Yelp.com 'Sticking It To Small Businesses'

Perhaps call it a case of business bullying. That's how two local restaurant owners feel they're being treated by Yelp.com, the social networking website where users can search for and post reviews of businesses for free.

Kelly Calandro, co-owner of Shelton's Verace Pizzeria, Market & Italian Eatery, said she and husband Mathew didn't even know their restaurant had a Yelp page until a representative reached out to them about two weeks after opening. With "too much going on at the time," they focused elsewhere, assuming reviews might appear and that "the cream of the crop would rise to the top."

In following weeks, however, Yelp representatives continued to ask the Calandros about advertising with them. They offered a variety of options including sidebar ads, and payment in return for not having "competitor" restaurants appear on the Verace page.

"When we started declining more forcefully, our good reviews started ticking off the site," Calandro said. "We called Yelp to ask about it, but either couldn't get a real person on the phone, or if we did they read us the same prepared statement about freedom of speech. We couldn't get answers. You'd be better off finding a needle in a haystack."

The only explanation Yelp gave for the sudden influx of negative reviews was their company's formula for seeking out false or inappropriate postings -- except no one could fully explain what the formula is.

"They act like they discovered artificial intelligence; they can't even explain how it works," said Christian Yanarella, social media manager of Derby's Dew Drop Inn.

Yanarella said he initially felt it was "a natural progression to branch out into [Yelp]" and was excited to work with the company, but their fees were a bit pricey. For Dew Drop Inn to be "properly showcased" on the site it would cost the business owners about $1200 per month.

"The very first time I denied an ad rep, I lost a couple reviews. We got our first negative review the day after I told them I'm not advertising with them," Yanarella said.

Both he and Calandro said they feel as if they're being punished for not advertising, and that Yelp's claim to be an unbiased source is false. Calandro even inquired about getting Verace's page taken off Yelp altogether, but to no avail.

"It's a frustrating thing, especially when you have a good product," Yanarella said. "But in order to get your page to be accurate, it would be very expensive."

"We know we weren't perfect at first," Calandro added. "But almost everybody appreciated and understood, so I find it hard to believe that the only reviews that get past the Yelp filter are negative."

Gina Marie, who frequents Verace and had posted a positive review on Yelp, said she was shocked when she noticed her comments and those of a friend were stashed out of view.

"I went back and looked at the page, and didn't see what I had written or what Jamie had. My review of Verace is one of 21 filtered reviews. There are only three unfiltered, and you wouldn't know to click around to find all the other reviews if you didn't know how to use the site," Marie said.

When contacted for comment, Rachel Walker of Yelp said the company has already addressed Verace's situation. "There has never been any amount of money that you can pay Yelp to manipulate reviews and claims to the contrary have been repeatedly thrown out of court," she said in an e-mail.

Yelp also has a "Myths About Yelp" page that addresses many of these concerns regarding advertising. The battle, it seems, reaches far beyond Shelton and Derby. The site YelpLawsuit.com is dedicated to "gathering information on the victims from around the country" in the wake of a class action lawsuit against Yelp that was dismissed last October.

"They're really sticking it to small businesses," Yanarella said.

"At this point we just hope other people won't take what they see on Yelp as gospel," Calandro said.