Negative review advice

[Mopo100]

Had a negative / unfair review and I have left a response which shows up when looking at it from my laptop, but my response doesn't show up when I look on Ipad. Does anyone know if website owner responses show on Ipad/mobile devices?

If not they should, I need to counter this 'review' as a large percentage are accessing from ipads/mobiles.

Also, I've already reported the review to Google as it is disingenuous (either deliberately or otherwise), but noticed their violations policy only seems to apply to fairly narrow clear cut parameters... ie. spam/offensive/copyright etc. So someone can make some rubbish up to mislead others and harm your business, and it won't be deleted?

 

[Phil Rozek]

Good catch. I'm not seeing owner-responses on my iPhone - whether I go to the Google listing just through search or through the Maps app.

As for fishy reviews, yeah, Google doesn't exactly play the Marshal Matt Dillon role. The reviews have to border on libel for Google to take them down.

 

[Linda Buquet]

I can sympathize Mopo100.

For it to be libel the person/company has to prove the statement was a lie. But even libel they usually won't take down. That's I think because they are not going to take time to investigate play judge and jury for every claim a business owner says is fake or malicious. They'd have millions of complaints to investigate and how would they get records and proof? So it's just tough all the way around..

 

[Mopo100]

Do Google Reps post/monitor threads here?

I really think it should be flagged up about owner responses not showing on Ipad's/mobile devices.

 

[Linda Buquet]

They catch many posts here and I would escalate to be sure they see it but they are all on vaca now for a couple weeks and my main Google contact has been out sick all week.

She's back in office 1/6, so let's give her a couple days to play catch up. If you remember to bump this for me on Jan 8, and if it's still an issue then, I will escalate it.

Thanks and Happy Holidays!

 

[Mopo100]

Excellent, thanks Linda.

You too!

 

[Mopo100]

Update...

After some communication with the person who left the negative review they agreed to delete it and did so. I immediately checked and all ok, review gone and total number of reviews remaining was correct and corresponded with the remaining reviews.

However, the deleted negative review is now showing again.. (even though the total number of reviews still shows as correct)

Is this a known issue? ie. deleted reviews still show for a while because of some kind of Google system cache issue etc?

 

[Linda Buquet]

I'm sorry, I've never heard of that happening.

Maybe try posting over in the Google forum and see if anyone has ideas.

 

[Mopo100]

Thanks, just posted there, I'll let you know if I get anywhere with it.

 

[Laustin1878]

Glad to hear you were able to resolve the review just by speaking to the person. I feel this should always be the first approach. Take the discussion offline. It is odd that the review popped up again.

It does sound like a glitch. Please keep us posted on how it works out.

 

[Mopo100]

Very pleased to say it now appears to be permanently gone, so must have been a temporary caching issue of some kind (Mike was right Linda).

Just as well as there's only so much flattery/humouring/ego stroking/apologising for something that didn't happen.. etc etc that one can stomach dispensing in order to get an unfair review removed!

Happy new year everyone!

 

[Mopo100]

Hi Linda, you said to remind you about now regarding owner responses not showing up on Ipad/mobile devices re possibly reporting it to a Google rep

 

[Linda Buquet]

We asked at end of year and I just asked again. Thanks for reminder!

 

[Mopo100]

Excellent. This is a great forum Linda, you and Mike provide so much help for small business owners. I'm sure I'll have another question before long!

 

[Linda Buquet]

Got a reply from Google. They are aware business owners would like owner responses to show on mobile, so it's on the radar, but no ETA.

Sorry, wish I had better news.

 

[Mopo100]

At least they're aware of it.

This whole review thing is so open to misuse and can potentially destroy a business. I was lucky this time that I managed to persuade the person to remove it, I don't even think he was referring to my business as what he was saying did not make any sense but I had to go along with it and grovel to get him to remove it. My plan B was to go legal but who wants to do that on a regular basis?