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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.
Remove Everything. The page about your business, the lot. You don't want your business on such a site.
Otherwise you'll sue for defamation.
Do you have an archive.org of the original page? That'll make suing easier. Phone records, copies of emails, etc, etc.
Yelp isn't a thing anymore. It should have dinosaured a long time ago.
The reviews themselves are worthless. It's the rating tie in with google maps which makes them better than Yelp. It's at a glance information and extremely persuasive.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
>the mafia don doesn't explicitly say your shop will be spared/burned to the ground
>in writing
you don't say
Of course they are! Itâ(TM)s the number one resource for people searching for local businesses. And they are and have been hurting small businesses who donâ(TM)t submit to their extortion tactics FOR YEARS.
As an admin for two small business, I have a ton of first hand experience.
OK, we live & learn.
I'll be skipping yelp henceforth.
But, on Yelp, you see bad reviews for places that don't pay Yelp protection money, and the reverse for those that do. So it's far less trustworthy than asking your local astrologer.