Over the last 10 years we’ve been in business, Yelp has constantly called us to get us to advertise on their platform…. but I simply do not believe in Yelp. I think its a dying platform that has zero bearing on anyone…. as far as I’m concerned, literally NOBODY uses yelp.

MotoMarine currently has “8” reviews which give us a rating of 3.5 stars.

MotoMarine has 19 reviews that are “Not Recommended” which do not count towards our rating. That means out of the total of 27 reviews on that platform, only 8 are calculated towards our rating.

Over the years, I’ve come to realize that Yelp purposefully keeps your rating low, in order to attempt to FORCE you to advertise with them.

20 days ago I received an email from Yelp trying to once again get my advertising business and I responded with a very direct email telling them what I thought about them … and within a day or so, they further removed a bunch of my 5 star reviews and took our rating from 4.0 to 3.5 stars.

If you look at the bottom of the page, it says MotoMarine has “19 other reviews that are not currently recommended” and 17 of those reviews are stellar 5 star reviews from repeat customers. I can provide invoices from each and every one of those customers, yet Yelp has flagged them as “fake” … and they do not count towards our rating.

MotoMarine has 4.8 rating on Google Reviews with over 132 reviews.

Yelp purposefully keeps our rating low and continue to contact us begging for advertising money.
Yelp “claims” that they remove reviews from accounts with low engagment… but if you look at the reviews they flag and do not reccomend, they are from legit people, with more than one review … but that 1 star reviews they allow, alot of them are from accounts where the one and only review is the one left on our page.

We have a fake review from someone who says “we came in on a saturday” … and our page clearly states, we do not open weekends. We haven’t opened on weekends for over 10 years.

One of them reps called me one day and when I expressed my frustration with their platform, they suggested that I start a new yelp page with advertising so that it would surpass the poorly rated page.

YELP

GOOGLE

A simple google search will reveal plenty of articles that write specifically about this.

Allegations of corruption and extortion have surrounded Yelp for years, primarily from small business owners who claim the platform manipulates reviews to pressure them into buying advertising services

Review Manipulation: Businesses report that positive reviews often get hidden in a “not recommended” folder if they decline to advertise, while negative reviews remain prominent. Conversely, some claim Yelp offers to remove negative reviews for paying customers.
Extortion Claims: Many business owners have described Yelp’s practices as “mafia-like extortion”. Thousands of complaints detailing these issues have been filed with the FTC (Federal Trade Commission).
Lawsuits and Legal Rulings: Yelp has faced class-action lawsuits over these business practices, though courts have generally sided with Yelp, citing that the company is immune from liability for third-party content under the Communications Decency Act.
Fake Reviews: Studies have indicated a significant percentage of online reviews are fake, with researchers finding that at least 16% of Yelp reviews were fraudulent in one study. Both businesses and third parties engage in this practice. Yelp has implemented consumer alerts to flag businesses suspected of soliciting fake reviews.
Yelp’s Stance: Yelp maintains that its automated system filters reviews based on quality and reliability, not on advertising status. They also enforce policies against businesses asking for reviews or offering incentives.