Beyond Menu Hijacked GMB and Google Plus Account.

[Jeremy Booze]

I am working with Haifa Falafel of Ann Arbor Mi

beyonmenu.com originally created my clients GMB/Google+ and they now will not transfer ownership to me or the client. You will find that there are two other Haifa Falafel Google Plus pages, however these are not Verified.

https://plus.google.com/117130087493034388504/about
https://plus.google.com/106720395330521468978/about

Then there is this one which is verified and populates in Polish Language:
https://plus.google.com/u/1/103590027519205884162?hl=pl



With no identifying factions on the Google+ page that is verified I am lead to believe for whatever reason they have knowingly hijacked my verified Google+/(GMB) while creating two non verified pages in an effort to confuse the owner.


I feel there is no way for me to regain access to this account since I have tried 4 different methods to clear this issue up.

I have submitted impersonation reports, made request for ownership, called beyonmenu.com directly, contacted GMB support 5 different times yet no one can provide any solution.

Should I verify the business under a modified name and then submit the hijacked one as a duplicate?

I seriously am at my wits end with this... ready to call lawyers. I just don't understand why GMB department can not get this cleared up for my business owner.

I have come across other restaurant owners falling victim to this same situation also.

Can anyone offer console on this?

 

[JoshuaMackens]

You have called GMB support?

We had a similar situation and they resolved it.

We were requesting ownership of a GMB listing but it kept getting denied by a client's old SEO company. We called in, GMB correctly identified it looked like an old SEO company had the listing. They removed them.

Now this is where my memory gets hazy. I can't remember if they gave our client access right away or if they are sending a postcard verification. I'm pretty sure they gave him access right away because his email was @ his domain.

Let me page Kristina, our Product Manager, she will remember.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Jeremy,

Sounds so frustrating!

I was just in a Hangout with Google yesterday and this came up. Sounded likes it's been a problem for multiple users. I need to dig to find out what the recommended solution is.

Please post this at the Ownership Conflicts section of the GMB Community.
There is another post about Beyond Menu right at the top.

Then post the link to your post from over there, here, so I can find it AND so others that have the problem can follow along there.

I want you to post there too because even tho Google reads this forum, they likely don't see every post and I want to be sure they see this. PLUS if I need to escalate to a Googler, better to do it from there.
Plus other TCs might know and help you out. Or if I can find the solution I'll post in both places.

 

[kristinahoertner]

Yes that is correct.

Our client requested ownership of the duplicate listing 3 times and each time never received it. I requested a call from Google and they told me that an SEO company had created the listing and was actively rejecting the ownership request.

I explained the situation to her and she put me on hold for about 10 minutes while she said she would speak with her supervisor and when she returned she told me that she had been approved to "unverify" the listing as long as I could confirm the account from an email with a domain that matched the business name.

After that confirmation process the listing was unverified and I claimed the listing via mail and currently the postcard is on it's way. Once both listings are under our control I will delete the duplicate.

 

[Jeremy Booze]

This sounds good... but I have also attempted to claim and report the listing with a Domain based email account and yet I still get no results.

I will say that GMB support has never offered to do this "unverifiy" action by confirmation of an official company email. Its just not in their policy or they have not offered it to me. Believe me I have stretched my rational with them also.

I have literary been on the phone with them time 6 different times and this option was never presented, so I am not sure how it would work, find it hard to believe. But I may have to give this another try.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

This sounds good... but I have also attempted to claim and report the listing with a Domain based email account and yet I still get no results.

I will say that GMB support has never offered to do this "unverifiy" action by confirmation of an official company email. Its just not in their policy or they have not offered it to me. Believe me I have stretched my rational with them also.

I have literary been on the phone with them time 6 different times and this option was never presented, so I am not sure how it would work, find it hard to believe. But I may have to give this another try.

Yeah, we didn't report it with the domain based email. The key there is we contacted support with it.

Understand on the support thing. Cases vary by the rep that you get. In our case, the rep may have seen the email that was denying the claim and realized by the domain name that it was an SEO company and took initiative to take it to the next step.

I might ask for a manager. Have you done that yet?

Other than that, Linda's reply seems like your best bet.

 

[Jeremy Booze]

Yeah, we didn't report it with the domain based email. The key there is we contacted support with it.

Understand on the support thing. Cases vary by the rep that you get. In our case, the rep may have seen the email that was denying the claim and realized by the domain name that it was an SEO company and took initiative to take it to the next step.

I might ask for a manager. Have you done that yet?

Other than that, Linda's reply seems like your best bet.

Sooo.... I just got off the phone with GMB support. Following your recommendation I explained the situation for 7th time however I did verify our (haifa falafel) company email address with them.

However, I also had a transfer of ownership request already, which was submitted under the same (haifa falafel) company email. (Note: My other previously denied ownership request were under my marketing companies email)

They said that according to policy I would have wait for the official (haifa falafel) company email to be denied or wait the 7 Days to follow up.

So, at this point it sounds promising as I was told that if I am denied again, they would then be able to provide follow up action via company email verification.

I will keep you updated on my results.

 

[Jeremy Booze]

So, after my corporate email was denied by Beyone Menu for the GMB transfer of ownership in addition to it being verified with GMB support, I still have no solution.

Below I will provide a copy my convestaion with GMB support. They made promisies that they could assist me via corporate email methods, but inevitably seem to keep cirlcling back around and suggesting I take the owership claim up with Beyond Menu who is holding and is not releasing ownership.

GMB support on this particular issue is the biggest joke. 7 Times and hours of my time spend with no one with enough authority to provide assistance. Can anyone suggest anything more..?

I just don't understand why this re-verification/rightful ownership transfer process is so difficult. I've send in pictures of the business licence along with verifying a corporate email any nothing.

GMB support is not doing anything. The whole point of me contacting them for assistance is to get some type of upper-level authority to sort out these ownership rights. Yet the keep telling me to contact the company who continues to reject it. Thanks for the help!

No one on GMB support provides a straight answer and has no authority to help my client with this problem.

-----------------
Email 1.

Hello Jeremy,

Thank you for contacting Google My Business Support.
After having investigated into your account, I could view more than one Google business listing by the same business name and as per your request, I would be happy to assist you with the ownership transfer of the duplicate page to your account.

However, in order for us to proceed further with the request, we would request you to send us an email authorization from the corporate domain. Please reply to this email with the authorization and I would make sure you get the claim of the page in no time.

For more understanding, you can read through our New Google My Business feature & GMB Help Center to understand the product better and follow us on our official blog for regular updates.
please reply with reference number 345627 .


Looking forward for your response.

Have a good day!

Regards,
Suruchi
Google My Business Support.

-----------

Email 2


Yes I have received the Mail

reference number 345627 .

-----------

Email 3


Still waiting for some type of support in regard to my ownership claim. As I have stated many times over. I have contacted Beyond Menu who has control over m GMB listing. They refused to transfer ownership.

Last time I spoke with GMB support we were verifying my corporate email address to get this situation cleared up and I have not heard anything back for over a week!


Can I please get some type of solution to this.


------------------

Email 4



Hello Jeremy,


Thank you for contacting Google My Business support for the ownership of the business page for Haifa Falafel.

We have received a communication from the current listing owner, denying the request to transfer the ownership of the business listing.

We would request you to please contact the business owner and try to confirm your association with the business, once confirmed feel free to request for the admin rights again.

For more understanding, you can read through our New Google My Business feature & GMB Help Center to understand the product better and follow us on our official blog for regular updates.

Please get in touch with me for any clarifications or help you may need at any time. I'm only an email away.
Thank you,
Suruchi
Google My Business

 

[Linda Buquet]

Jeremy, running out door so don't have time to ck this sec but did you ever start a post at the G forum? They need to know about it there and I can escalate from there too.

 

[Jeremy Booze]

Jeremy, running out door so don't have time to ck this sec but did you ever start a post at the G forum? They need to know about it there and I can escalate from there too.

Linda-

I started one last week, However, I could not find it today. Surprised that there is not a dashboard to be able to monitor our post activity or at least I have not found it. Aside from actually Hearting the thread.

So I did start a second post today. You can find that here: https://www.en.advertisercommunity....Ownership-and-GMB-support-is-not/td-p/1110133

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Is this all over email support? Phone support is the best option. They can't give you the runaround then. Also in email support you may be getting different reps each time. One promises one thing that another will not deliver when it gets passed to them.

 

[Jeremy Booze]

No, I've been on the phone 6 or 7 different times and this email communication was just the 4 set email thread which was set up via the phone.

I get a new rep every time and they act like they have no clue to the extent of my attempts or know anything on the account history. I have to re-explain it every time, getting more frustrated every time.

They must have a log of our conversations. Granted I never write their name down, so I dont remember who the last rep was but this should be recorded. And at this point there should be a dedicated person so I can make some headway with this issue.

This process in the GMB support system is flawed dramatically.
I should simply be able to reapply for verification. Period.

When I began to make process on the phone... that is when we initiated the corporate email confirmation.

Yet when I called back to follow up on the corporate email they act like they don't know what's going on or can't help me. Referring me to follow up via the email.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

No, I've been on the phone 6 or 7 different times and this email communication was just the 4 set email thread which was set up via the phone.

I get a new rep every time and they act like they have no clue to the extent of my attempts or know anything on the account history. I have to re-explain it every time, getting more frustrated every time.

They must have a log of our conversations. Granted I never write their name down, so I dont remember who the last rep was but this should be recorded. And at this point there should be a dedicated person so I can make some headway with this issue.

This process in the GMB support system is flawed dramatically.
I should simply be able to reapply for verification. Period.

When I began to make process on the phone... that is when we initiated the corporate email confirmation.

Yet when I called back to follow up on the corporate email they act like they don't know what's going on or can't help me. Referring me to follow up via the email.

Yeah, their support isn't anything award winning.

I just stay on the phone with them and ask for a manager. Sorry you're having such a hard time with this!

Maybe try Twitter support instead?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Sorry for the delay.

Thanks for posting there Jeremy!


Helmut Geissler, another TC advised about the new method of requesting ownership.
ANYONE ELSE struggling with ownership issues in the future should make not of this link:

Automating Ownership Conflict for Individuals

I was about to share that new resource too. But in this case I think Jeremy has already been through the grinder and wasted far too many hours to have to go through it all again and wait 7 days with fingers crossed.

So Jeremy, I just escalated that thread to Google to see if they can more directly help. They don't work weekends and get pretty backed up during the week. But if I don't reply here or in the thread there by Wed, please post here to remind me and I'll follow up.

 

[Jeremy Booze]

Sorry for the delay.

Thanks for posting there Jeremy!


Helmut Geissler, another TC advised about the new method of requesting ownership.
ANYONE ELSE struggling with ownership issues in the future should make not of this link:

Automating Ownership Conflict for Individuals

I was about to share that new resource too. But in this case I think Jeremy has already been through the grinder and wasted far too many hours to have to go through it all again and wait 7 days with fingers crossed.

So Jeremy, I just escalated that thread to Google to see if they can more directly help. They don't work weekends and get pretty backed up during the week. But if I don't reply here or in the thread there by Wed, please post here to remind me and I'll follow up.

Sound good! Thank you so much for looking into this.

I will be waiting for their contact or for your follow-up, whichever comes first.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Jeremy, this is what I was able to get from Google. (Copying my post from Google thread.)

These hijacks by Beyond Menu have been tough to resolve and cases like this I believe are one of the reasons this new process was started.

Google said this new process only works for hijacking situations AFTER the hijacker denies the claimant, if they do, then they'll allow the claimant to PIN verify. Like in this case, where BM is actively rejecting your claims. Therefore, they said you should go through that process, since once they get denied, you'll be given the option to verify and be the owner.

They said it looks like the last time you requested ownership was before the new process launch - so I'm sorry but it looks like try it again is the best answer and should resolve it. If it does not then please let me know so I can let them know and we'll try pushing other buttons.

Here is that link again: <a href="https://www.en.advertisercommunity.com/t5/News-Updates/Automating-Ownership-Conflict-for-Individuals/m-p/1103852">Automating Ownership Conflict for Individuals</a>

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Hey Linda,

Just to clear this up, they're saying go through the normal request process and if someone denies it, then Google can help?

What's the process for this help? Calling into Google support?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hey Linda,

Just to clear this up, they're saying go through the normal request process and if someone denies it, then Google can help?

What's the process for this help? Calling into Google support?

"the normal request process"

This is a new request process so read the process in the docs at the link above.
But yes if someone denies, using this new process, then you can get ownership I'm told.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

"the normal request process"

This is a new request process so read the process in the docs at the link above.
But yes if someone denies, using this new process, then you can get ownership I'm told.

This seems to be like the same process that's been in place for months now. I think I'm missing something?

https://www.en.advertisercommunity....wnership-Conflict-for-Individuals/m-p/1103852

and

https://support.google.com/business/answer/4566671

Is what I am referencing.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hey Josh,

You know, even though I had not totally read the steps in the previous process, it seemed the same to me too.

But Marissa wrote: "This week we’re launching a new feature to enable users who can’t get in touch with the current verifier of a listing to start the verification process themselves." And that was 2 weeks ago. So I have to think something was new.

Maybe once you request, the email you get has different instructions and the back end flow that Google goes through is different? Cuz Marissa repeated again in her instructions for me to share with Jeremy that this was a new process and he had tried for ownership when it was still the old process.