I reviewed a restaurant in Providence that we stopped in for dessert and drinks to celebrate my birthday last March. The hostess/waitress was actually HOSTILE toward us from the moment we walked in the door--my boyfriend asked if they still served a particular dessert that they had back when the restaurant was under different management at a smaller location down the street, and the woman became snarky and bitchy.

The food was also pretty lackluster for what had once been a really good restaurant.

Looking at the other reviews about that restaurant, this wasn't one off day. The service and food appear to be chronic problems under the new management.

Obviously, everything is subjective in reviews. That's why I tend to scan through a bunch of the reviews for a general feeling, and sometimes check what else some people have reviewed. If it's a Thai restaurant, and somebody who reviews tons of Thai places hates it, I'll be more likely to take what they've said to heart and try another restaurant.

@MostlyHarmless: If your forefathers can divide an empire I have a hard time believing that you, their descendant, can't do the same with dumplings.

It's nearly impossible sometimes to see through a well written shill review.

That oral surgeon a) made it seem that he would trade good work for review favors, and
b) revealed that the staff had been engaging in inappropriate conversation about patients unrelated to their treatment.

When something sucks, I find it very effective to not return to the thing that sucks and expect it to be different.

I'd love to join a movement who spends time policing for such abuses and exposing them here on Consumerist!

Also, why hasn't Consumerist listed the entity who was behind this scandal??

@Mr_Human, I'm sorry your review was disappeared. You should write to Yelp headquarters and write more reviews. This helps them know you're a real person and hopefully your review will escape the filter's deathgrip.

he should have just offered them a online coupon. it would have been cheaper and less embarrassing!

And also follow up with a call to the BBB and perhaps the licensing board. Intimidation tactics and threats on patients seem to warrant more than a bad review.

After I moved to my current neighborhood, Yelp kept popping up in my web searches as I tried to orient myself with the area. Eventually, I decided to start writing reviews to help other users out. It's addictive.

The usefulness of Yelp far, far, FAR outweighs the unfortunate fraud that some perpetuate on the site. Yelp.com corporate does their best to combat that with filters and by promoting those who contribute lots of useful reviews & use real names/photos on the site to "Elite" status. "Elite" users get a little blurb/badge next to photos, so if you look for those when you're reading reviews on Yelp, you can pretty much rest assured that the opinion posted belongs to a real person who feels some personal accountability to the site.

When you use the site frequently, you'll get a feel for who's a trustworthy reviewer. Beware anonymous writers, and those with 1 5-star review. (Or worse, 1 5-star and a bunch of 1-star reviews of competing businesses.)

Basically, it's like any site with user-driven content. There's disparity in quality. You just have to find what's useful to you and zero in. And YOU can help make the site better, by joining and contributing.

[yelp.com]

Yelp is helpful, but take the good and bad reviews with a grain of salt.

@pot_roast: Yeah, I never understood why people take the *least effective* route when it comes to complaining. Your waiter sucked? Talk to the manager, who can actually do something about it, instead of just leaving a crappy tip (they'll think you're just a cheapskate) or posting a negative online review (a lot of places don't even look at these!)

(I love "Big Bang Theory")

@Laura Northrup:

To be fair, there are millions of Indians who speak English as a first language.

@GitEmSteveDave_woot!sOffSoHard:
I guess Yelp is a google maps business search clone?

It is a lot cheaper to hire someone in India off of www.scriptlance.com

They not only have marketing departments, they're spam factories!

@MostlyHarmless: You sure flattened their yeast.

@Pinget: It's most likely a doctor's practice linked to a larger company. In the DC area, there's the Inova hospitals and then there's the Inova private practices. I think the doctors benefit from having the Inova name and the marketing department.

@ConsumerPop: Cause some people are trying to be funny. Or they really think your post was hilarious.

I also contacted the health department, but nothing ever came of it.

Harumph. Now I want to know which business this is so I can post about their smarmy marketing tactics on their Yelp! listing.

@pecan 3.14159265: It helps that once you reach a significant number of reviews, the noise gets filtered out. you may have shills and competitors, but with enough evaluations a general relative trend emerges.

My thoughts exactly. Hope the OP had a good reason to go back! (probably because of insurance reasons)

@CompyPaq: In a crowded market, like NYC, a place without reviews or just a few good reviews is going to be drowned out. Bringing in several positive reviews will help increase a Highly Rated, or whatever they call it, score.

Only pay attention to the negative reviews.

@hypnotik_jello: I agree. And it's important to look at the quality of reviews. For salons, if there are complaints about price but the person previously went to Hair Cuttery, I ignore their review because they're used to $20 haircuts, so why wouldn't they complain about $60 haircuts and the perception that there's no difference in quality? I try to only look at reviews from people who have experience going to that type of salon.

@HannahK1012: Just because businesses try to influence Yelp doesn't mean all the reviews are shams. You didn't fall for it - chances are, lots of other people haven't either.

@AliceMaz: I contribute reviews on Yelp as well. I've noticed that people on Yelp are very, very focused on the front desk people at spas and salons. I went to a new spa last week and there were a few (four, maybe) reviews on Yelp that complained about customer service. I always see bad customer service reviews, and I usually don't pay attention to them as much because it's not the front desk people you need to focus on, it's the people who are holding scissors to your head or are taking hopefully-sterile instruments to your hands and feet.

The salon I'm trying soon had only about six reviews but they were all pretty positive. The one very negative one, one of the owners of the salon posted a response and apologized for his poor experience, and offered him a complimentary appointment.

@HannahK1012: It takes some guts to return to a medical provider after posting a negative review about them...

Was it feasible to find a new dentist/oral surgeon?

That being said, we've found MANY good restaurants while traveling via Yelp that we would have never found otherwise. When used thoughtfully, it's a very helpful tool.

@HannahK1012:
Wow, did your oral surgeon say: "is it safe?" to really drive home his point?

Oh right, they are the type of business that would pay people to write reviews for them!

Since this happened, I have stopped using/trusting yelp, because I found out that businesses do this all the time. Yelp is a valuable marketing tool for some businesses, and they treat it like their ebay feedback percentage- they freak out and message you if you don't give them five stars.

@GitEmSteveDave_Isn'tFreshPerked: Yelp is an online Yellow Pages, except there are user reviews and ratings, and more complex information like maps and location features.

Yelp.com.

It's only interesting when they start offering sex for good reviews.

I actually do trust Yelp a great deal when it comes to reviews. Any place that's worth its salt will have a few terrible ones sprinkled in. If the reviews are all positive, I'm wary. I usually use it to look at salons though, and I like Yelp especially because the reviewers disclose their favorite people to work with. I'm trying a new salon because of the reviews on Yelp.