A West Roxbury dentist charges that Yelp not only refused to remove what he said was a malicious post about his pracitice, it changed the post's status from "unreliable" to "reliable" when he refused to buy ads on the site. Read more.
Patrick Maguire gets fed up with Yelp after reading somebody gave the Lincoln Tavern in South Boston just one star, not because of the food, but because they gave her a pizza to go in a generic box:
Maybe it’s a ruse, or maybe Nikki is just looking for a little attention, but restaurant workers have a right to be frustrated and angry when anonymous dimwits fuck with their livelihood. It’s not funny.
If you go to the Yelp page for A-Plus Moving and Storage on Border Street today, you first have to click through a popup that reads:
We caught someone red-handed trying to buy reviews for this business. We weren't fooled, but wanted you to know because buying reviews not only hurts consumers, but also honest businesses who play by the rules.
Attached to that is a copy of an e-mail string between somebody on Yelp's "secret ops" team and somebody willing to pay $30 for a really good review of the company (along with evidence of another paid-for review for a Malden restaurant).
Joanne Chang of Myers + Chang responds to a Yelp review that not only accuses it of de-grittifying the South End but of being offensive to Asians, to boot.
The Boston Foodie considers the Yelp backlash, as exemplified by a sign in the window of Kickass Cupcakes in Davis Square.
Earlier:
Yelp now removing Boston reviews?
Over at Charlesgate Realty, Michael DiMella complains that Yelp has pulled several reviews of his business. And even though the ones that got yanked were the less-than-perfect ones (he now only has reviews giving him perfect 5s), he's upset:
... I think this is a complete disrespect to me, my business, and my employees, not to mention my customers who WASTED their time writing their thoughtful reviews. We're promoting Yelp to our customers because Yelp provides us a tool to allow customers to comment freely (without our control) and gives us an opportunity to earn new business from the reviews (which I anticipate being mostly positive - hopefully!). And if we happen to get a bad review - even better - it will give us an opportunity to correct things!
But because of this, I have really had my faith in Yelp shaken. I am not sure if I should discontinue linking to Yelp, and mentioning Yelp to customers or not. What's the point? I don't want to waste my time or my customers' time. ...
Can you trust a web site full of user-written reviews if the site's advertising sales people offer to manipulate which reviews are displayed first?
Kristine Munroe-Mahoney reports that if you give Clear Conscience Cafe in Central Square a less-than-glowing review on Yelp, the owner and his minions will come after you, via nasty e-mail messages:
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