I have an opinion - I ALWAYS seem to have an opinion. And, I think that review sites like epinion and Citysearch are valuable. I turn to them when I want to purchase something or when I need to find a restaurant or similar place. There are times when I look up a product on Amazon.com if I'm thinking of purchasing something but want someone's opinion on it. I am truly an Internet shopper and I do my homework. That being said, I am finding that I am at war with Yelp! (Yelp! sucks). You'll notice that I didn't put a link to Yelp! (Yelp sucks) in this entry because I am THAT annoyed with them.
A month or so ago, I received some stellar - and I mean stellar - customer service from a store that I visited. I was SO impressed that I opened a Yelp! (Yelp sucks) account just to write a review. Apparently, Yelp! (Yelp sucks) has filters that comb the reviews and they screen out certain reviews. This, I totally understand. However, ALL of my reviews were filtered out. I can't understand why. And, when you go to the Yelp! site, you can find NOTHING about contacting someone to have them post your review. It's frustrating.
According to Yelp! (ahem - Yelp! sucks), the reason for this filter is to make Yelp! (Yelp! sucks) more reliable. However, when I looked at my review and the other filtered reviews for this particular store, I realized that NONE of the reviews looked fake. After going through the pain of opening an account and actually WRITING the review, it's annoying to see my review get filtered and not count towards the rating of the vendor. It's highly unlikely that I'll be using Yelp! (yelp sucks) to do homework on stores in the future. If my GOOD review is being filtered out, are the BAD reviews being filtered out as well and, as a result, are the terrible places being given higher ratings? Something to ponder and also..... Yelp sucks!
LATER
Apparently, there is a Yelp! (yelp sucks) for Yelp! (yelp sucks) but I won't post a link on this update to crappy Yelp! (yelp sucks). I guess I'm not the only one who is annoyed with the filter and abandoning that site.
You are not alone! I just posted my frustration with Yelp on my blog. I took the time to write 10 thoughtful reviews and they filtered *all* of them!
Obviously I won't be using Yelp anymore.
Posted by: Mark D Worthen PsyD | April 20, 2012 at 12:03 PM