The Press Herald has a report on Vinland chef/owner David Levi’s complaint that Yelp manipulated his restaurant’s reviews on the site when he declined to advertise.
A Portland restaurant owner says Yelp has manipulated reviews of his restaurant after he declined to buy ads, an accusation the online recommendation site has faced before and vigorously denies, saying reviews are ranked by a computer algorithm.
Vinland owner David Levi said he was prompted to speak out Monday after he noticed that Yelp’s local community manager, Steff Deschenes, downgraded her personal review of his restaurant from four stars to three stars a year after posting the review. But Deschenes said she made the change months ago, after reflecting on her experience at Vinland.
I sort of thought David was making too big a deal out of this, but since this was written, two days ago, there have been 5 one star reviews of Vinland on Yelp. That’s more reviews in two days than had come in, IN TOTAL, in the previous month. Some of the reviewers had clearly never been to Vinland. This proves, at the very least, that Yelpers retaliate against people who criticize Yelp. Really messed up.