Jim G.

It all started over a year ago. Google Maps decided to rename our street, potentially damaging over 100 businesses. They seemed to "hide" our website till bing listed it. They changed our business name to "Aaran". THen 7 weeks ago, they published a fake malicious review, so obviously fake, illiterate martians could have spotted it from outer space and they refuse to take it down. We provided some evidence that the fake reviewer was directly lined to an applicant for a cleaning job we turned down and that the reviewers other reviews were also highly dubious (who reviews a carpark in the middle of a trading estate, or Weymouth and Portland instead of Nothe Gardens where the pointer was, or Dorset instead of Hardy Monument, where the pointer was - Someone who is picking off map locations to build up some credibility with Google Maps - that's who - he has made it to "Local Guide Level 4" like that. Google made me a local guide also just for looking that up! - without my permission! I rose to level 6, then they took 1,000 points off me, then they closed my account as punishment for complaining about the fake review. They labelled MY FIRST COMPLAINT as spam! - Ridiculous! Then I found out, as a small business, google should not have made me a local guide anyway - it's against their own rules! Then, when I complained some more about the fake review, google closed all my accounts claiming "Spam" but apparently had to open them all again 2 days later because the finding was "ZERO SPAM". No apology, no statement, no explanation, no contact at all - for what could have destroyed our smal business or at least severely damaged our reputation. They had also removed all photos from Samsung Gallery account which is absolutely nothing to do with Google Photo account! (They're all bcak now!) Over all, google's treatment of our small business has been utterly shocking, abysmal, verging on criminal harassment and totally astounding considering how much time, energy and money they must have spent instead of removing 1 (one!) clearly fake review - which is STILL published! According to google, it takes about 3 or 4 "flags" of a review as "inappropriate" and it is investigated and usually removed. We know for certain 13 people have flagged it and google totally ignored the lot. Several of google's top contributors have written at length that google's review system is woeful and lacking proper staffing, that the artificial intelligence used is not up to the job and that fake reviews are appearing to take over from genuine reviews at an alarming rate. Google ignores their own contributors as well. By the way, in the UK, publishing, even via the internet, a fake review is a crime, breaching both the Communications Act and the Malicious Communications Act. Where a business may be "harmed", then the laws around Defamation and Fair Trading also come into play. And still google do not give a whotsit! After all, $350Billion a year buys you a lot of lawyers (though one wonders why it should not buy you some good review staff instead!) Bye for now---

Many problems later, a new booking.com local business partner local rep was appointed - we met and he has been something of a revelation - solving several unwarranted over-bookings, helping with cancellations and policies etc. So, to redress the balance from last year, our local rep has transformed the dinosaur face of booking.com into something a bit cuddlier we can work with - not ideal, costs a fortune in commissions but at least we can be listened to and amend errors. Thank you rep (wish we could name him!)