Yelp Reviews

UPDATE (7/13/24)

We reported this issue to Yelp a while back. They reviewed what we sent them and consolidated the reviews from the fake businesses that were created into a single site for TriCity Veterinary Hospital and created the new URL below. Note that the other Yelp URLs listed in this document are now redirected to the new URL.

https://www.yelp.com/biz/tricity-veterinary-hospital-fremont-9

This page details the attempts that have been made to hide negative Yelp reviews of TriCity Veterinary Hospital from the public.

SUMMARY

1. Threats Against Negative Yelp Reviewers

Dr. Salwan’s issues with negative Yelp reviews were first documented by the San Jose Mercury News in 2010. The reporter had discovered that Raj had written letters threatening legal action against people who had posted negative reviews. He was quoted in the article as saying

“It was not the right way to handle it. I regret doing that.”

Indeed, of the over 500 Yelp reviews the business received, over 70 percent are one-star reviews. Some of the comments are highly critical with scathing remarks, with many stating that their pets suffered severe harm and even death.

2. When the Threats Failed, Fake Businesses Arose

Faced with hundreds of scathing reviews and having been exposed for using threats to try to remove them, the negative reviews were effectively hidden by moving them to fake businesses located well outside of Fremont.

Yelp does not allow one to remove reviews of your business, but it does allow you to say you changed the name and address of your business.

There is a fictitious business supposedly based in Palo Alto called “Bay Animal Hospital Non-Profit”. The many Yelp reviews from TriCity Veterinary Hospital are now at this business. The address for this building is that of an abandoned building in Palo Alto. There was even a fictitious web site for the business which has since been taken down but is still available in a web archive.

The result of this makes it very difficult to find these negative reviews if one is searching for reviews of his business in Fremont.
If a customer can’t find a business, they can add it as a new business in Yelp and post a review. Since the movement to “Bay Animal Hospital Non-Profit”, someone created a new page with the true name and address of his business in Fremont. Eight reviews were posted on that page, all of which were one star and again contained detailed accounts of harrowing experiences.

Amazingly enough, once again the tactic of pretending that the name and address of this business had changed was used to hide these new reviews. This time, the name was changed to Golden State Vet which is supposedly located in King City. The website for this new business, goldenstatevet.org, is simply a template for an architectural firm. The phone number listed is the actual phone number for TriCity Veterinary Hospital.

On April 12, 2024, another new page referencing the correct business, was created by a dissatisfied customer. There is yet another long scathing one star review there.

The details and some of the reviews are below.

YELP REVIEWS

Yelp has five separate business listings that are tied to Dr. Salwan. These are:

[display_reviews category_id="9" wrap_class="reviews-slider_3"]

LEGAL THREATS

When Dr. Salwan was being considered for the Fremont City Council in 2010, the San Jose Mercury News had an article mentioning Dr. Salwan’s threats to take legal action against those who posted negative reviews. Salwan acknowledged that he did this and said “It was not the right way to handle it. I regret doing that.“

“It was not the right way to handle it. I regret doing that.“
One of the Yelp reviews shows the email they received from Dr. Salwan:
“*REMOVED* due to threatening responses from American Animal Hospital (Their Owners & Family) remarks.
0 stars not an option so 1 star is given.  No more comment.
I WILL NEVER GO THERE EVER AGAIN

Dear Melissa:
This is a formal request to remove your review stated in Yelp against American Animal Hospital.  We are giving you notice that the information reported by you is libelous and as such we kindly request that you remove your review at once.  If you don’t remove your review within 7 days, we will have our attorney begin proceedings against you and we shall seek attorney fees in order to restore our good name and to remove these libelous statements.  If you have any bonafide complaint, I would be happy to meet with you discuss that.  However, this internet libel will not be tolerated and we shall seek full remedies of the law.

Sincerely,

Dr. Raj Salwan

cc. Dan Koller Attorney-at-Law

Another reviewer noted

“I find it really creepy that after posting this review I started getting harassed on Yelp. … So, I’m removing the review text so that the harassment will stop, but I stand by my 1 star. I’d give this place 0 stars if I could.”

And three more

“Wow.  I just got harassed by someone I am sure belongs to this hospital.  (via messages) I am fairly new to yelp, is this common practice?  I did not say anything remotely untruthful and as a reviewer have a right to keep everything accurate in my reviews.”

“I have noticed a pattern with American Animal Hospital. They seem to monitor reviews on here and other places then they call these previous, unhappy customers and demand to have these reviews removed. This is America where we have the freedom to voice our opinions. They should understand that.”

“I left them a bad review on insiderpages.com last year and it was then they started calling my home and harassing me. I gave in and removed my review and told insiderpages.com it is because these people are harassing me with phone calls due to my recent review. I still have ALL the e-mails to prove this.”

CREATING FICTITIOUS REVIEWS

A number of reviews claim that many of the five star reviews are falsely created. Of course, it’s hard to prove these are fraudulent but there are some suspicious reviews. As one viewer noted:
“I have read all the reviews prior to writing my own.  It seems that the ones with 5 stars do not have real stories, just that their pet or themselves love this place.  The ones with 1 star tell heart felt stories of bad service.”
It’s interesting how many of the positive reviews mention the negative reviews and are there to offer a counter. Why would users feel the need to comment on the many negative reviews?
One suspicious Yelp reviewer is ‘Beamy S.’. This user has only three Yelp reviews, all created on the same day. One is a five star review for Dr. Salwan. This review offers no personal story but does defend the hospital.
“I would not believe any of the other reviews.  Everyone I know or have met that goes to this hospital has been very satisfied.” 
The link to Beamy’s profile is below followed by another review that found him to be suspicious.

https://www.yelp.com/userdetails?userid=GGtkUu3tI01DqApz8xQmg

“One more thing though fellow yelpers, did anyone notice a review written by a Beamy S on 01/16/07. Is this the same Beamy S who requested a review to be removed by Melissa L written on 07/20/06???”
Here is another reviewer whose only goal appears to counter the negative reviews. Their comment and link to their profile with only two reviews is below.
“I have been here for many years and i highly recommend it. The wait may take long sometimes but its completely worth it for the care. I believe everyone elses reviews is completely over exaggerating i have never had a bad expierence here. I love coming here and will not be changing my vet anytime soon.”

https://www.yelp.com/userdetails?userid=yPvH9nkbwA7B-tZaIXbw

There are other similar reviews with the general theme of “I don’t know why there are so many negative reviews”.

HIDING TRICITY VETERINARY HOSPITAL

Despite the name change, many negative, very critical reviews kept coming in from 2017 onward at the third business Dr. Salwan has Yelp reviews with – Tricity Veterinary Hospital.
Currently on Yelp, if one searches for veterinarians in Fremont, of course, those in Fremont come up first. As one scrolls down through the results, one is shown locations outside of Fremont on the second, third and subsequent pages. Number 82 on the ninth page is:

“Bay Animal Hospital Non-Profit”

This location clearly contains the reviews that were given for TriCity Veterinary Hospital. The phone number for this location is that of TriCity Veterinary Hospital but the address is 630 Donohoe St., Palo Alto. CA. One fairly recent (2/22) reviewer noted:
“this is TRICITY VETERINARY HOSPITAL – 37117 Fremont Blvd, Fremont, CA 94536 – THEY ARE OPEN, NOT CLOSED, and BAY ANIMAL … is a FAKE NAME. I am not sure how they were able to get rid of their original Fremont location Yelp page, however I am going to reach out to Yelp, the BBB, county health officials, etc.
“ZERO Stars – BEWARE. OTHER REVIEWS (google, etc) Peoples animals have died.
“I feel like TRICITY VET has tried to price gouge me and almost killed my dog. I am almost convinced that their practices (required exams to purport false diagnosis) are illegal and a way to make good $. I am planning to report them.
“2nd- I walked out yesterday (FEB 2022), after the male Vet DR. RAJ SALWAN (he is Also City of Fremont’s Vice Mayor) , slammed the door, told me I was being difficult (because I wouldn’t let him get over on me), and tried to convince me that my “dog is sick” with an Esophagus issue.
“I am done. The place is filthy and smells. The staff aren’t that great. The Vet is awful and rude and disrespectful. I could go on and on. I had to speak 2 multiple people to ask what vaccines my dog was due for. They couldn’t even tell me, though they saw my dog last at their facility. I will admit that they have been annoying/rude from the beginning. Annoying is 1 thing, taking risks that can harm my dog, false diagnosis, is an entire different thing. I am determined to report them.”
Three other reviewers report the same thing:
“It seems TriCity Veterinarian Hospital has merged their yelp page with Bay Animal Hospital in Palo Alto to circumvent the bad reviews they received for their Fremont location. Also noticed that their Facebook page has been put back up after they removed it to stop bad reviews. And while almost all the reviews are 1-2 stars, they are showing to have 5-stars.  …  Seems like Facebook and Google reviews were easier to manipulate than Yelp’s, so they just changed entire yelp page to try to escape the honest reviews from customers.”
“This place is beyond sketchy, looks like they are into fraudulent now? Butchers, chop shop, animal killers and abusers. This is for whatever Tri City Vet in Fremont is now masquerading as. Don’t know why their bad reviews have magically been transferred to this place in Palo Alto.”
“This is odd… My original review was written for Tricity Veterinary Hospital in Fremont. For some odd reason it’s now merged for a different veternary clininc (Bay Animal Hospital) in Palo Alto, that I do not have any experience with. Also it is showing as closed, and there is a new business for Tricity Veterinary Hospital without reviews. Did someone pay for a fresh restart to combat the negative reviews?”

GOLDEN STATE VET

The Yelp page shows the website for this business is https://www.bayanimalhospital.org/. This page has been removed but the Wayback Machine does have an archive from this site from December of 2021. This page has a popup notification saying that this location is closed. Clicking past this notification brings one to the web page.

The website is a single page, WordPress site that is very similar to the webpage for Tricity Veterinary Clinic (https://www.tricityvets.com). The page doesn’t show any association with other locations or veterinary businesses. It lists Dr. Salwan as the only vet at the location, just as the webpage for Tricity Veterinary Clinic does. (This site and tricityvets.com also say that Raj has an undergraduate degree from UC Irvine. That is not true.)

The metadata on the website indicated that it was created in February of 2021. There is a definite drop in the number of Yelp reviews for this business after that time.

The phone number listed on the Bay Animal Hospital page is 510-796-8387. This is the same number as Tricity Veterinary Clinic in Fremont.

A simple Google search for “Bay Animal Hospital” or “Bay Animal Hospital Non Profit” doesn’t yield any results other than Yelp and the website mentioned above. Thus, “Bay Animal Hospital Non Profit” does not appear to exist except as a fictitious business created to trick Yelp into hiding this business from Fremont Yelp users.

Located in an Abandoned Building

Things get really fishy when one looks at the address that’s given for Bay Animal Hospital – 630 Donohoe St., Palo Alto. Google street view shows that this location is a building that doesn’t appear to have been at all operational recently:

Loopnet has additional photos of this site showing it is clearly not the site of an active business.

https://www.loopnet.com/property/630-donohoe-st-palo-alto-ca-94303/06081-063311050/

Property Owned by Other Veterinarians

County records and one website show that this property is owned (or at least was owned) by Joginder Ghumman and Tejpaul Ghumman. The Ghummans are also veterinarians who were associated with Alta View Animal Hospital in Mountain View. Indeed, the picture of the property above shows a billboard for Alta View Animal Hospital.

Tejpaul Ghumman had his veterinarian license revoked in 2020.

https://www.mv-voice.com/news/2020/07/27/state-revokes-mountain-view-veterinarians-license-following-string-of-complaints-by-pet-owners

The Yelp reviews for Alta View Animal Hospital are similar to those for Dr. Salwan’s business – mostly highly critical one star reviews sprinkled with five star reviews, and very few in between.

https://www.yelp.com/biz/alta-view-animal-hospital-mountain-view

Dr. Ghumman is not the only veterinarian whose license has been revoked that Dr. Salwan may have had dealings with.  The lawyer he hired to threaten those who posted negative Yelp reviews (Dan Koller) is also a former veterinarian who has had both his veterinary and law licenses revoked.

What is Bayshore Animal Hospital?

Searching for the address 630 Donohoe reveals many directory type pages (i.e. yellowpages.com) that show this is the address for the Bayshore Animal Hospital. Some of these results are listed below:

There are several other sites like this linking the address 630 Donohoe to Bayshore Animal Hospital. Even the City of San Jose’s Business Directory shows this.

What’s odd is that despite all of the above links, there is nothing to indicate that this ever was an actual operating business. Some of the sites listed above allow for reviews, but there are none for this site.

There is a Yelp page for this business that shows this business as closed, but it has no Yelp reviews at all. There is no web page listed on the Yelp page nor can one be found via Google. The phone number listed on the Yelp page has been disconnected.

Thus, it appears that the 630 Donohoe address is not only being used by Raj Salwan to create a fictitious business, ‘Bay Animal Hospital Non Profit’, but that is was also used to create another fictitious business with a similar name, Bayshore Animal Hospital.

It is unknown what the connection is, if any, between Dr. Salwan and the owners of this property.

GOLDEN STATE VET

With the original Yelp page move to the East Palo Alto location, users wanting to leave a review for TriCity Veterinary Clinic wouldn’t have a place to do so. But Yelp does offer one the option to create a new business. Obviously, someone did that for TriCity Vet in 2023. The original link that references TriCity Veterinary Hospital now redirects to Golden State Vet
https://www.yelp.com/biz/tricity-veterinary-hospital-fremont-7
Reviews for this page came in from July through October 2023. All eight reviews are one star reviews. Five of these are from Newark/Fremont. As has been seen before, some of the comments are scathing (see two below).
Screen shots from the Yelp page are below.
“Worse vet experience ever, I understand why this vet changed their name from American Pet Hospital. Probably too many negative reviews and complaints. This is the same vet operating under a new name and even the same building. …”
“… Worst experience I’ve ever had at a vet. Incompetent, disgusting behaviors. Before I paid? Nice, friendly, quick to respond. After paying? Won’t answer calls, doesn’t respond to emails, won’t send our records, …”
This is obviously a fictitious business. The web site listed appears to be an ‘Etudes’ WordPress template that doesn’t represent a real business let alone a veterinary clinic. The phone number is the number of TriCity Veterinary Clinic. The address is a shopping mall and there’s no indication there is any veterinary clinic there.

 

CONCLUSION

It appears that Bay Area Hospital Non-Profit and Golden State Vet are fictitious businesses that were created in order to hide the many scathing negative reviews that TriCity Veterinarian Hospital has received on Yelp.
* Yelp doesn’t provide summary figures other than the number of reviews. The counts for each rank, (one-star, etc.) were manually counted. Sometimes a review is updated by the user. In those cases the latest review was counted as the review’s score. Yelp also has a number of reviews that are ‘not recommended’. They do not include these in the main number of reviews. These reviews were not counted in the above calculations. A quick review showed that these reviews had about the same level of negative reviews as the others.

APPENDIX: Additional Yelp Review Comments

Yelp has five separate business listings that are tied to Dr. Salwan. These are:

[display_reviews category_id="13" wrap_class="reviews-slider_3"]