Trouble Responding to Reviews

[Ray Litvak]

Hi All,
I manage a Google Local profile for an account of mine.
Recently, they received a bad review. I crafted a response and tried to post it, but was unable to discover where to place the response.
Is anyone else having the same issue? This is incredibly frustrating!
Thanks in advance for those who reply.
-Ray

 

[Linda Buquet]

Is that listing still in the old dashboard?

Usually in old dash if respond to reviews is missing it indicates a hidden merged dupe.

What dash are you in and where have you tried looking? If new dash I think you can respond from within the Reviews dashboard.

 

[Linda Buquet]

There is a bug I just reported to Google.

Respond to review is missing, but also most reviews are MIA.

Just reported a couple problems in the G forum where folks had 13 - 30 reviews but only 6 were showing. Those people were reporting that respond to reviews is also missing Ray.

Started thinking maybe it was just a fluke on those few in the forum, but just checked a bunch of random listings and all appear to only show the 1st page of reviews then it's cut off.

So maybe just pagination is missing? Here's a random listing I just pulled.

300 reviews - only 6 show: https://plus.google.com/110539998880497797108/about?gl=us&hl=en

So Google is aware, but I don't have an ETA or anything yet.

 

[Phil Rozek]

Interesting.

Another odd thing I noticed lately was a client's listing had double-reviews. So there'd be 2 reviews (with the same text) from John Doe, 2 from Jane Doe, 2 from Mr. Rogers, etc. The issue came and went about a week ago. Haven't seen it since.

 

[Ray Litvak]

Thanks for the update Linda!
Would you suggest that I contact Google re: the inability to respond to reviews; negative ones in this case?

 

[Linda Buquet]

It would not hurt. Could still be an issue of hidden merged dupe in your case.

BUT if it's related to the problem of reviews not showing, which I think it might be, then a tech could not help - it would take engineers and they've already been alerted. But again does not hurt to call and have support reps push for resolution as well.

 

[Linda Buquet]

This problem is still going strong. FYI it's a worldwide issue affecting all listings from what I can see.

I believe it's just a pagination bug. In other words your reviews are there, it's just that it's only showing the reviews from page 1 and then pagination is broken so it's not going to page 2, 3, 4.

The problem is happening worldwide, so it's def not a problem with your reviews or your listing. Just a temporary bug, so you can relax and breathe easy this weekend.

 

[Laustin1878]

If you were not able to respond to reviews from day one, it very well can be a hidden merged dupe listing as Linda is pointing out. Calling to speak to a Google Places rep will help fix this and timely. Did this today and the rep was extremely helpful.

If you were able to respond to reviews and now cannot, it's likely related to the more recent issue that is taking place with missing reviews.

 

[standenman]

I too cannot find any place on my Google+ business page dashboard to respond to a bad review. And, on my "Your Pages" tab I have 2 business listings that are dupes. I have had dupe problems going back to the old Places (perhaps Linda remembers my harangues from several years ago). I never could solve the dupes on the old Places, so I am scared to try with Google+. Is there a way to deal with these dupes?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Stan is this a new issue with not being able to respond to reviews?
If so I think it's related to this bug which has yet to be solved.

Re the G+ dupe pages. In any of your Google Places dashboards do you have any extra listings that are suspended (by you) or unverified/waiting for PIN? If so those will create extra G+ page and you just need to delete them from the Places dash.

 

[standenman]

This is the first time I have had a negative review so the issue has not come up before. Thanks for the advise on the dups - yes looks like I should just delete as they have not been claimed. You are a great resource, and I sure appreciate you.

 

[standenman]

I continue to have no ability, when managing my Google+ account, to respond to a negative review. Specifically, someone provided the cursory assessment of my services that they "Hate Mr. Denman". That may well be true, but it is not grounded in any specifics and is less than helpful to the general public.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Did you ever call support Stan to see if you have a hidden merged dupe? That's normally the reason you can't respond to reviews. And if you still have live dupe problems you still have ranking and other interrelated problems too. Email me if you want help cleaning everything up and nipping this all in the bud instead of wasting time that you could be using in other practice areas.

 

[standenman]

First of all Linda I have never had any success in getting in touch with Google EVER. I would indeed love to spend more time practicing law rather than messing with these issues but seeing as how Google is the 1000 Lb unresponsive Gorilla I have let alternative. There are in fact no dupes so this answer does not solve the problem. thanks.

Stan Denamn

 

[Linda Buquet]

There are in fact no dupes so this answer does not solve the problem.

Stan, you said:
"I have had dupe problems going back to the old Places...
I never could solve the dupes on the old Places"

So to me that implied you still had dupe problems.

BUT FYI the hidden merged dupes I'm talking about that cause you not to be able to respond to reviews.
You can't see those live, so you may not know if you have them. They are "hidden and merged".

 

[Phil Rozek]

@Stan

Linda's offer was a great one. May want to reconsider. It's a question of what hurts more: spending some time jumping through Google's hoops, or that review.

 

[standenman]

I apologize for my less than civil tone - did not mean it to sound that way, Linda. I have indeed for many years had dupe issues, but I had thought they were finally resolved. Just after I deleted dupes several weeks ago I found that in managing my business Google+ account dashboard I could access and respond to a negative review. Some week or so later I got another negative review and I found on return to Google+ dashboard that I could not again access reviews for a response. I do not understand how I would detect the "merged and hidden" dups you speak of. Thank you Linda for all you do.

 

[Linda Buquet]

I do not understand how I would detect the "merged and hidden" dups you speak of.

Hence the reason I suggested calling support or hire a specialist.

If I had a legal problem I would not waste my time trying to figure it out, I'd hire an attorney that knows what he's doing. Just sayin...

However if you don't currently have a dupe mess, which is what I thought you were saying, and the only problem is not being able to respond to reviews, then all you need to do is call support. They are the only ones that can help you with a hidden merged dupe - aside from checking all your G accounts to see if you have another listing in a different dash somewhere.