Yelp at center of free-speech case
By Angus Loten, Wall Street Journal
A closely watched Internet free-speech case is headed to the Virginia Supreme Court this month, with many businesses that live and die by online reviews rooting for the owner of a small, suburban carpet cleaner.
In early 2012, Joe Hadeed, owner of Hadeed Carpet Cleaning Inc., arrived at his office atop a 70,000-square-foot warehouse in Springfield, Va., to discover a critique posted on Yelp. “Lots of hype, a mediocre cleaning and a hassle at the end. Don’t go with Joe!” wrote a “Mike M.” A few days later, another review, by “M.P.” popped up: “I will never use them again and advise others to proceed with caution!” it said.
Over the next several weeks, a string of similarly harsh reviews replaced more-favorable comments “as if someone had flipped a switch,” said the 47-year-old Hadeed, in an interview last month at his offices, where trucks drop off carpets to be washed, rinsed and dried.
Following the rash of negative Yelp reviews, business sank 30 percent in 2012, Hadeed says. Last year, Hadeed cleaned just 20,000 carpets, down from 29,000 in 2011. Revenue fell to $9.5 million from $12 million in 2011. Hadeed said the business has let 80 workers go and sold six trucks, reducing its fleet to 54.
The Federal Trade Commission has received more than 2,046 complaints filed about Yelp from 2008 through March 4, according to data reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, following a Freedom of Information Act request. Yelp shares fell 5.7 percent in Wednesday trading, after the tally was posted on FTC.gov.
I hope that yelp is put out of its misery. I know of two good businesses that have been devastated by yelp to the point of going out of business. One bad review eliminates all of the good reviews. The good reviews are deemed not to be reliable. Then some organization that may or may not be tied to yelp contacts the person letting them know that for an exorbitant fee they can improve their yelp evaluations.
I have never and will never use yelp. For small businesses to survive they have to be put in their place.
Yelp needs to change. When a review is posted the business owner needs to be able to respond directly to the criticism for all to see. In fact Yelp may be able to provide a new service which allows for a customer/ business discourse area that would let everyone see how a business responds to a bad service comment. Right now anybody can tank a business with a well organized smear campaign .
@Atomic- that is a great idea.
As consumer, I appreciate having some guidance to my choices, and feel I’ve been saved many times by Yelp, as well as discovered some great places through Yelp.
I think the places that lose the most are your one time tourist sucker places, that don’t rely on repeat business, Yelp saves those who look from giving those types of places business.
It can be abused (look up Dante’s on the River in Pollock Pines), but most fake reviews either way can easily be picked out.
A full name policy could work, but will businesses start to harass users, as some already have? It is just a persons opinion, nothing more, yet I have known people that have been contacted by businesses and pushed to change their review. By the same token, full name could weed out the fake bad and good, as these people don’t want their name to be known.
There is too much opportunity for fraud. Time for Yelp to go or at the very least change the way they operate drastically.
I agree with you, Scott
If the people who been wronged could speak up without fear of retaliation, it would become very clear how yelp is more hurtful than helpful.
We may have been one of the first salons “yelped” up here. Yelp is very powerful and it can help or hurt a business. My issue with their policies is why are there three to five year old Yelps still in full view, both good and a couple bad? I have almost 70 “filtered” YELPS stuck in the back pages you must seek out to read! Most very good but due to the filter policy are not easily available to read. If a customer does not receive the service or experience expected we always want to know right then and there and we always do our best to make it right. In a few instances with these outdated yelps the person that failed to make the client happy has long been gone.
Yelp needs to rotate posts and eliminate those over a year old. I have had phone conversations with Yelp managers about this with zero results.
Yelp is dangerous in its present form.