Small Business Owners Beware

I am a sole practitioner and the small business owner of Energies from Source Healing Center in Jamaica Plain, MA. Recently I have had to defend my good name and the Energies from Source business name against a so-called Yelp-Boston review that is intentionally misleading and defamatory. The 'review' in question was written by Alexis W. of West Roxbury, MA and is dated April 9, 2008.

For those of you who have heard of it. Yelp is a website that allows regular people who have visited a place or used a service to write a review and post it online for others to read. http://www.yelp.com/faq

For some reason, despite the fact that I have received six 5-star ratings from customers who have actually been to my home and have gotten psychic readings, chakra balancing sessions or attended the monthly healing circle; Yelp-Boston has been featuring Alexis W.'s phone conversation with me as a SELECTED REVIEW rather than any of the other ones that are available. Whenever someone puts the word "Psychic" into the Yelp-Boston Search engine it is Alexis's comments that appear under my business name.

No amount of e-mail communication between me and Yelp's legal department or Yelp's User Supprt in San Francisco, CA has helped to get these comments removed from the site. Even though Yelp would not remove Alexis's comments, they still found the time to remove my response to her words within 4 days of it being posted:

"I had communicated with her by e-mail and and had tried to reach her by phone too. When I finally got in touch with her via cell phone, we had a bad phone connection and I couldn't understand her so I kept asking her questions. Twice, I stated that we had a bad phone connection but she just got angry and hung up on me. I am sorry that Alexis was upset but it was a misunderstanding."

As you might imagine, I was getting frustrated about Yelp-Boston and its refusal to follow their own Terms of Service (as of May 7, 2007) which, in part, state that reviewers " may not post content that is false or intentionally misleading, is threatening, obscene, defamatory or libelous or is pornagraphic or sexually explicit in nature." Deciding to be pro-active, I cantacted the Hale and Dorr Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School.
(http://www.law.harvard.edu/academics/clinical/lsc/clinics/business.htm) They referred me to one of their sister programs called the Burkman Cyber Center which deals with issues on the Internet.

On July 16, 2008, the Burkman Center shared with me that because of the Good Samaritan Law, (47 USC and 230) ISP's like Yelp, are not responsible for any 3rd party statements which are listed on their site and they sent me a link to http://www.cybertelecom.org/cda/cda-up.htm so that I could read all about it. The Burkman Center further stated that any ISP could potentially say whatever they wanted to say in its Terms of Service and that they really don't have to follow them.

It was disconcerting to hear all of this. I began to wonder if there were any other small businesses going through the same problems as myself. Previously, before speaking with the Cyber Center, while using a Google Search Engine, I located the website http://news.cnet.com which had 15 comments relating to business owners from around the USA and their irate feelings towards Yelp. (Comments on Ethics Watch: Yelp's Sponsorship Program) Many of whom were small women owned businesses, like myself, that were having the same kinds of problems with Yelp with one exception..

All of my dealings had been done by e-mail and these business owners had spoken to a Yelp representative. Several of the businesses in the Chicago, Illinois and San Jose, CA areas felt that they were being bullied by Yelp salespeople to purchase a Yelp business account and that by doing so all of their problems would be "rectified."

As I spoke with the Cyber Clinic, I thought about those other small business owners across the country who were dealing with Yelp salespeople that were trying to intimidate them into signing up for a Yelp for Business Owners account. So I asked the Cyber Clinic if it was legal to bully businesses into using their services.

The Burkman Clinic said that the bullying aspect put a different slant on things. That there was the possibility of a real Class Action Suite if it could be proved that Yelp salespeople were pressuring businesses i.e. "we make it go away, if you pay us money."

After thanking the Cyber Clinic, I decided to be more pro-active and visited Representative Liz Malia's office in the MA State House to see if she could shed some light on my situation. (Room 33, State House, Boston, MA 02133/(617) 722-2060) Liz Malia was out on the State House floor but Millicent A. Johnson, her Legislative Aide, was very helpful. She made some phone calls and referred me to two different Boston offices.

The first office was The Consumer Protection and Antitrust Division of the MA Office of the Attorney General. (1 Ashburton Place, Boston, MA 02108, 617-727-8400, http://www.mass.gov/ago/ ) It was here that I filled out a consumer complaint form and at 4:30pm, just before the end of the workday on July 16, 2008, I met with Didi Larochelle who is the Deputy Director of the Attorney General's office. After examining my written complaint against Yelp, she informed me that the Attorney General only deals with consumers not businesses and that they couldn't help me. I said to her, "Aren't business owners considered to be consumers too?" She apologized saying that this was just the way things worked. She expressed the opinion that the Internet was like the 'Wild West' right now because there were not a lot of clear rules governing its use.

The next day,on July 17, 2008, I visited the second office that was recommended to me by Millicent A. Johnson which was the Executive Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation (10 Park Plaza, Suite #5170, Boston, MA 02115, 617-727-7780, http://www.mass.gov/consumer/ ) where I met with Maureen Tobin, Executive Assistant to the Under Secretary, who shared with me that despite the 'Business Regulation' in their name, this office did not do anything with small businesses like mine. They worked with banks and big businesses that have 25 or more employees.

Maureen did give me a copy of the MA Consumer Guide to the " 30 Day Demand Letter." This letter could be used if I felt that my problem with Yelp involved an unfair or deceptive practice which is in violation of the MA Consumer Protection Act. The law would require me to send Yelp a letter 30 days before I filed a claim in court. Then Yelp would need to make a good faith response within 30 days, or it could subject them to triple damages and attorney fees!

The 30 Day Demand Letter sounded great until I realized that ISP's do not have to act in good faith. (230) (c) (2) (B) It certainly does not seem like small businesses like mine have much recourse to take against a large company like Yelp which has affiliates across the country via the Internet and doesn't seem to have any scruples when it comes to their business practices but we sure can try!

I decided to put my story out on my website in the hopes that it will help other business owners, both large and small, to recognize that they are not alone in trying to survive in Yelp's equivalent of the Wild West. If everyone were to document their conversations and interchanges with Yelp personnel and submit them to their Better Business Bureau and their favorite law firm, then we may be able to affect some positive change in the way that the Yelp ISP treats businesses around the country.

Lastly, I suggest that everyone contact their State Representative to ask that ISP's be required to write out their Terms of Service and Terms of Use in layman's terms. So that the everyday person who might be considering joining up with a site, would be immediately greeted by an easy to read copy of the Good Samaritan's Law.

I am sending this out as a cautionary tale to warn other small business owners about the dangers of being involved with the Yelp website and to make them aware of how much damage this site can do to a small business and others like it. Yelp has since changed their Terms of Service and they now state, as of August 5, 2008 that "Yelp reserves the right (but has no obligation) to remove or suppress User Content from the Site at its sole discretion for any or no reason and without notice or liability of any kind." In other words, members are on their own when it comes to dealing with reviews listed at their sites.

For this reason and for all that I have written about above, I have cancelled my account with them. ( I am using other more reputable sites to advertise my business. You can now find me at The National Directory of Holistic Services http://www.holisticguidance.com and The International Association of Reiki Professionals http://www.iarp.org ) My hope is that, with concerted effort, small business owners across America will become aware of the potential danger of sites like Yelp and work together to protect and help each other against these sites.

Maryfaith Goessling
August 29, 2008