Yelp Reviews 

I am a professional with an impeccable reputation in the community. A delusional former client wrote a review ten years after we handled a matter for her. She made up lies about stealing and other crimes which never occurred. She was just looking for a payday and does this all over Yelp. Yelp could care less and only insists we buy their ads and further publicize this defamation. Yelp is cruel.

Yelp has caused me such grief. I am a small business but I had some 5 star good reviews. One fake, miserable, disturbed person wrote a 1 star review under my business and they had never been a customer. I contacted Yelp customer service to ask them what I could do about it and asked them to take it down since they had never been a legit customer. Yelp refused to take it down, as a matter of fact Yelp was very nasty and rude to me as well. Instead of helping me they hid all my good reviews of my business that had been there for years and left the 1 star fake review as if that was my only review. My business now shows my business as only having a 1 star review. They are hateful and try to make you pay a lot money to have bad reviews removed. I have recently found out from other business owners in the same situation, they said they actually paid to have the bad reviews removed but Yelp did not remove them anyway. Do not let this happen to you. Do not do business with Yelp. They are really not in it for the business owner. Do some research, you will see.

At first, they offered a good amount of credit to advertise with them. Then all of the hidden agendas and fees came to play when my first pay cycle hit.
I then paused my marketing or so I'd thought. They still hit me with a charge the next pay cycle.

When I'd spoke to them about this, they came to me with a assertive , almost offended tone as if I was to blame for everything.

Secondly: They remove all of you positive reviews if you discontinue their marketing services. Only 1 review shows up for me. When I mentioned this, the sales rep brushed it off and said it was a coincidence. I told him other reviews stated the same thing, he kept with his original statement. Coincidence. So you literally get what you pay for.

Thirdly: I would receive requests from customers asking for a quote or pricing for a specific session. (photography). I would reply with my number or website,/ email only never to hear from them again. I would check up on their yelp accounts to see if they were a real verified user or even had other reviews. Some seemed to check out. Some were Even local reviewers, but for some reason I had this feeling the "request" I would receive were all fake or even placed by the company.
Why would they do that?!
Well for every one of those request you receive, when you reply, you're expected to gain a reply back, Correct?
So YELP charges you a whopping $25 for each time that customer replies...to YOUR reply. Even if it would generate business or not. You were charged.
That's why I would always include another way for them to contact me ( The customer) . and they never would. So I can only assume YELP would block my reply or it was in fact a YELP employee who would send these "Quote request"
They have shady practices. Can they help? Possibly. But it doesn't come cheap. If you have the money to spend, sure but if you're a new business, then no.

I have been dealing with yelp for our business for several months now, they are inconsistent and not helpful at all. There is no way to contact them when the situation does not check their options! They provide one sided information to be viewed by reviewers even when the review shown is not a client or customer.

The inconsistency with this company is unreal. They don't show all reviews to have a fair view of the company's status. They hide positive reviews of client's and show negative reviews until you pay for services. You can't solicit reviews but you have to pay for yelp to have a fair review from the community to be shown. Give me a break- Yelp needs to be shutdown for unfair practices and inconsistencies.