Whacked Listing Reinclusion Troubleshooter - Do Not Support, Hide Address Problem

[Linda Buquet]

Sneak peek at something I discovered over the weekend.

Looks like Google is working on a new "Troubleshooter" that could help restore listings that were deleted due to the hide-your-address service area business fiasco.

(If you have a service area business and do not have your address hidden and are getting the "We do not support this location" error message and by chance are not aware of the problem - read this 1st. Business Listings Deleted by Google - Do Not Support Location Update)

First I discovered this new Troubleshooter over at the Google Maps help docs, but the form was a little crippled and did not totally work. Plus I thought it odd, that it was on Maps not the Google Places help docs. So then I searched til I found the new troubleshooter at Google Place help, but that one's not quite finished/working yet either.

Here is a cropped partial screenshot of one of new Troubleshooters.

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I cropped off any identifiable location info and part of the form and am not sharing the URLs, because again these are not finished and do not work yet, therefore have not been officially announced by Google yet.

Just giving a little peek at what I found, to give us all a little hope that Google IS working on a solution to help get the whacked listings back. Hopefully this little public preview will help give them a little push to get it finished, so businesses can start getting back online!

 

[Flash]

Interesting find. This could be something for those people. Alternatively, this could just be a new troubleshooting form for everyone who is getting "Location not supported".

Think of it this way... aren't you tired of all the people in the forum that have the same issue, that haven't read the guidelines even after being taken offline, that don't read the stickies in the forum, that don't search the forum to see that the same question is asked 30 times a day, and that then try to argue with you when you say "This is how you need to do it"?

I'm sure support is too. And in fact, it's a big waste of money for support to deal with the same issue over and over again, when everything is spelled out already for them.

So I could also see this as a step-by-step troubleshooter that anyone with "Location not supported" must follow in order to set up a ticket, with it kicking the majority of the people out part way through with "Fix it, then come back and try again". No ticket for you until you can answer all the questions, which should then mean you are ready for support to quickly review and turn you back on.

I'd actually like to see that, then over 50% of the forum answer could just be "Go use the troubleshooter" rather than us stating "Give us all the details so we can figure out the issues and have you fix them before we send you to the troubleshooter".

 

[Simon James]

Perhaps if there was a comprehensive, well structured, up-to-date user guide; and a reliable database structure across Maps, G+ and Places, then there might be very little need for a support forum at all.

Perhaps, if whoever at Google is overseeing this mess (Larry, Sergey, Urs, etc.) had some cajones, they would take the whole thing offline for 6 months, agree on their future strategy, get the database structure sorted out, tweak the algos, clean up (or dump) the existing data, give some crystal clear guidelines/training on what can be done with the tools and what G expects from the users, and then relaunch. (If they tried to run AdWords in such a haphazard way they would probably already be out of business).

..end of rant.

 

[MiriamEllis]

Woo! Linda! Cool previews. Gosh, I know I don't have to ask, but PLEASE post the link in the forum if/when that goes live. I swear, Google should just open a Local Emergency Hospital for all of the casualties of their system....but then again, they'd probably post the wrong phone number on it.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Woo! Linda! Cool previews. Gosh, I know I don't have to ask, but PLEASE post the link in the forum if/when that goes live. I swear, Google should just open a Local Emergency Hospital for all of the casualties of their system....but then again, they'd probably post the wrong phone number on it.

LOL so true! That totally cracked me up Miriam!

 

[Andrew Sawyer]

Woo! Linda! Cool previews. Gosh, I know I don't have to ask, but PLEASE post the link in the forum if/when that goes live. I swear, Google should just open a Local Emergency Hospital for all of the casualties of their system....but then again, they'd probably post the wrong phone number on it.

Then a Black Hat SEO would hijack the number by replacing it with theirs.