Business cancels Yelp advertising contract, negative reviews start pouring in • Hacker News Board

Re: Business cancels Yelp advertising contract, negative reviews start pouring in

#31

Post by p49k » Mon, May 01, 2017, 2:45 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #21

metalliqaz wrote: post #13

I would like very much to grab my pitchfork and point it menacingly at Yelp, but I have yet to see one of these stories with hard evidence. 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 Inte…

> but I have yet to see one of these stories with hard evidence. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14237684 You think they made that up?

I don't think anyone is making these stories up, but with tens of thousands of businesses on Yelp, the chances of these two events randomly happening sequentially is high enough to have a steady stream of people who think it happened to them intentionally.

Also, I've been reading these anecdotes on HN and other sites for years, and have never seen anyone tell this story and provide enough data for anyone to take a look themselves. Never a link to the business page on Yelp, never any links to the supposed negative reviews. Has a news organization ever asked Yelp to explain the specifics of any of these occurrences? Has any explanation ever turned up in the discovery phase of a case against Yelp?

Re: Business cancels Yelp advertising contract, negative reviews start pouring in

#32

Post by oconnor663 » Mon, May 01, 2017, 2:45 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #21

metalliqaz wrote: post #13

I would like very much to grab my pitchfork and point it menacingly at Yelp, but I have yet to see one of these stories with hard evidence. 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 Inte…

> but I have yet to see one of these stories with hard evidence. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14237684 You think they made that up?

It doesn't have to be that people are making stuff up. Yelp is a big site, and there will always be some people who have really bad luck, even if everyone's being honest. If popular opinion focuses on those stories, and no one really tells the stories of people who have good experiences (because why would you tell a boring story :p), it can sound like Yelp is making it happen deliberately.

Re: Business cancels Yelp advertising contract, negative reviews start pouring in

#33

Post by golfer » Mon, May 01, 2017, 2:46 PM UTC

My wife runs a small business and is furious with Yelp. She gets a lot of 5 star reviews, legitimate ones from customers she knows, but Yelp embargoes lots of them and doesn't display them on her Yelp page. She gets frequent cold calls from their sales department, promising that if she signs up for advertising, they can get those 5 star reviews un-embargoed and live on her page.

21st century cyber-extortion?

Re: Business cancels Yelp advertising contract, negative reviews start pouring in

#34

Post by ortuna » Mon, May 01, 2017, 2:47 PM UTC

ryaniscool wrote: post #11

From a consumer standpoint, I stopped using Yelp when I left a 3-star review (neither good or bad) and it was flagged as "fake". I was so puzzled, i contacted support. They still refused to publish it. I figured the business owner must be an advertiser. I use TripAdvisor exclusively for restaurant reviews now. Even local ones.

That would seem like the strategy used. Mark all the low ratings as "fake" until the business stops paying. Just do a review again. "ohh these weren't fake" reviews and restore them.

Re: Business cancels Yelp advertising contract, negative reviews start pouring in

#35

Post by jacquesm » Mon, May 01, 2017, 2:48 PM UTC

p49k wrote: post #31

jacquesm wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but I have yet to see one of these stories with hard evidence. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14237684 You think they made that up?

I don't think anyone is making these stories up, but with tens of thousands of businesses on Yelp, the chances of these two events randomly happening sequentially is high enough to have a steady stream of people who think it happened to them intentionally. Also, I've been reading these anecdotes on HN and other sites for years, and have never seen anyone tell this story and provide enough data for anyone to take a lo…

I suspect that is because they're afraid that their 'two star reviews' become 'zero star reviews'. Just like you don't complain about Mafia customer service in public.

Re: Business cancels Yelp advertising contract, negative reviews start pouring in

#36

Post by treve » Mon, May 01, 2017, 2:48 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #21

metalliqaz wrote: post #13

I would like very much to grab my pitchfork and point it menacingly at Yelp, but I have yet to see one of these stories with hard evidence. 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 Inte…

> but I have yet to see one of these stories with hard evidence. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14237684 You think they made that up?

A subset of restaurant owners will get negative reviews after cancellations, it doesn't necessarily mean that those two things are correlated. Neither the Reddit post, nor the comment you link to actually bother to link to these negative reviews. It would go a long way to show even the slightest bit of evidence.

Re: Business cancels Yelp advertising contract, negative reviews start pouring in

#37

Post by metalliqaz » Mon, May 01, 2017, 2:50 PM UTC

golfer wrote: post #33

My wife runs a small business and is furious with Yelp. She gets a lot of 5 star reviews, legitimate ones from customers she knows, but Yelp embargoes lots of them and doesn't display them on her Yelp page. She gets frequent cold calls from their sales department, promising that if she signs up for advertising, they can get those 5 star reviews un-embargoed and live on her page. 21st century cyber-extortion?

I became active on Yelp after a new Cafe opened in my town. I loved it so much I just had to go home and write a good review. I did so, and it was embargoed. A user with one 5-star review is usually not taken into account.

After I had written more like 5 or 6 reviews, all my reviews started to count.

Remember how viral those recordings of Comcast shenanigans went? If she keeps getting those calls from Yelp, record one and be the one that finally turns the tide.

Re: Business cancels Yelp advertising contract, negative reviews start pouring in

#38

Post by xapata » Mon, May 01, 2017, 2:51 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #21

metalliqaz wrote: post #13

I would like very much to grab my pitchfork and point it menacingly at Yelp, but I have yet to see one of these stories with hard evidence. 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 Inte…

> but I have yet to see one of these stories with hard evidence. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14237684 You think they made that up?

It's possible that the friend made it up or exaggerated. Kind of like when you send your drunk friend home in an Uber and you get a bill for cleaning up vomit. Your friend insists they didn't, but it's plausible that they simply don't remember.

Re: Business cancels Yelp advertising contract, negative reviews start pouring in

#39

Post by timr » Mon, May 01, 2017, 2:51 PM UTC

Someone1234 wrote: post #20

timr wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

As someone who worked there, what is your take on these fake review stories? 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?

To be blunt, they're total bullshit. Which is why you never see any evidence, outside of vague hearsay from someone's uncle.

Yelp has a small army of people cold-calling every business in the country to sell ads. Simultaneously and independently, they have a system that filters out bad reviews, all day, every day. Just by chance, someone is going to get called soon after reviews have been filtered. This leads, inevitably, to third-hand stories of someone's Uncle Walter who got called right before/after some reviews were removed.

Re: Business cancels Yelp advertising contract, negative reviews start pouring in

#40

Post by ninjaranter » Mon, May 01, 2017, 2:51 PM UTC

metalliqaz wrote: post #13

I would like very much to grab my pitchfork and point it menacingly at Yelp, but I have yet to see one of these stories with hard evidence. 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 Inte…

I found the company name from that user's Reddit history. Here's the link to the Yelp page https://www.yelp.com/biz/full-channel-warren-5?sort_by=date_...

They currently have a total of 14 reviews. Only 4 out of the 14 were "out of state" and one of them was 5-star, so the accusation seems overblown.