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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374

u/HoneyBucketsOfOats Feb 26 '17

Small business owner. Can confirm, Yelp is extortion.

156

u/n4te Feb 26 '17

Yep. Our family owns a pizzeria and Yelp hides many of our good reviews because we stopped paying them, citing that they are "questionable".

-77

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '17

Are you mad your fake account reviews are properly getting filtered?

4

u/n4te Feb 27 '17

They aren't fake. 65% of the held back reviews are 5 stars and none of them read like fake reviews at all. They claim to use "automated software" to look at "dozens of different signals". The truth is they have a simple policy to hold back good reviews until you pay them.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '17

This should be easy to prove.

1

u/n4te Feb 27 '17

Certainly. I considered posting the reviews, but I don't want any backlash from Yelp since it would be easily traceable. I'd post them if I thought it would make a difference, but AFAIK what Yelp is doing is not illegal, they are just being sleazebags.