Things aren’t going so well for Here Comes the Bride, a New Jersey bridal shop featured last week on Free Enterprise when its manager refused to sell a wedding dress to Alix Genter on the grounds that she is marrying another woman. As a result of the widespread media attention, hundreds of outraged citizens posted nasty reviews on the shop’s Yelp page, calling the store’s actions immoral and urging patrons to shop elsewhere. Yelp is now in the process of removing those reviews. While the review removal is unlikely to repair the reputation of the New Jersey bridal shop, it does serve as an important lesson for those of you who seek to grow your businesses with Yelp. Besides the fact that you should always remember that one offended customer can translate into hundreds of poor reviews, it’s important to keep in mind that you have some say over which reviews remain on your Yelp profile. Yelp isn’t pulling the negative reviews because it sanctions the behavior of Here Comes the Bride–it’s doing it because the reviews are against its terms of use . Those terms of use specifically state that “reviews of businesses on Yelp should be about the customer experience, not the views of a business or its employees.” They also state that Yelp is not the place for rants , defamation and harassment. The company is usually willing to work with business owners seeing these sorts of reviews, so if you notice something that blatantly violates the terms of use, you should consider sending an e-mail instead of allowing it to fester on your business’ page. While such a request won’t save Here Comes the Bride, it could potentially save you. Related Resources: ‘Yelp’ removes negative comments, ratings condemning anti-gay bridal shop (LGBTQ Nation) NJ Bridal Store Refuses to Sell Lesbian a Dress (FindLaw’s Free Enterprise) Dentist Must Pay $80K in Yelp Review Case (FindLaw’s Free Enterprise)
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Anti-Gay NJ Bridal Shop’s Yelp Reviews Removed