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39 Comments
- mu0p, on 04/10/2009, -1/+35I was working at a vintage clothing store a while back, and we would always get calls from Yelp. The Yelp representative told us that there were some negative review for the store, but that we could have editorial control over some reviews if we joined a program that would bill us each month.
As soon as i found out that Yelp was pay to play for businesses, i stopped using it. - readacook, on 04/10/2009, -0/+11From Best Buy: "The customer clearly asked for a box of tiles instead of a hard drive. To suggest that we put profits above our customers is crazy."
- Shirleycakes, on 04/10/2009, -2/+14I disagree. It's always been possible (and probable, given some of the reviews I've read) for owners to disguise themselves as customers and leave positive reviews. If anything, this makes their response official and leaves the reviews to the actual patrons. Doesn't mean it'll stop, but I think they'll be less likely to fake things if they have a spot for it.
- tavallai, on 04/10/2009, -4/+14Nice move, but Yelp already became passé long ago...
- inactive, on 04/10/2009, -0/+9How is letting business owners defend themselves going to erode freedom? Nothing is being taken away here -- the very essence of freedom of speech is letting all sides have a voice.
This seems really fair, and will provide a great opportunity for business to show people what they're really made of. You can tell a ton about people and the business they run by the way they respond to criticism. - darknecross, on 04/10/2009, -0/+8I like Newegg, where company reps respond to bad reviews of their products, and offer solutions, to boot.
eg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?I ...
Responding to a less than favorable review giving them a website to assist them in RMA _AND_ assigning them a reference number.
That's why I like Asus. - MoneyShot, on 04/10/2009, -1/+9Because the customer is *always* right? Anyone who's worked customer service for more than day can back me up when I say there's a lot of douche bags walking around out there that like to play innocent victim.
- lovemorgul, on 04/10/2009, -3/+8We're confident business owners will realize they're talking in public and that they need to put their best foot forward.
- futuretense, on 04/10/2009, -0/+4Yelp borders on being useless with the amount of 5 star reviews many restaurants receive.
- inactive, on 04/10/2009, -0/+4Haha, did they really pull that crap? Wow, who knew they were extortionists? Perhaps you should place that in a review of Yelp on Yelp, then them explain themselves.
- Metricula, on 04/11/2009, -0/+4People are yelp are generally power-hungry snobs. Also, people are crazy and customers will tell outright lies. I think it's fine to let businesses voice decisions. A coffee shop in town gets a lot of flack for using styrofoam cups, but they recycle the cups are have a bin for customers to do the same.
- gothsquirrel, on 04/10/2009, -2/+5Yay let the businesses flame the customers all they want at least we can see how petty they are then.
- Nrvana423, on 04/10/2009, -0/+2Dugg for Reel Big Fish!
- fupresti, on 04/10/2009, -1/+3No they won't. What you will see is a tirade calling the customer a liar and the inevitable comment that customer is not always right.
The customers perception of the experience is all that matters. The business would do better to focus on taking customer comments nd using them to improve or you could open up the comments and give them justification to avoid the obvious and sling mud back at the customer. - yocouchdigga, on 04/11/2009, -0/+2lolque?
- hbyrne, on 04/10/2009, -9/+11Pretty slippery slope for Yelp to choose, and it's hard to see how this won't erode the spirit of freedom and credibility the site has enjoyed until now.
- inactive, on 04/10/2009, -1/+3If the spokesperson for the business gets all Bill O'reilly on someone then it's instant bad PR for them. The public wins when they get to see first hand exactly which business are controlled by unprofessional jerks.
- BossKey, on 04/10/2009, -1/+3This is a tough one. Some businesses are slimy, but on the other hand I know neighborhood small business owners who have been unfairly defamed by clueless customers.
- inactive, on 04/10/2009, -0/+2"The customers perception of the experience is all that matters."
If only it were that simple. It's important to remember that there are unstable folks out there with all sorts of issues and delusions. The best customer service in the world can be interpreted as some sort of violent persecution from the perspective of "particular" people. And those people are as free as you or me to pen their manifestos on Yelp - and they do! - inactive, on 04/10/2009, -1/+3Considering Yelp has been shown to engage in comment blackmail offering to manipulate bad reviews (often put up by yelp staff themselves) in exchange for a "sponsorship", I am not sure the site has any integrity to begin with.
- Shirleycakes, on 04/12/2009, -0/+1Kasey - Not entirely. The clientele has changed, making the place more profitable on one hand, but more often shut down by the police for noise problems, fights and everything else that comes with a downtown "hot spot" two blocks from all of the night clubs.
- macapplejobs, on 04/10/2009, -4/+5Sellout, with Yelp, oh yea.....Sell out, with Yelp tonight....All the businesses are gonna give you lots of money, and all the reviews will be alrightttt.....
- moothemagiccow, on 04/11/2009, -0/+1Yelp is ***** useless. Every restaurant I like has ***** reviews and every restaurant yelp users love is overpriced and *****. Even the stores they review are stupid as hell. This one knick knack shop in the trendy part of town got rave reviews, so I went there and they sold cd wallets made by people in africa. who the hell needs that?
- inactive, on 04/10/2009, -1/+2I'll bet the pub owners would choose a different word than "destroyed" to describe their new popularity.
- Shirleycakes, on 04/10/2009, -1/+2I wish that were the case. Yelp destroyed my favourite 'unknown' neighbourhood pub.
- inactive, on 04/10/2009, -0/+1Time Warer on Yelp: 5GB / month should be plenty of bandwidth for all dialu errrr dsl users..
- pardonmedoug, on 04/11/2009, -0/+1Maybe it's passé to people who are only looking for the Next Big Thing on the internet, but it still has massive utility for tens of thousands of people.
- ant1832, on 04/11/2009, -0/+1Try http://www.feedbackcomments.com
It's a new site, but looks like a good refuge for people who don't like yelp. - futuretense, on 04/10/2009, -0/+1Sometimes customers are liars and are ignorant of the concept that your presenting. If business owners can defend themselves perhaps they can help educate and address some misunderstandings.
- BTime, on 04/11/2009, -0/+1Yelp has an awful review process. I hate that place
- inactive, on 04/11/2009, -0/+1"they actually have numbers .. you don't"
Let's see, things off the top of my head that are >= 5GB.
-Yellow Dog Linux Install CD Set
- Moderate Netflix usage
- Moderate Hulu usage
-SSH'ing my backup files to / from work
-Any given video conferencing app (requires both up / down stream BW)
etc etc etc
5GB? You tool. - hkblogorama, on 04/22/2009, -0/+0Really? You hope this change won't "erode the spirit of freedom and credibility" on yelp? Are we talking about the same yelp?! To date, reviewers have been "free" to write any crap they want and business owners have been "free" to take in the rear. As for credibility, we've seen enough evidence to know that you can't trust the reviews, whether positive or negative.
- gnaihc, on 04/11/2009, -0/+0Ok, since everyone here hates Yelp!. Any better alternate sites?
- jtown, on 04/10/2009, -1/+1How the Hell is it "freedom" if only one side has a voice? And calling Yelp credible is laughable. Surely you're aware that they offer businesses all sorts of perks regarding control of review content if they pay a monthly fee. Sounds more like a protection racket than a credible organization. "You give us some money, maybe those bad reviews...become somehow...lost."
- scriptcoder, on 04/10/2009, -3/+2That's more then the Consumerist allows: http://digg.com/tech_news/How_the_Consumerist_over ...
- futuretense, on 04/11/2009, -1/+0It's very easy to see how it won't erode freedom.
- inactive, on 04/10/2009, -2/+0well, that would be a perfect example of why a cmpany SHOULD be allowed to respohnd. So dumb ***** like you can't imply that Best Buy purposely sold a box of tiles to a person, which obviously is not the case.
Those kind of reviews are worthless. Isolated incidents that were obviously the result of a previous customer's return fraud and NOT the fault of Best Buy is not indicative of the stoore's overall quality. - blaxicopurress, on 04/10/2009, -7/+4im not your buddy, guy
- inactive, on 04/10/2009, -5/+0Except it IS more htan enough for broadband users. Most of htem anyway. You know...the ones with lives?
They actually have the nunmbers...you don't.
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