YelpReviews 1,585

I hate Yelp. They used to be a valuable service, they really did. They helped me understand which businesses to stay away from. Well, that all changed recently. I saw that they had REMOVED several of my reviews, but kept most of them. Strange. When I went to investigate, I saw that the removed reviews were 5 star reviews on businesses that had been reviewed by most people as 3 stars. Just a ploy to take businesses money now: (

Yelp definitely scams and intimidates business owners. For large corporations like Barnes and Noble, Starbucks, etc, everyday people with nothing better to do slander reputable customer service and brand. For others, like mom-and-pop shops and small businesses with one owner, yelp calls them over the phone and harasses them to buy advertising. When the businesses don't, the ratings go down and good reviews are "filtered out" Negative ones are put up top and in front in order to panic the business owner into giving in. I still have a hard time understanding how they are:
1. So good at it,
2. How is it legal?
And
3. How do we spread the word?

Yelp's cat is out of the bag, now it's just a matter of shutting them down.

I like using Yelp to search - it is great when you are in a new area and are looking for something- especially a restaurant. I recently heard that businesses can purchase a subscription or membership and then control what gets posted - that is disappointing but I still plan on using it. Not all businesses can or choose to do that and these are public reviews anyway - everyone's views are different, tastes are different, and standards are different. If you use it as a guide and not gospel I think you are in pretty good shape - at least you have more information and options than if you are just walking down the street hoping to find something.

It cool that i can get results on yelp, but still, they are incompliment. I would love to see more details on yelp, thank you

Yelp keeps deleting my negative reviews. It's not fair.

I have written several reviews on local businesses and whoever is operating Yelp takes out the negative reviews arbitrarily. I am not a vet and yet they deemed my review of a vet who refused to treat my dog any longer not to be appropriate to be shown with other reviews. I believe that people seeking vets should know about the vet and his method of practice. Of course, there is no way to complain about the way in which Yelp works. Yelp is a very biased forum and should not be considered seriously when determining the quality of a venue.

YELP is the paid shilling site. I knew it for a while, and the rumors and testimony have been there, but until I saw it done to me, I gave them the benefit of the doubt. I don't give them that anymore.

Yes as other reviewers have pointed out, they take out negative reviews for bogus reasons often citing "objectionable" or "personal" feelings for taking the review of a bad business or bad person out. Case in point, I wrote a review for James Kosnett i. E. of the legal firm Kosnett and Durchfort that he was a fraudulent lawyer. He was supposed to represent me in my case against the university but showed no work whatsoever. I even took this to the state bar which equally covered this up, and couldn't prove he did any work on my case (gotta love paid shillers).

I called him a fraud because he was a fraud in my review, and then I saw that he was posting fake reviews for himself at Avvo (another paid shilling site) to pad his bad ratings. So in other words, I posted facts, and there was no reason for Yelp to pull my review.

However, YELP took its shilling action to fraudulent action. They marked the business as "closed" on the site, so no know could review the fraudulent lawyer. Kosnett and Durchfort ARE NOT closed at all. James Kosnett and his fraudulent firm are open 365 days a year to scam another unsuspecting victim who is unaware of how bad the lawyer is.

YELP committed fraud here, so that's how bad YELP is. I saved all my reviews including the Kosnett review and have begun posting them on Youtube. I have not been legally threatened by Kosnett for outing him as a fraudulent lawyer because he is one.

I will be able to gain more views, and even monetize my reviews on Youtube, so anyone thinking of joining YELP should join Youtube. I never had any problems with them, and they have never yanked a review for bogus reasons like YELP.

Yelp is ridiculous. We are a small business that relies heavily on word of mouth. With each customer interaction, we ask our customers for referral letters or online reviews. We've had several customers post positive reviews on Yelp, but because they are first time users, their reviews are filtered out. So, to Yelp, the only valid Yelp customer is one that has been there several times? More than half of my business are one time landscape customers. What they think of the one job we did for them matters a lot. I would think that yelp would value the opinions of their first time visitors as well.
The other complaint that I have is the complete inability to contact them. The customer service number isn't a live service. However, if you push the router number to indicate that you are a business that is interested in advertising with them, you'll get a live person. Its unsettling that a company that does reviews of customer service doesn't actually have any customer service employees. Talk about only being concerned with the sale!
In short, this company is one of the least reputable companies I've ever encountered. Its like a hair dresser with bad hair!

I am a completely honest person with consideration and I do not give any sort of business 1 star because of one petty reason. I weigh both positives and negatives every place I go to. That being said, Yelp has a habit of allowing businesses being put up that people normally do not leave reviews for based on location. Examples would be Lasership where they sent you packages and therefore, you can't technically review their "location". However, Yelp allows that business to stay and course, all the reviews are based on how bad or good their experience was with delivered packages.

Now if this is the case, then why would Yelp be so biased to allow another large corporation such as American Apparel to add their business as the warehouse location and yet delete (yes delete, not "hide") reviews? This company creates garments and are negligent with them during shipping time after time. American Apparel's warehouse has been known to send poorly fitted garments that either are inaccurate wrong sizes or come with no tags and sometimes have holes as if the garment was worn numerous times before shipping off to you.

If this is what the warehouse is sending me, then perhaps I have the right to tell people this and review the warehouse location. However, because my 30 helpful votes review was very detailed, it was removed yet, other reviewers who didn't have a "first-hand experience" at the warehouse were allowed to keep their reviews up and most of them were 1-2 star reviews with no details at all or irrelevant comments. This just goes to SHOW that if you have money, you could simply pay Yelp to remove bad reviews.

If I had to rely on Yelp to give me any sort of information, then I'd be miserable. They also filtered my review for a restaurant I used to go to for reasons I don't even know why. I followed guidelines and was detailed enough about my experience and even had pictures.

As a business owner who has received numerous positive reviews,( that I personally know are legitimate customers genuinely wanting to share the good experience they had at our store,) that have been "filtered", I question the legitimacy of a site that claims to give a shopper valid information.
If Yelp is a forum for legitimate reviews that seeks to be helpful, why not allow all reviews in chronological order. Then the consumer is able to see if there is a trend in the companies service. That would be helpful. But, this random way reviews are handled is ridiculous.

The reviews are meaningless and biased, so they have intentions to ruin your business. Many of reviewers there are simply arrogant, conceded and ungrateful. They're here to remove positive reviews, but keep the negatives there. Now I review sites that are bad, but I also review sites that are good. This one is just plain bad. If you want to get good reviews, SiteJabber is a way to go - sponsored by the National Science Foundation.