Eat at Jumbo's joins lawsuit against Yelp

[ron_newman]

Today's Globe g section has a long feature article about online restaurant-review sites. It includes a full-page photo of Grover Taylor, the owner of Eat at Jumbo's in Ball Square. He's suing Yelp:

Grover Taylor, owner of Eat at Jumbo’s in Somerville, says his ratings dropped sharply last year when he declined to advertise on the site. “They called every week, telling me I needed to pay $500 a month to advertise. When I said no, a lot of one-star reviews started appearing on top. And then the phone would ring. Hi, this is Art from Yelp. We can make them disappear.’’ Taylor says the calls slowed and changed tone when he told the Yelp agent he was joining the class action suit. “Art stopped calling. A new guy from Yelp is calling now.’’

(For those interested, here is Eat at Jumbo's Yelp page)

Comments

[spatch]

"Sure is a nice restaurant you got here. Good kitchen. Nice menu. It'd be a shame if someone... said something bad about it. On the Internet."

"NO NOT THAT, ANYTHING BUT THAT, I AM BUT A POOR LOCAL BUSINESS OWNER, HOW WILL I STAY IN BUSINESS WITH ONE-STAR REVIEWS? HERE, HERE, TAKE A CUT. PLEASE. JUST DON'T ONE-STAR US."

"You truly are a supporter of the online community. I'm sure customers in the future won't feel so... aggressively self-entitled."

Rock on, Grover. Eat at Jumbo's is fighting the good fight by joining this suit. Plus their poutine fries are incredible.