Effing Google
 

Just got a call from Google about "claiming" my business listing, so I can make corrections and respond to reviews. Spent about 15 minutes going through stuff, then he tells me that since it is the initial time I am claiming the business, instead of the fee being $599, it will only be $399

I want my 15 minutes back

Aw snap!

Google reviews are extortion


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I don't know about that, all the reviews I have on Yelp and Google are 5 stars. Hopefully they at least have the address right now

"That's a nice bidness you gots there; be a shame if something were to happen to it, ya know, like a wrong address or a bad review or sumptin'... Jus' sayin'..."

My office manager already registered that site, it turns out, and they did not charge her anything to do it.

It isn't Google. It is a company that will "help" you fix up your Google listing.

^This
Google will never call you!

lol

I see what you did there.

We get those calls from "google" several times per week. We just hang up. We get 4 or 5 robo calls at the office every single day. With a business we never knw if the call is legit or BS so we answer them all. Several call every day want to give us a loan, some want to save us a ton on our credit card processing.

Yep - as they said above, this is not Google. You can claim your business without a fee.

Yes, that is the problem. With my home phone, if we don't recognize the number, we don't answer. Without business, we have to answer all calls.

I get lots of calls on my cellphone from "I'm calling from 'The Warranty Department'", about your car's warranty.

I honestly didn't know that.

Sadly, that's what they're counting on.

I got that call several times last week. I finally was at a point where I figured I would waste some of their time. I even got to talk to a human and I was all excited to get my warranty extended. I asked all sorts of questions and kept avoiding her question about my car. After 10 minutes I finally told her it was a 1986 El Camino. The wench hung up on me. :eek:

GH85 I have exactly the same problem,as a business having to answer all calls.I immediately order them to remove me from their mailing list.If I get a repeat call I make sure that burst their eardrums by asking them to listen very carefully then I shout obscenities down the phone as loud as possible then bang it down. The robot calls we can ,by UK law,usually block out from calling again by holding down number 9 until the call rings off ..It still blocks your line to potential customers for a short while though.

That's not the Googles, that's a third party trying to extort you.

If you need help with claiming your listings send me a PM I can help out. It IS essential, but that's a terrible way to start a business relationship.

The thing that Google IS doing is adding a notice that your web site may have been hacked when your site appears in their search results.

I've only had this happen to sites that I added information for the corresponding business locations on Google Maps and the WHOIS information is protected. They could not contact me from the who is, and I verified ownership when I added the Google Maps info. The sites were NOT hacked.

To get the notice removed you must verify you own the site, register the site with google, then re-submit it to be re-evaluated. Once registered I ran their tests and the sites did not show up has hacked, but to removed the notice I still have to re-submit the site for their evaluation.

Not very happy about Google falsely posting a notice on my sites search results that it has been hacked to get me to re-verify and re-register the site with them just because they put up a new system and evidently lost the old information.

“EU antitrust regulators aim to slap a hefty fine on Alphabet unit Google over its shopping service before the summer break in August, two people familiar with the matter said, setting the stage for two other cases involving the US company,” Reuters reports.
“The European Commission’s decision will come after a seven-year investigation into the world’s most popular internet search engine was triggered by scores of complaints from both US and European rivals,” Reuters reports. “The EU competition authority accused Google in April 2015 of distorting internet search results to favour its shopping service, harming both rivals and consumers.”

“Fines for companies found guilty of breaching EU antitrust rules can reach 10 per cent of their global turnover, which in Google’s case could be about $9bn of its 2016 turnover,” Reuters reports. “The company has also been charged with using its Android mobile operating system to squeeze out rivals and with blocking competitors in online search advertising related to its “AdSense for Search” platform.”

Tobra,

Do not pay them. It is not google like other say. It is 3rd party company. They are scammers. We get those calls 3 times a day. My business is registered with Google.

Yelp, is another story. They can go to hell as far as I am concerned. We should have the right to unlist our business from Yelp. I have great reviews, but I know for a fact most reviews go "not recommended" if I don't sign up with Yelp. **** them.