While some businesses love the attention they buy receive from Yelp, others are growing annoyed with the empire of would-be critics. Such is the case at Rooz Cafe in Oakland, where the owner has placed a “No Yelpers!!” sticker on his counter in the wake of several negative Yelp reviews that the cafe staff says were “being ’snarky’ for entertainment reasons or to impress the Yelp community.” Rooz Cafe reps say that if customers do indeed hold complaints, the critique should be mentioned to the staff rather than be posted online “with attitude.”
Among the personal attack entries on Rooz’s Yelp page comes this review from Yelper Kevin L: “Dyed hair, dirty, gothic type staff. Very rude. This business will collapse into an utter pile of vile soon enough due to the Cafe Nazi.”
To counter such negative reviews, the owner put up the now-infamous sticker and told his friends/staff to flood the site with positive reviews.
See http://sf.eater.com/archives/2007/10/18/yelp_wanted_oakland_cafe_bans.php
Rooz Cafe [Yelp]
· “No Yelpers”; Says One Local Cafe [screenwerk]
· Yelp Wanted: On the Issue of Pre-Opening Reviews [~ESF~]
· Yelp Wanted: Yelp Nation Responds … Boy, Does It Ever. [~ESF~]
· Yelp Wanted: The Curious Case of the Magically-Appearing Five-Star Review [~ESF~]
