Yelp won't remove a review from a rude reviewer

[Chris Ratchford]

I flagged a review for a dental practice in PA from a Yelper who posts crazy reviews yesterday only to find out that Yelp decided it's not a violation. I posted on Twitter hoping to draw some exposure on Yelp.


Here's the link to the Yelp review:

Laura Sheaffer Harkin, DMD - New Holland, PA

Specialties: As a third-generation, general dental practice in New Holland, Pennsylvania, we offer a wealth of expertise regarding the diagnosis and treatment of your family's dental conditions. Established in 1939. As a third-generation, dental practice, we offer a wealth of expertise...

www.yelp.com

Here's the reviewer's history:

Roy S.'s Profile

Roy S.'s reviews, photos and other recent activity on Yelp - a fun and easy way to find, recommend and talk about what's great (and not so great) in your location.

www.yelp.com

I understand the basic strategy of focusing on building good reviews and not to worry about one 1 star review; but this guy is a nut job. And calling women "POS" and "B*tch" in your review seems like a no-brainer for Yelp. But I guess I'm wrong.

 

[Contractor]

Yelp is really, really horrible. I’m not just saying that, I mean it. I had a woman who had been using yelp for 10 years and left a lot of reviews for businesses message me through Yelp’s system to get an estimate. Using their system I gave her the estimate and she agreed.

Within the next week I did the work and she returned to yelp to leave me a pleasant review. That review immediately got filtered and hidden, and it remains hidden to this day.

This just goes to show that they don’t filter reviews because they think they are fake, they do it to try to get me to pay them to advertise. It’s no different than the Better Business Bureau scam.

In your situation you can clearly see that the member in question is a volatile troll who used offensive and demeaning language. Yet his review will stay up. Why? Because they want your client to pay them for advertising. Then the good reviews will stop being filtered and the bad reviews will get hidden like its supposed to be.

 

[Eoghan_Aircam]

Take the high road in the business owner reply and move on promoting your presence on Yelp to other customers. Hopefully the review will be buried by better ones soon and anyone who does see and read it comes away with a positive connotation to your client as they're seen to be responding in a calm and responsible way vs. keyboard warrioring back!

 

[Chris Ratchford]

And here's Yelp's response...



The day there's no more Yelp will be a good day.

 

[JoyHawkins]

This is beyond ridiculous. I don't see how reviews like that are helpful to anyone. Just another reason to not use Yelp for reviews.

 

[Contractor]

If it were 1 review it would be one thing. But that guy gets off on demeaning women in hundreds (literally) of reviews.

 

[pbarnhart]

That is why he has zero friends.

 

[Chris Ratchford]

I started flagging his reviews of other local businesses and Yelp deletes his 1 star review on the Golden Corral... but not my dentist?!?!

 

[Contractor]

I started flagging his reviews of other local businesses and Yelp deletes his 1 star review on the Golden Corral... but not my dentist?!?!

Here's the way I look at this type of thing:

It's GOOD to have some negative reviews. They say 4.7-4.8 is the best rating to have, it seems more genuine to consumers and businesses with 4.7-4.8 get more business than those with 5.0.
So a few bad reviews can't hurt, it seems like they can help. And if you are going to get a bad review, getting one from a blowhard like that is perfect. Anyone who sees it knows that the person is crazy and not to hold it against the business. If anything, it might garner sympathy and support for the business

 

[Phil Rozek]

@Chris Ratchford, I've reported that review. (I'd be interested to hear if it stays put.)

The awfulness of Yelp aside, reviews by mouth-breathers (like that guy) don't seem to hurt businesses, from what I've seen. When only unreasonable and crazy people don't like a business, it's doing pretty well, and I think most people recognize that. That's my take, at least.

 

[Phil Rozek]

Unsolicited update: Yelp instantly rejected my flag, on the basis that other people had reported the review and Yelp didn't want to do a 180. But I reported another, extremely similar review by the same guy, and Yelp removed that one. When I say "extremely" similar I mean the insults were verbatim exactly the same as in the one that's stayed put. At least Yelp is consistent...not.

I reported a 3rd, also-similar review by the same reviewer, so we'll see about that one. <- UPDATE: they removed this one, too. Now Yelp's keeping that first review is a real head-scratcher.

 

[Chris Ratchford]

Unsolicited update: Yelp instantly rejected my flag, on the basis that other people had reported the review and Yelp didn't want to do a 180. But I reported another, extremely similar review by the same guy, and Yelp removed that one. When I say "extremely" similar I mean the insults were verbatim exactly the same as in the one that's stayed put. At least Yelp is consistent...not.

I reported a 3rd, also-similar review by the same reviewer, so we'll see about that one. <- UPDATE: they removed this one, too. Now Yelp's keeping that first review is a real head-scratcher.

Came here to post the same thing! How about that?

If one person flags a questionable review and Yelp doesn't remove the review, any future flagging of the review is ignored by Yelp.

That's beyond belief. Why would that be part of your SOP?

 

[Contractor]

Yelp is a racket. They cause issues for businesses in order to get the businesses to pay Yelp to solve the problem that Yelp is making in the first place. It's modern day organized crime, only legal.

 

[Phil Rozek]

It's bass-ackwards.

To work at Yelp means you've hit rock bottom.

 

[Chris Ratchford]

Yelp is a racket. They cause issues for businesses in order to get the businesses to pay Yelp to solve the problem that Yelp is making in the first place. It's modern day organized crime, only legal.

Ah! Reminded me of a presentation I did a few years ago... one of the slides:

 

[Chris Ratchford]

UPDATE: Yelp finally gave the dude the boot!

Every week I'd set time for 30 minutes to flag all his reviews that included threats and filth flarn filth.