and give it a try. Soon I was checking in and leaving reviews like crazy!  
In a month, I was contacted via email to become an elite. At the time, I didn't think nothing of it. The words were kind and encouraging that I made a difference in the community.  So I gave the okay to join.   I was invited to yelp events and on one occasion my husband joined me.  The years 2011-2013 I only went to three events.  For the most part, the elite events were not plus 1 so I was gun shy and did not attend until the end of 2013 (September).  From then on, I've been active in the events and really love meeting new people/friends. The events are to help discover and support small businesses.   I think the managers makes a huge difference.  They put themselves out there (get to know you on a personal level as well) and very outgoing, especially in the Cincinnati area where I reside.  
I use this app religiously.  It's helped me find new restaurants (especially when I go out of town), easy navigations/directions, useful ratings, chat with new people all over the nation, note if a business is closed, add useful tips and pictures (which helps tremendously), restaurant menu sometimes included so I don't have to open it up on the internet and it's user friendly.
My only con is sometimes you can't find the business you are looking for.  I've had to add the business which is not a big deal.  But sometimes annoying when you are on the fly/in a hurry.    
I noticed that some people get bored and stop yelping.  I will always be a devoted member and give as much feedback as I can.  
Thank you Yelp!!
An honor to be an Elite for this long!

8/19/2014

The yelp system is obviously flawed. It allows people (notice I did not say customers) to review anyplace anytime they want. I work for a construction materials company that has one sole review. The content of the review has absolutely nothing to do with the products or services we provide. We contacted Yelp because this person did not seem to even know what we provide and they refused to help.

Today I got an email from yelp containing the following:
"When someone chooses to share their experience online, it gives you the opportunity to hear that feedback, respond and ultimately make improvements to your business for an even better customer experience in the future."
"We realize it can be hard to receive critical feedback, but we recommend that business owners respond professionally."

Based on Yelps reviews and feedback I'd say they should take their own advice.

9/3/2014

If I could have given them a ZERO, I would have.  This is a terrible site and they do an injustice thru their "automated" program that chooses recommended reviews.  They give no visibility on that and I've noticed that, even though they took my (mostly positive) reviews in the past, they tend to leave in VERY negative reviews and throw my positive reviews out.  I wouldn't have put a review had I now felt it was a great company that goes the extra mile.  I used to go to Yelp to look for reviews and trusted them as a consumer.  Now that I see their BAD practice, I will never consider their judgment useful ever again.  Unless they change what they do.  To not be able to talk to someone about this shows the extent that they KNOW people would be calling all the time to complain, which isn't a good thing for any company.  

I wonder if they'll post this one.  I guess they'll have to.

2/16/2014 Updated review

Apparently, by Yelp's standard, insulting people by calling them retards is acceptable. Here is a review from one of the local CVS:

"For fuckity fuck sake. What is the hiring process here? Do they work with social security to hire retards on SSI? Dont you have to go to a special school to be a pharmacist?!?!!!

This place really sucks. You wait and wait and wait to have your prescription filled when no one is around. Put the pills in the bottle and move the fuck on. 30 minutes to fill a RX of 4 Vicodin is ridiculous. I realize there is some "behind the scenes shit" going on, but not enough to justify how slow this shit is. Doesn't Rite Aid have a 15 minute guarantee??? See, it can be done. Go there."

Trying to keep Yelp civil, I reported this review. It turned out that I was not the only one to think so. I got an automated email shortly from Yelp stating the following:

Hi there,

We're writing to let know that we previously evaluated Windi L's review of CVS/pharmacy that you recently flagged. We decided at that time to leave it up after carefully assessing it against our Content Guidelines.

-The Yelp Support Team

This just sad to allow people to attack others based on something that some people were born with. People don't choose to be born with mental retardation, but people can definitely choose to be ignorance jerks.

8/22/2014 Updated review

I just got some great reviews for our company and not only did they get removed but Yelp seemed to feel a bit randy and took some other great reviews that have been on our site for some time away.

I think yelp is jealous of to many good reviews in a short time and like a big brother applies a severe reprimand .

This really sucks cause we rely so much on internet orders and it's nice when potential clients can see how hard we work at making great products and customer service.

Yelp, and I can say Yelp in the first person cause you as a corporation are recognized as a person, really made this day a bummer!!!!!