GMB Duplicate Nightmare

[Devon Grey]

Wondering if anyone has experienced this lovely scenario before:

Client comes to me asking to help set up/manage their yext account (client purchased this account on their own). A few days later, we receive notification that the subscription has been cancelled and refunded.

Turns out, Client's previous marketing company already created a Yext profile on Client's behalf (without Client's knowledge) AND said Yext profile seems to have created & verified a new GMB profile, despite the fact that the client already had an existing verified GMB profile (dashboard now shows the original one as duplicate/unpublished)

have been going back and forth with Yext and the previous marketing company for about a month to either transfer/deactivate the old account, but according to Yext, the only way to do this is to have the previous marketing company voluntarily cancel their account.

Initially the other marketing company said they would help facilitate this but have stopped responding for the past few weeks, and Yext keeps saying the only thing we can do is contact the other company.

Wondering what's the best way to deal with the GMB accounts in this mixup?

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Hey Devon,

Can you confirm if there is a physical duplicate listing? In other words, are there actually two listings now or did you just get the "duplicate" notification in GMB and lose access to the one listing.

If you are able to share the business NAP that would help us troubleshoot for you.

Thanks

 

[charkins]

What's in the contract for the client and prior company? There are usually clauses around who has the IP to accounts created on a client's behalf. (If so, then a C&D letter may get their attention.)

 

[Cherie Dickey]

Have you or your client begun the ownership request process with Google support? Third parties are not allowed to withhold access of a GBL from the business owner. Here's the third party policy: Google My Business third party policies - Google My Business Help

In many cases, the third party will just ignore the email they get from Google, or will release the listing. Either way, you will be given the opportunity to reverify the listing. Once you have access, you can then request a merge from support (if true duplicates actually exist).

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Hey Devon,

Can you confirm if there is a physical duplicate listing? In other words, are there actually two listings now or did you just get the "duplicate" notification in GMB and lose access to the one listing.

If you are able to share the business NAP that would help us troubleshoot for you.

Thanks

This.