It looks like either you have never been interacting with a business owner you know and trust, or you are a Yelp employee.
Believe me, my wife can handle negative review when they are truthful but when you see a negative reviews that is clearly advocating for a competitors and Yelp doesn't do a thing to remove it, you have to wonder what are they up to.
Additionally even without getting all the information about a review that Yelp is getting (IP address, frequency of visits, etc), we saw a few times similar negative review being posted on the same day with similar wordings for 2 newly created accounts. Interesting enough the same day one real customer (with many Yelp reviews) posted a 4 stars reviews... Guess what?
Yelp 'algorithm' filtered out the 4 stars reviews and left the 2 one star reviews... Sorry but as an engineer with over 15 years of experience it sounds fishy to me.
Since my wife started her business, she has met various other business owners with similar experience...
Hard to believe that their filtering system is not directed toward the good of Yelp business plan for selling ads.
Someone who sees anyone arguing Yelp's side as an employee sounds a little paranoid. I am inclined not to believe you, and surprised you would put forward that argument. Of course your are expected to think the best about your wife, and how she handles business.
You may even be correct, but you are too biased in this issue to offer an honest and objective opinion, surely you see that?
Now I am not saying Yelp do not do some dodgy filtering, but it would be incredibly stupid of them if they did. I have seen many arguments before, but no actual proof. And this article from the WSJ, after further investigation, indicated that Yelp are not doing anything dodgy. The negative reviews seem to be honest, from a decent reviewer, not a fellow dog trainer.
Since my wife started her business, she has met various other business owners with similar experience...
Hard to believe that their filtering system is not directed toward the good of Yelp business plan for selling ads.