'Kitchen Nightmares' Couple Claims Yelp Is Threatening To Destroy Their Business: Filters Positive Reviews & Is Trying To Extort Money!
Nov. 6 2013, Published 6:16 p.m. ET
Amy's Baking Company owners Samy and Amy Bouzaglo are back to where their troubles all began: Yelp.
The controversial Kitchen Nightmares restauranteurs recently did an interview with Totally Driven in which they slam the online review site, claiming Yelp has purposely tried to damage their business and have threatened the Bouzaglos with extortion.
After appearing on Gordon Ramsay's hit FOX show, the couple rose to fame when they were portrayed as 'the most hated restaurant owners' on the show — and after being slammed by disgruntled diners the Bouzaglos fought back in a combative Facebook post and continued to fight with strangers online.
"We have proof from Yelp, we have physical proof from Yelp, threatening to take our business down if we do not pay them for advertising dollars," Amy told the blog talk radio hosts.
"Our problem didn't start with this whole Kitchen Nightmaresthing. Our problem with Yelp started three and a half years ago here in our local community in Scottsdale."
Amy claims a "local hustler" came into their Arizona restaurant and demanded free rounds of drinks or free dinner, otherwise he would write a bad review on Yelp.
"They have something on Yelp called the 'filtered reviews.' We have lots, hundreds, of beautiful five-star reviews that are from real customers that have come in, that have taken pictures of the food…and their reviews are filtered because Yelp has something that they call an algorithm, where for whatever reason they want to, they'll filter a review," Amy claims.
"If a person has never written a review on Yelp before it can be flagged because that person can't be real. It's a problem and it's something that we're working on."
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Amy explains that she and her husband were approached byKitchen Nightmares production after Yelp suggested their restaurant needed help.
"The casting for Kitchen Nightmares, they asked Yelp who in Arizona needed their help the most, and there was an overwhelming response from the Yelping community that Amy's Baking Company needed Kitchen Nightmares' help more than anybody," she said.
"It doesn't help that Yelp has been trying to extort us for advertising dollars for the last three and a half years either. We have proof. We have proof of everything. When we agreed to doKitchen Nightmares my husband and I said we've got nothing to hide, let's bring everybody here. If Gordon Ramsay wants to bring the attention of the world to our restaurant, welcome!
"We're very humble, hardworking people and we believed that Kitchen Nightmares were coming to help us with the online reviewers and the Yelping community, and instead they just exasperated the problem. They made it much, much worse, on a global scale."
RadarOnline.com reached out to Yelp for comment and they had this to say: "These claims are untrue and alleging that Yelp is the root of this business' problems is simply crazy."
Listen to the Bouzaglos entire interview below and stay with RadarOnline.com for more on this outspoken couple.