Monday, March 8, 2010
Yelp Gets Sued Again
Media / Business / Law Enforcement & Crime Robert Gammon — Mon, Mar 8, 2010 at 11:14 AM
Yelp, the popular but controversial online site, has been sued in federal court again for alleged extortion, according to the San Jose Business Journal. It was the second time in the past few weeks that Yelp has been sued in court for an alleged of scheme of using customer reviews to make money. In the most recent case, a San Diego County day spa owner claims that Yelp deleted positive reviews that she solicited from customers after she refused to buy advertising with Yelp.
In the previous legal case, a Southern California veterinary clinic alleged that Yelp staff said they would kill negative reviews and highlight positive reviews of the clinic if the clinic bought ads on Yelp. The two lawsuits mirror extortion allegations leveled by numerous businesses in two Express stories last year.
Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman has maintained that the business owners are either lying or don’t understand social media or Yelp’s supposedly sophisticated web filters. In the latest case, Stoppleman said on his blog that Yelp’s filters had deleted the day spa’s positive reviews.
Comments (6)
Showing 1-6 of 6
This comment was deleted because it violates our website's Terms Of Use. People who repeatedly violate our policies will lose their right to post comments. You can read our entire Terms Of Use here.
like
dislike
YELP is so full of crap! I don't have a problem with bad reviews. I have a problem with EXTORTION! Here is what happened to me!
www.southbaystylist.com/rodshotseat
"Any reasonable person will tell you that they don't base a visit to a restaurant or business on ONE review. It's the majority of them"
-BrianL
Well check this out BrianL: if Yelp removes a number of legitimate positive reviews, the business is left with a higher percentage of negative reviews leading brain surgeons like yourself to wonder " can they be totally wrong?"
Answer: Yes.
Misleading.
Unfair.
Not trustworthy.
The people running this company are greedpigs without an ounce of conscience between them.
BrianL,
You're completely missing the point. These businesses aren't complaining about getting bad reviews. They're saying that Yelp sales reps are offering to get rid of the bad reviews or to keep positive reviews prominent if the businesses buy ads from Yelp. Could it be that no one is complaining about Yahoo or Google reviews because those companies aren't doing this stuff?
Funny how no one decides to rip on Yahoo or Google for reviews posted. Aren't they also mixing the same? Voice of the consumer is public opinion. These businesses need to learn to deal with new social media better. Trust me, if you're a business and you give me horrible service, I tell at least 4-8 more people. So now it's 100's. Any reasonable person will tell you that they don't base a visit to a restaurant or business on ONE review. It's the majority of them and if the majority is saying that service/food/products are horrible, well, can they be totally wrong?
I keep saying that mixing Customer Reviews with Advertising is a bad business model. That is why we at http://www.amplifiedanalytics.com are trying to avoid it as a plaque. It is very hard to claim being "unbiased" when your livelihood depends on "generosity" of reviewed.
Author Archives
