1-star reviews from ex-employee

[acharlton]

Is there any way to get these ex-employee reviews removed? Her earlier 7 reviews implied that she was an employee so they were all removed by Google and Yelp but these 3 are stickier. Thoughts?

 

[ElizabethRule]

Have you reported the reviews using this tool? If you did and they got denied, you can appeal the decision and provide proof this is an ex-employee and cite the other reviews that got removed already.

 

[acharlton]

Have you reported the reviews using this tool? If you did and they got denied, you can appeal the decision and provide proof this is an ex-employee and cite the other reviews that got removed already.

Hi, thanks for the response! I did report them through the tool but got no response at all. Not sure how I can appeal it in that case?

 

[ElizabethRule]

Contact support directly and tell them the tool is not working - send them the review and explain its an employee and provide evidence from the other reviews that got removed.

Also, have you had people flag it via maps? If not, do that and get as many people with high standing Google accounts to flag it too.

 

[acharlton]

Looks like the appeals tool started working. Just took a while (maybe a month?) to populate with the review removal requests so I could submit my appeal (even though they hadn't yet made a decision). Reviews can be stressful when you're just starting out!

 

[Stefan Somborac]

@acharlton - To add to @ElizabethRule's suggestions of 1.) flagging the review and 2.) reporting it (and appealing a denial) through the Review Management Tool, the third (and final) shot at getting the review removed would be to create a post in the Community Forum. (Click here to start a thread: Sign in - Google Accounts)

 

[acharlton]

Thanks! The reviews were taken down. Eventually, the review management tool populated with the reviews I had flagged. I then appealed them, showing evidence that this person's previous reviews had been removed, the person was posting the same review everywhere and that they were a former employee. Once I appealed they came down within a couple of days.

 

[greg.gbm]

@acharlton - thanks for sharing your results!
I'm in a similar situation with regards to getting negative reviews from a former employee. Can I ask what did you write in your appeal and how did you show that the reviews were from a former employee?

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[acharlton]

In my case, the reviews were redundantly posted across several different yelp and google profiles and the original 7 implied her to be an ex-employee: "the owner uses people up and throws them away like garbage," etc. Both could be the reason for the removal. After they were removed the employee reposted them on Google (Yelp probably blocked her from reposting them). They didn't imply she had been an employee in the second round of reviews but I was able to show them in the appeals process that they had already removed her reviews once. Once they saw that they removed them again right away.