Slashdot Mirror
Yelp Accused Of Hiding Positive Reviews For Non-Advertiser (cbslocal.com)
A Dallas business owner is accusing Yelp of hiding good reviews of his coffee shop after he refused to pay them for advertising. From a report on CBS Local: Bob Sinnott owns Toasted Coffee + Kitchen in Lower Greenville. He said after months of non-stop phone calls from Yelp, he claims his favorable rating dropped after he finally told the company he would not pay for advertising. "What I would compare it to, the mafia," said Sinnott. "You know, you do business with me or there's retaliation." Sinnott feels Yelp is hiding many of his 5-star reviews in the "not recommended" section because he chose not to pay for Yelp services. "The sales pitch is, pay us a monthly fee and we'll your help page," said Sinnott. He claims there were constant phone calls and emails from Yelp pitching the company's services. "It became what I would call borderline harassment," said Sinnott. After posting on Facebook about his experience, Sinnott said his rating went from a 4-star to a 3.5-star rating. Google rates Toasted at 4.1 and Facebook has the business at a 4.6 rating.
Google reviews are a wasteland anywhere I've ever looked. Yelp is still what people actually use if they want real info. Google Maps, for example, claims a local comedy club that has been closed for a year is still open... Yelp knows.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
If you poke around Yelp's site, they talk about how paying them can result in better placement, targeted advertising, etc. That seems expected and fair behavior.
I can't find anywhere that it would infer that your aggregate rating will be affected by whether you pay them or not. In fact, on their About page, they state "Paying advertisers can never change or re-order their reviews." (which, I guess, does not exclude Yelp themselves from doing it). The perception is that the ratings are organized and aggregated based upon algorithms. If the reality is that it's also based upon whether Yelp is getting paid by the business in question, that seems shady. It certainly should have an impact on consumers' confidence in Yelp aggregate ratings.
Censoring positive reviews while showing negative reviews is plain extortion when you act as an honest authority. Possibly even defamation, since they're manipulating the facts.
However, they have been sued unsuccessfully before over this and the court seemed to think it was fine.
We've experienced the exact same thing, persistent badgering by a sales person, had over 30 positive reviews... Finally told sales person no, suddenly all reviews are filtered. They claim their algorithm determines review placement exclusively, but it's utter bullshit.
No, the mafia don *implies* that harm will come to you.
From his speech, you *infer* that he is threatening you.
https://www.vocabulary.com/articles/chooseyourwords/imply-infer/
This mafia-like behavior from Yelp has already been through the courts, and they've won so far (circuit court level): http://www.sfgate.com/news/art...