URGENT PE Escalation Advice: 90-Location Rebrand Blocked by "Locksmith" Hard Filter (W9 Docs/other proofs ignored)

[cowellzd]

Hi @JoyHawkins , @Colan Nielsen and team,

I’m an agency director managing a 90-location franchise, and we are completely trapped in an algorithmic "No-Reply" loop. I am looking for advice on how to get a human at Google to review legal documentation, or how we can get this issue solved.

The Situation:

• Client: FlyLock Security Solutions (Formerly "The Flying Locksmiths").
• The Goal: They have legally rebranded, and have changed theur URL and built a new site to reflect this name change/cateogryical business change. We need to change their Primary Category from Locksmith to Security System Supplier (keeping Locksmith as a secondary). We also need to change their name to "FlyLock Security Solutions" as right now the listings just say "FlyLock" and Google wont let me change this either. But the primary category change is the most important need right now.
• The Block: We are hitting the notorious "Locksmith Hard Filter." Every single category edit is instantly auto-rejected by the algorithm within minutes.

What We Have Tried (The Dead Ends):

1. Standard Support: We submitted signage proof for 18 priority locations. Rejected.
2. Legal Entity Update Tickets: We submitted the Federal W9 document proving the legal name is "FlyLock Security Solutions."
3. The "No-Reply" Loop: The bot instantly closes our tickets with a generic "No-Reply" email before a human ever sees the IRS document. (Example Case IDs:
4. 4-6855000040137, 2-3386000040200, 2-4857000040137)
5. Bulk Upload: Blocked.
6. Paid Advisors/Sales: Links are either 404ing for our agency account or when we call the Google Ads number (prefacing this by saying we want to run asd but cannot run them until we have the GBPs corrected. They refuse to warm-transfer us to Maps support.

The Evidence We Have Ready:

• Federal W9 showing the legal entity name.
• Permanent Storefront Signage photos for at least 18 locations.
• A fully updated digital footprint (website, H1s, metadata all reflect Security Systems, Access Control Securit Cameras, etc.).

Our Ask for the Forum: Because we are a "Locksmith" changing categories, the bot assumes we are a spam network hijacking a listing and auto-closes everything.

1. Is there a specific backdoor form or category path left that actually routes legal documents to the manual Content Compliance team without the bot intercepting it?
2. Is this something that requires a paid engagement with Sterling Sky to escalate directly to Google via some method that is not currently accessible to us? We are losing revenue across 90 locations, the franchisees are extremely frustrated, and Corporate needs a resolution from us.

Thank you in advance for any guidance. This filter is brutal!

 

[JoyHawkins]

Hi there! Google definitely has insanely strict rules in place for locksmiths due to how many hijacks that industry gets. Your only course of action is to contact support about it. If you're hitting a brick wall with regular channels, I would suggest either asking on the GBP forum or on Facebook support.

My agency doesn't work with locksmiths but if you were wanting to hire someone to help, you might try reaching out to Steady Demand or Tom Waddington.