http://uproxx.com/webculture/2014/09...e-war-on-yelp/
Well done IMO
It is funny, but the truth is that most restaurants will eventually triumph over the unfair bad reviews, as there will be enough (legit) good ones to counteract it.
I have heard about this "Yelp extortion" to buy ads there before, but I haven't found credible evidence yet that this really happens. But perhaps it does.
Well, one of our members works for Yelp selling advertising packages to business. Maybe he can shed some light...
TRUMP 2024!
Originally Posted by verminaard
I promise you they do. They even threaten you with your business getting negative reviews or that your competitors will be ranked better than you. It literally feels like a mob shakedown. I have had this happen first hand both in person and over the phone. I thought I was going to punch one of the guys in the face and told him to get out of my restaurant. Our restaurant is the #1 Mexican restaurant in our area and we have 5 times more positive reviews than the place in 2nd. After the guy left that restaurant started showing up whenever you searched us and their reviews started spiking.
If you don't have your shit together they will fuck with your business unless you buy some crazy $650 a month package. It's insane.
We pray for understanding as we all occasionally request back door action by accident, when we tried to call an electrician. It happens, it simply happens.
I promise you they do. They even threaten you with your business getting negative reviews or that your competitors will be ranked better than you. It literally feels like a mob shakedown. I have had this happen first hand both in person and over the phone. I thought I was going to punch one of the guys in the face and told him to get out of my restaurant. Our restaurant is the #1 Mexican restaurant in our area and we have 5 times more positive reviews than the place in 2nd. After the guy left that restaurant started showing up whenever you searched us and their reviews started spiking.
If you don't have your shit together they will fuck with your business unless you buy some crazy $650 a month package. It's insane.
Totally untrue. There is too much to write concerning this so if you would like me to come on radio to talk I will. There has not been ONE SINGLE SHRED OF EVIDENCE that Yelp does such things. People don't get that you don't make money off of positive or negative reviews.
Are you saying that most Yelp reviews are fake?
What about people who have elite accounts on Yelp?
There are tons of fake reviews on yelp. Accounts that only make one review and it's a detailed post of a new spot, only the reviewer never shows on the site again.
I've heard for years they will tell business they can get rid of bad reviews and poorly written reviews of said business if they pay.
I was a very early user of yelp I would think, probably started in 2007ish, and I've probably had at least 5 accounts banned by 2009 because either my reviews or my opinions were not appreciated. I haven't Made an account there in 4 years at least.
I know a girl that has been elite on yelp for a couple years now. The whole idea is a giant circle jerk. Terrible people that get picked elite because they love reviewing every pile of shit in their neighborhood/City. They get invited to "elite" private parties at new restaurants and it becomes a live circle jerk from there.
What? You dont think bad reviews hurt a business?
Totally untrue. There is too much to write concerning this so if you would like me to come on radio to talk I will. There has not been ONE SINGLE SHRED OF EVIDENCE that Yelp does such things. People don't get that you don't make money off of positive or negative reviews.
I have been using Yelp for about 4 years now. I am not a frequent reviewer. I tend to only review something if it's really good or really bad, unless my experience contradicts the Yelp rating. (For example, if a 5-star place is a 3-star experience, I am probably going to post a review, but not if a 3-star is indeed a 3-star.)
Anyway, I learned a lot about Yelp because I got tired of seeing my reviews getting "filtered" (the current term is "Reviews Not Recommended), so I set out to figure out how to beat that. And for the most part, I did:
http://dandruffpoker.com/yelp.html
Anyway, when it comes to the question of "Does Yelp punish businesses who won't advertise, and rewards the ones that do?", it's a more complicated question than you think.
First, it's important to understand that Yelp has two big flaws:
1) The filter is overaggressive. The attempt to filter out bogus reviews is noble, but that can't really be done by an automated system, and Yelp ends up removing too many legit reviews.
2) The "elite" thing is ridiculous. Nobody should be given more power to review than others, but that's exactly what Yelp does. As already mentioned, the Yelp community is somewhat of an insider circle jerk, which contradicts the whole point of what Yelp tries to be (an aggregate of local consumer opinions of each business).
So what does this have to do with the possible extortion of businesses?
Well, say you run a business, as El Gallo does, and some obnoxious Yelp rep tries to sell you advertising. You refuse, and then a few weeks later you notice that your restaurant's overall rating has plummeted and the good reviews are mostly gone. Smoking gun, right?
Not so fast. This might simply be a product of the automated Yelp filter, which has erroneously (or maybe correctly) taken down some of your business' good reviews. You associate that with the visit from the ad rep, when in reality it had nothing to do with that. And you get really pissed, believing you were a victim of a business rating extortion scheme.
Keep in mind that a lot of businesses are positively reviewed either by shills (friends/family) or well-meaning loyla customers who don't otherwise use Yelp. So let's say John Smith is a regular at your restaurant and wants to help you out by creating a Yelp account and writing a 5-star review. John's review is legit, but unfortunately if he simply creates the account, writes the review, and never comes back, it will get filtered within a few weeks. So that can be confused as some sort of conspiracy to screw businesses that won't advertise.
HOWEVER, on the other side of the coin, I wouldn't put it past Yelp to grant some leeway to the advertising sales team to play with the filter a bit. So maybe these ad reps look at local businesses, notice some reviews of marginal quality (good or bad). If it has a lot of marginal-quality good ones, a re-run of the filter might remove those, lowering the business' rating. If it has a lot of marginal-quality bad reviews, a re-run of the filter would eliminate them and increase the business' rating. Maybe some snake-in-the-grass Yelp ad reps target businesses like that, and take whatever action is most advantageous for the business if they advertise, and the reverse if they don't. And Yelp can still legally say "We don't delete bad reviews for advertisers", because all they're doing is re-running their existing automated filter on these businesses, but running it more often (and perhaps with tougher settings) depending upon whether the business advertises.
They also might be displaying the advertising businesses first during a search, even if the reviews are worse. I think that's what the sleazy guy was trying to get across to you, but also was trying to scare you with the threat of negative reviews (did he claim they would fill your page with bogus negative reviews if you didn't advertise?!)
I would really be interested in examining this.
El Gallo, a few questions:
1) Did negative reviews suddenly appear on your site after you refused to advertise? Did they appear real, or fake? Can you show them to me (PM would be fine).
2) Did the #2 restaurant jump ahead of yours in the list because their overall review score became better? Or did you have a better overall star score and they were still listed ahead?
3) Did you check the filtered reviews? Did good reviews suddenly end up filtered after you refused to advertise? Were those good reviews written by accounts with very little other Yelp activity?
Ya, I can assure you it is true. I like you sir so perhaps not calling me a blatant liar would be nice. Everything I put there is true
Totally untrue. There is too much to write concerning this so if you would like me to come on radio to talk I will. There has not been ONE SINGLE SHRED OF EVIDENCE that Yelp does such things. People don't get that you don't make money off of positive or negative reviews.
We pray for understanding as we all occasionally request back door action by accident, when we tried to call an electrician. It happens, it simply happens.
- This was about 4 years ago, most of those reviews have been removed. And yes, they appeared about a week after I told them no to their $1200 a month package and then those negative remarks appeared so they showed up to the restaurant about a week later and said they could help with that if I bought some package that was $650 or things like that would keep happening and they wouldn't be able to help, with a smug smile. I was so pissed. A place down the street also started showing up in a banner every time you searched our restaurant on Yelp.
- Our score was so much higher that we remained at the top, but our page now had a competitors banner.
- Good reviews were not deleted that I remember. Mostly bad reviews from people that were from Denver and Texas.... we're in Chicago.
We pray for understanding as we all occasionally request back door action by accident, when we tried to call an electrician. It happens, it simply happens.
wait you own a fucking mexican restaurant and im now just hearing about this what is that about bro
iiiiiiim gonna need pictures and do you have chilaquiles
Looks like these were the actions of a shady Yelp rep.- This was about 4 years ago, most of those reviews have been removed. And yes, they appeared about a week after I told them no to their $1200 a month package and then those negative remarks appeared so they showed up to the restaurant about a week later and said they could help with that if I bought some package that was $650 or things like that would keep happening and they wouldn't be able to help, with a smug smile. I was so pissed. A place down the street also started showing up in a banner every time you searched our restaurant on Yelp.
- Our score was so much higher that we remained at the top, but our page now had a competitors banner.
- Good reviews were not deleted that I remember. Mostly bad reviews from people that were from Denver and Texas.... we're in Chicago.
He probably had his buddies (or people he hired through Craigslist) write a bunch of good reviews if you bought an ad, and a bunch of bad ones if you didn't. Likely he did this without the blessing of Yelp, but just went rogue and did it on his own. Might be a common practice there.
Were the reviews really deleted, or just filtered? If you click "These reviews were not recommended", can you still find the bogus ones that appeared after you refused to buy anything?
That's the problem with commissioned sales jobs. They are often held by shadeballs who will do all kinds of unethical/illegal things in order to get their commission.
Lol. Just lol. You guys have no idea what you talking about. You remind me of Tuff fish who used to narrate his vids.
Holy shit you're an idiot.
Absolutely clueless
Everyone stop the presses!
Somehow OSA is right and everyone else is wrong
This yelp probably started out as a friendly information site and they got huge and powerful and became a large corporation with many employees and they have quotas to meet if they want to keep there jobs, so here comes the extrusion racket and they try to push your buttons and hold your company for ransom 1200 in this case. the BBB pretty much does the same thing.
all hail Hydra
Originally Posted by DanDruff:Since I'm a 6'2" Republican with an average-sized nose and a last name which doesn't end with "stein", "man", or "berg", I can hide among the goyim and remain undetected unless I open my mouth about money matters.
I gotta say I am really on the fence on this one. Something that might help your point of view would be if you had some kind of counter points to the issues being raised in this thread?
brilliant marketing. and they didn't even have to add a third tit to achieve it.
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