Do you think Yelp is honest? Look at this…

There is nothing more frustrating than seeing a company mislead people, and that is exactly what I have seen Yelp do.

I had a bad experience with a company who did work for me this month, and hence I went to Yelp and gave this company a 1 star review. I did it professionally by sticking to the facts. I even uploaded 4 photos and gave a link to show people photos of my complaint so they could see for themselves what issues I had with the company.

I expected Yelp to be fair about things.  I was the first customer to write anything about the company I complained about.  Hence, on the side of the Yelp page where I complained about the business, I was listed as the first reviewer.

Once the business I complained about saw my complaint on Yelp, all of the sudden there were numerous people coming out of the woodwork writing about this company and giving them 5 stars.  It didn’t take a rocket scientist to guess that the owner called all his colleagues and they all vouched for him. Prior to my complaint, no one had anything to say about this company — suddenly I write, and everyone comes out ot the woodwork.

Within a week, all the comments were filtered.  It still showed that there were 19 comments (yes, they all came after my review) and showed the average score of our reviews. I was a bit annoyed, but if we are all filtered, so be it.  But what I saw next outraged me.  I find it to be deceptive and misleading.

Yesterday, a new reviewer came (without question sent by the company owner again) and suddenly the company profile no longer showed me as the first reviewer!!!  The person who commented yesterday became the first reviewer!

How can Yelp do this?  I was the first reviewer and to say differently is flat out deceptive.

Furthermore, if you look at the reviews today, it shows only 2 reviews with a perfect 5 star rating!!!  This is a lie.

I can’t believe what I am seeing.  See an edited screenshot below to see for yourself from yesterday.

If you are new to Yelp, and don’t know how it works, you have no idea that there is a little gray link way down at the bottom of the page that says “XX filtered”.  This is filtered reviews and apparently they don’t count for anything.  That is where my legitimate and honest complain is at. This is outrageous!

My complaint is now 2 pages out, and you can only find it if you know to look for filtered comments, click on it, fill in a CAPTCHA and go then to the second page link at the very bottom and scroll down!! Otherwise it looks like this business is rated perfectly.

This should not be allowed.

I also uploaded photos of the shoddy work as Yelp allows you to do — and guess what?  They were all deleted today.   Yelp is sure doing something to help this business look good, aren’t they?

Boycott Yelp.  This is unacceptable.

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I have removed the company name, but this is a screenshot from yesterday showing how the reviews look right now after I gave my 1 star review. I am not the first reviewer “V”, either, though I was the first reviewer.