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0 pointssave_ferris5y ago0 comments

There are numerous accounts of businesses receiving calls from Yelp salespeople essentially telling them to buy an ad package or the negative reviews get prioritized.

I agree that no one is entitled to positive promotion, but to argue that a massive platform that's established itself as the go-to place for consumer business reviews absolutely should be held to fair promotion.

I can't believe that this an argument on HN. You're saying that if you had a small business with a Yelp profile and I found your identity and started posting false negative reviews on your business profile, you'd have no problem being called by a Yelp rep to pay money to make them go away?

0 comments

smallgovt5y ago

> There are numerous accounts of businesses receiving calls from Yelp salespeople essentially telling them to buy an ad package or the negative reviews get prioritized.

Sure, there are numerous accounts (read:hearsay) but there's zero physical or hard evidence.

After all this press, don't you think there'd be at least one recorded phone conversation or email that showed up in the numerous lawsuits' discovery processes?

There is literally zero physical evidence corroborating Yelp account execs' extortive practices.

orangejuice1015y ago

Louis Rossmann disagrees - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hhL15yJUnI

smallgovt5y ago

To summarize:

- A Yelp account exec inappropriately shared another business's profile stats with Louis.

- Louis reported this privacy violation to Yelp, and Yelp decided to fire the account exec.

- The fired account exec blamed Louis for getting fired and subsequently got her friends to write negative reviews on Louis's Yelp page.

That's not evidence that Yelp practices extortion.

1 more reply

save_ferrisOP5y ago

This is exactly the video I was about to respond with

goatherders5y ago

Why shouldn't negative reviews get priority? I'm not simply playing devils advocate but genuinely curious. If I go to a restaurant and there are 100 reviews that break essentially as 80 good, 10 mediocre, and 10 "there are rats in the kitchen" then dont all of them have SOMETHING useful for me? And an average star rating system blends that utility? Positive reviews are dishonest as often as negative reviews I would guess. And negative reviews are as honest as often as positive reviews as well I would guess.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointssave_ferris5y ago0 comments

There are numerous accounts of businesses receiving calls from Yelp salespeople essentially telling them to buy an ad package or the negative reviews get prioritized.

0 comments

smallgovt5y ago

> There are numerous accounts of businesses receiving calls from Yelp salespeople essentially telling them to buy an ad package or the negative reviews get prioritized.

Sure, there are numerous accounts (read:hearsay) but there's zero physical or hard evidence.

After all this press, don't you think there'd be at least one recorded phone conversation or email that showed up in the numerous lawsuits' discovery processes?

There is literally zero physical evidence corroborating Yelp account execs' extortive practices.

orangejuice1015y ago

Louis Rossmann disagrees - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hhL15yJUnI

smallgovt5y ago

To summarize:

- A Yelp account exec inappropriately shared another business's profile stats with Louis.

- Louis reported this privacy violation to Yelp, and Yelp decided to fire the account exec.

- The fired account exec blamed Louis for getting fired and subsequently got her friends to write negative reviews on Louis's Yelp page.

That's not evidence that Yelp practices extortion.

1 more reply

save_ferrisOP5y ago

This is exactly the video I was about to respond with

goatherders5y ago

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse