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> There are numerous accounts of businesses receiving calls from Yelp salespeople essentially telling them to buy an ad package or the negative reviews get prio

> There are numerous accounts of businesses receiving calls from Yelp salespeople essentially telling them to buy an ad package or the negative reviews get prioritized. Sure, there are numerous accounts (read:hearsay) but there's zero physical or hard evidence. After all this press, don't you think there'd be at least one recorded phone conversation or email that showed up in the numerous lawsuits' discovery processes? There is literally zero physical evidence corroborating Yelp account execs' extortive practices.

orangejuice101 7y ago
Louis Rossmann disagrees - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hhL15yJUnI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hhL15yJUnI
- save_ferris 7y ago
  This is exactly the video I was about to respond with
- smallgovt 7y ago
  To summarize: - A Yelp account exec inappropriately shared another business's profile stats with Louis. - Louis reported this privacy violation to Yelp, and Yelp decided to fire the account exec. - The fired account exec blamed Louis for getting fired and subsequently got her friends to write negative reviews on Louis's Yelp page. That's not evidence that Yelp practices extortion.
  - save_ferris 7y ago
    Louis also found negative reviews from people who didn't live in his community and who were also friends with the Yelp salespeople who attempted to solicit business from Louis, which is so egregious. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C67Lh4LE5LY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C67Lh4LE5LY
    - smallgovt 7y ago
      I acknowledged that in my previous comment. All the fake reviews were written by friends of the fired sales rep. Basically, Louis got the rep fired, and the rep went haywire. This doesn't suggest Yelp has extortive sales practices. If anything, Yelp made the right decision to fire this sales rep who breached privacy protocol.
      - save_ferris 7y ago
        You’ve moved the goalposts here though. You first argued how none of these small business owners brought forward evidence and therefore this isn’t a real scandal, and then you concede that this is a legitimate example but Yelp handled it correctly by firing the rep. When hundreds of small business owners make accusations against one company like this, and people like Louis being tangible evidence forward, a full investigation of these practices is warranted, which hasn’t happened yet, to my knowledge. This smells like a toxic sales culture that enables people to take advantage of small businesses as long as they don’t get caught. Many small business owners probably don’t have the energy or ability to do the research that Louis did, but his findings were pretty shocking. How many more small business owners need to take time away from revenue generating activity to discover this kind of coordination before you’re satisfied that there’s a real issue here?
        smallgovt 7y ago
        > You’ve moved the goalposts here though. You first argued how none of these small business owners brought forward evidence and therefore this isn’t a real scandal. I never moved the goalpost. My claim has always been that there is zero physical evidence of Yelp extorting small businesses. The posted video is not evidence of Yelp extorting business. It's an example of a fired Yelp employee blaming a business owner for getting fired, and taking it out on the business owner's Yelp page. That is not extortion on behalf of Yelp. > When hundreds of small business owners make accusations against one company like this, and people like Louis being tangible evidence forward, a full investigation of these practices is warranted, which hasn’t happened yet, to my knowledge. There have been countless lawsuits filed against Yelp for extortion. All of them have been dismissed -- not settled; dismissed. Google is your friend.

orangejuice101 7y ago

Louis Rossmann disagrees - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hhL15yJUnI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hhL15yJUnI

save_ferris 7y ago
This is exactly the video I was about to respond with
smallgovt 7y ago
To summarize: - A Yelp account exec inappropriately shared another business's profile stats with Louis. - Louis reported this privacy violation to Yelp, and Yelp decided to fire the account exec. - The fired account exec blamed Louis for getting fired and subsequently got her friends to write negative reviews on Louis's Yelp page. That's not evidence that Yelp practices extortion.
- save_ferris 7y ago
  Louis also found negative reviews from people who didn't live in his community and who were also friends with the Yelp salespeople who attempted to solicit business from Louis, which is so egregious. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C67Lh4LE5LY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C67Lh4LE5LY
  - smallgovt 7y ago
    I acknowledged that in my previous comment. All the fake reviews were written by friends of the fired sales rep. Basically, Louis got the rep fired, and the rep went haywire. This doesn't suggest Yelp has extortive sales practices. If anything, Yelp made the right decision to fire this sales rep who breached privacy protocol.
    - save_ferris 7y ago
      You’ve moved the goalposts here though. You first argued how none of these small business owners brought forward evidence and therefore this isn’t a real scandal, and then you concede that this is a legitimate example but Yelp handled it correctly by firing the rep. When hundreds of small business owners make accusations against one company like this, and people like Louis being tangible evidence forward, a full investigation of these practices is warranted, which hasn’t happened yet, to my knowledge. This smells like a toxic sales culture that enables people to take advantage of small businesses as long as they don’t get caught. Many small business owners probably don’t have the energy or ability to do the research that Louis did, but his findings were pretty shocking. How many more small business owners need to take time away from revenue generating activity to discover this kind of coordination before you’re satisfied that there’s a real issue here?
      - smallgovt 7y ago
        > You’ve moved the goalposts here though. You first argued how none of these small business owners brought forward evidence and therefore this isn’t a real scandal. I never moved the goalpost. My claim has always been that there is zero physical evidence of Yelp extorting small businesses. The posted video is not evidence of Yelp extorting business. It's an example of a fired Yelp employee blaming a business owner for getting fired, and taking it out on the business owner's Yelp page. That is not extortion on behalf of Yelp. > When hundreds of small business owners make accusations against one company like this, and people like Louis being tangible evidence forward, a full investigation of these practices is warranted, which hasn’t happened yet, to my knowledge. There have been countless lawsuits filed against Yelp for extortion. All of them have been dismissed -- not settled; dismissed. Google is your friend.