How would Yelp know whether or not my call to a local restaurant ended in a sale without listening in on the phone call?

They - Grubhub not Yelp - record every phone call, as the article points out, and even make it available to the restaurants, with personal details censored (unless of course their algorithms fuck up, and it does fuck up).

So chances are if you ever called via Yelp into one of such Grubhub numbers, they got at least your voice and your food preferences (which might include medical/dietary needs) on record, maybe even your full details and CC number etc (depending on the quality of their automated censoring algorithms and on whether or not they store the original unredacted calls as well).

“This call may be recorded to ensure awesomeness”, as their phone robot tells you :P

They are listening in on the phone call.

The bill would make more sense if it was against companies like Yelp misleading both customers and restaurants that they are calling eachother directly.

Do you know of any?

I'm looking for model legislation. Basis for our own bill(s).

I've scheduled a meeting with two of my representatives. One especially expects you to know what you're asking for (like homework assignment).

I'll probably call my state's attorney general, fishing for ideas.

> that don't end in a sale.

i would bet 99%+ of all calls to restaurants from grubhub end in a sale, thus making this law meaningless.

edit: why did i get downvoted for this? it adds to the discussion and it doesn't break any of HN's rule. are people just not happy about it or something? wtf.

99%+?

I can give you a case in point: we just tried to order Thai on Saturday from one of our favorite restaurants. They were short staffed in the kitchen and the wait time was over an hour... so we didn't order. I'm willing to bet a ton of other people did the same thing. Why should the Thai place have to PAY for people that declined to order?

> Why should the Thai place have to PAY for people that declined to order?

They don’t, unless they agreed to those terms with the entity charging them. For example, if the agreement was to pay Yelp for all phone calls coming from Yelp’s website.

That's a little disingenuous. They don't HAVE to pay for those calls, but if Yelp's system decides an order took place then they get charged for the call. Based on some experimenting done recently by a podcast I listen to (can't remember which one right now), that decision boils down to "if the call was longer than 45 seconds and food was discussed, then an order took place". It's then up to the restaurant owner to reconcile and dispute any charged calls that didn't end in a sale. That means listening to the recording of every call that was charged and requesting a refund for each one that didn't end in an order.

If it were a mutually negotiated contract, on equitable terms, then it would be a valid and very relevant point.

Yelp is not exactly known for fair negotiation.

Grubhub itself, in this article, claims only 35%.

After reading the article I don't feel particularly inclined to take Grubhub at their word.

Yeah, but if they're lying they'd lie on the high end, not the low end. If it's actually 99%, they'd say 99.999%. If it's actually 10%, they'd say 35%.

> i would bet 99%+ of all calls to restaurants from grubhub end in a sale, thus making this law meaningless.

How do you prove it ended in a sale though?

Have any data to back up that claim?

What data would be required? A betting slip? (-:

Probably not. That’s what makes it a bet. But if you’ve ever worked in a restaurant, it certainly seems logical.

"How late are you open tonight? Ok, thanks."

It seems unlikely that there is a large contingent of people who Google a restaurant (which they must be doing in order to get Yelp's number), ignore the listing of hours right next to the number and call the restaurant to get the hours. I believe it happens, but I have a hard time believing that particular sequence of events accounts for even one call in 50.

I do it all the time, google’s hours are often wrong, especially during covid.

To clarify: You're saying you do this more often than you order takeout? Especially during Covid? Because I explicitly said I believe it happens, just that it's a minority of calls.

Yeah, I almost never order over the phone. I go in person to look at the menu.