Comments for BOSS Hawaii

Comment on Why yelp sucks – Yelp survival guide by Erica

Erica — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 02:02:46 +0000

New business owner.. The first time I heard of Yelp It was after my first negative comment went live on there site. Within about half hour from the actual post, I was contacted. I was questioned .” Did you know we can fix all your Negative reports, even delete them permanently from Yelp. For a SMALL FEE of $299 per month (which is detrimental to your business) We can even post positives to bring you new clients. I was offered with the $299 fee ” Your positive posts which are currently FILTERED will be visual vs filtered. We will even include ad Advertisement of your own and include a video on your Ad.” I was asked to enter into Yelp and view my reviews. I was advised that Yelp will place my competitors Ads on my page, adjacent to my reviews, unless I join and PAY the $299 per month. As of today I have 6 total reviews, They filtered my positives. Only post live are the 3 negative reviews. Because I didn’t like how Yelp does business I have all my competitors promotional ads on my page. This is a horrible thing to do to people! It is all about the money. If you pay the fee you will always have great ratings. I did ask if I tried it; carried it for 6 months and could not afford it, would those negatives still stay off my reviews..? I was told we would just have to wait and see, but there is no promises made to keep negatives off your review page unless you JOIN.
My opinion is: This is call Blackmail….by Slander UNLESS YOU PAY, That’s what it is… I can’t wait for Yelp to crumble.

Comment on Why yelp sucks – Yelp survival guide by Thom Pham

Thom Pham — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 08:50:07 +0000

I want to take a moment to talk openly and candidly about what I love. Making people smile and happy by serving good food, and helping people forget about the bad day they may have had, by giving guests a place to have a great cocktail and relax. I was especially touched recently by a father who was so excited he was able to bring his family in because of the Groupon offer. It brought tears to my eyes that I was able to make his night special, and it’s for reasons like that that I love this business.
Like every business we have our ups and downs, we’re humans that’s how it works. But I can promise that I always try my hardest. I think of everyone that steps through the door of one of my restaurants as a friend and family. So with that in mind I’d like to mention Yelp. I personally read all online reviews from sites like Open Table and Yelp and try to learn and improve from what I read. What strikes me about Yelp though, is that good reviews seem to disappear because of their “Filter system” while bad ones remain. Even if they’re incorrect or misleading. On Open Table and Google we retain a 4 out of 5 star rating while our Yelp is just 2 ½. Reviews are a great tool for feedback, and I learn allot from them. But I ask that people remember what’s one persons trash may be another mans treasure. Try things yourself before making a decision. I’m truly proud of my staff and love my guests. Thank you

Comment on Why yelp sucks – Yelp survival guide by BOSS Hawaii

BOSS Hawaii — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:53:27 +0000

I appreciate your comment here. Its always good to get an insiders take on things.

I don’t think we are saying its predatory but what we are saying is that the system does not work. If they had people dedicated to at least supporting the situations where the system does fail, it would be much better. I have been testing the system, and its the inconsistency of it that is a big problem. It does not work. I have created a business account and posted a review from the same computer for myself from a new account created using the same password, and it posted. It should have been filtered and it wasn’t. I can give you 50 examples of how I have tested the filter and it made no sense.

here is why businesses can not let things happen naturally. As I pointed out in this article, the statistics show that people are more likely to leave negative reviews then positive. If YELP does not allow businesses to encourage reviews, people wont think to say something nice once in a while, and there is no balance.

You are also not factoring the issue of competitors or people with malicious intent. This is a very common issue and one that the filtering system does not help with. I have just seen too many cases where a person gets a negative review from a competitor, and when they try to flag, all their positive reviews go away only leaving the one bad one.

If you had your own business on YELP you would understand this more. I think that all the people defending the system can’t possibly understand until you have your own business and its being destroyed by a company who doesn’t care.

But thanks for explaining your side of things!

Comment on Are you a serious Blogger? Why Self hosting your blog will set you apart. by Martin

Martin — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 21:25:56 +0000

I couldn’t agree more. I took http://www.flawlesscrowns.com from wordpress.com to being self hosted and the changes were immediate in my growth.

Comment on Why yelp sucks – Yelp survival guide by Kat

Kat — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 02:09:08 +0000

This just happened to me several days ago. I was treated very poorly by the owner of an establishment. Before going to this particular business I had gone online & read the reviews, a lot of them said this guy was a real jerk but that his work was ok. I wanted to try him out in spite of the reviews, and yeah, you guessed it, the guy was a total jerk. I was fuming, came home and posted a negative review on Yelp. At least I THOUGHT I did. It doesn’t show. I think I made a mistake and posted it a second time. Again, it shows that everything went through ok. But not so, my review doesn’t show. I’m really ticked. I posted a comment on Yelp that basically said I thought their methods sucked. Lo and behold, at least 10 people responded to my post, slamming me. WTH?? And some were nasty comments…it makes me wonder if these people aren’t from Yelp.

Comment on Why yelp sucks – Yelp survival guide by BOSS Hawaii

BOSS Hawaii — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 01:00:53 +0000

Hi Anon,
Yes the review filter works both ways its can suddenly filter reviews for no reason then unfilter them as well. At one time, I had multiple accounts on YELP and one account was being filtered but I continued to post and after a couple of months my reviews showed again. I am pretty sure that their system includes tracking your IP address so if you create a new account with the same computer, you will most likely find that you will have issues with that one as well.
dani

Comment on Why yelp sucks – Yelp survival guide by anon

anon — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:30:12 +0000

can anyone explain to me if yelp ever un-filters reviews? that is, one day the review is filtered but later, it becomes unfiltered and viewable?

i ask because all my reviews are filtered and i need to know if i should stop wasting my time and make a new account or if i should keep trying?

please email me!!! artists4peace [at] gmail com

thanks

Comment on Why yelp sucks – Yelp survival guide by Me

Me — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:09:45 +0000

I used to be an account manager at Yelp. I would be the person you dealt with and complained to if you had any issues (only if you were spending money on advertising It was a tough job, I knew every time my phone rang, it was another business owner complaining about filtered reviews or nobody is mentioning Yelp or something else. It was just damage control. We do not have have any solutions to your troubles, there is nothing that we can do. An account manager, or any other manager cannot take reviews out of the filter, nor can they make people say “Yelp” in your store.

This is my take on things after working for Yelp for a little bit and dealing with business owners. Reviews get filtered for a reason, I wish I could tell you why and how (they don’t share that information with anybody). You can say its predatory, but it’s not. You are doing something to trigger the algorithm. It can be writing reviews, or asking customers to write reviews, or something else. You cannot manipulate the system. They have geniuses that all they do is work on the review filter. The restauranteur or hairstylists are not going to outsmart the computer engineers that design the filter.

Another thing, here is a tip, if you are having a lot of filtered reviews from trying to game the system, you are going to be even more closely scrutinized by the filter. Why wouldn’t they watch you more closely? Then you will start to see more reviews, maybe even legitimate reviews getting filtered.

One of my clients was a dentist and they were a newer account, their CRM which sent reminder emails and such had a template that said “Help us out on Yelp, leave a review”. They did not have a lot of activity. They were a 5 star business and had 3 reviews. All of sudden they had a huge influx of reviews. Mostly from people that never even used the site. They received 100 reviews in three days. Of course all of these reviews were filtered. Yes, they were probably from legit customers, but still it is incredibly suspicious. Even their true reviews (the three 5 star reviews) were filtered out. Now they had zero stars.

My advice to any business owner, advertising or not, is just let things happen organically. You cannot do anything about it. You cannot magically make people find your listing or have people leave you a ton of great reviews. It will either happen or it won’t. You cannot force it. You guys can complain all you want, but it is not going to change anything. When it really comes down to it, millions of people come to Yelp everyday. It is a popular site. You, as business owners, want a piece of that action. You have to take the good as well as the bad when dealing with Yelp.

Comment on Why yelp sucks – Yelp survival guide by R.M

R.M — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 18:36:12 +0000

I think businesses have to come together and do something about this! No other sites are as questionable and harmful as Yelp is. I am all for freedom of speech, but what about freedom of speech of those posting positive reviews and being filtered in a few days? The shocking part is that the reviewer is never notified and still can see her, or his review, and may never even notice it was filtered! I like to thank them, but some time they are filtered before I see them!

I hate when government regulates things, but this one area that some regulation is really needed. I would have perfect rating if it wasn’t for the bad review from some who never used me, and I never met or know them. I am really the best in the industry, and that has made me a target. Being on Yelp is as if we are in a bad neighborhood with a lot of violence and corrupted authorities! We are here all visible and whole bunch crazies sit in the dark and attack us with the full support and incourgement of Yelp.

Small businesses are the heart of the economy, and it’s the congresses and government to protect us on line, as much as we are protect fiscally at and around our locations. At least those leaving fake bad reviews must be held accountable. Announcement reviews without submitting proof, should not be allowed.

Comment on Why yelp sucks – Yelp survival guide by Lisa

Lisa — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:51:51 +0000

The same thing happened to me. A Yelp! representative called me over a year ago to suggest that I spend $2,500 with them so that I would get a account representative from yelp who would listen to my concerns and help me with my yelp presence. When I said no they filtered out my good reviews and they filter any good review that comes in. They maintain my rating at 3 1/2 stars.