A Note to Our Valued Customers
Like many small businesses, we've experienced the frustrating effects of Yelp's automated review filtering system. Despite our best efforts, we have found that many of our legitimate 5-star reviews are hidden from our main page, while nearly all critical reviews remain visible.
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We have reported reviews that are clearly from competitors or individuals who have never been customers, but Yelp's process has not led to their removal.
We believe in transparency, so we wanted to make you aware of this. To get a more complete and accurate view of our reputation, we invite you to read our testimonials on other platforms like Google or our website.
We are incredibly grateful for our wonderful customers and the positive experiences we share.
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Please Scroll Below For More Information
Here’s what you should know:
Many business owners and even a public documentary, Billion Dollar Bully, have raised serious concerns about Yelp's practices. The core issue is an alleged connection between advertising and how reviews are displayed.
The common allegations include:
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Filtering of Positive Reviews: Yelp’s automated system frequently filters out and hides legitimate, positive reviews from real customers. You can often find these hidden reviews at the very bottom of the page in a section called "Reviews Not Currently Recommended."
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Pressure to Advertise: There are widespread reports from business owners that they face aggressive sales pressure from Yelp. The implication is that purchasing advertising can influence which reviews are made most visible.
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Lack of Recourse: When businesses try to report clearly fake or malicious reviews—even with proof the reviewer was never a customer—the process often leads to a dead end, as Yelp's system is largely automated and difficult to appeal.
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The Flawed Defense: What About the Harvard Study?
Yelp often cites a 2011 Harvard study to claim its review filter is unbiased. However, this is a misrepresentation of the study's findings.
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The study was narrowly focused on whether the filter targeted small businesses that solicit reviews from customers. It did not study the filter's accuracy in identifying fake reviews.
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Crucially, the study itself stated that Yelp's filter has "false positives" — meaning it incorrectly flags and hides a significant number of legitimate, genuine reviews. This finding directly confirms the daily experience of countless businesses, including our own: real customer testimonials are being wrongly hidden.
The Legal Shield That Prevents Justice:
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Perhaps the most frustrating part is the legal barrier. When businesses have sued Yelp for these practices, the courts have often been unable to rule on the merits of the case. This is because Yelp is protected by a federal law from 1996 called the Communications Decency Act (CDA), specifically Section 230.
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What the Law Does: This law was created to protect websites from being sued for content their users post. For example, a newspaper can't sue Facebook for a defamatory comment a user leaves.
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How Yelp Uses It: Yelp argues that all reviews, and even its algorithmic filtering of those reviews, are protected under this act. They claim that choosing which reviews to highlight or hide is simply them "curating" user content, which the CDA allows.
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The Court's Dilemma: There have been instances where judges have expressed sympathy for small businesses, stating that their cases against Yelp have merit, but their hands are tied by this broad legal shield. Yelp, in effect, is immunized from liability for how it manages the reviews on its platform, even when business owners feel the system is being manipulated.
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We want you to hear from all of our customers, not just a select few. For a more complete and unfiltered view of our reputation, we invite you to read our reviews on other platforms where this filtering does not occur.
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Thank you for your support and for taking the time to understand this issue. We value your trust above all else.