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Yelp Is Replacing Restaurants’ Phone Numbers So Grubhub Can Take a Cut (2019)

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Re: Yelp Is Replacing Restaurants’ Phone Numbers So Grubhub Can Take a Cut (2019)

#91

Post by jtsiskin »

Spivak wrote: post #68
fairity wrote: post #29

I see a lot of people saying this must be illegal, and the reason Yelp hasn't been sued is because restaurant owners can't afford legal fees. Isn't this the purpose of class action lawsuits? If Yelp is actually doing something illegal here, certainly, there's enough money to hire great counsel to represent all restaurant owners who are affected by this policy change.

I’m sure the restaurant will be very happy to receive their $15 Yelp Ad credit 7 years down the road.

Still, if this is as obviously illegal as most people here are claiming it is, wouldn't a law firm take the case for free in exchange for a percentage of the fee Yelp will need to pay?

Re: Yelp Is Replacing Restaurants’ Phone Numbers So Grubhub Can Take a Cut (2019)

#92

Post by wilshire_nc »

chc wrote: post #53
xapata wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"How late are you open tonight? Ok, thanks."

It seems unlikely that there is a large contingent of people who Google a restaurant (which they must be doing in order to get Yelp's number), ignore the listing of hours right next to the number and call the restaurant to get the hours. I believe it happens, but I have a hard time believing that particular sequence of events accounts for even one call in 50.

I do it all the time, google’s hours are often wrong, especially during covid.

Re: Yelp Is Replacing Restaurants’ Phone Numbers So Grubhub Can Take a Cut (2019)

#93

Post by gwilikers »

mywittyname wrote: post #69
elefanten wrote: post #55

Yelp is one those companies. I use the product regularly, but I hate doing so -- the experience is awful and the core information is rarely particularly helpful. But they still get me to come in because they have the most information about some places. What really sets me off is how much "moral" crusading they do (eg- vs. Google) compared to how much shady stuff they do. This is just latest in a long line of crummy b…

Why do you use Yelp? I've never needed it because every restaurant that I go to is on Google or maintains their own website. It's been known for years now that the reviews on Yelp are largely fake and they hide legit ones, so it's nearly useless for that as well. At least with Google Maps reviews, I can click on the reviewer and see the other places they've been.

> the reviews on Yelp are largely fake

Do you have a source for this?

Re: Yelp Is Replacing Restaurants’ Phone Numbers So Grubhub Can Take a Cut (2019)

#94

Post by lotsofpulp »

tw04 wrote: post #23
thursday0987 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that don't end in a sale. i would bet 99%+ of all calls to restaurants from grubhub end in a sale, thus making this law meaningless. edit: why did i get downvoted for this? it adds to the discussion and it doesn't break any of HN's rule. are people just not happy about it or something? wtf.

99%+? I can give you a case in point: we just tried to order Thai on Saturday from one of our favorite restaurants. They were short staffed in the kitchen and the wait time was over an hour... so we didn't order. I'm willing to bet a ton of other people did the same thing. Why should the Thai place have to PAY for people that declined to order?

> Why should the Thai place have to PAY for people that declined to order?

They don’t, unless they agreed to those terms with the entity charging them. For example, if the agreement was to pay Yelp for all phone calls coming from Yelp’s website.

Re: Yelp Is Replacing Restaurants’ Phone Numbers So Grubhub Can Take a Cut (2019)

#95

Post by Jugurtha »

I don't understand. Why do you have to call the joint on an application? Yelp isn't available here, but on the local apps (Algeria), I can make the order by clicking on foods, adding quantities, adding drinks, then confirming the order.

For every joint, there's their menu with different tabs (drinks, desserts, pizzas, burgers, briskets, pastrami, etc) custom for every joint.

The app then tells me when the joint has accepted the order, when the rider picked up my order, and where the rider is. The rider comes to the office, gives me food, I give them money, and good bye.

I can even click to re-order the same thing, or make several orders from different places (when you want food from several places). And if the joint is not featured in the app, you can make a custom order where you describe what you want, and put the address of the joint.

You can even just buy items (chocolate bars, water) on the app. I don't understand why do you have to call on an app. That sucks.

Re: Yelp Is Replacing Restaurants’ Phone Numbers So Grubhub Can Take a Cut (2019)

#96

Post by tartoran »

pydry wrote: post #51
colpabar wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have personally never seen much value in Yelp. Most people use Google as a starting point when searching anything, and the Yelp page that is returned is not very helpful to me. At best, it contains menus, pictures, hours, phone number, and reviews. At worst, it has none of those and is effectively an ad for the Yelp app. Either way, Google shows me all of that before I click anything else. Google absolutely tries t…

>Either way, Google shows me all of that before I click anything else. All seeded from Yelp. When Yelp complained google shrugged their shoulders and said they could remove them from their search index entirely if they liked. Being the world's no. 1 search destination gave them carte blanche to rip off IP all over. Google was a parasite on Yelp. It's not really surprising that Yelp is now like "fuck it, parasitic bus…

If users would hit yelp.com and searched for a restaurant and somehow google intercepted that then they'd be a parasite. The way I see it it is a symbiotic somewhat relationship, at least in theory. Yelp is a parasite on businesses though, they attempt to extort money and give no value in exchange, often times unsuccessfully. Here's an older anecdote I posted about yelp [0]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24790918

Re: Yelp Is Replacing Restaurants’ Phone Numbers So Grubhub Can Take a Cut (2019)

#97

Post by jjeaff »

ajb wrote: post #33

In 1891, the first electromechanical telephone exchange was invented by Almon Strowger, an undertaker. He was concerned that the human operators were diverting his customers (specifically, the wife of one of his competitors was an operator). If you think about it, every business interaction before the twentieth century was mediated by 1:1 interactions with humans, who brought their own prejudices and self-interest to…

At the same time, technology offers some solutions to this like ssl certificates.

Perhaps there is a business model for bespoke extended validation ssl certs where, for example, they are tied to a physical address.

Re: Yelp Is Replacing Restaurants’ Phone Numbers So Grubhub Can Take a Cut (2019)

#98

Post by _jal »

fairity wrote: post #37
colpabar wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have personally never seen much value in Yelp. Most people use Google as a starting point when searching anything, and the Yelp page that is returned is not very helpful to me. At best, it contains menus, pictures, hours, phone number, and reviews. At worst, it has none of those and is effectively an ad for the Yelp app. Either way, Google shows me all of that before I click anything else. Google absolutely tries t…

> The Yelp page that is returned is not very helpful to me. At best, it contains menus, pictures, hours, phone number, and reviews. Menus, pictures of food, and honest reviews aren't helpful to you? I think most people get a lot of value out of Yelp. Yelp's review system is among the hardest to game, so it has the most trustworthy reviews for service-based businesses. That said, that's largely besides the point of th…

I typically search for things "-yelp". They're an annoying and mostly useless.

I haven't bothered to look in a long time, but the reviews I've seen are obviously bad. I can find menus on the restaurant's real page. The locality views are worse than, say, Apple maps. There's just no reason to use them.

Add in that they harm the livelihood of restaurants owned by people I like, and yeah, they're another crap site that continues to be annoying by trying to get in between me and someone who wants to feed me.

Re: Yelp Is Replacing Restaurants’ Phone Numbers So Grubhub Can Take a Cut (2019)

#99

Post by lotsofpulp »

AlexandrB wrote: post #90
baggachipz wrote: post #15

Apple's use of Yelp in Apple Maps is the one reason I can't uninstall Google Maps completely from my devices.

It's a pretty lousy partnership, and getting more details on a business from within Maps means installing (and using) the Yelp app.

Apple has started their own reviews and database of businesses, so I expect Yelp to be replaced in a few years in Apple Maps.

Re: Yelp Is Replacing Restaurants’ Phone Numbers So Grubhub Can Take a Cut (2019)

#100

Post by HarryHirsch »

fairity wrote: post #30
bigbubba wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is yelp has more money for lawyers than a low-margin local restaurant. That's why this should be treated as a criminal matter, with state prosecutors taking down Yelp.

> The problem is yelp has more money for lawyers than a low-margin local restaurant. Class-action lawsuits were created to solve this exact problem?

Mandatory arbitration was designed to get around class-action suits, arbitration does not create binding precedent. Constitutional originalism was invented to enshrine mandatory arbitration - if the framers of the Constitution didn't have it in mind it wasn't important or can be punted to a pernennial gridlocked legislature.
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