11–20 of 126 posts
I use TripAdvisor exclusively for restaurant reviews now. Even local ones.
There are many, many stories of bad (and incriminating) behavior on behalf of Yelp salespeople over the phone, but I have never heard a recording. Even though most claims indicate that the harassing calls are repeated many times. Somebody record one of these calls and become Internet famous!
There are also many stories like this one that should come with before/after screenshots or links to an archived page. They need to actually link to the page in question so we can see if they are accurately depicting the situation. Shill reviews are easily spotted by people who have the necessary experience.
Like I said, I am ready to turn around on Yelp, these stories sound very plausible to me. I haven't yet seen sufficient evidence. The fact is that I do use that service and the subset of restaurants that I know very well have reviews that match my experience with the place. Therefore I can't help but think that perhaps the person who write the linked article is perhaps deserving of bad reviews and doesn't want to admit it.
It'd be interesting to figure out how Yelp generates the negative reviews. I'd love to see somebody setup a "honeypot" business - fake, doesn't exist in real life (well, physically/location wise)... and then sign up with Yelp and then cancel. Do that with a good 10-100 fake businesses, and could you drum up a case against Yelp?
I have a friend who left Yelp after 2 months. Told me that he'd get aggressive legal action if he revealed "how Yelp really makes money".
I worked there for years. Your "friend" is wrong. The way they make money is rather transparently described in their quarterly filings with the SEC. Since they're a public company. Actually, I'm not sure what your "friend" is accusing them of doing, so it's a hard claim to rebut. It's embarrassing that a vague hearsay accusation (of...what, exactly?) is considered worthy of attention here.
I have a friend who left Yelp after 2 months. Told me that he'd get aggressive legal action if he revealed "how Yelp really makes money".
I worked there for years. Your "friend" is wrong. The way they make money is rather transparently described in their quarterly filings with the SEC. Since they're a public company. Actually, I'm not sure what your "friend" is accusing them of doing, so it's a hard claim to rebut. It's embarrassing that a vague hearsay accusation (of...what, exactly?) is considered worthy of attention here.
I've read the same or highly similar accounts from other small businesses over years. Did you do this when you worked there? Did your colleagues?