Yelp.com Yelp Removes legitimate positive reviews! Internet

http://bbbscam.net/selling-the-grade-video

We setup a business account for free.  We asked our clients to post a few reviews to it. 
The reviews were posted and within a week they were gone and buried in the YELP archive list. 

On a hunch I paid the fee and that day the reviews showed up again. I cancelled the paid account 2 days later and the reviews disappeared again immediately.

Little doubt exists that YELP is a pay for review business model.

The real question, how many clients look at YELP and trust the reviews before making a purchase?

I agree with your comments 100%!!!!  I am so fed up with Yelp!  I have 3 legitimate reviews on my company - Two 5 star reviews and one 2 star.  I just noticed yesterday that Yelp! removed one of my 5 star reviews and moved it into this so called "filtered" section.  I really do not grasp how Yelp! is allowed to perpetuate reviews against a company and then "filter" them at their own discretion.  A review is a review and it should be posted regardless.  The basic consumer isn't really knowledgeable on Yelp! and as such doesn't know to look in the filtered section to see all the reviews.  If Yelp! is going to filter a review, then they should at least make this hidden section much more noticeable to the consumer so they can get a full grasp of the company, NOT what Yelp! wants the consumer to see.  I feel as if I'm being held hostage by a Yelp!, that they are being allowed to indiscriminately paint a picture of my company at their own will!!  Its ridiculous and yet these characters stand behind their shady review system all the while at the detriment of the company itself.  I also found it humorous that Yelp! was very vocal on the fact that their initial class action lawsuit was thrown out, but yet they failed to mention that the judge threw it out for a reason easily correctable by the businesses.  These businesses involved in this initial class action have REFILED their case.  Hmmmm....Yelp....ya might want to mention that little tidbit before basking in the glory of your albeit miniscule victory.  I feel like starting an anti-Yelp! website and see what happens when the situation is turned around.

 What others have said here is 100% true.

 I was contacted by them after I took over here regarding renewing the previous owner agreement with them.  I told them no way as I am a web designer and I didn't need help promoting or building the motels new site.

 Then within a week lo and behold all of our good reviews were "filtered" out leaving just the negative. Their so called algorithm is nothing more than I assume a way to make businesses suffer unless they pay Yelp their exorbitant monthly fees.

 Also to the person who wrote about negative reviews being removed too, Yelp will apparently remove any bad review that is posted if the company in question is a subscriber and pays them a one off fee!

 This is to me both unethical and fraud as they are blatantly misleading those people who actually use their site.

I would use yelp to find info on different businesses in my area regularly.  After having a bad experience at a business I decided to sign up and start doing reviews.  I did about 20 reviews for local businesses, most of them were very positive, however, I did one very negative one for a hair salon.  

About a month after I did my reviews I get an email from another user regarding the negative hair salon review stating that I must have the wrong salon, because that salon is the best ever, blah, blah, blah.   Lo and behold, I log into yelp and ALL of my reviews were filtered on that same day.   20 reviews, a few of which were first reviews for really great businesses that people should know about, and they are all "filtered". 

I tried to contact "customer service" of some sort, or even get an answer as to why my reviews are filtered.  What a joke!!  Seems it's all "automated" and out of yelp's hands... yeah, right.  I'm sure my review got flagged, which pulled all of my reviews. 

I closed my yelp account, what a complete waste of time.  While I'm irritated, I would be much more irritated if I were a business owner who had to deal with this company.  As with most compaies like yelp, I'm sure we can expect to see the fallout from their rotten practices in the next couple of years.

Recently I wrote a yelp review about a Doctor/Hospital where I went the first time as a patient.   The service was bad, and the hospital firm wrote up unnecessary tests and services and 100's of dollars went on my deductible and the doctor couldn't even find what was wrong.  So  I ran back to my previous doctor and explained what happened and she told me about some unfair practices that this hospital runs and how the doctors are encouraged to write up as many tests as they can  for their own benefits.   Other doctors also looked at the tests and told me it was all unnecessary and to begin with it wouldn't yield any conclusive results , other than throwing away money.  

Yelp twice removed positive reviews of my law firm and I WAS paying for their services,  I never received an acceptable explanation but was referred to a bloq that spoke "double talk" about algorithms. BTW  The paid service drove virtually no traffic to my site.

Interestingly enough I have had my run ins with the BBB concerning complaints. I would equate the value of a BBB certification as a negative, in effect if the company was truely legit they wouldnt be paying them to insinuate they were.

But all that surely requires a justification of my strong feelings about them.

I was given a redundant number by Nextel and ended up being double billed repeatively. After 5 months I filed for arbitration as I had already payed for 7 months and they claimed I still owed them 158.00. The arbitrator chosen by Nextel was AAA. Once the reciepts and billing statements were submitted Nextel realized they had no case and conceded the case before an actual hearing. They agreed to cancel w/o termination fees and refund the 167.00 they were overpayed. I never got my refund and nearly a year later Sprint bought Nextel and sold the 158.00 accounts recievable to a collection agency.

I filed a complaint with BBB and they listed it as satisfactarily settled, because Sprint showed them the AAA ruling which only said mutually agreed settlement prior to hearing. All complaints with the BBB which are settled in arbitration or by agreement are automatically listed as resolved satisfactoraly. You cant submit evidence that the agreement was never honored.  

Its worth noting over 99% of all cases taken to arbitration are ruled in favor of creditors. After all they are the ones paying the arbitrator and if they dont like how an arbitrator rules they just switch to one more agreeable.

I have had this ficticious debt removed successfully 9 times from my credit reports and its still there today, And yes its been over 7 years since Sprint bought nextel. I have to copy and mail all these statements and reciepts along with my written complaint to all 3 agencies because they verify debts by simply calling the collector and asking if the debt is legit.

What really eats me is I have a recent credit report here right now which has this debt listed, now get this the original report date says Dec 01. Right on the report it says the debt is almost 10 years old. In spite of such blatant disregard for me and the law I still would rate them higher than the BBB. We actually have a few businesses here that have up signs saying they arent members of the BBB. I guess word is slowly getting out about them and thier whitewashing the unethical business practices of so many crooks.

I had a similar experience,  I filed a complaint against a company that was on Yelp and it was there for a couple of days and then apparently the company complained to Yelp and it was removed. 

This reminds me of the Better Business Bureau where if a company becomes a "member" of the BBB, the BBB will not list any complaints filed against the company.

How deceitful this is; portraying to unsuspecting consumers that they are getting unbiased information on Yelp when in fact they are getting only information that the company wants the consumer to see (not any comments that may have been filed against the company).