Google refusing to move old reviews from old listing to new listing

[PeteKernow]

Hi. Hoping for advice here as it's always been way more helpful than Google itself. I have two GMB listings, in different cities. LIsting A is older and has many good reviews. LIsting B is much newer and has no reviews. The name of LIsting A is specific to the city in which it's located, but I have quit practicing in that city, so I want to shift everything to Listing B.

GMB replied
"I understand that you want to transfer the reviews from the old profile to a new profile.... Upon checking I see that both the profiles are Live on Google Search & Maps. And also both the profiles information is different hence as per the guidelines we can't transfer the reviews."

I therefore changed the name and all other information on the LIsting A to match LIsting B.

GMB then replied "
upon checking I see that you have changed the business name but still we could consider when the profiles are created they had the different business names hence we will not be able to proceed further"

I am trying to make them understand that the profile refers to me and to the professional service I provide, which is exactly the same in both locations. (I am a psychotherapist, working on my own) In their second reply they seem to be implying that a business created under one name will always retain its identity as that business, and therefore reviews pertaining to it cannot be transferred to a new business name, even though the two businesses are identical. This makes no sense to me. Is there anything more I should be doing?

 

[whitespark]

Google looks at this from the perspective of a traditional brick and mortar business. Imagine two restaurants or two clothing stores under the same ownership.

Google will refuse to transfer the reviews, because they are two different locations. The experience people had at one location do not apply to the experience people may have at the other location. For example, maybe someone left a review that there was a dog that bit them at the other location, or that the receptionist was rude, or that parking was bad.

For this reason, I think you’re unlikely to be able to convince Google to move the reviews.

I know there are nuances in your case where you could argue that all the reviews are for YOU the person, and so they should apply to the other location too, but Google won’t typically consider nuances. They just go by their rule book.

 

[PeteKernow]

Google looks at this from the perspective of a traditional brick and mortar business. Imagine two restaurants or two clothing stores under the same ownership.

Google will refuse to transfer the reviews, because they are two different locations. The experience people had at one location do not apply to the experience people may have at the other location. For example, maybe someone left a review that there was a dog that bit them at the other location, or that the receptionist was rude, or that parking was bad.

For this reason, I think you’re unlikely to be able to convince Google to move the reviews.

I know there are nuances in your case where you could argue that all the reviews are for YOU the person, and so they should apply to the other location too, but Google won’t typically consider nuances. They just go by their rule book.

Thanks but they have moved reviews on previous occasions when I've moved to a different location.

 

[bearenok]

Thanks but they have moved reviews on previous occasions when I've moved to a different location.

And did you change the names too?
When changing the name and address, it is definitely not possible to say that this is one and the same place, where you can combine reviews

 

[PeteKernow]

Can't actually remember if I changed the name or not that time! That's the problem with dealing with GMB, it's all so counter-intuitive, because to a human being it's obvious that all my business names refer to the same person doing the same thing, but of course Google is a machine not a human. I think I may just let sleeping dogs lie and focus on getting fresh reviews on the new listing, as I get two good ones last week.

 

[JoyHawkins]

This might be worth appealing if you want to start a thread on the Google Business Profile community and ask a moderator to escalate it. Based on what you described, I usually see Google willing to move reviews in this instance.

 

[Atul Sharma]

Hi. Hoping for advice here as it's always been way more helpful than Google itself. I have two GMB listings, in different cities. LIsting A is older and has many good reviews. LIsting B is much newer and has no reviews. The name of LIsting A is specific to the city in which it's located, but I have quit practicing in that city, so I want to shift everything to Listing B.

GMB replied
"I understand that you want to transfer the reviews from the old profile to a new profile.... Upon checking I see that both the profiles are Live on Google Search & Maps. And also both the profiles information is different hence as per the guidelines we can't transfer the reviews."

I therefore changed the name and all other information on the LIsting A to match LIsting B.

GMB then replied "
upon checking I see that you have changed the business name but still we could consider when the profiles are created they had the different business names hence we will not be able to proceed further"

I am trying to make them understand that the profile refers to me and to the professional service I provide, which is exactly the same in both locations. (I am a psychotherapist, working on my own) In their second reply they seem to be implying that a business created under one name will always retain its identity as that business, and therefore reviews pertaining to it cannot be transferred to a new business name, even though the two businesses are identical. This makes no sense to me. Is there anything more I should be doing?

I'm facing the exactly the same issue. Someone has been Hijacked Google Business Profile.