Yelp No Help

[Oviedo Auto Repair]

I heard this problem before, yelp is advertising reviews in an objective fasion in a bad light, which affects bus. I have a dozens of good filtered reviews 90+% great. But on the front page avaliable on the web on page one comes up the one bad review only.

There doesnt seem to be any easy way to rid it, anybody had any success at this?

[Douglas Hillmann]

The answer to your question is very simple: Pay them. Remember Yelp s not in business to help people, they are in business to make money. If you look at them in that fashion their actions all make sense. They have a legitimate and legal way to blackmail you.

[Joe Marconi]

I heard this problem before, yelp is advertising reviews in an objective fasion in a bad light, which affects bus. I have a dozens of good filtered reviews 90+% great. But on the front page avaliable on the web on page one comes up the one bad review only.

There doesnt seem to be any easy way to rid it, anybody had any success at this?

Have you tried to contact Yelp? I do agree that they want to make money and sell thier service, but I too have reviews on yelp, but have not heard of your particular issue.

[wchambosse]

Unfortunately Yelp has defeated a class action lawsuit brought against them in California. The evidence is clear that they are blackmailing small business, it just doesn’t meet the legal standard. These are smart people. We can only hope the public is aware of what Yelp is doing. In the Bay Area they are in general. There was a report on this blog earlier that suggested customers are at least skeptical about review sites. That said if you have 5, 1 star reviews because you are too expensive, or you repairs don’t last, you do have a problem.

Article about Yelp lawsuit http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericgoldman/2013/02/06/yelp-defeats-legal-challenge-to-its-user-review-filter/

[RoseMarie528]

I heard this problem before, yelp is advertising reviews in an objective fasion in a bad light, which affects bus. I have a dozens of good filtered reviews 90+% great. But on the front page avaliable on the web on page one comes up the one bad review only.

There doesnt seem to be any easy way to rid it, anybody had any success at this?

We've had the same problem; however, prospects call us anyway and have used our services. The best thing you can do is comment on the negative post in a positive manner to which other readers will give the negative review a second thought. Keep in mind however, once you make a comment, you cannot post another one.

[RoseMarie528]

Have you tried to contact Yelp? I do agree that they want to make money and sell their service, but I too have reviews on yelp, but have not heard of your particular issue.

Yelp is no help. Hence the name of the article in AutoShopOwner newsletter. I spoke with Yelp last week about advertising and they told me being a paid advertiser does not change the filter options on reviews. So, out of 13 reviews, we have only the 1 star rating displayed instead of our average 4 star.

[5 Star Auto Spa]

Did they tell you how the filter works? I would be interested in identifying exactly how the filter decides which reviews to filter and not filter.

[newmansauto]

DO NOT PAY THEM! it dose not help.

The one thing that has helped us, Is to ask all of our great customer to help with Yelp! reviews and any other site that is lacking and just provide a great experience to start with. And YES reply immediately to any negative review and reach out to the customer to try to get the issue resolved and then ask them to revise their review of you shop. IT WORKS!

[ATLAuto]

DO NOT PAY THEM! it dose not help.

The one thing that has helped us, Is to ask all of our great customer to help with Yelp! reviews and any other site that is lacking and just provide a great experience to start with. And YES reply immediately to any negative review and reach out to the customer to try to get the issue resolved and then ask them to revise their review of you shop. IT WORKS!

 

Agreed. Paying Yelp only places your business at the top of the Yelp search results page. It does nothing for the reviews.

 

Here's the deal with the "hidden" reviews ... all review websites (Yelp, TripAdvisor, Kudzu, Angie's List, etc etc etc) are faced with the same issue - fake reviews. Businesses are leaving fake reviews to harm their competitors. Consulting companies are leaving fake reviews to boost up their clients. On and on and on. The review websites have started to crack down on this by hiding all reviews that are not from "actual, verified members." What is an "actual, verified member?" Well, it varies site, but for Yelp specifically, it is a member that:

• Has left reviews over a long timespan
• Has left a bunch of positive and negative reviews
• Has reviewed businesses in multiple industries
• Has a bunch of Yelp friends
• Has participated in Yelp discussion boards

Needless to say, your average reviewer hasn't done any of that. That is why Newmansauto is asking EVERYBODY to leave reviews with the hope that maybe 5% of those folks will fit Yelp's stringent profile.