11 ms·

It's a constant fear, and there's no way to avoid using these companies. I'm currently dealing with a bakery business that was suddenly suspended from Google Ma

It's a constant fear, and there's no way to avoid using these companies. I'm currently dealing with a bakery business that was suddenly suspended from Google Maps. This is a big deal because it's the main way, by far, that people find us. 7 days ago, boom. Your account has been suspended for not following the business guidelines. The only thing I've updated recently was our hours. It's been listed without problems for about two years. Of course they don't tell you what the issue is. They just tell you to fix it and then beg them to reinstate you. It takes up to two weeks apparently (7 days so far). And if they decide not to, the only thing you can do is delete the listing, and two years worth of hard earned reviews go up in smoke. A few days ago one of our staff told me a Korean tourist came in the day before we were suspended and accused us of being fake. I don't know exactly what happened but due to the tourist's limited English nobody could persuade them we were the real location. Or maybe they were looking for somewhere else entirely? Who knows. Apparently they left a negative review, which I can't see while the account is suspended. Probably they reported the location as fake. So that's it. Two years, over 100 positive reviews sitting at 4.9 stars. Gone because of one confused tourist. Or maybe because I updated the hours. Or maybe an automatic spam check didn't like us. I sincerely hope that the next round of EU laws tackles this instead of privacy. It's just as big an issue, especially if you're running a small business.

neodypsis 3y ago
Also, how should a small business deal with fake negative reviews in, say, Play Store? Google does nothing to fix that. As the app developer you know a review from an account that didn't sign-up to your service is fake, especially when it appears at the same time other similar fake reviews do.
kjkjadksj 3y ago
Even if you dont want to be listed on google maps, they will sometimes generate a fake listing for you anyhow. I got burned by one of these as a customer, the link for takeout was not actually a site the restaurant was partnered with. I’ve also seen restaurants with similar names url squat these other places. It seems so bizzare google will publish such information without ever validating it with the business. It must cause a lot of damage and support quite the environment of scammers though.
- brucethemoose2 3y ago
  > It seems so bizzare google will publish such information without ever validating it with the business. Why should they? Validation would be expensive, and the false information doesn't hurt Google. Where else are you gonna list?
  - ben_w 3y ago
    If they don't want to validate it, they shouldn't publish it or sell advertising on a service that used the unverified data. It was OK for the web because that's the only way, but maps have a lot more sources of truth.
- fallinghawks 3y ago
  This happened to a restaurant I go to a lot. Their Maps listing said there was online ordering, but the link went to a site that even had a disclaimer saying they were not actually affiliated with the restaurant. I reported it to Google and they removed the entry, but anyone can make a change and double checking seems to be cursory at best.
can16358p 3y ago
> I sincerely hope that the next round of EU laws tackles this instead of privacy. It's just as big an issue, especially if you're running a small business. This! Couldn't agree more. I believe this is a much more bigger, huge problem compared to privacy, which is preventable (users can choose not to use a service) but this can take down entire businesses because of data giants' crappy/false alerting systems. It should be illegal for Google, say, to remove listing without proving, or if that's not possible, if they remove they should legally be forced to compensate for the damage done. (Of course Google is just an example here, applies to any large enough platform) Maybe then they will take this serious.
- franciscop 3y ago
  > users can choose not to use a service By that logic you can just not use Google. But that's ridiculous, as ridiculous as the statement that users can choose not to use a service. I believe it's impossible to live in modern society without having an account in FAANG, even harder than a business not having a google maps listing.
  - a_nop 3y ago
    People get along fine without accounts in FAANG. You don't even need an account to use many Google services.
    - franciscop 3y ago
      Who lives fine without a smartphone today? See your sibling comment for an example.
      - zogrodea 3y ago
        I do in the UK (use a desktop for digital services), but I will need a phone next year after my current contract ends since employers like to have a chat via phone after applications.
      - cobbaut 3y ago
permo-w 3y ago
>I sincerely hope that the next round of EU laws tackles this instead of privacy why instead?
- berkle4455 3y ago
  Because privacy laws have zero teeth and workarounds are technically easy (or endlessly annoying for zero new outcome, e.g. see cookie popups). If the EU would actually enforce GDPR it would be amazing. Meanwhile these companies who have essentially became a public utility don’t provide customer support or explanations.
  - youngtaff 3y ago
    Lots of companies are expending a lot of effort to ensure they respect GDPR Non EU companies are the worst offenders at not understanding their privacy obligations (particularly ones that provide tags)
    - Yizahi 3y ago
      I'm guessing that the core idea behind GDPR laws wasn't a to flood internet with banner popups, but to limit excessive and unneeded for honest usage, storage of PII. IIRC GDPR allows for some limited PII storage without any banners, but it is restricted in time and scope, to prevent selling this data. Instead nobody is limiting usage of the data (not even Eurocommission site with GDPR rules) because that is not enforced in reality. So in essence GDPR law was a spectacular expensive failure, because nobody restricted their PII processing and analytics.
      - permo-w 3y ago
        GDPR forces companies to make a choice: stop invasively selling data, or get explicit permission to do so. if a company chooses the shady second option, they have to hamstring their UX and have a big nasty banner that says "we don't give a fuck about your privacy" it's actually very clever. the more profit hungry and and invasive a company is, the more desperate they are to sell your data, the shittier they have to make their website - or break the law and get a nasty fine a year or two down the line this idea that gdpr isn't enforced or is somehow expensive (?) doesn't have any grounding in reality: just 2 months ago, Meta was fined 1.2 billion euros for GDPR breaches. they've also already been fined hundreds of millions multiple times. in 2021, Amazon was fined ~800m euros. smaller businesses are being fined all over the place[1]. GDPR is the opposite of expensive. it's profitable GDPR is a huge deal at companies that handle any data at all. they don't think it's not being enforced if you were criticising the lack of enforcement of a github policy, do you think you'd actually go and make sure they weren't enforcing it? so why not the EU? [1] - https://www.enforcementtracker.com/ https://www.enforcementtracker.com/
totallywrong 3y ago
This is very sad. It's a disgrace that even physical businesses today depend so much on Google.
orangetexter 3y ago
I encountered the same problem recently. My family member’s business changed location. Updating the Google maps listing caused Google to flag it for not following guidelines and weeks passed with the listing being “under review”. The solution that ended up working for me was to start paying a few dollars a day for Adwords. For some reason that cleared the issue up the next day. Then, I turned AdWords down to a few bucks a week and then later off entirely.
- wil421 3y ago
  > The solution that ended up working for me was to start paying a few dollars a day for Adwords. For some reason that cleared the issue up the next day. Yes, for some reason it cleared up after spending money. I really hope it’s not the norm. Sounds like extortion to me.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- kaliqt 3y ago
  Can confirm. This works in more places than one, Reddit too. Reason? When you're a paying customer, you get routed to elevated support staff. They have a higher incentive to help you fix the problem and fast. I don't hate it, I appreciate it. Better than having no easy recourse. Because I bet if everyone were treated equally, it'd be shitty service for all. Better to toss in a few bucks if it's valuable and get the support (and some ads run).
  - JohnFen 3y ago
    > I don't hate it, I appreciate it. Since that amounts to a kind of extortion, I can't see how it would do anything but make me furious.
farazzz 3y ago
On the flip side, as an avid Google Maps reviewer they also removed my negative review from a restaurant without any good reason (supposedly the business reported it as being “fake” or something) It really pissed me off because I wrote a long thoughtful review and mentioned the good aspects of the restaurant too as well as some recommendations, and it’s just completely gone The worst part is the restaurant is sitting at 4.5 stars despite being quite bad, and the recent low star reviews are all questioning the rating, which is obviously artificial
- flybrand 3y ago
  I’m at Level 8, how far along are you?
  - foo-bar-bat 3y ago
    Just curious why you guys do this and for free?
    - zeekaran 3y ago
      It actually helps people. The only negative thing here is that Google makes money from it.
      - tivert 3y ago
        > It actually helps people. The only negative thing here is that Google makes money from it. I used to be that naive, then I tried to correct a Places issue on Facebook. I stumbled into this netherworld of similar people being abused with horrible tools continually banging their heads against a wall "to help people," with little or no support from Facebook. After months of trying, I totally failed at my task, and I vowed never again. These company just abusively exploit people's need to help others for their own profit. If Google/Facebook/etc. wants me to work for them, they can pay me and give me reasonable tools.
        executesorder66 3y ago
Nasrudith 3y ago
I worry about the horrible side effects that would occur from trying to grant that wish. It is always easy to make demands when you aren't the one carrying them out and most people don't think the implications through. My mind just boggles at the implicit additional bureaucracy, expenses, and slowdowns being cheered for. The kind of mess which results in a system so complex that it has its own "degrees which shouldn't exist" spawned from it like medical billing.
ornornor 3y ago
This is also a problem on the customer side. I don’t shy away from leaving bad reviews to businesses that deserve it. These businesses either reply with a passive aggressive doxx like “Hi Or Nornor” when I don’t use my real name anywhere on the internets (including medical-related businesses), or they report the review and my account gets blocked with all my reviews removed. And then of course there is it a single living human at google you can contact to even find out which review was flagged, why, and what to do about it. I don’t even read reviews anywhere anymore, they’re all faked or AstroTurfed anyway that they give no indication of anything. What a brave new world.
barrysteve 3y ago
This sounds like an Mafia movie. Pay up for a little protection and don't let it happen again! Intentionally or accidentally, it's a great problem for big tech to have. You scramble with everybody else to be on the service and the DDOS crowd, confused tourists and local ruffians take your account offline. Better grovel up to reinstate your honour and pay for protection/added services/more identity validation that doesn't stop the problem from happening. Same thing every big country does, we are all under a "security umbrella". Honestly, real life advertising needs to make a come back. And localized knowledge of the businesses worth keeping alive, when Google's security algorithm dumps them without administration even knowing it. Eggs all in one basket, was never a good idea.. right?
- flybrand 3y ago
  All business and all government eventually become a racket.
mschuster91 3y ago
> I sincerely hope that the next round of EU laws tackles this instead of privacy. It's just as big an issue, especially if you're running a small business. At least in Germany, you can file for a court order ("Einstweilige Verfügung") against Google - that usually works out and is relatively cheap, a couple hundred euros. Consult a lawyer, I think most EU countries have a similar instrument. Do note, you might have to file for an order both against the Google Europe HQ in Dublin/Ireland and against your country's Google office.
- ckastner 3y ago
  How would this work? Google isn't an official registry, do they have an obligation to list any business? And the privacy argument is often effectively countered with security concerns, even more so if that is expressly stated so in the ToS. Just to be clear: I'm 100% on the GP's side, I'm just curious what the Verfügung could do here. In order for the court issue such an order, it needs at least a reasonable legal basis.
  - reitanqild 3y ago
    I guess it has mostly to do with the fact that once legal gets involved, even at Google scale it makes sense to just take a look and see that, yes, of course, it was just another case of someone sabotaging someone else and the system being to dumb to catch it, lets fix it before we have to show up in court. On a side note: GDPR demands that companies provide a way to get a manual review for decisions made by machines.
    - ckastner 3y ago
      > On a side note: GDPR demands that companies provide a way to get a manual review for decisions made by machines. Correct. Unfortunately, from what I've heard so far, all that this entails is that some drone looks over the case, and checks a "reviewed" box or so. It's a right to manual review, not to manual rectification.
    - cogman10 3y ago
      > even at Google scale it makes sense to just take a look and see that, yes, of course, it was just another case of someone sabotaging someone else and the system being to dumb to catch it, lets fix it before we have to show up in court. Rather than "Evan at" I'd say "especially at". It costs big companies way more money to deal with legal issues than it costs you to raise them. Google only has so many staff lawyers and it doesn't take a lot to get them bogged down. The bigger you are, the now likely you are too have a bunch of legal work. It's simply in their best interest to make your legal case go away as quickly as possible in most cases.
jaimex2 3y ago
Is it listed on OSM? If its not you're part of the problem.
- esperent 3y ago
  Yes of course it is. I put it on both on the same day. Your comment feels very passive aggressive, FYI. There's no need to make accusations like that.
mercury_craze 3y ago
My wife's floristry business has been blocked from being able to access facebook advertising and permanently restricted in how she is able to interact with her customers in part because a bot flagged and suspended her for trading in trading exotic animals. The exotic animal she was accused of trading? Aphelandra Squarrosa - The zebra leaf plant. There's no way of getting this ban reversed, there's no way of invoking any human to perform a manual review on the ban. It is a permanent restriction that impacts her ability to communicate with her customer base.
- rwmj 3y ago
  Getting lawyers involved is one guaranteed way to talk to a human at Facebook. It won't be easy or cheap though, so I can understand why a business like a flower shop wouldn't want to do that.
  - moneywoes 3y ago
    Is there a specific type of attorney?
    - rwmj 3y ago
      Depends on the country. In the UK I'd probably go to the Law Society website and search for a B2B lawyer under "Business -> Dispute Resolution" or "Media IT and intellectual property" (https://solicitors.lawsociety.org.uk/ https://solicitors.lawsociety.org.uk/). Having used lawyers like this at start up companies in the past they are not cheap. However in the first instance you'd probably just want them to send a letter on headed notepaper, which might be enough to get someone's attention at Facebook and get the matter resolved.
  - Tempest1981 3y ago
    Is it possible to leverage another case filing, to reduce lawyer fees? Or some sort of Nola Press DIY process? Since it seems so common.
    - 3y ago
baxuz 3y ago
Companies that don't provide their customers with an easy way to speak with a representative shouldn't be allowed to operate inside the EU.
- tacocataco 3y ago
  I feel like you should be able to request a call from their call center rather then be forced to wait on the phone for one. The long wait times to speak to representatives is a cost savings measure. First saving on having to hire an appropriate level of customer service staff. Second that percentage of people who give up. It's a feature, not a bug. I think one of the pixel phone had an option to detect when there was a human on the other end of the line. Definitely made me consider getting it back when I was looking for a new phone.
  - paulddraper 3y ago
    Google Assistant will wait on hold for you, yes. Though from what I've seen, most places have callback options.
dzek69 3y ago
If you happen to review few places on Google Map you are holding superpowers. Idk if that works for new accounts too. But yeah, at least if you do some activity then you report a place as closed, they are "checking" it for 1h, then you get the e-mail that the place got removed from Maps. I use that for good purpose - I fix a lot of invalid information on Google Maps around my home town, and they apply the changes without batting an eye. This is good for society. But I can clearly see how that could be used for abusive purposes.
ren_engineer 3y ago
you get bad service from these companies for the same reason the government generally provides bad service, they are monopolies with no reason to spend more money to improve
93po 3y ago
feel free to post a link or add it to your profile and ill leave a good review
- esperent 3y ago
  Thank you, that's very kind. However, it's not possible even for me to view the listing while it is blocked.

neodypsis 3y ago

Also, how should a small business deal with fake negative reviews in, say, Play Store? Google does nothing to fix that. As the app developer you know a review from an account that didn't sign-up to your service is fake, especially when it appears at the same time other similar fake reviews do.

kjkjadksj 3y ago

Even if you dont want to be listed on google maps, they will sometimes generate a fake listing for you anyhow. I got burned by one of these as a customer, the link for takeout was not actually a site the restaurant was partnered with. I’ve also seen restaurants with similar names url squat these other places. It seems so bizzare google will publish such information without ever validating it with the business. It must cause a lot of damage and support quite the environment of scammers though.

brucethemoose2 3y ago
> It seems so bizzare google will publish such information without ever validating it with the business. Why should they? Validation would be expensive, and the false information doesn't hurt Google. Where else are you gonna list?
- ben_w 3y ago
  If they don't want to validate it, they shouldn't publish it or sell advertising on a service that used the unverified data. It was OK for the web because that's the only way, but maps have a lot more sources of truth.
fallinghawks 3y ago
This happened to a restaurant I go to a lot. Their Maps listing said there was online ordering, but the link went to a site that even had a disclaimer saying they were not actually affiliated with the restaurant. I reported it to Google and they removed the entry, but anyone can make a change and double checking seems to be cursory at best.

can16358p 3y ago

> I sincerely hope that the next round of EU laws tackles this instead of privacy. It's just as big an issue, especially if you're running a small business. This! Couldn't agree more. I believe this is a much more bigger, huge problem compared to privacy, which is preventable (users can choose not to use a service) but this can take down entire businesses because of data giants' crappy/false alerting systems. It should be illegal for Google, say, to remove listing without proving, or if that's not possible, if they remove they should legally be forced to compensate for the damage done. (Of course Google is just an example here, applies to any large enough platform) Maybe then they will take this serious.

franciscop 3y ago
> users can choose not to use a service By that logic you can just not use Google. But that's ridiculous, as ridiculous as the statement that users can choose not to use a service. I believe it's impossible to live in modern society without having an account in FAANG, even harder than a business not having a google maps listing.
- a_nop 3y ago
  People get along fine without accounts in FAANG. You don't even need an account to use many Google services.
  - franciscop 3y ago
    Who lives fine without a smartphone today? See your sibling comment for an example.
    - zogrodea 3y ago
      I do in the UK (use a desktop for digital services), but I will need a phone next year after my current contract ends since employers like to have a chat via phone after applications.
    - cobbaut 3y ago

permo-w 3y ago

>I sincerely hope that the next round of EU laws tackles this instead of privacy why instead?

berkle4455 3y ago
Because privacy laws have zero teeth and workarounds are technically easy (or endlessly annoying for zero new outcome, e.g. see cookie popups). If the EU would actually enforce GDPR it would be amazing. Meanwhile these companies who have essentially became a public utility don’t provide customer support or explanations.
- youngtaff 3y ago
  Lots of companies are expending a lot of effort to ensure they respect GDPR Non EU companies are the worst offenders at not understanding their privacy obligations (particularly ones that provide tags)
  - Yizahi 3y ago
    I'm guessing that the core idea behind GDPR laws wasn't a to flood internet with banner popups, but to limit excessive and unneeded for honest usage, storage of PII. IIRC GDPR allows for some limited PII storage without any banners, but it is restricted in time and scope, to prevent selling this data. Instead nobody is limiting usage of the data (not even Eurocommission site with GDPR rules) because that is not enforced in reality. So in essence GDPR law was a spectacular expensive failure, because nobody restricted their PII processing and analytics.
    - permo-w 3y ago
      GDPR forces companies to make a choice: stop invasively selling data, or get explicit permission to do so. if a company chooses the shady second option, they have to hamstring their UX and have a big nasty banner that says "we don't give a fuck about your privacy" it's actually very clever. the more profit hungry and and invasive a company is, the more desperate they are to sell your data, the shittier they have to make their website - or break the law and get a nasty fine a year or two down the line this idea that gdpr isn't enforced or is somehow expensive (?) doesn't have any grounding in reality: just 2 months ago, Meta was fined 1.2 billion euros for GDPR breaches. they've also already been fined hundreds of millions multiple times. in 2021, Amazon was fined ~800m euros. smaller businesses are being fined all over the place[1]. GDPR is the opposite of expensive. it's profitable GDPR is a huge deal at companies that handle any data at all. they don't think it's not being enforced if you were criticising the lack of enforcement of a github policy, do you think you'd actually go and make sure they weren't enforcing it? so why not the EU? [1] - https://www.enforcementtracker.com/ https://www.enforcementtracker.com/

totallywrong 3y ago

This is very sad. It's a disgrace that even physical businesses today depend so much on Google.

orangetexter 3y ago

I encountered the same problem recently. My family member’s business changed location. Updating the Google maps listing caused Google to flag it for not following guidelines and weeks passed with the listing being “under review”. The solution that ended up working for me was to start paying a few dollars a day for Adwords. For some reason that cleared the issue up the next day. Then, I turned AdWords down to a few bucks a week and then later off entirely.

wil421 3y ago
> The solution that ended up working for me was to start paying a few dollars a day for Adwords. For some reason that cleared the issue up the next day. Yes, for some reason it cleared up after spending money. I really hope it’s not the norm. Sounds like extortion to me.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
kaliqt 3y ago
Can confirm. This works in more places than one, Reddit too. Reason? When you're a paying customer, you get routed to elevated support staff. They have a higher incentive to help you fix the problem and fast. I don't hate it, I appreciate it. Better than having no easy recourse. Because I bet if everyone were treated equally, it'd be shitty service for all. Better to toss in a few bucks if it's valuable and get the support (and some ads run).
- JohnFen 3y ago
  > I don't hate it, I appreciate it. Since that amounts to a kind of extortion, I can't see how it would do anything but make me furious.

farazzz 3y ago

On the flip side, as an avid Google Maps reviewer they also removed my negative review from a restaurant without any good reason (supposedly the business reported it as being “fake” or something) It really pissed me off because I wrote a long thoughtful review and mentioned the good aspects of the restaurant too as well as some recommendations, and it’s just completely gone The worst part is the restaurant is sitting at 4.5 stars despite being quite bad, and the recent low star reviews are all questioning the rating, which is obviously artificial

flybrand 3y ago
I’m at Level 8, how far along are you?
- foo-bar-bat 3y ago
  Just curious why you guys do this and for free?
  - zeekaran 3y ago
    It actually helps people. The only negative thing here is that Google makes money from it.
    - tivert 3y ago
      > It actually helps people. The only negative thing here is that Google makes money from it. I used to be that naive, then I tried to correct a Places issue on Facebook. I stumbled into this netherworld of similar people being abused with horrible tools continually banging their heads against a wall "to help people," with little or no support from Facebook. After months of trying, I totally failed at my task, and I vowed never again. These company just abusively exploit people's need to help others for their own profit. If Google/Facebook/etc. wants me to work for them, they can pay me and give me reasonable tools.
      - executesorder66 3y ago

Nasrudith 3y ago

I worry about the horrible side effects that would occur from trying to grant that wish. It is always easy to make demands when you aren't the one carrying them out and most people don't think the implications through. My mind just boggles at the implicit additional bureaucracy, expenses, and slowdowns being cheered for. The kind of mess which results in a system so complex that it has its own "degrees which shouldn't exist" spawned from it like medical billing.

ornornor 3y ago

This is also a problem on the customer side. I don’t shy away from leaving bad reviews to businesses that deserve it. These businesses either reply with a passive aggressive doxx like “Hi Or Nornor” when I don’t use my real name anywhere on the internets (including medical-related businesses), or they report the review and my account gets blocked with all my reviews removed. And then of course there is it a single living human at google you can contact to even find out which review was flagged, why, and what to do about it. I don’t even read reviews anywhere anymore, they’re all faked or AstroTurfed anyway that they give no indication of anything. What a brave new world.

barrysteve 3y ago

This sounds like an Mafia movie. Pay up for a little protection and don't let it happen again! Intentionally or accidentally, it's a great problem for big tech to have. You scramble with everybody else to be on the service and the DDOS crowd, confused tourists and local ruffians take your account offline. Better grovel up to reinstate your honour and pay for protection/added services/more identity validation that doesn't stop the problem from happening. Same thing every big country does, we are all under a "security umbrella". Honestly, real life advertising needs to make a come back. And localized knowledge of the businesses worth keeping alive, when Google's security algorithm dumps them without administration even knowing it. Eggs all in one basket, was never a good idea.. right?

flybrand 3y ago
All business and all government eventually become a racket.

mschuster91 3y ago

> I sincerely hope that the next round of EU laws tackles this instead of privacy. It's just as big an issue, especially if you're running a small business. At least in Germany, you can file for a court order ("Einstweilige Verfügung") against Google - that usually works out and is relatively cheap, a couple hundred euros. Consult a lawyer, I think most EU countries have a similar instrument. Do note, you might have to file for an order both against the Google Europe HQ in Dublin/Ireland and against your country's Google office.

ckastner 3y ago
How would this work? Google isn't an official registry, do they have an obligation to list any business? And the privacy argument is often effectively countered with security concerns, even more so if that is expressly stated so in the ToS. Just to be clear: I'm 100% on the GP's side, I'm just curious what the Verfügung could do here. In order for the court issue such an order, it needs at least a reasonable legal basis.
- reitanqild 3y ago
  I guess it has mostly to do with the fact that once legal gets involved, even at Google scale it makes sense to just take a look and see that, yes, of course, it was just another case of someone sabotaging someone else and the system being to dumb to catch it, lets fix it before we have to show up in court. On a side note: GDPR demands that companies provide a way to get a manual review for decisions made by machines.
  - ckastner 3y ago
    > On a side note: GDPR demands that companies provide a way to get a manual review for decisions made by machines. Correct. Unfortunately, from what I've heard so far, all that this entails is that some drone looks over the case, and checks a "reviewed" box or so. It's a right to manual review, not to manual rectification.
  - cogman10 3y ago
    > even at Google scale it makes sense to just take a look and see that, yes, of course, it was just another case of someone sabotaging someone else and the system being to dumb to catch it, lets fix it before we have to show up in court. Rather than "Evan at" I'd say "especially at". It costs big companies way more money to deal with legal issues than it costs you to raise them. Google only has so many staff lawyers and it doesn't take a lot to get them bogged down. The bigger you are, the now likely you are too have a bunch of legal work. It's simply in their best interest to make your legal case go away as quickly as possible in most cases.

jaimex2 3y ago

Is it listed on OSM? If its not you're part of the problem.

esperent 3y ago
Yes of course it is. I put it on both on the same day. Your comment feels very passive aggressive, FYI. There's no need to make accusations like that.

mercury_craze 3y ago

My wife's floristry business has been blocked from being able to access facebook advertising and permanently restricted in how she is able to interact with her customers in part because a bot flagged and suspended her for trading in trading exotic animals. The exotic animal she was accused of trading? Aphelandra Squarrosa - The zebra leaf plant. There's no way of getting this ban reversed, there's no way of invoking any human to perform a manual review on the ban. It is a permanent restriction that impacts her ability to communicate with her customer base.

rwmj 3y ago
Getting lawyers involved is one guaranteed way to talk to a human at Facebook. It won't be easy or cheap though, so I can understand why a business like a flower shop wouldn't want to do that.
- moneywoes 3y ago
  Is there a specific type of attorney?
  - rwmj 3y ago
    Depends on the country. In the UK I'd probably go to the Law Society website and search for a B2B lawyer under "Business -> Dispute Resolution" or "Media IT and intellectual property" (https://solicitors.lawsociety.org.uk/ https://solicitors.lawsociety.org.uk/). Having used lawyers like this at start up companies in the past they are not cheap. However in the first instance you'd probably just want them to send a letter on headed notepaper, which might be enough to get someone's attention at Facebook and get the matter resolved.
- Tempest1981 3y ago
  Is it possible to leverage another case filing, to reduce lawyer fees? Or some sort of Nola Press DIY process? Since it seems so common.
  - 3y ago

baxuz 3y ago

Companies that don't provide their customers with an easy way to speak with a representative shouldn't be allowed to operate inside the EU.

tacocataco 3y ago
I feel like you should be able to request a call from their call center rather then be forced to wait on the phone for one. The long wait times to speak to representatives is a cost savings measure. First saving on having to hire an appropriate level of customer service staff. Second that percentage of people who give up. It's a feature, not a bug. I think one of the pixel phone had an option to detect when there was a human on the other end of the line. Definitely made me consider getting it back when I was looking for a new phone.
- paulddraper 3y ago
  Google Assistant will wait on hold for you, yes. Though from what I've seen, most places have callback options.

dzek69 3y ago

If you happen to review few places on Google Map you are holding superpowers. Idk if that works for new accounts too. But yeah, at least if you do some activity then you report a place as closed, they are "checking" it for 1h, then you get the e-mail that the place got removed from Maps. I use that for good purpose - I fix a lot of invalid information on Google Maps around my home town, and they apply the changes without batting an eye. This is good for society. But I can clearly see how that could be used for abusive purposes.

ren_engineer 3y ago

you get bad service from these companies for the same reason the government generally provides bad service, they are monopolies with no reason to spend more money to improve

93po 3y ago

feel free to post a link or add it to your profile and ill leave a good review

esperent 3y ago
Thank you, that's very kind. However, it's not possible even for me to view the listing while it is blocked.