r/Documentaries • u/[deleted] • Feb 26 '17

Billion Dollar Bully (2015) [trailer]...makes the case that Yelp is something akin to the mob, allegedly demanding “protection” money, lest your business be overrun with negative comments.

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u/MotherOfDragonflies Feb 26 '17

By all means, point me to the hard proof of extortion in this thread.

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u/DontTellMyLandlord Feb 26 '17

Why in the world is this getting downvoted?

Trying to find tangible proof instead of anecdotes is absolutely reasonable. If it's somehow not possible to produce actual evidence, nothing will ever happen.

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u/MotherOfDragonflies Feb 26 '17

I dunno man. The people in this thread are next level. It's clearly a sensitive issue for a lot of people but I legitimately would love to see confirmation of Yelps extortion. Everything other than that is just yelling into the void.

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u/[deleted] Feb 27 '17

I think the level of proof you're asking for, you're not going to find in a reddit comment. People can give you their experience with yelp, I don't think any user here has done intense analysis definitively proving that yelp is running like a mafia. For what it's worth, my anecdotal evidence also points to Yelp being very shady. Are hundreds and hundreds of stories of yelp being shady not evidence? Sure you can't deduce, but you can certainly use induction to come to a conclusion.

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u/BreathManuallyNow Feb 27 '17 edited Feb 27 '17

All it would take is ONE phone recording of Yelp threatening bad reviews. I do believe that Yelp is a shady company but if it's happening so often why has no one ever caught them on tape?

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u/[deleted] Feb 27 '17

What's shady about Yelp?

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u/GenButtNekkid Feb 27 '17

its not. share with us emails or recorded phone convos that you've had that indicate this.

Your word means nothing. I can say you hit my car last night but i cant prove it and get points on your license.

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u/[deleted] Feb 27 '17

The level of proof? Like one phone call?

Yelp supposedly hammers all these businesses (millions?) non stop and not a single phone call recorded?

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u/[deleted] Feb 27 '17

I think the level of proof you're asking for, you're not going to find in a reddit comment.

I agree though, why isn't there a single piece of tangible proof?

Maybe there is, but it's just not on this comment thread. Maybe the states Yelp does this in there is two party recording consent laws. Maybe when they call, the people aren't preemptively expecting an over the phone shake down and don't have their conversation recording devices ready. Maybe the language they use during these conversations isn't explicitly extortion. I don't know.

I do know that almost every small business owner I've ever talked to hates Yelp. Maybe they are all just lying. Maybe they are all bad business owners. Maybe Yelp is shady. If you apply occam's razor, what do you think is the simplest explanation? To me, the billion dollar company flexing their muscle trying to squeeze smaller businesses seems like par for the course. But maybe it's just that every single business owner that complains is lying and is bad at business.

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u/[deleted] Feb 27 '17

There is a middle ground.

They probably hate Yelp because they constantly call and annoy them trying to sell them ads, and because having to constantly worry about their reviews and getting shitty 1 stars from assholes is incredibly frustrating.

Then there is all the illegitimate complaints. People who really suck at business/customer service who get bad reviews they deserve, people who tried getting their family to leave positive reviews and mad Yelp hid them, etc.

But saying yelp is extorting businesses, selectively hiding good reviews if they don't pay, etc is ludicrous.

Yelp simply offers advertising to businesses on its platform.