October 7, 2014
I have been using Yelp for many years and posted many reviews. However, one story on slashdot.org intrigued me.
A restaurant in Richmond, CA - Botto Italian Bistro - asked customers to give them 1-star reviews on Yelp.com.
I knew Yelp had a reputation for extorting small businesses (not proven in court, but widely known). If a business did not pay for advertising on Yelp, its rating could experience a downward spiral, and it could lose significant business.
The 1-star reviews were Botto's way of defeating Yelp's mafioso advertising tactics. After all, if a restaurant has only 1-star reviews - how can Yelp hurt it further?
Many Yelp reviews were quite amusing:
(one star)
Your food seems delicious, but that you do not offer shipping to Canary Islands (Spain).... That I cannot accept...
C'mon what kind of service do you offer if you don't deliver to 10000km afar?
I better go to another place!
(one star)
Don't try the pizza, it's so good you will come back every day, it completely ruined my social life cause each night I only want to go there
I hate this place!
(one star)
Great food, great drinks, great service awesome experience overall. However...
- No pet giraffes or tigers allowed inside
- No shower in the bathroom
- No gym inside to work out after meal
- One time they wouldn't serve me because I was completely naked and very drunk
- Food is not free and I have to pay for it
- They always get your order right
So for these reasons I hate this place and will not return for a day or two.
(one star)
I have never been here before.
In fact, I have never heard of this place before. But, it is SO AWFUL that I am going to refuse to get within 500 miles of it. Therefore, all because of how bad this restaurant is, I am going to have to cancel my plans to visit the Bay Area. In fact, this place is so bad...so I have heard...that I may have to move out of the state due to the embarrassment of being in the same state as this place.
(one star)
Too much integrity. No thanks!
How can I be sure that you care about your food if you won't be manipulated by the Yelp powers-that-be?
How can I trust that you care about quality if you won't spend your time whoring yourself online for 5-star reviews?
How can I expect you to care about your staff and their families if you won't give money to Yelp instead of them??
(one star)
Can't stand this place. Came here and asked if I could substitute the pizza dough with cardboard... they could not accommodate me.
BRB going to Dominos.
It's easy for Yelp to hurt a business, as it controls which reviews are published. Yelp can easily remove the positive or negative reviews that it deems "not useful" and make a restaurant whatever rating it wants.
I decided to try an experiment. I would publish a 1-star review on Yelp and see what happens:
It did not take long for Yelp to yank my review:
OCT 07, 2014 | 02:27PM PDT
Hi,
We wanted to let you know that we've removed your review of Botto Italian Bistro. Though we understand this business has recently received media attention, your review was removed because it lacks a core consumer experience. Please note that at this time we will be removing any repostings from you to this business listing.
Please visit our Content Guidelines for more information (www.yelp.com/guidelines). We hope you'll help us keep Yelp fun and useful for everyone!
Regards,
Clarence
Yelp Support
San Francisco, California
The problem with Yelp is that they do not have any customer support. There is no way to get a hold of anyone - unless one is a paying advertiser. I could not reply to Clarence as he has no return email address!
I used to trust Yelp, but now I realize that it's not a trustworthy company.
Your food seems delicious, but that you do not offer shipping to Canary Islands (Spain).... That I cannot accept...
C'mon what kind of service do you offer if you don't deliver to 10000km afar?
I better go to another place!
(one star)
Don't try the pizza, it's so good you will come back every day, it completely ruined my social life cause each night I only want to go there
I hate this place!
(one star)
Great food, great drinks, great service awesome experience overall. However...
- No pet giraffes or tigers allowed inside
- No shower in the bathroom
- No gym inside to work out after meal
- One time they wouldn't serve me because I was completely naked and very drunk
- Food is not free and I have to pay for it
- They always get your order right
So for these reasons I hate this place and will not return for a day or two.
(one star)
I have never been here before.
In fact, I have never heard of this place before. But, it is SO AWFUL that I am going to refuse to get within 500 miles of it. Therefore, all because of how bad this restaurant is, I am going to have to cancel my plans to visit the Bay Area. In fact, this place is so bad...so I have heard...that I may have to move out of the state due to the embarrassment of being in the same state as this place.
(one star)
Too much integrity. No thanks!
How can I be sure that you care about your food if you won't be manipulated by the Yelp powers-that-be?
How can I trust that you care about quality if you won't spend your time whoring yourself online for 5-star reviews?
How can I expect you to care about your staff and their families if you won't give money to Yelp instead of them??
(one star)
Can't stand this place. Came here and asked if I could substitute the pizza dough with cardboard... they could not accommodate me.
BRB going to Dominos.
Hi,
We wanted to let you know that we've removed your review of Botto Italian Bistro. Though we understand this business has recently received media attention, your review was removed because it lacks a core consumer experience. Please note that at this time we will be removing any repostings from you to this business listing.
Please visit our Content Guidelines for more information (www.yelp.com/guidelines). We hope you'll help us keep Yelp fun and useful for everyone!
Regards,
Clarence
Yelp Support
San Francisco, California
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