Claims of Yelp extortion starting to hit the news

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Many business owners in Sacramento and around the country are frustrated with Yelp. Gonul Blum has been in the restaurant business for 10 years in Sacramento and said Yelp employees have cold-called her, asking her to pay for web ads on their site.

"They told me if I want to have the good reviews on the top when you open the Yelp page ... I've got to advertise it."

Businesses tired of Yelp extortion are speaking out - YouTube
#main internet marketing discussion forum #claims #extortion #hit #news #starting #yelp
  • Yelp is disgusting.
    I read about Yelp and their scammed reviews few days ago, there are lots of people saying negative about Yelp.
  • I hear the same stories over and over from my clients. They are shady and then they go out with these publicity stunts to try and clear their name. It's ridiculous.
  • Yup. Have a client in the same boat. All the bad reviews are showing up at the top. Worst thing about it is, they are all fake reviews. Legitimate reviews are being filtered. One of the worst companies on the Internet.
  • I heard a radio station in San Diego talking about this two years ago. I have a client who had all good reviews on Yelp. She was approached by their sales person and when she turned them down all of her good reviews were filtered making it appear that her business was new. I reported Yelp to the Attorney General's office in California when this happened.

    Bonnie
    • [1] reply
    • And through the hard sell and scamminess they are rolling in the bucks... oh wait, they haven't made a profit yet, last quarter they lost 23 cents a share...
      • [1] reply
  • Extorting protection money the Yelp way!

    Sopranos: Patsy extorting protection money - YouTube
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Sounds like some very shady actions
  • I've heard stories of people giving 1 star reviews to stores, then extorting them to change the review. I don't even look at Yelp because it's so unreliable.
  • The thing about the BBB is that some people actually think it's a government agency. I had to re-assure a few clients that they weren't. Yelp just gets good placement in Google and they use that to extort businesses. What Google needs to do is make their reviews more prominent in searches, then bottom feeders like Yelp would just die off.
    • [1] reply
    • Yelp was there first, and Google orchestrated a plan where they started out as friends, and then they didn't need them anymore. Similar situations have occurred in many other business dealings with Google such as DMOZ. You have to wonder if this is only a case of Yelp not running a good business or if a situation was created that resulted in the business losing market share.
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    Claims of Yelp extortion starting to hit the news

    Many business owners in Sacramento and around the country are frustrated with Yelp. Gonul Blum has been in the restaurant business for 10 years in Sacramento and said Yelp employees have cold-called her, asking her to pay for web ads on their site. "They told me if I want to have the good reviews on the top when you open the Yelp page ... I've got to advertise it."