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Yelp Is A Scam


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#16 dansflb

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Posted 12 June 2012 - 05:17 PM

So here is my experience with Yelp, first I will say that I don't like the company overall. We had reviews for our Sports Bar & Casino as well as our bowling center all under the same yelp page. That was frustrating because we treat the two businesses completely separate. So when Yelp wanted us to advertise with them I was interested because I thought here is our opportunity to get rid of some truly false reviews on our business as well as get an additional yelp page for just the bowling center. It took forever to negotiate with Yelp they are extremely frustrating and long story short they claimed that they would bend over backwards to help us build our yelp presence as well as our brand and the second we signed all that disappeared. We have canceled our contract and we will end our advertising at the end of this month after a long one year contract.

What I have learned about their philosophy is that they are very quick to remove great reviews unless the person making the review has a lot of yelp friends and or a lot of yelp reviews. They consider these people to be qualified yelp users and if they post something it must be true because they have a long history with yelp. That philosophy also goes for negative reviews so if someone uses yelp a lot they don't get their negative reviews pulled even if you prove those reviews to be false. This has been my experience at least.

From a business advertising with them I can tell you that they do what they want to do and even advertisers can't convince them otherwise, so I do think they suck but I don't think they are bought by advertisers unless maybe you spend a lot more then $300 a month I can't speak for those types of advertisers being that I'm not one.

It's ashame that mainly 3 star reviews fly, and low 1 and 2 star reviews are more likely to fly then 4 & 5 star reviews. Maybe in the future they figure out a better way to truly rate companies and allow businesses to prove when a false advertisement is being made and actually remove it. Good luck to the other small business owners out there!
Best Regards,
Dan Dreher

Folsom Lake Bowl Family Fun Center
Completely Remodeled, 16 lanes of bowling, Arcade, Great leagues and much more!

FLB Sports Bar & Casino,
Best Bartenders in town, coldest draft, all your favorite sports, 25 HD Screens, Best Texas Hold'em, 3 Card Poker & Blackjack action around!

#17 AlijahsMommy

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Posted 14 June 2012 - 02:32 PM

I registered my business on Yelp and have had some calls and landed a few clients for my housekeeping business through them. I thought this was great! A few of my clients are familiar with Yelp and decided to do some reviews which I was very appreciative of. However, Yelp filtered a review that was very positive and beneficial to my business. I called them and explained this was no scam, provided them with the phone number of the client who was willing to testify to the truth and they said there was nothing they would do about it. So much for Yelp being helpful. What's the point of writing reviews if Yelp has the say on whether they are legitimate or not? That's wrong.
Samantha Hansen
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#18 cw68

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Posted 14 June 2012 - 02:54 PM

I think we should do a little MyFolsom experiment. As many of us who want to participate can post real Yelp reviews, both positive and negative and see what happens to them.

#19 Molly

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Posted 14 June 2012 - 07:06 PM

I emailed Yelp about my legitimate review that was filtered, and got nothing. Not even an auto-reply confirming that they received my email. I closed my account a few days later and haven't used it since, and I used to check it very frequently. I've been coming here for local recommendations for general businesses (actually I just signed on to ask for a good tile setter, but that'll be another post), and I'll use Urban Spoon for restaurants, especially when we're out of town. They post critics reviews in addition to diner reviews, so it seems like you get a better picture of the restaurant anyway.

I would join in the MyFolsom experiment if I weren't completely boycotting them :)

#20 EDF

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Posted 15 June 2012 - 05:08 PM

I've got a couple of stories...

I got on Yelp to give a great review of my mechanic... Rich Ratto of Folsom Motor Works... who I've done business with for over 23 years.

I took the time to write a nice one and posted it. You know I went back a couple of days later and didn't see it... couldn't figure it out why not...

Now I'm sensitive to YELP because I'm in the service "bidness" too....real estate sales and property management...

We have had a couple of terrible tenants give us some nasty reviews the last couple of years... now I don't much care about the tenants because I work for the OWNER and not them but they don't get that...

So when I got on Yelp to see our reviews...? I did find 2 bad ones and 1 good one from tenants and then I noticed a bunch of "filtered" reviews as well... I had never noticed that section before...

Too bad for property managers we can't post a "yelp review" for a crappy tenant that leaves a place nasty or pays slow or is a whiner... and of course they can leave their nasty comments anonymously..

The internet can be a great resource... but it can also be something much worse...

That's my experience...

#21 4thgenFolsomite

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Posted 15 June 2012 - 05:23 PM

yelp sucks.
Knowing the past helps deciphering the future.

#22 (The Dude)

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Posted 15 June 2012 - 06:33 PM

Yelp is totally worthless

#23 cw68

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Posted 16 June 2012 - 07:37 AM

now I don't much care about the tenants because I work for the OWNER and not them but they don't get that...

And this is why I rent directly from a property owner and don't rent properties run by management companies. A property owner works for me because I'm the one paying the rent/their mortgage. In exchange, I take good care of their house/my home.

#24 srtmatt

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Posted 17 February 2013 - 01:02 PM

For the record I am affiliated with RateDiary.com This I believe is the answer for businesses and consumers to work together in the world of online reviews.

This new online review website called RateDiary.com. This website helps businesses get reviews from paying customers only and enables them to manage their online reputation. No more reviews from non-paying customers, competitors or anonymous people. This is how it works. The business creates RateDollar vouchers in any denomination they like. Then the business simply hands there customers a RateDollar voucher after a sale or purchase. This RateDollar voucher gives the customer 7 days to leave a review before it expires. Once the customer leaves a review they get rewarded with the RateDollars that is listed on the voucher. Customers then can redeem RateDollars in the form of a VISA/Mastercard gift card they can use anywhere but ATM's. Also consumers can get rewarded 20 RateDollars for referring a business that's signs up to RateDiary. We all know that the negative emotion is what drives dissatisfied consumers to go home and write a bad review. Till now there has never been a way to get the satisfied customers to leave a review. Now businesses can reward there customers for taking the time to leave a review. Also the RateDiary.com mobile app for Android and iphone should be out in a few weeks. Check it out!!!

#25 gr82bscskc

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Posted 17 February 2013 - 07:22 PM

Wow...this explains so much. I do not post often, but when service is great I do take the time and put myself out there. I did a review on Yelp about a business that provided what I consider to be above and beyond. It was for Salon Jolie in Fair Oaks - about a week after I posted, I went back to the Yelp site. My post had been removed. I had no idea of why, so I contacted Yelp but have had no response. What a shame.

#26 (The Dude)

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Posted 17 February 2013 - 07:28 PM

Wow...this explains so much. I do not post often, but when service is great I do take the time and put myself out there. I did a review on Yelp about a business that provided what I consider to be above and beyond. It was for Salon Jolie in Fair Oaks - about a week after I posted, I went back to the Yelp site. My post had been removed. I had no idea of why, so I contacted Yelp but have had no response. What a shame.


Your review was removed because Salon Jolie is probably not paying yelps extortion of $350 a month that they demand to ensure positive reviews get posted. Yelp is manipulating reviews based on what they get paid by each business

#27 RateDiary

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Posted 19 February 2013 - 12:09 PM

Yelp used to be a great tool, but since the marketers have gotten involved it seems that anything can be bought for a price. We've all heard of negative reviews being left by people who haven't even been to the place, but have some type of personal problem with the owner.
Yelp has so many loopholes, and has become untrustworthy.
That's why we created Rate Diary. Rate Diary works like this:
(restaurant example)
1. eat at restaurant
2. upon checkout, owner will give you a unique voucher
3. go to www.ratediary.com, and redeem the voucher for rate dollars that are treated as cash
4. you get the rate dollar no matter whether the review is positive or negative
5. the goal is honest feedback
6. only patrons can review, and the voucher expires after a 2 weeks
We were trying to eliminate some of the pitfalls of Yelp.

Please check out the site and tell us what you think www.ratediary.com

#28 (Cheesesteak)

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Posted 19 February 2013 - 02:28 PM

Post reviews here, we don't take down reviews of non-advertisers. We have many businesses that have benefitted from years of exposure on our Best of Folsom list, yet have never advertised with us. Yelp has been a bit shady for some time.


I posted a less-than-glowing review last year of a tax firm that advertises on this site. It was removed within a couple of days.

#29 EDF

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Posted 24 February 2013 - 08:39 AM

And this is why I rent directly from a property owner and don't rent properties run by management companies. A property owner works for me because I'm the one paying the rent/their mortgage. In exchange, I take good care of their house/my home.


you might be the one tenant that does ok by your owner... however... I can't tell you how many accounts I have picked up over the years because a tenant "played" the owner.. and had the attitude you do... that the owner works for them...

it's rather like this... The landlord has a product and you are using it... You have certain obligations and so does the owner... Our job is to make the most $$$ for our owners and keep the tenants who nit pick to death a home down to a minimum.

your job is to pay the rent on time... maintain the property and move out leaving it in close to the same condition as when you got it... leaving aside any normal "wear and tear"...

Now it helps our cause if the owner is committed to maintaining his property and the tenant respects the fact the Owner/Landlord is not part of the governments social safety net and not a bottomless pit of money...

I have found that tenants who want to deal only with an owner have an "agenda"... and that's why we've picked up several accounts this way and have had to turn a property around because an owner was "intimidated" by the tenant. We're not intimidated....

#30 4thgenFolsomite

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Posted 22 April 2013 - 03:13 PM

Here is an update: http://eater.com/arc...-allie-pape.php This is link provides a perfect example of what Yelp is doing!!!
Knowing the past helps deciphering the future.




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