SFist: Even More Yelp Drama

blogorama

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 14:58:34 -0800

Yelp used to encourage business owners to write reviews about their own business. It was clearly documented in their terms of service. I see no reason why a business owner should not be allowed to review their own business, as long as they clearly identify who they are. But to review your own business, you are forced to rate it. Most business owners will give themselves a five star rating, since 1) they are biased (as they should be) and 2) anything less would mean they doubt their own business, which is potentially damaging. Many yelpers criticized those business owner reviews, despite the fact that yelp encouraged it. From a business owner standpoint, you just can't win with yelp. If an owner posted a review of their own business before yelp modified their terms of service, it should be left in place. That would be the fair thing to do. That one review will not skew the overall business rating, since a single post cannot compete with all of the reviewers out there. I have no doubt that yelp yanked this guys reviews because he refused to advertise. What I don't understand is why yelp continues to behave in this manner when they know they are being watched by so many people. They continue to shoot themselves in the foot.

rayb_insf

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:01:58 -0800

There is a new site that helps people deal with Yelp, their extortion, collusion, and fraud. It's currently at mebark.org and will soon be at yelphelp.org

ihimsc

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 09:48:15 -0800

I'm a Yelper from Detroit--one of Yelp's newest communities. I never understood all the Yelp drama that went down in the bigger communities like SF. Since Detroit is still a very small and growing Yelp community, I thought we didn't [yet] have that drama. Like the_absentee, I "Yelped" to help others find places to eat, doctors, dry cleaners, etc. I thought all was well and good, and I loved the site. But, now I understand all the drama. In Detroit, we've recently started having "Elite Events"--a long-standing practice in SF, but new to Detroit. The most recent Elite Event, hosted at a local deli, elicited a handful of 4-star and 5-star reviews for the deli. The Detroit Community Manager gave the deli a 5-star review. Had she not, would that deli still have been so willing to give out free sandwiches and beer to Yelpers? Probably not. When a Detroit Yelper wrote a 3-star review for the deli (it's lowest review to date), expressing distaste for the food and frustration that the Elite Event skewed the deli's ratings... well, the second time I read the review, the stuff about the skewed ratings had been removed. So Yelp can strong-arm restaurant owners into giving freebies to their "Elite Squad" in exchange for good reviews. And if a bad review is written, they can smear it out. Or in the case of a restaurateur who doesn't suck Yelp's d**k, e.g. Timothy Holt, Yelp can just remove good reviews on a whim. Of course they'll defend themselves with their rule that restaurant owners cannot write reviews. But what about those five other positive reviews they removed, huh? In a huge market like SF, reviews get buried quickly, and most people will not read a restaurant's all 200+ reviews. But in Detroit, where most restaurants have 5-15 reviews, a Yelp-influenced skew is really going to be obvious.

the_absentee

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 09:26:06 -0800

Before the Yelp drama and extortionist behavior, Yelp was decent. In fact, I have a nice little Yelp profile with normal, not raging-rant style posts. You know, the idea being to help others find a place to eat, wash their car, or get their teeth cleaned. Thanks to Yelp's very own, very poor management (1 star rating), I want to delete my profile. I doubt I can. I'll probably have to pay.

MargaretRenee

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 09:03:07 -0800

Yelp is unaccountable to both its users and businesses. They discriminate against the black community by not enforcing their guidelines in the same way that they do in other instances. They allow small groups of vocal people to wage campaigns and vendettas. Therefore the reviews cannot be trusted.

aj

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 08:50:21 -0800

People under 32 read sfist?

aj

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 23:16:48 -0800

Yelp, the new CitySearch. Soon it too will be bought by InterActiveCorp and forgotten.

RinconHillSF

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:36:09 -0800

What next, stickers that read "I didn't pay to be loved by people on Yelp!"

spysea

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 19:20:50 -0800

the slow death of yelp

brookish

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:35:50 -0800

they must have sent a lot of those notices today. i got one notifying me that my "review" of Valencia Smog was yanked because it wasn't about their services, but about what a terrible neighbor they are. god forbid consumers judge a business on anything that goes to context and neighborliness.

RobInSF

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:19:20 -0800

I think it's kind of funny that they just 'promoted' the former sales manager into the lead customer service position. I just don't think they get it.

wsanders

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:37:01 -0800

I don't trust anyone under 32. Present company excluded, of course.

IZ1

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:15:06 -0800

It's one thing if this is just a one time complaint, but there have been so many of these complaints from honest small business owners. The only one defending Yelp is their just turned 31 yr old CEO. I guess it's true, don't trust anyone over 30!

periqueblend

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:12:34 -0800

this sounds familiar , like I've read this before. Yelp needs to rehab its image.