Yelp Yelp.com Defamation of Business -- "they say reviews calculations are based on an algorithm" -- It's a total crock....if you don't pay for their advertising they will sabotage your company name!!!!!

Customers have written us many positive reviews yet some how they are never "RECOMMENDED" and moved to the end of the "Not Recommended" reviews. They say the review filter is based on a software that filters using an algorithm. It looks for how long the reviewer has had a Yelp account, how many friends they have, how many reviews they've written etc. because they think that makes the reviews more substantial. OK that seems acceptable....

HOWEVER IF THIS WERE TRUE... why have we had numerous customers with very active Yelp accounts write us positive reviews and they're not calculated in our star rating???? Why are all of the positive customer reviews not considered "recommended"???? Why are all the positive customer reviews moved to the BOTTOM of the negative reviews even though they are MORE RECENT reviews????

We even witnessed as one positive review was listed under the recommended and bumped up our star rating and THEY VERY NEXT DAY it had been moved to the end of the "NOT RECOMMENDED" and no longer used in the star rating.

Not to mention Yelp does not verify the information provided in the reviews and has allowed customers to POST INNACURATE INFORMATION about our company. We have had to request for them to remove on 2 different occassions....while "This review has been removed for violating our Terms of Service" the star rating is still there for everyone to see. It's embarrassing!

Yelp has approached us many many times regarding using their paid advertising services which we have declined because we are a small company with a tight budget. They say companies cannot pay to alter their reviews but something tells me "IF COMPANIES PAY FOR YELP ADVERTISING THEY GET SPECIAL TREATMENT". I'm sure their positive reviews are available for customers to see and used in their star ratings so that customers choose them over us. This is the only site I could find to finally share my experience on them because people need to know that their review system is definitely SKEWED benefiting their paying customers over others.