Reviews restricted from showing - for 7 months and counting. Help!

[Maxine]

I've got a legit website and a verified GBP. We have tons of new reviews submitted to Google over the last seven months, but no new Google Reviews have displayed. (The most recent review is seven months old). You can see it here: Cruisin’ Maui Rent-A-Car - Google Search

I contacted Google and they said, "We reserve the right to disable certain user-generated contributions for individual Business Profiles and business categories. Some Business Profiles have been temporarily disabled from adding new reviews or replies to reviews. We are closely monitoring affected Business Profiles but are not able to provide an estimate on when we can restore the functionality."

I don't know why we would have been penalized. I didn't generate fake reviews. All the reviews submitted should have been by legit users of my service. I'm just a family business, and this is hurting us.

Any ideas on how I can get the reviews re-enabled?
And, does anyone know if the 7-months of missing reviews will appear once the functionality has been restored, or will only new reviews appear?

tia!

 

[ElizabethRule]

In my experience, there isn't much you can do about this, you have to just wait for reviews to start showing again. Once they do, Google should be able to restore them if they determine they do not violate the TOS - you just may need to contact support and ask them to restore.

 

[Maxine]

- you just may need to contact support and ask them to restore.

Thanks. I did contact them and I was told that it was a penalty - but they wouldn't tell me why the penalty occured; and that the ban would be lifted - but they wouldn't tell me when.

It has been 7 months... so, that is a long time to wait already!

 

[ElizabethRule]

Hopefully it can be lifted soon!

 

[mblumenthal]

One theory I have in these situations is that Google doesn't like a ton of reviews from far away. Which is easy to happen in your case.

1- I am curious if you have continued to ask for reviews?
2- Can you be sure to let us know when you get the ability back?

 

[Maxine]

One theory I have in these situations is that Google doesn't like a ton of reviews from far away. Which is easy to happen in your case.

1- I am curious if you have continued to ask for reviews?
2- Can you be sure to let us know when you get the ability back?

1 - yes. We are still asking for reviews. Two weeks ago I noticed that the URL for leaving a review was slightly different, even though the current link did resolve to the correct GBP. We swapped links in the review requests just in case it helped.

2 - Google contacted my client and they are having trouble figuring out why it is happening. At least they are actively working on it now! They can see the "new" reviews that clients left AFTER we changed the URL are not displaying, but they don't know why. They cannot find the 7 months of reviews that were sent via the old URL, even though they agree it is pointing to the correct GBP. Very strange. Hopefully we get an answer soon, and hopefully the recover - and display - all the reviews from the past 7 months! I'll let you know

 

[mblumenthal]

I have been seeing more blanket prohibitions across geographies and categories from Google. These are not penalties but rather preventative measures to avoid bigger issues.

The fact that they say: “Some Business Profiles have been temporarily disabled from adding new reviews or replies to reviews. We are closely monitoring affected Business Profiles” implies that this is the case here.

Google has done this at times of war, when laws were changed, during riots, at times of terrism, or during threats and other broader incidents that lead to or might have lead to review attacks.

Was there anything happening during the time this started? Are any other similar listings seeing this?

 

[Maxine]

Update:
Google support called and said they can't see why the profile isn't working right, and they escalated the issue. They said they'd call back in 2 days. It has been 2-weeeks with no response (other than I'm now getting "posting has been turned off" notices for some unknown reason).

I don't have a contact to get updates, so do I just keep waiting?

• Is there anything else I can do to get this fixed?
• Should I give up on my old profile with 240 reviews and start over?
  (Then maybe ask them to combine the two accounts - but that might break the new one if they don't know why the current one isn't working).

Argh! This is so frutrating! I'm a family run business and 7 months of not being able to update or get reviews on our GBP is hurting us!

Any help would be appreciated.
This is the GBP in question: Cruisin Maui

p.s. Now any edits we make to the GBP are rejected (can't update our hours of operation for example). And, posts are now turned off. ARGHHHHH!


Background:
Our GBP IS verified and is NOT suspended. People can see the profile and leave reviews.
But, none of the new reviews display (the most recent review showing is 7-months old!).
I tried going through the appeal process, but it couldn't find anything to appeal.

 

[ElizabethRule]

Have you posted about this on the GBP forum? If support is unable to help, that would be my next step: Sign in - Google Accounts

 

[Maxine]

Yes. I've posted in the GBP forum. I think that is how Google came to call the first time. But, there doesn't seem to be a follow up method in the forum - no ticketing type of system. So, it is hard when they contact you and then don't have a follow up process when the issue isn't resolved. I've replied to the first thread to mention that we're still waiting for an update. Hopefully somebody responds to that.