Playing with the stars

Perfection Expected

Re: "Yelp Giveth, and Yelp Taketh Away," October 8 cover story

I’ll keep this short because I’m sure there will be a lot of people who feel the same way. I’ve been a North County doctor for close to 40 years, and had thousands of satisfied patients , yet the first two reviews on my Yelp page are “one-star” disgruntled patients. Really?

Of course, no one is perfect — but apparently Yelp readers expect you to be. Pretty sad.

• Name withheld
• Encinitas

Successful Despite Yelp

I worked in the online commerce business from the earliest days until I recently retired. During the last three years, a close friend, who owns a tourist-oriented business, has talked with me for hours about his Yelp interactions and discussions.

He has operated a very successful tourist activity business in San Diego for over 30 years and is the epitome of a smart, experienced, and financially successful small business owner. At various times he has had three to 20 employees while he focuses on marketing, new business development, and customer satisfaction.

His struggles with Yelp have been epic, and exactly as your article describes (“Yelp Giveth, and Yelp Taketh Away,” October 8 cover story). But he also has a very high Yelp satisfaction rating and no negative reviews. His Trip Advisor ratings are perfect, with a very large number of reviews. His Trip Advisor review count is 15 times that of his Yelp review account. That is a hard-to-understand difference.

He has hundreds of repeat customers who have used his services several times a year for the last couple decades. They all tell him the same thing: they enter Yelp comments that never appear for his business.

New customers frequently tell him they almost didn’t book with him because his advertising says he has been in business in the same location for 30 years but he has very few Yelp reviews and that makes them suspicious.

Yelp has repeatedly told my friend the positive reviews entered by his repeat customers will appear if he increases his Yelp advertising expenditures. He refuses, and literally hundreds of positive reviews sent to Yelp for his business disappear into the Yelp filter process. Almost every review that does appear is from a Yelp Elite reviewer and, fortunately, they are all very positive.

My friend has the experience and network of San Diego tourist business contacts to keep his business profitable despite the intentional failure of Yelp to post the hundreds of positive reviews he receives. I feel sorry for small business operators who do not have the same background.

• Jerry King
• Downtown

Losing the Loos

Re: Neighborhood News, August 27, “What Went Wrong with the Loos?”

If you think about it, closing public restrooms makes sense. Besides being expensive to build and operate, loos are, well, pro-choice! How many fish will be saved if we close the restrooms? Every time someone flushes, a sea creature dies. So, bringing pressure on restroom providers to close these ungodly facilities is, well, pro-life!

I urge all of you to write to Pat Robertson and Rick Santorum and tell them to push hard for the defunding of all public restrooms. No one has the right to choose to use the loos. Don’t dilly-dally; just use the back alley!

• James Joseph Kilijanski
• Chula Vista