Frustration With Google Places

[captainrichsmith]

I have been trying to solve this problem with Google Places for quite some time now and just can't figure out where to go from here. I've tried several sent messages explaining the problem and even received several phone calls from Google Places trying to correct the issue with no luck.  I have even tried totally deleting the listing and started over from scratch and re-verified the address with a mailed postcard.

My site: http://www.captainrichsmith.com

has a Google Places account set up and verified

http://maps.google.com/maps/place?hl=en&georestrict=input_srcid:1c8fa43cf77e0c93&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=14&vpsrc=0

For some reason when you do a Google search for one of my keywords

Miami Fishing Charters

On the listings normally under the letter "E" on the Map another website has a placemark at my location

Miami Fishing Charters Directory
www.fishing-charters-miami.com/ - Cached

Fishing Charters Miami is a quality directory of the best fishing boats in the Miami area. The top Miami fishing charters are listed on this website.
2550 South Bayshore Drive, Miami
(786) 263-9231
captainrichsmith.com (7)

When you view this Google places listing further.

I see it is using my images, videos, placemark on map but NOT the address, phone number, or reviews.

Any help on this issue would greatly be appreciated

[captainrichsmith]

Thanks Robert.  Very helpful.  I actually started doing that just before I read this so I hope that means I'm thinking in the right direction.  I just decided to go ahead and delete my listings for the time being ... I didn't have any reviews that will be really lost so I'll just start from scratch once I see his listing disappear.

Thank you everyone for your help on this..

[RobertFisher]

Hope this helps. We occasionally run into an issue where someone who is unscrupulous creates a business listing in Places around a client business name. What we do is have several people put in a permanently closed notice with Google (since we have a couple of locations that are 500 miles apart it helps I think). Click on edit this place and mark Miami Fishing Charters as permanently closed. On comments put "this business has no physical location here any longer if it ever did" or words to that effect.

Utilizing this methodology we have had them removed. It does take a while at times though. I do think someone marked them closed, etc. in the last few minutes......

Good luck.

[STPseo]

I would try what Kieran Daily suggest below... call them. It looks like they somehow list your address as their own. Maybe as an alt address. I think the other company is trying to claim your address. I put in a complaint email on the other page to tell Google the info is wrong... however you know how responsive they can be.

Do you do any paid advertising with Google? If so... ask your account rep to look into it.

[captainrichsmith]

Yes I have contacted this site admin.  In reality it's not even a real business and doesn't have a physical location.  The telephone number is just a "Google Voice" number with no answer.  When I contacted the site email he did get back to me and stated he himself didn't know what was going on with the confusion

[kdaly100]

Have you rung this business?  Ask them where they are located.  In theory there is nothing stopping someone from using your information for a location and they may have verified using and SMS and not the postcard.

Try the old fashioned way first.

[captainrichsmith]

Yea tell me about it.  I've been going nuts over this for too long.  Not to mention when I received these phone calls from Google it's always the same "Overseas person" that barely speaks English reading off of a sheet... and when I try to explain the problem they have no clue what is going on.

Either way thanks Stephan for trying to help

[STPseo]

I think I got it now... again sorry for my first response... clearly I was confused.

Something is strange... I am seeing the information between the 2 sites getting messed up.

I have never seen that before. This is probably beyond my skill level but I will see what I can find out about it.

[captainrichsmith]

Not sure if there is a bit of confusion.  I'll try to add more information

My business address is:

25150 SW 147 AVE not the one they have listed for the other business 2550 South Bayshore Drive

They have the placemark pinned at my address along with my website listed below along with the other stuff I mentioned.

After doing a bit of research on Site Explorer the confused  website "fishing-charters-miami.com" is such poor quality compared to my domain I can't understand why it would even get this spot

[STPseo]

Sorry for the response above... I didn't understand the problem when I answered. I tried to delete the response but got an error... I'll try again.

[STPseo]

That is weird. I do see the address and phone number... but your map marker is clearly not at the right address. It looks like there are a lot of businesses at 2550 South Bayshore Drive, Miami. When I do a map search for this address it says "multiple businesses" at this address but yours it not listed.

The only idea I have is to add a suite number if you have one. I noticed some of the businesses at the address say "2550 South Bayshore Drive #301, Miami". It is a shot in the dark but is currently the only idea I have.