Is Yelp paying Games!?

[Papa John]

Here's an email I sent to a very aggressive yelp salesman who has been hounding me for about 2 months now--

Very interesting that my yelp page should lose 20 reviews prior to you sending me your email. I wonder if a lawyer would be interested in this behavior by yelp?--

I originally started paying/contributing to yelp because It helped my business grow and I felt it was the right thing to do. I then increased by spending with yelp because I felt it would help some more-- but since increasing my spending with yelp the performance decreased by 17%--- Odd that the performance should increase slightly just before Yelp is trying to get me to spend more--although yelp is not performing as well as it was before my increase in spending.

These games I feel Yelp is playing is decreasing the Good Will I have for Yelp. If you want me to spend more with Yelp-- show me yelp as a partner in my success and Not that yelp is trying to extort more money from me.

Is there a viable alternative to Yelp? Must I surrender to Yelps tactics? Am I going to loose more reviews?-- haha

 

[Nate The Great]

I remember seeing someone post this before... Idk if the movie ever made it....

 

[Willy P]

Tell them to kiss your rosy red barking spider, go flick themselves and concentrate your money elsewhere. I still send out the odd postcard batch and do pretty good off of it.

 

[Goomer]

Are they all totally gone, or were they all moved to the "Non-Recommended" section?

All 20 at once??

How many in total did you have?

20 all at once sounds odd unless due to a recent internal review filtering algorithm change/update.

 

[Ken692]

Sounds like Yelp update lost em

 

[Papa John]

Are they all totally gone, or were they all moved to the "Non-Recommended" section?

All 20 at once??

How many in total did you have?

20 all at once sounds odd unless due to a recent internal review filtering algorithm change/update.

they got filtered-- now over 100 filtered reviews. I was as high as 188 unfiltered reviews- now down to 166--- the additional 2o filtered seem to have happened within short time.

 

[rjwood]

I use Google - it costs nothing.

 

[Mikey P]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/11/judge-theres-no-proof-yelp-manipulates-reviews/

 

[Goomer]

they got filtered-- now over 100 filtered reviews. I was as high as 188 unfiltered reviews- now down to 166--- the additional 2o filtered seem to have happened within short time.

With still having 166 reviews showing, the reality is that it doesn't make mush difference what the grand total is.

As frustrating as it is, 166 is MORE than enough, as no one but you is going to miss another 20.

More than enough for any prospective client to base a decision on.

No one is going to read more than a handfull, nonetheless read 166 and then pass because you didn't have a few more.

I wish I had 1/4 of the reviews that you have.

Shieet.......I'm battling to keep my 7.........

 

[Papa John]

With still having 166 reviews showing, the reality is that it doesn't make mush difference what the grand total is.

As frustrating as it is, 166 is MORE than enough, as no one but you is going to miss another 20.

More than enough for any prospective client to base a decision on.

No one is going to read more than a handfull, nonetheless read 166 and then pass because you didn't have a few more.

I wish I had 1/4 of the reviews that you have.

Shieet.......I'm battling to keep my 7.........

Its true that people will only read a handful of reviews-- but the filtering is effecting my overall score.. I've been stuck at 4.5 stars for along time now and the competition is catching up on me in the number of reviews. and I really think their rating of 5 stars and I'm only 4.5 stars is really hurting my business. Since Yelp's performance for me has decreased in the past year-- I'm thinking of giving Facebook another shot.-- I hear some people on MB have done well with Face Book.

 

[Mikey P]

here is John's page..

http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=Carpet+Cleaning&find_loc=San+Francisco,+CA&ns=1


my initial thoughts..

I must admit, I was very surprised ( I hate to use the word SHOCKED twice in one day) at your anti green cleaning comments...

Bagging on the competition may not be the best approach. It just gets them bagging on YOU.

While I found your home made wash tub interesting, I have to think that most viewers wont have a clue as to why you are showing that. Some may even wonder if it's a meth lab...



You have twice the reviews than anyone else on the first page.

If calls are down I would consider removing the filthy before and afters from your photo album. Could be a turn off to upper end clientele.
From the looks of it, you have have people bitching about their Fiddlebug experience..

How about hiring a good looking lady to represent for your next video?


I know it's hard, I'm fully guilty of this myself, but try not t discuss sex, religion and politics with 1st time customers..

I would not recommend using this business. The owner John does not understand how to behave professionally. I will not use them again because there is no reason to tolerate inappropriate, even bizarre comments from this guy. He is a watch out. Go elsewhere.[/QUOTE]

 

[Blue Monarch]

I'm thankful yelp is pretty much a non player in this market. I don't want to deal with their tactics.

 

[Papa John]

here is John's page..

http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=Carpet+Cleaning&find_loc=San+Francisco,+CA&ns=1


my initial thoughts..

I must admit, I was very surprised ( I hate to use the word SHOCKED twice in one day) at your anti green cleaning comments...

Bagging on the competition may not be the best approach. It just gets them bagging on YOU.

While I found your home made wash tub interesting, I have to think that most viewers wont have a clue as to why you are showing that. Some may even wonder if it's a meth lab...



You have twice the reviews than anyone else on the first page.

If calls are down I would consider removing the filthy before and afters from your photo album. Could be a turn off to upper end clientele.
From the looks of it, you have have people bitching about their Fiddlebug experience..

How about hiring a good looking lady to represent for your next video?


I know it's hard, I'm fully guilty of this myself, but try not t discuss sex, religion and politics with 1st time customers..

The review about me saying inappropriate things NEVER happened.. It was edited/filtered by yelp and was told it was posted by a competitor.
FB had some bugs.. but still books a lot of jobs.
The wash tub is our "Rug Jacuzzi"-- not sure what a meth lab would look like-- but that tub looks and smells like something terrible after pulling the rugs out.
lady in video?-- maybe one of our high end customers in her home "cheerleading" for us?-- something to think about.

 

[Goomer]

I'm thankful yelp is pretty much a non player in this market. I don't want to deal with their tactics.

Chances are that they will be a player in your market sooner than later.

Maybe a good idea to beat everyone else to the punch and establish at least a basic listing with them.

A few thoughts on Yelp not being present in a particular market based on first page exposure.

I have seen non-company specific (more general cleaning categories for an area) Yelp pages rank high on first page search results in some areas and not in others, but I am sure what factors are at play to determine whether this is the case or not.

If anyone happens to be in a market where Yelp seems to have no presence, I think it is a combination of whatever factors determine the general category page presence not being triggered for the local search terms, AND due to the fact that no operator in the area has STIMULATED a company-specific Yelp search response by creating a complete Yelp listing for their business in their market, and hopefully gaining at least a review or 2, which seems to likely trigger a high ranking first page company-specific result.

At least that's how it seems to me.

So to anyone not thinking Yelp is relevant in their market, it may be solely due to the fact that no one has acted on it yet in your market, and may offer a great opportunity to beat everyone else to the punch.

To not beat everyone else to the punch based on negative comments about it from a few broke-d*ck hacks is foolish, as it's a no-brainer from a business standpoint.

Just like chems, tools and anything else, there are many different opinions floating around.

Don't disregard such a big player as Yelp based solely on "the tales of others", as the revenue potential is worth doing it and deciding for yourself.

 

[Beeks]

Just recently became a player in our every day call response. Our area is just now coming up in the Yelp game.

 

[Mikey P]

Just recently became a player in our every day call response. Our area is just now coming up in the Yelp game.

Good to see you back Mr Beeks

 

[rjwood]

The review about me saying inappropriate things NEVER happened.. It was edited/filtered by yelp and was told it was posted by a competitor.
FB had some bugs.. but still books a lot of jobs.
The wash tub is our "Rug Jacuzzi"-- not sure what a meth lab would look like-- but that tub looks and smells like something terrible after pulling the rugs out.
lady in video?-- maybe one of our high end customers in her home "cheerleading" for us?-- something to think about.

Have you spoken to Yelp about this and asked them to verify that the review is legitimate? I would think they could ask for proof with a receipt or a copy of a cancelled check. You are paying them for their service so I imagine they wouldn't want to be taken advantage of by non-paying customers leaving bogus reviews.