Yelp: Food, Delivery & Reviews

Why am I docking one star? We always use this app to find restaurants and businesses, and it’s very usefully and easy to used. Unsure if this is a bug or by design, but it’s a huge pet peeve of mine and poorly executed if it’s by design. When I write longer reviews I tend to do a lot of cutting and pasting to move elements of my review around so they make more sense. However that’s not possible in the Yelp app for iPhones. So I write them outside of the app (for example in notes), so that I can really think about it, check for errors, etc. Then I want to copy and paste it from Notes into Yelp. But again for some reason on the app, Yelp has blocked the ability to cut and paste information into the reviews field. I would then have to go to a computer (outside of the app) to finish my review. What a pain. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to cut, copy and paste (edit using IPhone editing capabilities) into the field when leaving a review. I would have left many many more reviews if this worked like any other app and and not blocked the ability to edit in that field. If you want more people to leave reviews, fix it. Editing didn’t exist in the iPhone 1, but was added thereafter. So no reason to limit people to editing as it was 10 years ago.

Recently there was a sarcastic entry from this establishment on their social media that some people found offensive. It was written in jest as a point that the establishment actually treats their employees incredibly well, but also shows loyalty to their customers. They made a joke about how they sacrifice themselves so that they will be open for anyone who wants to venture out into “bad weather”. There were people on social media who misunderstood the sarcasm, and those people (many of them who had never even experienced the amazing quality of 715) used the internet to try to take them down; People who value social media over the existence of one of their own local businesses. They don’t even realize that there are businesses in our town which REALLY don’t treat their employees with any respect. Businesses whose owners live in another state. These people who were offended are going after a local establishment when they should be focusing on establishments that are a much bigger challenge, who are ACTUALLY treating their employees with disrespect. Not just in jest. Please look past the posts made by people who are part of an online bandwagon of righteousness. 715 IS the only restaurant worth while in this area. -Former chef from California who worked with the likes of Alice Waters.

I used to love yelp, but seeing how sometimes it can hurt small businesses by one MAJOR bug it annoys me. I am all about writing positive reviews and the negative reviews so that others have better feedback on a location. The one bug that yelp really needs to fix that hurts places is that at the bottom of whatever location there is always an area that says reviews that are “not recommended” now I know some people will write their own reviews but I have seen many places that they have several reviews in this area. It bugs me a lot. Because this great cyber bot that they have working and approving reviews lets way too many reviews fall under this category. Especially for the price some people pay to have access to their yelp business astounds me. So, if you have read up until the end here’s my advice always check the bottom for the “reviews that are not recommended” because 90% of the time they are still honest reviews.

I recently was at the First Watch in Ocala and observed the horrible treatment that one of the employees got from the other staff. There was a new girl working there that was fairly new and I would assume still learning the ins and out there as a waitress. While I was trying to enjoy my meal I noticed one of the waitresses being extremely rude to the newer girl because she’d made a mistake. She wAs extremely rude to this poor girl to the point that this poor girl was in tears. It was horrible to watch. The poor girl went back to working and tried to hold her head high. I’m shocked that nobody helped her! I later found out this poor girls name was Kelly and that she quit that day. I have been a customer there for sometime and I won’t be anymore. From what could see the employers did nothing to try to rd tidy this poor girl being belittled in from of customers by another employee. I heard rumors from friends of mine that go there that the waitresses that have been there for many years drive the new girls out so they make more money and from what I saw I believe it! I’ve experienced a few new girls working there that didn’t last more than a week and one girl just a day! This is one customer that will never go back to an establishment that is unfair to its employees and let this firm of bullying take place. I will be sure to share my feelings with my fellow friends, neighbors, ect!

I owned a restaurant and we had 4.5 to 4.75 rating on all other rating sites, except Yelp. On Yelp we had a 2.5. I went through the reviews and there were many that were 4 to 5 star reviews, but they were hidden on Yelp and not used in our rating. I contacted Yelp and they explained how these were not trustworthy reviews and that their system takes random reviews and creates our rating. Funny, there were two or three low reviews, they were all used, and /15-20 high reviews but only a few of those were used. Here the best part. Soon after I contacted them, i started getting calls from Yelp sales people wanting me to buy ads. I explained my issue with their rating system and they told me that if I bought ads, those negative reviews could be eliminated and more of the positive reviews used so that our overall rating would be better. It’s a scam and no one will ever change my mind on this. Just like Yahoo used to be. Yahoo advertised as this all knowing search engine, yet you had to pay to be on it, so it wasn’t search the web, it was searching its database. It’s just not honest. Yelp selects the reviews they use in the rating and if you pay them, they improve your rating. That too is just not honest. It’s a joke.