Getting slammed on Q&A

[kennyj22]

My client is being harrassed by one of their customers who is is constantly writing Q&A and posting irrelevant questions to their GMB. We report them each time(probably up to 50 times now) and they are removed. However, is there any way to just prevent these from occuring? Thank you! If you need the CID I'm happy to provide it.
I've attached a screenshot of the latest one ..

 

[Phil Rozek]

@kennyj22, there's not anything you can do other than to report certain questions after the fact (as you've done), or to reply to them head-on. Google should offer a third option, of course.

 

[abbietorres]

If you can prove these reviews are from the same person and negatively impacts the business you can try to take that individual to court. Otherwise, you'll have to keep flagging them for removal, as long as they break the Google Guidelines they should be removed.

 

[Eoghan_Aircam]

Have you tried making contact with the customer and resolving their beef amicably?

 

[kennyj22]

Yes we've tried several times but the person is mentally challenged and won't listen to my client.

 

[fshanksiv]

Wow, that's amazing you've had the success you've had. I have a mentally deranged person who has left over 100 completely blank, fake reviews on a legitimate local business (and beyond, ties to local community, camps, charities, state associations, local Chamber, etc), and Google will do absolutely nothing about it.

I paid $6,000 to a firm known for removing reviews and they haven't been able to get Google to delete a single one. These are the most blatantly obvious fake ones you've ever seen, and literally can't get ONE deleted. Apart from the $6,000 it's cost people their jobs, and a number I don't even want to mention in revenue.

I have been told repeatedly there's nothing I can do but give up or spam Google myself. I refuse to spam. If you can tell me how to get Google to pay attention to legit spam that that is destroying people's lives, please let me know...

 

[UKSBD]

Wow, that's amazing you've had the success you've had. I have a mentally deranged person who has left over 100 completely blank, fake reviews on a legitimate local business (and beyond, ties to local community, camps, charities, state associations, local Chamber, etc), and Google will do absolutely nothing about it.

I paid $6,000 to a firm known for removing reviews and they haven't been able to get Google to delete a single one. These are the most blatantly obvious fake ones you've ever seen, and literally can't get ONE deleted. Apart from the $6,000 it's cost people their jobs, and a number I don't even want to mention in revenue.

I have been told repeatedly there's nothing I can do but give up or spam Google myself. I refuse to spam. If you can tell me how to get Google to pay attention to legit spam that that is destroying people's lives, please let me know...

Try using the support system from within the actual reviews section of your listing.

Follow the instructions carefully, ignore all the links at the top, click the Contact us link instead, follow through the instructions again without getting taken away by the links and eventually you can contact them by email or chat.

I've managed to remove loads of reviews this way (for a lot less than $6,000 dollars, more like 3 minutes of work)

 

[abbietorres]

Wow, that's amazing you've had the success you've had. I have a mentally deranged person who has left over 100 completely blank, fake reviews on a legitimate local business (and beyond, ties to local community, camps, charities, state associations, local Chamber, etc), and Google will do absolutely nothing about it.

I paid $6,000 to a firm known for removing reviews and they haven't been able to get Google to delete a single one. These are the most blatantly obvious fake ones you've ever seen, and literally can't get ONE deleted. Apart from the $6,000 it's cost people their jobs, and a number I don't even want to mention in revenue.

I have been told repeatedly there's nothing I can do but give up or spam Google myself. I refuse to spam. If you can tell me how to get Google to pay attention to legit spam that that is destroying people's lives, please let me know...

It is a shame that you were promised a "review removal service" and paid so much money. The only way to remove reviews or any User Content from any Review Platform (Yelp, FB, TripAdvisor, and the like) is to understand that platform's user guidelines. If/when User Content breaks the user guidelines then the platform support should remove that content. It may take a couple of calls and multiple flags but it's cheaper to manage that effort in-house or with your Local SEO team than hire some of these so-called 'Online Brand Managers'.

 

[UKSBD]

I decided to follow my own advice a couple of days ago.

I had a couple of photos on one of my listings which were nothing to do with me.

They've been annoying me for a couple of years, I've flagged them and reported them numerous times, but nothing ever happened.

I finally decided to use the method I posted about above (which I've used in the past for moving dozens of reviews)

Within 2 days, those photos which have been annoying me for 2 years are gone

You have to carefully go through the system, don't get taken away by clicking links to the support forums and you eventually get to the right people.

 

[fshanksiv]

It is a shame that you were promised a "review removal service" and paid so much money. The only way to remove reviews or any User Content from any Review Platform (Yelp, FB, TripAdvisor, and the like) is to understand that platform's user guidelines. If/when User Content breaks the user guidelines then the platform support should remove that content. It may take a couple of calls and multiple flags but it's cheaper to manage that effort in-house or with your Local SEO team than hire some of these so-called 'Online Brand Managers'.

I thought so too. @JoyHawkins even escalated my issue of 70+ completely blank reviews in a matter of weeks (sometimes 4 a day) and couldn't get Google to remove a single one. I thank her for trying, but my mind was totally blown. She recommended a lawyer, who quoted me $30,000 which I don't have.

Since then, the same individual has destroyed my livelihood at every other location I've opened an office. One of them in another state. One would think that the first batch was so blatantly obvious something could be done, but when it happens on 4 separate offices, in the same exact manner, in droves, & none of the reviews have a single comment, it would be clear what's happening to me. All of them legitimate locations with business licenses and employees and still no recourse. So far I've been bilked out of thousands, asked for tens of thousands, lost tens of thousands, lost employees and almost gave up on it all at one point.

Google has done nothing for me and I'll be shocked if anyone's seen anything like this before. I've tried almost everything anyone has mentioned to me (except for retaliating or spamming), but I'm open to help or advice anyone here can offer. Sincerely.

 

[fshanksiv]

Does anyone have any advice on what I can do? It's happening on another location and the company I paid thousands too now says they can't do anything.
@JoyHawkins if it's another location can't we start a new complaint separate from the location we have since closed?

 

[UKSBD]

Does anyone have any advice on what I can do? It's happening on another location and the company I paid thousands too now says they can't do anything.
@JoyHawkins if it's another location can't we start a new complaint separate from the location we have since closed?

Did you try the chat system from within your listing?

 

[JoyHawkins]

Before you can ask Google to remove reviews, you first have to flag them and wait 3 days. After 3 days you can contact GMB support.

 

[fshanksiv]

Did you try the chat system from within your listing?

I'm going to try that now. Thank you for the tip. I will definitely update if it works. I feel like I tried this before but I'm going to give it a try nonetheless and will update.

 

[fshanksiv]

Before you can ask Google to remove reviews, you first have to flag them and wait 3 days. After 3 days you can contact GMB support.

Thank you Joy, I'm going to flag all the new ones one by one and try this once again. You've been such a huge resource I thank you for your past assistance even though we couldn't get a reasonable resolution. I know you're probably tired of me and hearing about this but I assure you the affect on my life has been... well I don't want to say.

I literally feel like I'm being ignored because nobody believes someone could be as evil as what's happening to me (& have the resources to do this on top). I don't know. I just can't contemplate how this could possibly be realistic to happen over and over and over to a reasonable person. Every single one is completely blank. Not one comment. 3-4 a day. Seriously?

We have well over 100+ fake reviews like this dumped in absurd loads over short time frames over and over again..... but I would be surprised if there's a single other case like this one and I suspect that's why I can't get answers. I assume they think I must be doing something to deserve this. I'm at a loss for words...

 

[Tim Kahlert]

Before you can ask Google to remove reviews, you first have to flag them and wait 3 days. After 3 days you can contact GMB support.

The last Google removal guy I spoke to said he can't do anything as I already flagged the review. lol