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- Nov 11, 2015
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Can you check this link? No one can see it. They are getting a message that the page doesn't exist. Can you tell me if you can access the post at this link? https://support.google.com/business...rty-egregious-violation?hl=en&msgid=149914202
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COPY OF POST
Attempting to help a new PPC client & hit a brick wall.
This will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. The business is a tree company. Their past webmaster/marketing company has denied access to both their "same name domain" and their Google Business Profile. This has been going on for a couple of years, leaving the company helpless.
The GBP they are denying access to contains a tracking phone number owned by the marketing company that the business has no access to. (The marketing company specializes in marketing for landscape, tree and other service type businesses.) The number rings to voicemail and doesn't identify who you are calling. The GBP contains the company's name and images of: the company's trucks with their logo; employees at work in logo shirts; and even the tree company's owner (two images of the owner). The images of the company trucks have the correct phone number in plain site, printed on the trucks. The website being held has the same images. There is also a link to the marketing company responsible (in the website footer being held).
How this came to be.
When the tree company wanted to part ways, the marketing company said if they didn't wish to continue, they would be leaving the website up and selling leads that come in on that phone number to the company's competitors. Cybersquatters. The tree company's "real" physical address is on the old website but the text color was made to blend in with the background. Contact forms on the old website go to the marketing company & the tree company has no access to those either. When they couldn't get their domain back, the tree company got a new domain variation by adding "inc" to their name. Most of the same images (that appear in the GBP & old website) are on this second website that they have control of. The tree company’s (authorized) website isn’t showing up in a search. Search is showing the old “illegal” website with the wrong phone number, owned by thieves who are selling the leads that come in on it.
In an attempt to gain ownership of the existing GBP.
We created a new GBP. As soon as we verified it, Google marked it as a duplicate. Through this process we requested ownership of the original. Three days passed and we were denied. We appealed and have heard nothing back.
In the meantime.
We reported the GBP to Google as a third party violation. We included a detailed PDF attachment with complete information including the images being used of the company trucks (showing the actual and correct phone number), images of the owner, workers in logo wear, mailing address (which could be matched to the website being held and the GBP we had just verified via postcard), screenshot of a Google Review mentioning three employees by name, screenshot of their Yelp Listing (in control of the tree company) with 68 reviews mentioning the owner by name, showing the same images with the correct phone number in the images and the correct phone number on the Yelp Listing. We also mentioned, there was a duplicate Yelp listing with the same GBP tracking phone number and that Yelp merged the listing and its 5 reviews with the true owners as soon as we brought it to their attention. We received an email from Google saying they will take action if they deem necessary but will only reply to us if they need more information. That was seven days ago.
While waiting for Google to get back to us.
The GBP we created suddenly went from being a “duplicate” to needing to be “Verified”. Again? Ok….We clicked on it and another verification mailer was generated. Not sure where this was going, maybe we shouldn't have clicked through but we just entered the new code the owner sent to us and the message now says "This location has been suspended due to quality issues". The email we received says “your business profile on Google has been suspended because it was flagged for suspicious activity”. Banging head on desk. They've suspended the wrong GBP. Our case ID number for the reported third party violation of GBP is 8-0960000031922
Moving forward.
I don’t know whether to appeal or perhaps we should delete the listing and try again? Each step we take makes this whole nightmare harder and harder to explain. Any idea/s offered of what we might do to get this poor business its rightful GBP would be greatly appreciated.
****************************
COPY OF POST
Attempting to help a new PPC client & hit a brick wall.
This will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. The business is a tree company. Their past webmaster/marketing company has denied access to both their "same name domain" and their Google Business Profile. This has been going on for a couple of years, leaving the company helpless.
The GBP they are denying access to contains a tracking phone number owned by the marketing company that the business has no access to. (The marketing company specializes in marketing for landscape, tree and other service type businesses.) The number rings to voicemail and doesn't identify who you are calling. The GBP contains the company's name and images of: the company's trucks with their logo; employees at work in logo shirts; and even the tree company's owner (two images of the owner). The images of the company trucks have the correct phone number in plain site, printed on the trucks. The website being held has the same images. There is also a link to the marketing company responsible (in the website footer being held).
How this came to be.
When the tree company wanted to part ways, the marketing company said if they didn't wish to continue, they would be leaving the website up and selling leads that come in on that phone number to the company's competitors. Cybersquatters. The tree company's "real" physical address is on the old website but the text color was made to blend in with the background. Contact forms on the old website go to the marketing company & the tree company has no access to those either. When they couldn't get their domain back, the tree company got a new domain variation by adding "inc" to their name. Most of the same images (that appear in the GBP & old website) are on this second website that they have control of. The tree company’s (authorized) website isn’t showing up in a search. Search is showing the old “illegal” website with the wrong phone number, owned by thieves who are selling the leads that come in on it.
In an attempt to gain ownership of the existing GBP.
We created a new GBP. As soon as we verified it, Google marked it as a duplicate. Through this process we requested ownership of the original. Three days passed and we were denied. We appealed and have heard nothing back.
In the meantime.
We reported the GBP to Google as a third party violation. We included a detailed PDF attachment with complete information including the images being used of the company trucks (showing the actual and correct phone number), images of the owner, workers in logo wear, mailing address (which could be matched to the website being held and the GBP we had just verified via postcard), screenshot of a Google Review mentioning three employees by name, screenshot of their Yelp Listing (in control of the tree company) with 68 reviews mentioning the owner by name, showing the same images with the correct phone number in the images and the correct phone number on the Yelp Listing. We also mentioned, there was a duplicate Yelp listing with the same GBP tracking phone number and that Yelp merged the listing and its 5 reviews with the true owners as soon as we brought it to their attention. We received an email from Google saying they will take action if they deem necessary but will only reply to us if they need more information. That was seven days ago.
While waiting for Google to get back to us.
The GBP we created suddenly went from being a “duplicate” to needing to be “Verified”. Again? Ok….We clicked on it and another verification mailer was generated. Not sure where this was going, maybe we shouldn't have clicked through but we just entered the new code the owner sent to us and the message now says "This location has been suspended due to quality issues". The email we received says “your business profile on Google has been suspended because it was flagged for suspicious activity”. Banging head on desk. They've suspended the wrong GBP. Our case ID number for the reported third party violation of GBP is 8-0960000031922
Moving forward.
I don’t know whether to appeal or perhaps we should delete the listing and try again? Each step we take makes this whole nightmare harder and harder to explain. Any idea/s offered of what we might do to get this poor business its rightful GBP would be greatly appreciated.
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