3 ms·

Why is Yelp untouchable by the FTC or DoJ? The company gets up to some really shady stuff but hasn't faced much punishment if any.

pgrote 11y ago
What is the shady stuff?
- aggie 11y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelp#Alleged_manipulation_by_Yelp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelp#Alleged_manipulation_by_Y...
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- logicallee 11y ago
  >What is the shady stuff? just Google it [1] (by the way everything you see there is an analogy, people don't mean that it's literally associated with the actual mafia, it's still a tech company run by white-collar people just like me and you, people just object to the business model and want someone to get them to stop. there are no guns or the like involved, it's not what people mean. just tactics.) just read these links: [2] from here on Hacker News going way, way back. choice quote "Yelp has been routinely hiding bad reviews and fixing good reviews to the top. It is a total scam and a total extortion scheme for local businesses." from 1385 days ago (3.7 yrs so 2012) - [Edit: among large tech companies/startups that get discussed heavily] it's literally the only tech company anyone utters within the same breath as extortion or mafia. let's compare: a lot of people complain about PayPal, or things like eBay's fees or whatever. But nobody complains about any company literally running an extortion racket using mafia tactics. Yelp is absolutely unique in receiving this charge. [among the type of companies I mention] of course whenever it happens its old CTO or whoever will come here and be like, 'noooo I would have known man no way. founder here. not even a little bit. nu-uh.' you can go find that quote if you want, it's why I started the second search above, but I realized I don't actually care. :) [1] https://www.google.com/search?q=yelp+mafia https://www.google.com/search?q=yelp+mafia [2] https://hn.algolia.com/?query=yelp&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?query=yelp&sort=byPopularity&prefix&...
  - alexbecker 11y ago
    > it's literally the only tech company anyone utters within the same breath as extortion or mafia. I see you aren't familiar with reputation.com
    - logicallee 11y ago
      your comment is the only comment on HN that mentions the company you mention and either of the terms I mention. see for yourself - https://hn.algolia.com/?query=reputation.com%20mafia&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?query=reputation.com%20mafia&sort=by... I've edited my post to reflect that I'm talking about companies that actually routinely get discussed here, sorry I wasn't clear originally. If you change the above to be abut Yelp you get sooo many hits using that language and verbiage, it's a very common accusation that many people are very angry about.
- tim333 11y ago
  http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/yelp-and-the-business-of-extortion-20/Content?oid=1176635 http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/yelp-and-the-business-... """ The phone calls came almost daily. It started to get creepy. "Hi, this is Mike from Yelp," the voice would say. "You've had three hundred visitors to your site this month. You've had a really good response. But you have a few bad ones at the top. I could do something about those." """
  - cft 11y ago
    Is this why their operational expenses are growing? Because the mature businesses that are enrolled long time ago quit paying otherwise?
  - aaxe 11y ago
    I call bullshit: http://screenwerk.com/2016/02/02/reviews-rashomon-plumber-remembers-yelp-threat-that-never-actually-occurred/ http://screenwerk.com/2016/02/02/reviews-rashomon-plumber-re...
    - tim333 11y ago
      It's unclear who's fibbing. My guess in the story I posted is that the sales guy said that stuff but was not actually in a position to pull the bad reviews. Here's a Yelp sales rep talking about the job https://www.quora.com/Whats-it-like-to-work-at-Yelp-as-an-account-executive https://www.quora.com/Whats-it-like-to-work-at-Yelp-as-an-ac...
tyingq 11y ago
This looks like the California DOJ dangling some bait : ) http://www.yelp.com/biz/california-department-of-justice-doj-sacramento http://www.yelp.com/biz/california-department-of-justice-doj...
010a 11y ago
Because every time the FTC/DoJ investigate it turns out that most of the accusations are unfounded.

pgrote 11y ago

What is the shady stuff?

aggie 11y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelp#Alleged_manipulation_by_Yelp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelp#Alleged_manipulation_by_Y...
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
logicallee 11y ago
>What is the shady stuff? just Google it [1] (by the way everything you see there is an analogy, people don't mean that it's literally associated with the actual mafia, it's still a tech company run by white-collar people just like me and you, people just object to the business model and want someone to get them to stop. there are no guns or the like involved, it's not what people mean. just tactics.) just read these links: [2] from here on Hacker News going way, way back. choice quote "Yelp has been routinely hiding bad reviews and fixing good reviews to the top. It is a total scam and a total extortion scheme for local businesses." from 1385 days ago (3.7 yrs so 2012) - [Edit: among large tech companies/startups that get discussed heavily] it's literally the only tech company anyone utters within the same breath as extortion or mafia. let's compare: a lot of people complain about PayPal, or things like eBay's fees or whatever. But nobody complains about any company literally running an extortion racket using mafia tactics. Yelp is absolutely unique in receiving this charge. [among the type of companies I mention] of course whenever it happens its old CTO or whoever will come here and be like, 'noooo I would have known man no way. founder here. not even a little bit. nu-uh.' you can go find that quote if you want, it's why I started the second search above, but I realized I don't actually care. :) [1] https://www.google.com/search?q=yelp+mafia https://www.google.com/search?q=yelp+mafia [2] https://hn.algolia.com/?query=yelp&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?query=yelp&sort=byPopularity&prefix&...
- alexbecker 11y ago
  > it's literally the only tech company anyone utters within the same breath as extortion or mafia. I see you aren't familiar with reputation.com
  - logicallee 11y ago
    your comment is the only comment on HN that mentions the company you mention and either of the terms I mention. see for yourself - https://hn.algolia.com/?query=reputation.com%20mafia&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?query=reputation.com%20mafia&sort=by... I've edited my post to reflect that I'm talking about companies that actually routinely get discussed here, sorry I wasn't clear originally. If you change the above to be abut Yelp you get sooo many hits using that language and verbiage, it's a very common accusation that many people are very angry about.
tim333 11y ago
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/yelp-and-the-business-of-extortion-20/Content?oid=1176635 http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/yelp-and-the-business-... """ The phone calls came almost daily. It started to get creepy. "Hi, this is Mike from Yelp," the voice would say. "You've had three hundred visitors to your site this month. You've had a really good response. But you have a few bad ones at the top. I could do something about those." """
- cft 11y ago
  Is this why their operational expenses are growing? Because the mature businesses that are enrolled long time ago quit paying otherwise?
- aaxe 11y ago
  I call bullshit: http://screenwerk.com/2016/02/02/reviews-rashomon-plumber-remembers-yelp-threat-that-never-actually-occurred/ http://screenwerk.com/2016/02/02/reviews-rashomon-plumber-re...
  - tim333 11y ago
    It's unclear who's fibbing. My guess in the story I posted is that the sales guy said that stuff but was not actually in a position to pull the bad reviews. Here's a Yelp sales rep talking about the job https://www.quora.com/Whats-it-like-to-work-at-Yelp-as-an-account-executive https://www.quora.com/Whats-it-like-to-work-at-Yelp-as-an-ac...

tyingq 11y ago

This looks like the California DOJ dangling some bait : ) http://www.yelp.com/biz/california-department-of-justice-doj-sacramento http://www.yelp.com/biz/california-department-of-justice-doj...

010a 11y ago

Because every time the FTC/DoJ investigate it turns out that most of the accusations are unfounded.