No Yelpers
The Rooz Cafe, a restaurant and coffee shop in Oakland, Calif., signals its distaste for patrons who post reviews on Yelp.com with a small sign: No Yelpers.
The sign is routinely ignored by devotees of Yelp, a San Francisco Internet company that enables average folks to write reviews of everything from restaurants to plumbers to parks.
“If you want good coffee and a comfy place to work, I’d recommend this place,” wrote Stephanie S., who gave Rooz four stars. “And the No Yelpers sticker made me laugh.”
Rooz’s owner, Steve Ranjbin, said he put the sticker up as a joke, but added that he had a complaint about Yelp.
“Yelp does not respect us as business owners,” Mr. Ranjbin said. “They don’t listen to business owners unless you’re an advertiser paying Yelp.”
Mr. Ranjbin, who said that amateur reviews can hurt his business, said some had misquoted him or called his employees names, but that Yelp had refused to take these comments down. Yelp rarely removes reviews, even when advertisers complain, preferring to let the crowd have its say.
The sign is routinely ignored by devotees of Yelp, a San Francisco Internet company that enables average folks to write reviews of everything from restaurants to plumbers to parks.
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Photo by yelp.com.
Angela on May 27th, 2008 2:43 pm
Otherwise I like the idea of yelp. He may think it hurts his business, but customers will appreciate reading what others will think about a place before they visit. In reality, someone should be able to tell the difference between a bad comment and an intelligent one.
etavitom on May 27th, 2008 6:05 pm
yelp is an awesome site and the only one i go to for new places to eat. i’d rather read reviews from customers i can trust.
ellie on February 24th, 2009 1:08 pm
Yelp is full of annoying douchey hipsters who fancy themselves food critics. And no, I’m not a business owner, I just read one too many reviews in which a “yelper” called the readers her “fans”. Don’t flatter yourself, sweetie.
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