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Google Places Can Be Frustrating!

Writing by Nick Stamoulis

This isn’t the first time a business owner has had issues with Google Places and it probably won’t be the last, but I decided to share my recent experience with Google Places so business owners having problems with their own account can see that even an SEO firm (that does this for a living!) isn’t immune to bad customer service.

Here’s the scenario:

My company recently moved to a new office (you can read about the SEO lesson I learned from that move) so I needed to update our Google Places listing to reflect the new address. Any business owner who has tried to update their address of phone number knows it’s not a simple task. First off, in order to update an address they need to send a verification pin to that address (to make sure it’s not someone trying to mess with the listing) but it takes 2-3 weeks for that postcard to arrive! So I patiently waited my 2-3 weeks and nothing came from Google. I had to resubmit the changes for a new verification pin, which would take ANOTHER 2-3 weeks to arrive.

Here’s where it got really frustrating. I didn’t realize this until about a week into the process, but while my new address was “pending” in Google Places, Google had pulled the listing entirely! For some business owners, this is deadly! If your customers can’t find you in search engines, most won’t know you exist. Even though my SEO firm doesn’t rely on foot traffic for survival, that listing probably drove 15 unique visitors through to my site every month. I’ve even gotten a client from my Google Places listing, so to have it just disappear was very frustrating.

What was even more frustrating is that a few days after that, Brick Marketing was showing up in Google Places but it looked like this (right click to view full image):

No address, no local phone number, no website, no nothing! What’s worse is that even though the address shows “United States” as the address, the actual dot is where our old office used to be! Needless to say I was more than a little frustrated with the whole situation.

The second verification pin arrived (finally!) and said the changes would take effect in 24 hours. 24 hours went by, then 48, then 72….nothing! My Google Places account said everything had been updated and was good to go but clearly it isn’t. I still have none of the new information in my listing and all the old information has pretty much been pulled out.

Here’s the kicker, and a problem that many business owners have run into before, Google Places offers ZERO customer service. There is no phone number, e-mail or contact us form for business owners to reach out for help. Yes, there are crowd-sourced help forums, but many of the comments are business owners all dealing with the same issue and no one can come up with a solution.

I can appreciate that Google has millions of customers and running an actual customer service department for Google Places would be impossible, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating. I KNOW that Google Places is important for local SEO and I manage the listings for my clients all the time. To not be able to control my own is a little embarrassing.

What problems, if any, have you encountered with Google Places?

***Update! After several months and hours of research and tweaking our Google Places account it finally is online and accurate, although I am happy it should not be this hard!

10 Responses to “Google Places Can Be Frustrating!”

  • Sherry Nouraini says:
    October 3, 2011 at 6:45 am

    I hear customer service is just as bad with Blogger. Something goes wrong with your blog, you are on your own. Thank goodness I use WordPress, it’s good to have control of your online real estate.

  • Nyagoslav says:
    October 3, 2011 at 2:26 pm

    The problems are millions, and lately new ones started popping up. I haven’t seen one like yours, but I would suppose that’s a result of a new verification system I THINK Google are trying to implement. Recently there were many issues with the verification and that’s what leading me to think so.

    Anyway, I myself am a regular contributor to the Google Places forum and it’s ridiculous how rarely a Googler would reply. Less than 2-3 times per week, and there are about 100-150 complaints per day.

  • Michael says:
    October 3, 2011 at 7:29 pm

    Nick,

    Our office went through the same scenario if not worse!!! In February, We moved our office no more than a block from our old office of 11 years.

    No matter how many times I emailed Google, I didnt get anywhere. It is beside me how Google is as big as they are with such POOR customer service.

    So, I decided to contact the AdWords Dept. and finally got someone to look a t the account. All they would tell me that it will be updated soon? By the way, when trying to view the dashboard, all I got was, “Currently this location is not supported”.

    7 months later, I run across a friend and explain the problem I am having and to my surprise said he could fix the problem almost instantly!!!

    So this is what we did; we logged into my Google Places account. Then went to the update status box on the top right. We wrote a few comments and submitted. Bam!!! In literally 15 minutes, my places was showing in the local traffic listing!!!

    All these month went by and who knows what revenue was lost let alone the build up of frustration with Google. Today, I can happily say we are back in the “A” position, check it out!!

    http://maps.google.com/maps/place?rlz=1C1CHKZ_enUS435US435&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=fullerton+bail+bonds&fb=1&gl=us&hq=bail+bonds&hnear=0x80dd2a74c381cb63:0xf59c53811e60ea4a,Fullerton,+CA&cid=2922861977201288448&ei=5gyKToigGqTKsQLA4NnPDw&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=placepage-link&resnum=1&ved=0CG8Q4gkwAA

  • Hope Mears Østgaard says:
    October 4, 2011 at 9:24 am

    Hello Nick,
    Reading your post was like reading my own thoughts. QuestBack (www.questback.com) moved offices in Oslo, which is also our HQ, some 9 months ago and I have still not been able to change the address in Google Places. I had almost given up, but with you reminding me, I will make another attempt to have this fixed.

    Hope

  • Pamela Ravenwood says:
    October 4, 2011 at 2:02 pm

    I have had so many problems with Google Places I wouldn’t even know where to start in describing the problems. You would think instead of investing millions of dollars into Google Plus they would fix Google Places first.

    As an SEO Consultant I’m almost afraid to offer putting up a listing for clients on Google Places because I know something will inevitably go wrong and I will be the one to blame.

    I have learned this – never put up a listing for a person who shares a common phone number with other persons, such as realtors. Their listings will get combined, mixed up and screwed up. Use the realtor’s cell phone number instead.

    Second, forewarn your client as much as possible that using Google Places is great but it is also a crap shoot and many things can go wrong on Google’s end.

  • Dan says:
    October 11, 2011 at 10:15 am

    I’m in this very position with a client at the moment – after moving offices, I updated the Places account, and now, even though the correct info is displayed in the dashboard, the public facing page has had nothing but errors, been duplicated (still with the wrong info), and marked as a closed business. I’m sure all will work out in the end, but it sure is frustrating!

  • Bob says:
    October 24, 2011 at 2:23 pm

    I know first hand how frustrating it can be trying to get answers from Google Places. I had a client’s local listing drop from front page number one positions to fifth page almost over night. As it turns out what caused it was that the box that says do not show my address was checked. It took me about a week to figure out what the deal was. I unchecked it and all got well and she has started moving back into front page positions again. But I noticed that every time I go in to edit that listing, the box is checked again. So every time I edit her listing I have to uncheck the box. I have never run into this with any other listing.

  • Ivor says:
    October 26, 2011 at 3:33 am

    Couldn’t agree more with Pamela. I have clients asking me to fix their “Google Listings” and I just know it’s going to be one of those scenarios where you think you have it fixed – but its not! Totally frustrating.

  • hair removal adelaide says:
    May 14, 2012 at 7:54 pm

    I am having the same issue. I’ve been waiting for a postcard to receive from past 2 months and nothing yet.

    can anyone put a light on this?

  • Nick Stamoulis says:
    May 15, 2012 at 9:06 am

    I would submit a request for a new pin. Sometimes they get lost in the mail or not sent out all at. It’s very important that you claim your listing.

    Best,
    Nick

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