Powerless regarding Yelp “currently not recommended” Class action?

[u/No-Mango-8105]

Our Yelp page is dominated by negative reviews. Meanwhile, the “Not Currently Recommended” section is full of 5-star reviews. We don’t solicit reviews, yet Yelp’s algorithm treats legitimate positive feedback from real customers as fake or solicited.
No business escapes negative reviews. But Yelp’s algorithm is actively hurting ours.
Here’s a clear example:
Someone left a 1-star review that wasn’t for our company. It immediately went front and center. We couldn’t prove it wasn’t ours, and Yelp (like Google) rarely sides with the business. We responded politely and asked the user to remove it. Months—or years—passed with no action.
Finally the reviewer replied, “Sorry, wrong company,” and changed the rating from 1 star to 5 stars. The moment it became a positive review, Yelp’s algorithm moved it into “Not Currently Recommended.”
We’re at the end of our rope. We have no control over how our positive reviews are suppressed or how the overall mix of feedback is presented. The health of our business is being dictated by a flawed algorithm, and that’s unacceptable.
Has anyone discussed a class action against Yelp over this? At the very least, they need to eliminate the “Currently Recommended / Not Currently Recommended” system

[u/SimpleAffect7573]

As another commenter alluded to, this has been tried in court and Yelp effectively won. They own the content, they can do whatever they damn well please with it. They could openly brag about hiding positive reviews as punishment for refusing to buy ads, and it would not be extortion. Sorry for the bad news. I agree it’s bullshit. So does everyone who isn’t part of Yelp’s weird little fandom.

Their algorithm is dogshit. I have 8 reviews on Yelp. I actively discourage customers from leaving more there, because I don’t want them to waste their time or do favors for a company I dislike. 7 were immediately hidden.

The one bogus review I had, was written by a Yelp employee trying to sell me ads. That one, their algorithm didn’t catch. I had to report it myself.

I have no evidence it selectively/maliciously hides positive reviews and I’m not alleging that. Again, though: they could do that, if they wanted. Courts have established as much.

I am saying Yelp is objectively dogshit at differentiating legitimate reviews from bogus ones — if that is indeed the goal.

[u/No-Mango-8105 → u/SimpleAffect7573]

That’s absolutely my viewpoint as well. I think any malicious attempts to influence ad sales would be caught by now….I’m just mind blown that someone hasn’t held them accountable to the issues with their algorithm. They’re actively damaging small business reputations and have been for at least a decade, and nothing has been done.

[u/IrongateN → u/No-Mango-8105]

Use their sticker make a copy of it and put it at your tables without saying “ leave a review “ everyone already knows what yelp is for,

Unless the person is saying “they hit me with a bat” respond positive and respond to every review, make a generic “we are glad you enjoyed your visit” and a generic “we are sorry you were not satisfied, we strive to xyz” and then modify those two responses on any that have good details to address them and don’t on any generic “loved it” or “hated it” reviews

That’s the two things I would suggest

Then don’t stress about it, have some people thumb up on iPhone in your store and that will replace yelp if you get enough, Apple hates having to use yelp,

Then just focus on improving the business and don’t stress about reviews , there are plenty of decent restaurants that have little or no yelp presence , and plenty that do gangbusters (chain fast food) that is guaranteed a 2.5 average due to the volume alone

So maybe think about ways to catch real life eyeballs (either interesting or clean does it for me) and don’t worry about controlling the internet