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Yelp can manipulate reviews unless you pay for there services.

 

Research this yourself, google "yelp under investigation" Page after page of this company destroying people and small businesses,  for money! A lot of bad reviews are simply discruntled employees anyway. I really don't thing Employers would even be that upset about reviews if they could fix what happened. But employees doing the reviews, our hands get tied.

 

http://6abc.com/archive/9528445/  artical about yelp and its horrible tactics to earn money.

 

L.A. Times columnist Sandy Banks took a critical look at Yelp and its reviewing system over the weekend. She’s troubled that the site’s algorithms are screening out balanced reviews from less-than-prolific users but may be favoring attention-getting pans from “elite” reviewers. “Hundreds of disgruntled business owners have accused Yelp — the Goliath of crowd-sourced reviews — of tweaking its review system in order to prod low-rated companies to advertise on its site,” Banks writes. It’s a charge the company denies. A spokesperson said Yelp’s “sophisticated software system” protects consumers by screening out postings it thinks could be fake. Reviews by users who post frequently are favored, especially those by “elite” users.

I don’t look at Yelp much, but just to get an idea of what the elite reviews tend to be like, I took a look at the Yelp reviews of Tei-An, a restaurant I know well, and only one of three Dallas restaurants with a five-star Dallas Morning News review. Two of the three most recent reviews posted by “elite” Yelp reviewers rated the restaurant two out of five stars. One wrote, “don’t get the green tea…it tastes looks (sic) water with green food coloring..honestly.” That’s all well and good, except Tei-An doesn’t serve green tea; it serves buckwheat tea. And “the soba was not that great, almost bland if you asked me.” A second rated it four out of five, calling it  a “hidden gem.” And the third — giving a two star rating — wrote “I couldnt find this damn place on first try. GPS said I was there when I was at the ART. There was no sign outside. They only have Tei-An in small white stickies on the door. People can’t see that from far away.” She went on to criticize the bathroom (“I’ve seen better in hotels”). She didn’t try the soba because the one she wanted “had beef in it.” Hm. Few of Tei-An’s many soba dishes have beef, but she didn’t want one of those, like the classic zaru soba?

That’s just a snapshot of three elite reviews. But I’m curious to know: Do you ever write reviews on Yelp? If so, have you ever noticed that positive reviews you write don’t get posted? Do you rely on Yelp reviews? And restaurateurs, we’d love to hear about your experiences both with your valued guests and their Yelp reviews and your dealings with Yelp.

I think good and bad reviews are good to figure out the balance, but when there is so many bad reviews, people are sometimes spiteful, they love to add to the drama even if they really didn't have a bad experience. Its horrible what a huge corporation will do just for a dollar. Ruin businesses and reputations!

 

City Search, or City Grid

have you give them a budget $1.00 -$1.25 per click throught your site, with this, a discruntled employee or client can click the site enough to use up the budget. Also anyone can make a fake profile, so a review can get published then have no one really held accountable. so if your budget is $200 you can get 150 or 200 clicks to your site, you can also respond to the reviews, If you don't pay you don't have access. However I have to say, at least they keep all the reviews up. The only problem is they have a rating system and there is a trick to get all the bad ones to the top. But its not something I will say. But it can go both ways. :) Still discruntled employees can have a hayday creating emails (YES THEY HAVE TIME) Usually because they have burned too many bridges. lol

 

Rip off report

 

Rip off report will remove a slanderous review for $2000 lol! Well this company is in alot of trouble for doing this!  Again, usually a discruntled employee. I mean come on... Why would you need to be that angry at a company for a bad brow wax or a burger over cooked. I mean think about what you are really doing. And is it the owner or manager that made the mistake? Or the employee? So why do this, send an email, start there.... :)

DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING THE MEDIA SAYS.

What I have learned over my lifetime, is that people that have not had real responsibilities like management or ownership, Usually believe everything the media says. 

 

Those that have managed and owned a business, stick to the old saying "there are always two sides to every story"

After everything I have gone through: My go to thought is always "lets hope that really happened, cause if it didn't, that persons life is forever altered, if not destroyed"

 

Remember the girl that said 5 boys raped her from a fraternity and the rolling stones magazine picked up the story, published it and the boys were all suspended and in court. Later they found out the girl lied, but the boys where destroyed for this!

 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/05/12/virginia-dean-sues-rolling-stone/27176677/

 

 

happens all the time. STOP BELIEVING EVERYTHING YOUR READ.

 

Reviews are purchased, its a marketing scam.

 

Yelp is in a huge lawsuit that they won, that gives them the right to manipulate the reviews to force businesses to purchase clicks so they can have good reviews, otherwise good ones get kicked off.

 

City search makes a business pay $1.00plus each time a person clicks on there site, so if you don't give a monthly budget, you also can not access your site to defend yourself. And finally the multitude of the review sites, all powered by yelp, City search/ City Grid and scam companies so you are really at the mercy of the corporations.

Reviews do not tell you the story of a business. And its a shame how quickly people will listen to the reviews.

If we are going to grow as a nation, a country, a state. Start loving each other even through their faults. Understand we are all human and we all hurt, cry and laugh the same. Employers own business, because we care about what we do and we employee people, giving them a job, that sometimes don't work out, but  some times do.

We are all in this together. If we keep destroying each other, Corporations will survive cause they have the money to manipulate the media, and reviews. Us little guys are just trying to feed our families and we are personally invested in our business, and sometimes we are sacrificing everything for the business and the employees. I've met businesses owners and they sometimes are just so sad and beat down from what people will say about them. The biggest difference between a small business and a large one, is you usually see the owner every day. He/she knows your name. They become friends. Which creates very fine lines for reprimands. Usually its taken personal. When the owner is just trying to keep some sort of order, while befriending an employee.  

It’s hard to be an owner and NOT befriend your staff. Yet, every manager and owner will tell you DON’T BE FRIENDS. And it is very difficult to do that. And often burns you, emotionally.

 

The old saying, “never hire family”. Well a small business makes employees a family. Emotions, love, respect and care all go together. But when an employee, does something wrong.. It’s hard to correct the behavior with out emotionally upsetting them. For example.  Being late. They are your friend. But they are late. Think about how this is handled. Now imagine if they are late again. Now what? Lets say you need to fire them. They take it personal. See where I’m going with this?  There are many similar situations to this. When we hire people, we hire them because we like them. They have several similar qualities as us. Naturally we will get somewhat close to them.  – I did that all the time. That is where I went terribly wrong. But I look back, and I really don’t know what I could have, or would have done different. I loved each one of them. And I really don’t regret that part.

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