Previous Owner's listing is ranking instead of ours - shows the business as temporarily closed!

[lonerangerseo]

Hi forum,

My client has bought an acupuncture business but is having difficulty with the previous owner and the Google Business Listing.

To my knowledge, the previous owner agreed to transfer the ownership details to my client, but never did. Instead she has changed the listing to a service-based business and changed the name to simply "*" meaning when we try and gain ownership on Google it is unable to be found.

She has also marked it as temporalily closed - I don't know the full story but it seems this has been done out of spite.

We have tried to contact Google several times, there response is that as we do not own the listing, they cannot do anything to remove it, but that we can suggest an edit saying it is closed or doesn't exist and they will consider removing it.. we've done this many times over the past couple of months it still says "your edit is being reviewed" when I visit the listing but still nothing has been done. Any more emails to Google receive the same generic reply.

They also advised us to create a new listing which at first my client was reluctant to do as he wanted the good reviews from the previous listing (around 40+ avg 4.8 rating) which apparently initially the previous owner had agreed to. We have created a new listing anyway but the problem is when the business name is Googled or the search term for the local area, his business listing is no where to be seen and it's the previous listing that shows - as you can imagine this is a big issue with many potential customers believing the business is no longer operating! (many have walked past and said "Oh I thought you were closed now since ..... left"

Any advice on getting the previous listing removed/disabled would be greatly appreciated. We no longer are concerned about taking it over and keeping the reviews as this doesn't look like it's going to happen. Would rather start a fresh.

Thank you.

 

[keyserholiday]

Have you tried to edit the name back to the previous business name yet? If you can get the old name added, you might still be able to request access to the business profile before it gets reverted back.

 

[lonerangerseo]

We don't have control of the old listing so can't edit the name...

Even if we did request access I doubt the previous owner would allow it - my client doesn't want to elaborate but I think they have had a falling out and she is clearly doing this deliberately.

 

[keyserholiday]

We don't have control of the old listing so can't edit the name...

Even if we did request access I doubt the previous owner would allow it - my client doesn't want to elaborate but I think they have had a falling out and she is clearly doing this deliberately.

Use suggest an edit to change the name. If it gets approved, you can request access and the current owner has 3 days to accept or reject the request. Once the request is rejected you can file a rebuttal and Google will allow you to verify your affiliation with the business to gain access. This is typical via pin postcard.

 

[lonerangerseo]

Ok, thanks - I will give this a try.

 

[lonerangerseo]

Use suggest an edit to change the name. If it gets approved, you can request access and the current owner has 3 days to accept or reject the request. Once the request is rejected you can file a rebuttal and Google will allow you to verify your affiliation with the business to gain access. This is typical via pin postcard.

HI, nothing has happened. I've suggested an edit for the name change but no notifications and nothing from the previous owner. Radio silence from Google. What can I do?

 

[keyserholiday]

What outcome will you and your client be satisfied with, gaining access to the profile and getting it removed?

 

[lonerangerseo]

What outcome will you and your client be satisfied with, gaining access to the profile and getting it removed?

Hi, not sure why I didn't get a notification for your reply - yes essentially that would be perfectly fine for us.

Thank you.