Getting Yelped and Fighting Back
Christine Huang
User-generated review site Yelp is getting a bit of negative feedback of its own, as of late. According to CBS News, some business owners who have received less-than-glowing yelps on the 10 million-user strong site are unhappy about the company’s faux-open platform. Some point to their “Sponsorship Program,” a way for poorly-reviewed businesses to improve their presence on the site, as an example of Yelp’s unfair treatment of shop owners who can’t fork up the extra money to keep their Yelp profiles positive. According to one business owner, Selena Kellinger of Razzberry Lips (a makeover party planning company), the site responded to her dismay over her company’s negative reviews by asking her join the Sponsorship Program and open a business account - which, for $350 a month, means she has the option of placing a ‘favorite review’ at the top of the profile as well as add a photo slideshow and sponsored message. Mary Seaton, another disgruntled shop owner, reported:
…Yelp contacted us, and said, ‘We noticed that you had some negative reviews, and we would like to help you with that. … If you pay $350 a month’,” said Seaton.
So she paid for five months, a total of $1750. Seaton said some of her negative reviews were moved to the bottom. But, Seaton said, “All of a sudden some more negative reviews got posted, but there were no favorable or positive reviews.”
…Both Seaton and Kellinger said they have customers who posted favorable reviews that were taken down. But Yelp said they have proof that some of those favorable reviews are written by the business owners or their friends. “When we see that kind of suspicious activity taking place, we will move quickly to take action against it,” said Ichinose.
…But in fairness, you can “Yelp” Yelp. Kellinger did. “We posted a bad review about Yelp that they did this, but they removed that one,” said Kellinger.
CBS News: Business Owners Yelp About Internet Ratings Site
Posted on: Tuesday, August 5, 2008 at 2:19 pm 
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