4 ms·

Actually, Yelp doesn't remove legitimate reviews. Edit: I speak from personal experience as a small business owner, described in more detail below.

polote 6y ago
In theory the same can be said of glassdoor. In reality it is different
- istjohn 6y ago
  In reality, Yelp doesn't play games with reviews. I became the top-rated business in my city for my niche while turning down their sales people over and over. I successfully got one review removed in that time because it was clearly a spam account based on their review history. I have several legitimate 5-star reviews from actual happy customers on my business profile that "are not currently recommended" due to Yelp's aggressive anti-cheat software. There are plenty of unhappy business owners who would have people believe their poor Yelp ratings are because the game is rigged, and I'm sure Yelp makes plenty of mistakes, but it is not pay-to-win.
  - Retric 6y ago
    That’s not a counter argument. I was once the top rated player on a pay to win game server without having paid anything. The issue with pay to win in games and online reviews is the distortion not the impossibility of success. Yelp etc needs the average review to be somewhat useful so people actually trusts the Star ratings. However, they can still accomplish that while distorting a significant number of reviews.
    - istjohn 6y ago
      This thread is full of people with no first-hand experience repeating rumors and suspicions. No, I cannot prove a negative, but I don't think speculation is compelling evidence either.
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
      - Retric 6y ago
        Yelp has successfully defended it’s self from several such lawsuits, on the other hand it’s also been sued several times over this. So, it’s a little past just internet rumors. The simple fact Yelp lets companies pay to highlight a favorable review is IMO enough to destroy their credibility. Worse they directed customers through GrubHub for an unearned commission which is as far as I can tell simple fraud. But, that’s not what people are alleging here.
nix0n 6y ago
> Actually, Yelp doesn't remove legitimate reviews. They say that, but they decide which reviews are legitimate, and they're more likely to decide that positive reviews are legitimate, if a business is paying them. On the other hand, my experience pre-pandemic was that Yelp had the only reliable database of local USA businesses' hours of operation (there is probably now no way to know other than phone calls).
- londons_explore 6y ago
  Google rings small businesses up every week asking what their hours of operation are... In fact, I know a business who complained he got more calls from Google trying to update their maps database than he got from real customers!
  - oli-g 6y ago
    > Google rings small businesses up every week asking what their hours of operation are... So THAT'S what all the humans at Google are up to, while their bots are busy locking legitimate user and developer accounts!
    - sandworm101 6y ago
      >>So THAT'S what all the humans at Google are up to How cute. You think that these are humans calling from google. No biological human has represented google by phone since the 90s. It is all androids and chatbots.
    - tveita 6y ago
      Sounds like exactly what they trained Duplex for, so I doubt that would be a human calling. https://ai.googleblog.com/2018/05/duplex-ai-system-for-natural-conversation.html https://ai.googleblog.com/2018/05/duplex-ai-system-for-natur...
      - softawre 6y ago
        Wow that is incredible.
gamblor956 6y ago
It's bizarre that the one person with actual experience in this thread is being downvoted... But I second this. Yelp won't remove legitimate reviews, even for paying businesses. You can pay for priority in search listings and to show up in the Similar and Nearby sections, but that won't help you get negative reviews removed. As I speak, there are 2.5 star restaurants being promoted in every search I do for nearby restaurants. If Yelp removed the negative reviews as people claimed, they wouldn't be at 2.5 stars right now. (It's true that some individual sales reps claim Yelp will do this if you pay them, but those are individual sales reps trying to hit a sales or bonus goal.)
- mancerayder 6y ago
  .. and people are saying that Glassdoor reviews can easily be taken down, without evidence. It might be true, but a claim that undermines the entire business.. warrants at least a link or an anecdote.
- aSockPuppeteer 6y ago
  Yelp removes any post legitimate or not if you have zero “friends” on Yelp and if you have no profile picture iirc. On the business side all I’ve heard from Yelp Business was that they will let more bad reviews slide thus lowering your rating if you do not pay for their protection racket. Also, paying them gives good reviews that would otherwise be rejected now allowed as acceptable. Maybe those businesses were not paying for the “premium” service tier that includes Yelp sending a photographer to your business to then create a video for you with an annual plan. I have managed restaurants and talked to several Yelp reps. It’s difficult to trust online reviews.
  - gamblor956 6y ago
    Yelp removes any post legitimate or not if you have zero “friends” on Yelp and if you have no profile picture iirc. That's definitely wrong, as my Yelp profile has zero friends and no profile picture, and all of my reviews are still up, when viewing the businesses logged out, across multiple devices using different IP addresses. I have managed restaurants and talked to several Yelp reps. I have spoken to restaurants on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce investigating this issue, and found no evidence that these claims are true.

polote 6y ago

In theory the same can be said of glassdoor. In reality it is different

istjohn 6y ago
In reality, Yelp doesn't play games with reviews. I became the top-rated business in my city for my niche while turning down their sales people over and over. I successfully got one review removed in that time because it was clearly a spam account based on their review history. I have several legitimate 5-star reviews from actual happy customers on my business profile that "are not currently recommended" due to Yelp's aggressive anti-cheat software. There are plenty of unhappy business owners who would have people believe their poor Yelp ratings are because the game is rigged, and I'm sure Yelp makes plenty of mistakes, but it is not pay-to-win.
- Retric 6y ago
  That’s not a counter argument. I was once the top rated player on a pay to win game server without having paid anything. The issue with pay to win in games and online reviews is the distortion not the impossibility of success. Yelp etc needs the average review to be somewhat useful so people actually trusts the Star ratings. However, they can still accomplish that while distorting a significant number of reviews.
  - istjohn 6y ago
    This thread is full of people with no first-hand experience repeating rumors and suspicions. No, I cannot prove a negative, but I don't think speculation is compelling evidence either.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - Retric 6y ago
      Yelp has successfully defended it’s self from several such lawsuits, on the other hand it’s also been sued several times over this. So, it’s a little past just internet rumors. The simple fact Yelp lets companies pay to highlight a favorable review is IMO enough to destroy their credibility. Worse they directed customers through GrubHub for an unearned commission which is as far as I can tell simple fraud. But, that’s not what people are alleging here.

nix0n 6y ago

> Actually, Yelp doesn't remove legitimate reviews. They say that, but they decide which reviews are legitimate, and they're more likely to decide that positive reviews are legitimate, if a business is paying them. On the other hand, my experience pre-pandemic was that Yelp had the only reliable database of local USA businesses' hours of operation (there is probably now no way to know other than phone calls).

londons_explore 6y ago
Google rings small businesses up every week asking what their hours of operation are... In fact, I know a business who complained he got more calls from Google trying to update their maps database than he got from real customers!
- oli-g 6y ago
  > Google rings small businesses up every week asking what their hours of operation are... So THAT'S what all the humans at Google are up to, while their bots are busy locking legitimate user and developer accounts!
  - sandworm101 6y ago
    >>So THAT'S what all the humans at Google are up to How cute. You think that these are humans calling from google. No biological human has represented google by phone since the 90s. It is all androids and chatbots.
  - tveita 6y ago
    Sounds like exactly what they trained Duplex for, so I doubt that would be a human calling. https://ai.googleblog.com/2018/05/duplex-ai-system-for-natural-conversation.html https://ai.googleblog.com/2018/05/duplex-ai-system-for-natur...
    - softawre 6y ago
      Wow that is incredible.

gamblor956 6y ago

It's bizarre that the one person with actual experience in this thread is being downvoted... But I second this. Yelp won't remove legitimate reviews, even for paying businesses. You can pay for priority in search listings and to show up in the Similar and Nearby sections, but that won't help you get negative reviews removed. As I speak, there are 2.5 star restaurants being promoted in every search I do for nearby restaurants. If Yelp removed the negative reviews as people claimed, they wouldn't be at 2.5 stars right now. (It's true that some individual sales reps claim Yelp will do this if you pay them, but those are individual sales reps trying to hit a sales or bonus goal.)

mancerayder 6y ago
.. and people are saying that Glassdoor reviews can easily be taken down, without evidence. It might be true, but a claim that undermines the entire business.. warrants at least a link or an anecdote.
aSockPuppeteer 6y ago
Yelp removes any post legitimate or not if you have zero “friends” on Yelp and if you have no profile picture iirc. On the business side all I’ve heard from Yelp Business was that they will let more bad reviews slide thus lowering your rating if you do not pay for their protection racket. Also, paying them gives good reviews that would otherwise be rejected now allowed as acceptable. Maybe those businesses were not paying for the “premium” service tier that includes Yelp sending a photographer to your business to then create a video for you with an annual plan. I have managed restaurants and talked to several Yelp reps. It’s difficult to trust online reviews.
- gamblor956 6y ago
  Yelp removes any post legitimate or not if you have zero “friends” on Yelp and if you have no profile picture iirc. That's definitely wrong, as my Yelp profile has zero friends and no profile picture, and all of my reviews are still up, when viewing the businesses logged out, across multiple devices using different IP addresses. I have managed restaurants and talked to several Yelp reps. I have spoken to restaurants on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce investigating this issue, and found no evidence that these claims are true.