Yelp Look what everyone is saying about yelp on their own website Internet

Look what Yelp users are saying about yelp on their own website!

Yelp user "Better Y" says...

"I've been Yelping since 2007. I've written hundreds of reviews, received 1000's of votes. I used to believe that Yelp was a force for good.

Then I learned about Yelp's marketing tactics. I've come to the conclusion that Yelp is just a soft form of extortion.

So, I'm a Yelp conscientious objector. If you know any small business owners, ask them what they think about Yelp. You're going to get an earful.

Done. Out. Goodbye, Yelp.

PS Oh, this is beautiful. Only days after resigning from Yelp and going on with my life, I receive this email from Yelp HQ:

MAY 13, 2014  |  04:25PM PDT
Hi,

I'm writing to let you know that your user account was flagged by the Yelp community for sending harassing messages to other Yelp members. We take concerns about harassment seriously, and if we receive additional complaints, we may have to close your account. 

Regards,
Ruby
Yelp User Support
San Francisco, California

I have harassed NOBODY. I have only responded to a single Yelp user message in a month. We know the score here: I've said something inconvenient about Yelp here, and they're going to trump up a bogus charge to justify terminating my account. Oh, my god. These people have no shame at all.

I'm going to take a screen cap of this review just so I can post it to Reddit when Yelp terminates my account without cause."

Chris W from California has an opinion on Yelp's filtering system...

"I own a small business and pay to advertise on Yelp (not for much longer). I don't expect any special treatment, just fairness and accuracy. The filtering system is absolutely terrible. There are reviews that I know without a doubt are fake but they are "recommended" and there are reviews that I know without a doubt are real from actual customers and they are filtered out. I have reported reviews that I know to be fake with detailed explanations why but nothing gets done. Apparently all that matters to their filtering system is if the person is active on yelp or not.  

Now, the irony is that Yelp then claims that they don't arbitrate disputes and that they are simply like a message board for people to post on. But obviously this doesn't jive with their filtering rules. Its a total cop out, a sham. Basically an excuse for them to sit back and let a computer program do all the work while they can focus all their efforts on sales calls to businesses trying to get more to advertise. 

But oh joy, Yelp allows me to respond to misleading & libelous reviews from non-customers.....big whoop! The damage is already done AND our star rating lowered. 

Bottom line, there needs to be a human element to Yelp management not just a phony computer filtering system that only rewards active yelpers with the privilege of having their reviews shown."

Veronique P is anothe person who has been hurt by Yelp's crazy policies...

"I am a small business owner and signed up with Yelp about 2 years ago. 
Right away we had clients posting positive reviews about our services. Most were deleted by Yelp, only the first one survived.
Then about 1 year ago we had a dispute with a bridezilla that did not like the color of the linen we use on the bar we set up for her reception. Not only did her payment check bounced but she went nuts on yelp. After that incident we tried to contact Yelp to explain and ask to take it down. Not only did they ignore us but looked us out of our own account and deleted EVERY SINGLE positive reviews we've had since. We even started to take snap shoots of these reviews before the had time to take them down.
We have raving reviews everywhere else (like Thumbtack for example) but unfortunately these sites are not as popular.
Yelp has hurt my small business."

There are literally THOUSANDS of stories just like these on yelp's yelp page...

As you can see, they have a lot of work to do.

The sad part is, Yelp could really be a great tool for businesses, but they act basically like a mafia organization and try to extort money from you, if you refuse to pay they start posting negative reviews and filtering positive reviews.