Google experts

[Myrkk]

Are there any google experts on here, or anyone who runs a business that can point me in the direction of one? I’ve been having issues with Google for over a year now and I thought I’d fixed the issue but it has happened again. Google are useless. It’s crippling my business and I’m at the end of my tether now. I had someone recommended by a friend but they decided they couldn’t help, I’ve been in touch with varying people I thought could help but no response as of yet. It’s getting serious. I had ten new enquiries the first week of Jan and have had only one since then as Google have frozen my account… AGAIN!

 

[Colin_T]

Are there any google experts on here, or anyone who runs a business that can point me in the direction of one? I’ve been having issues with Google for over a year now and I thought I’d fixed the issue but it has happened again. Google are useless. It’s crippling my business and I’m at the end of my tether now. I had someone recommended by a friend but they decided they couldn’t help, I’ve been in touch with varying people I thought could help but no response as of yet. It’s getting serious. I had ten new enquiries the first week of Jan and have had only one since then as Google have frozen my account… AGAIN!

Google (aka gooble) are useless.

I bash my head against the wall with those turkeys. I wanted to change my phone number on my dr gooble account and I had to use my mobile phone to authenticate who I was. However, I didn't have that phone number anymore because it was with OPTUS and they gave all my details to criminals, so I couldn't do use it. I was unable to contact gooble because they don't have a valid phone number or email address. I ran around in circles and after several days of pulling my hair out, I sent them a real nasty feedback about how are people meant to use their phone to confirm who they are when their phone has been lost, stolen or destroyed. Someone at gooble obviously realised they hadn't thought of that so they changed it and a couple of weeks later my account was active again and there was an email from gooble saying they have modified their policy, blah blah bs blah, thankyou for your time.

The gooble website help section said if you are changing your phone number, have two mobile phones so you can authenticate yourself. My response to that was "the only people that have two phones are criminals and people cheating on their partners". It also said use two email accounts. I said I have two gooble gmail accounts and can't use either.

I also wrote to the federal government about it and said any company doing business in Australia must have a valid contact number and email so people can contact them for help when required. I'm not sure what happened with that but hopefully they have enacted laws forbidding companies to have no way of being contacted.

Quite frankly is poops me when companies deliberately remove their contact details but expect us to provide them with every intimate detail of our lives as well as 6 million contact phone numbers and emails. That's a double standard and when the companies start using AI and have links on websites that simply lead you back to the page you are on, well, that just pushes my blood pressure up to the point that I send out nasty abusive emails and then wait for the cops to come to my house for threatening to do certain things to certain people.

I can't help but bad mouth them, so good luck and I hope you get it resolved

 

[Aqua67]

I also have a business and was using Google Ads. They need to “verify” your business and they wanted my home/business address. I am not a brick and mortar store front, I travel to my client’s homes and perform services there. I do not wish to have my home address out there as I do not want people coming to my door or knowing where I live. So I won’t “verify” and they stopped advertising for me. So, to help with my SEO I have joined some trade organizations who will list my website URL and since I don’t reciprocate by putting their URL on my website, that bumps up my SEO. I opened a bare bones Yelp account just for another location in which my URL could be found and provided, without a reciprocal link. Even without Google, my website receives hits and my business receives phone calls. I do have a local advertising booklet where local businesses advertise and that has also been a successful generator of new client contact. I also have a minimal presence on various social media (I’m not a big fan). My services are a luxury service and I’m not cheap, but business so far this year is as slow as 2021. This time it is not Covid, it is probably due to the unease over so many businesses cutting jobs, therefore people are cutting back and not taking as many vacations and therefore not requiring my services.

 

[Myrkk]

Thanks Colin. I am at the point where I'm considering giving up and closing the business. My takings are around a quarter of what they once were and I am getting so little interest now that it seems pointless. I spent last night looking for jobs.
I really don't understand how a single company can get so powerful that it monopolises an area and yet has no requirement to follow basic business guidelines such as provide useful customer support. I absolutely hate Google with a passion.
The guy who was helping me said it cost him a huge contract (advertising budget quarter of a mill sized business) as they did the same to that company and they couldn't get it unpicked. If a company that big has troubles then what chance does lil ol me have.

 

[Myrkk]

Aqua I'm sorry to hear you have experienced problems also. I totally understand. I do not like people knowing where I live as I don't want people showing up on my doorstep either. However, I do have two brick n mortar buildings I work out of. The irony is I helped a business colleague set up their grrrr advertising and they have no issues.

I advertise on Insta and Faceache and did foray into paper advertising but the paper advertising did nothing. I get some through from the social media ads but not much. Because I'm in a niche area people find me via them who shall not be named as they are already there researching their conditions and what will help. My professional bodies also advertise me.
I work in healthcare there are lots of hoops to jump through. You need to ensure you are not irritating ASA (which is surprisingly easy) and I'm not allowed to make any claims. So I just put out ads saying "seen in clinic this week... blah, blah, blah).
The irritating thing is I see the clients western medicine has failed or put on so many drugs they can't function. I take the strain off the NHS.
I'm in the middle of mining my databases to start emailing clients directly via a newsletter (I've not done one before now as I've always been so busy I've never needed to). Again. One business should not be this powerful.
It's not like I have anything better to do! Like my Masters, or sorting out the new house/garden, looking after aging parents, having some frickin fun for once would be nice.

 

[Colin_T]

The other option is to go back to old school ways and advertise in paper rather than electronic. You could run the business part time and do a different job full or part time to fill in the extra time and money. (just read the above post and you have tried so disregard).

But the governments around the world need to crack down on this because companies like gooble just do what they want and act as if they are above the law, and for most intents and purposes they get away with things like they are above the law. They are so big and powerful now, even if you can find a government department to talk to you about a complaint, they either don't have the power to do anything, they go um ah well, we can't really help. It's frustrating and annoying.

 

[Myrkk]

1000% agree. I'm seriously considering finding the owners of grrrrr and writing to them. My only worry being that will completely ruin any chance I have of ever being able to advertise again.

I'm trying everything at the moment. It's not fun as I've just spent thousands of my own money getting my Masters due to politicing not allowing me a student loan, I also have lots of thousands in student debt (will be written off when I hit 80, that's ok, they've just upped retirement age for me to 71! lol).

I retrained so I could work for longer and make a decent living, that's not proving possible currently. Add in that I have a neurological condition that is made worse with stress it's not a fun place to be currently.

I can totally understand why youngsters just don't try anymore, with such powerful companies running your life, telling you what you can say, what to think etc... it's a scary place.

 

[Colin_T]

You need to write to your government and let them know you undertook training so you could work longer because they raised the pension age, but the training is useless due to not being able to get work, and part of that is due to gooble. Ask the government to do something like force gooble and other companies to have legitimate contact details for complaints in your country. Hopefully if enough people see what you are going through, maybe someone will act.

I'm not sure if you already have one but another option is just to make a website about your business and hope that other search engines can pick up the hits about your site. Make a forum or another website too where people can complain about gooble and other big companies using AI who don't care about their customers.

 

[Myrkk]

Did writing to your government help at all Colin_T?
I have an appointment with a company on Wednesday to hopefully fix it?! Keep everything crossed.

 

[Colin_T]

I don't think the government here did anything about my letter to them. They didn't even respond to me and I have tried to contact a few Australian companies (supermarkets) recently and they had no contact details anywhere either. I did my nut about it and went into a store and ripped them a new one before walking out. I don't care if I offended anyone there, they offend me when they sell food that is infected with a bacterial infection and there is no way of contacting head office to complain about it.

 

[Myrkk]

That is shocking! To me that shows they know they are providing a sub par service

 

[seangee]

Have you tried the social media route for promotion / advertising. My daughter is managing this and she has a very limited budget (and is barely computer literate)

 

[Myrkk]

Yes, I advertise on Insta and Faceache.