Court rules Yelp.com can manipulate ratings

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OneofOne

Silver Baronet of the Realm
6,549
7,899
As title. The site has always been 50% shit imo because they've been doing this for a while, regardless of what they say. But now they really can delete your good reviews if you don't pay them. It partly makes sense, and is partly fucked up. Well, mostly fucked up - I don't subscribe to Capitalism as my god.

Yelp can manipulate ratings, court rules - SFGate
 

Alex

Still a Music Elitist
14,466
7,382
It's skeezy and I hate the practice, but Yelp is still good for identifying the the really good places. But there are some serious gems on Yelp that might have only 3 or 3.5 stars. I don't mind. Because when you discover those places, they don't have 45 minute waits.
 

Salshun_sl

shitlord
1,003
0
I remember when Kitchen Nightmares did that "Amy's Baking Company" place in Arizona, the one run by the psycho as fuck couple. The Yelp reviews were just beyond epic.

In all fairness that raging bitch had it coming.
 

Joeboo

Molten Core Raider
8,157
140
I can't believe that anyone would ever use yelp for a restaurant review over urbanspoon.com
 

Lanx

Oye Ve
<Prior Amod>
60,072
131,382
yelp is always confusing, i'll try to clear up stuff.
first is, yelp has the famous yelp filter

basically tries to filter out crap and fake reviews, you can see all filtered reviews if you scroll all the way down on a restaurant review page and theres a link
"[number] other reviews that are not currently recommended"

i am pretty sure advertising with yelp doesn't affect this filter.

advertising with yelp means that a user will be on the yelp ad/website and type in "chinese ny ny" or whatever and you will be the first result with "AD" at the front of your name. these are either by ppc or cpm, pay per click of usually 3bucks a click or 3bucks per 1k impressions, what is un-heard of is that yelp locks a business in with a contract of min ad spend (usually 500ish) and early temination fees.

again, i'm sure the yelp filter isn't affected by advertising with yelp, if they are, then it is lying/overzealous yelp reps who are trying to pimp yelp out to small businesses in order to meet their quota or get a commission. (this also gets you the yelp sticker on the store door)
 

Quineloe

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
6,978
4,463
You have a nice business here. Wouldn't it be a shame if everyone thought it was shit?

The judge is a stone age idiot who probably never used an internet connected device in his life.
 

Lanx

Oye Ve
<Prior Amod>
60,072
131,382
You have a nice business here. Wouldn't it be a shame if everyone thought it was shit?

The judge is a stone age idiot who probably never used an internet connected device in his life.
Marsha Berzon - Google Search

she's 69, pretty stone agey

dissecting the ppl in the article:

Tracy Chan, a San Francisco dentist

this seems to be her business
Marina Dental - Marina/Cow Hollow - San Francisco, CA | Yelp

3.5 out of 5/ 16 reviews

what is excessive imo is the number of filtered reviews, 93
http://www.yelp.com/not_recommended_...-san-francisco

but they're mostly 1 star, and they don't really sound like "'trolls" but dissatisfied customers, in truth this place probably deserves a 2

Boris Levitt, owner of a furniture-restoration business in San Francisco
Renaissance Furniture Restoration - San Francisco, CA | Yelp

5 stars/25 reviews

pretty hardcore, imo this means this guy solicites reviews, it's the only way (which you are allowed to do as long as there is no compensation)

19 filtered reviews, all see 5 star too
http://www.yelp.com/not_recommended_...an-francisco-5

Wheel Techniques, a Santa Clara auto body shop
Wheel Techniques - North San Jose - Santa Clara, CA | Yelp

3 stars/ 68 reviews
56 filtered
http://www.yelp.com/not_recommended_...es-santa-clara

you can see why these ppl complain, they run bad businesses
 

Corndog

Lord Nagafen Raider
517
113
Yelp is bullshit. I've got 17 reviews, 2 one stars and 15 5 stars, and 26 filtered reviews. I've traced the two bad ones back to competitor stores and they do nothing about it. Yelp does call me up monthly though saying that if I was to advertise that my reviews would get better as I'd get more reviews.They basically dance around hiding the 2 negatives and letting more positive reviews come to light. Without saying anything officially.

Yelp has been very good for my business. I am however still against it because no company can opt out of the system.
 

OneofOne

Silver Baronet of the Realm
6,549
7,899
It amazes me that our businesses haven't hit Yelp yet, though they were bought from long time owners. Then again we do have a lot of older and/or wealthier clients - two groups I don't expect to see posting Yelp reviews.
 

Big Phoenix

Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
<Gold Donor>
44,369
92,516
Yelp is bullshit. I've got 17 reviews, 2 one stars and 15 5 stars, and 26 filtered reviews. I've traced the two bad ones back to competitor stores and they do nothing about it. Yelp does call me up monthly though saying that if I was to advertise that my reviews would get better as I'd get more reviews.They basically dance around hiding the 2 negatives and letting more positive reviews come to light. Without saying anything officially.

Yelp has been very good for my business. I am however still against it because no company can opt out of the system.
dont you run a fish store?
 

Lanx

Oye Ve
<Prior Amod>
60,072
131,382
It amazes me that our businesses haven't hit Yelp yet, though they were bought from long time owners. Then again we do have a lot of older and/or wealthier clients - two groups I don't expect to see posting Yelp reviews.
at this point its usually user submitted, a user submits a new listing, then it gets verified by yelp as a review and as a new listing. this just means, no one wants to review your business, good or bad.
 

Quineloe

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
6,978
4,463
Marsha Berzon - Google Search

she's 69, pretty stone agey

dissecting the ppl in the article:

Tracy Chan, a San Francisco dentist

this seems to be her business
Marina Dental - Marina/Cow Hollow - San Francisco, CA | Yelp

3.5 out of 5/ 16 reviews

what is excessive imo is the number of filtered reviews, 93
http://www.yelp.com/not_recommended_...-san-francisco

but they're mostly 1 star, and they don't really sound like "'trolls" but dissatisfied customers, in truth this place probably deserves a 2
But who would give their dentist 5 stars? It's a dentist...
 

Shonuff

Mr. Poopybutthole
5,538
790
It amazes me that our businesses haven't hit Yelp yet, though they were bought from long time owners. Then again we do have a lot of older and/or wealthier clients - two groups I don't expect to see posting Yelp reviews.
A lot of our well to do customers do post on Angie's List. I started up picking up work off of Angie's List (like 3k a week in service fees) and couldn't figure out why. Apparently some customers started giving us A's. I started advertising on Angie's List after that.

What I don't like is that Angie's List always takes the customer's side in a review. We've had two customers call us up this Summer and say that I could pay them for A's on jobs completed, or I was going to get an F. They know how to work the system. In both cases, a 5% in ticket price reduction got me an A.

I wish there was an actual dispute process with AL. One time, a guy tried to pay us $300 for 3,000 in work, and reported us to the BBB. After I explained that we weren't going to get paid an hour for a day's work, they ended the dispute and found for me. The BBB has never decided a case against me, I always do keep my word. With AL, it doesn't matter. If the guy is still pissed after I've done some rework, he can still torch me with an F.
 

OneofOne

Silver Baronet of the Realm
6,549
7,899
Wow that's jacked, but I can't say I'm terribly surprised. I might have to buy a sub to see if we're on there.
 

fresh

<Gold Donor>
43
32
Yelp won't even take down reviews of my restaurant when it is clear that they are talking about a completely different place. For instance, complaining about a rude waitress, and we don't have waitresses. I rarely look at it anymore because most of the reviews, both good and bad, are total nonsense.

It sucks though because I know customers, and tourists in particular, are looking at that and basing their choices off of the reviews. We have a good score, but I don't think it is representative of customers overall opinions of the business. People are just much more likely to write a review if something goes wrong.
 

Khane

Got something right about marriage
19,789
13,298
Yelp won't even take down reviews of my restaurant when it is clear that they are talking about a completely different place. For instance, complaining about a rude waitress, and we don't have waitresses.
This doesn't mean they aren't talking about your restaurant. Instead of saying "rude woman who took my order behind the counter" they just say "waitress". Unless you don't have women working at your restaurant at all.