The Audacity of Yelp*
By KEVIN SAWYER
Yelp* has come under fire here and elsewhere for the quality of content contained in its forum. Indeed, it can be infuriating for a business owner to be subject to an anonymous review by an unqualified source, but so long as the tool itself is essentially neutral, it can be difficult to fault the company itself to devising it.
If the story below is to be believed, we can scratch all that.
Marianne Miller, owner and Executive chef at Saga Hill, recently received a visit from Annie D’Souza, Yelp employee and super-elite-platinum reviewer. Annie wrote a (relatively) scathing review of her experience with Marianne’s cooking class, which by Marianne’s account included an ethnic slur (since wisely removed).
After the review posted, Yelp* sales associates allegedly called Marianne, offering to bury the review if she would purchase advertising on the site. They then proceeded to lock the review page, so she cannot even change her business details.
Now, the review itself is hardly the work of, well, it hardly qualifies as a work at all, in my opinion. My favorite excerpts:
“The space is insanely cool, with exposed brick and beams everywhere and interesting furnishings in the reception-type space.”
Bricks. Beams. Everywhere. OMG.
“You can also BYOB for a corkage fee. You’re definitely gonna want that wine.”
Oh, snapz! Only, the rest of the review doesn’t seem to justify the tenor of this quip.
“My friends and I were taking the sauces class, which went over the basics of making a few important French sauces. Each one provides the basis for soups or gravies and whatnot.”
Soups. Gravies. Whatnot. OMGZ!
“Their classes change all the time, so keep an eye on the schedule.”
Great point, Annie! It is always important to check schedules before taking classes. That way, you will know what class you are taking. In the culinary world, it is considered poor form to show up with a whisk and simply demand someone teach you how to cook something. Little known fact.
“It was supposed to be New Zealand mussels with garlic, bacon and beer aioli and that sounded really good. There was never an explanation given and we felt a little short-changed (and hungry… we kinda booked it to the Smack Shack after).”
Of course, Annie did not feel compelled to ask for an explanation. After all, it’s not as though she planning to write some sort of review for one of the most popular social review sites in the world. Oh, wait, that is precisely what she planned. Yeah, she might have gotten some clarification on the mussels issue. And, I’m sorry, is it the responsibility of a cooking school to ensure you are sated at the end of the class? Isn’t it the whole “teach a man to fish” premise?
Booked it. Smack. Shack. OMGZ!!!!
From what I can gather, Yelp* sent one of their bimbots (armed with a Groupon, no less) to write a strident and vacuous review of a cooking class. They then allegedly hustled the owner of said cooking class for dollars to bury the aforementioned, and to instead highlight a more positive review.
I’d ask how Annie D’Souza sleeps at night, but I somehow suspect the answer involves boxed wine and a half-dozen teddy bears. In my opinion, this constitutes extortion.
Unethical. Yelp*. Bad writing. OMGZ!!!!!!!!!!
Fuck Yelp and the fixed gear bike it rode in on.
or was it a VW Jetta. either way, fuck ‘em.
Very funny stuff Kevin.
Yelp just went public, I wonder if any of the regulars feel that they should be paid. They have, after all, done much of the work.
Looks like the kind of company that has no compunction about exploiting labor.
There’s a whole generation of Yelpers who apparently didn’t read Tom Sawyer and are giving up their free time to paint Yelp’s white picket fence. #boredgeneration #contentcolony
Kevin, interesting story . . .similar happenings over here at Solera, thus one of the MANY MANY reasons we didn’t partner with them. Geoff i’m in total agreement with your first comment!!
To be clear, this particular reviewer is, in fact, paid.
Thank you for the post Kevin and for letting people know how awful Yelp and Annie the TC paid Manager is.
Yelp is a bully! Yelp called me and said they were starting to highlight Cooking Schools for paid adverts and thats when all hell broke loose. Trust me I have had my share of mud slung my way over the years on the internets and chalk it up to interactive discourse-fair game. But when a paid employee of Yelp starts a page for you and is your first reviewer and call you a Gypper and then her company asks you for money change your public statas-well all I have to say is:
1. Annie you need an editor.
2. I do not pay any one, ANYONE, you tried to extort me, my business or my employees.
The cynicism is delicious, but filling! I don’t even need to make dinner tonight.
Seriously though screw Yelp! They have really hit a new low. Haven’t they already lost enough credibility for anyone of any consequence to care about what they say?
Someone should review Yelp . . .on Yelp!!
Update: here’s the message I received when I asked why the paid Yelp Manager created my page and wrote the first review:
“Hi Marianne,
I changed up my wording to clarify what I meant in my review. And to clarify my position at Yelp, I am the local Community Manager and in that role I am free to share my opinions about local businesses in the same way that any consumer would.
Annie”
Since this posting my business account has been locked by Annie and I am powerless to change information regarding my own business.
If this story is true (and given the first hand account here…, I have no reason to believe it is not true), this is totally unethical.
As far as do I think I should be paid for my previous reviews? Absolutely not. Nor do I feel I was being taken advantage of. It’s just like Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Ticketmaster, Blogger, etc… I provided “free” content because I perceived that I gained value by doing so. Hell… you’re even providing “free content” simply by searching on Google!
With that said, I think it could be done much better, and am laying out the plans for my own review site. While it won’t be “the Yelp killer”, or likely even a visible competitor (i.e.’s Angie’s List or Zagat), I think it’ll provide a solid ethical ground for hardcore restaurant-enthusiasts to provide reviews, and will deliver more targeted (and hopefully accurate) recommendations for each individual user.
Unfortunately, this looks to be all too common – check out the reviews of Yelp on the Yelp site. Disgusting.
To note I wasn’t crying sour grapes about here review, my rank is very good on their site.
What Yelp did was have the Top TC paid employee create a post, take unauthorized photos, lock down my business account and then the Yelp sales people called saying if I gave them $300 I could post my own photos, have more access to account, choose reviews to highlight, ect..this is what I have contention with.
Yelp’s motto is “Real people, real reviews” and that simply is not true. Annie said she was just like any commenter but not every commenter has the power to lock your account, choose what reviews go into the filter and most important what review will come up first in a Google search for your business.
The Google search is what most people fear about Yelp and Yelp uses it to bully people into buying ad space.
Funny thing happened though. Now when you Google Annie D’Souza this is blog is the second webpage for her.
Thank you Kevin and Shefzilla for leveling the playing field.
http://blog.wblakegray.com/2012/03/should-restaurants-be-rated.html
Good article also about more wine reviews and yelp bs.
Fuck Yelp
I’m with SoleraChef on this one.
There are so many things wrong with Yelp it’s hard to know where to start, but this post is both fascinating and frightening. While a reviewer can assign from one to 5 stars, someone reading a review can only indicate it’s Useful, Funny or Cool? How about Inane, Full of Drivel, or Utter Nonsense?
I did check out Annie “Sir Yelpsalot” D’s profile (yes, that’s her full moniker), and discovered that her favorite movies are Home Alone 1 & 2, as well as Sister Act 1 & 2. And when she’s not Yelping she’s “Sleep Yelping”. All helpful tid-bits when trying to decide if someone’s perspective is worth taking into account when reading a review. So there’s that.
You should post this to REDDIT. That will get Yelp’s attention.
@jason S I would love to here more of this project you have. kylebille@gmail.com
yelp is about lies and deception