Hi all!
I’m unsure what to do here - because my community edits are rejected as this business’s practises are deceptive.
This is for Midland Gate Shopping Centre - and this business profile should be for that, and not for the Adairs business within it.
As an overview, they’ve claimed the listing - then changed the name and contact details for the shopping centre listing, so that they can claim 2.5K reviews without having to do any work.
Here’s a link to it: https://goo.gl/maps/DMD3nMv94NS2
If you look at the reviews and images, they are for the centre itself, and not this store.
What can be done to remove this deceitful business from google and what can be done to fix this?
Recently the shopping centre had a blank profile created for it also, so now they need to be merged and the Adairs profile added separately.
For some context - I am unrelated to these businesses, just trying to fix this issue.
Cheers,
Ben
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Hi @benpalmer ,
I request you to report the issue to Google My Business Forum to get Expert Help.
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@benpalmer How did they manage to claim the profile? Any ideas? I’m seeing at least 3 potential businesses for this shopping center - when marked for removal as a duplicate.
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Interesting question - unsure, either it was not registered officially by the company, or I suspect they just submitted it as an edit and it slipped through.
Don’t know the specifics. I started a support chat with google and they weren’t really able to give me any specifics - although he confirmed it changed from “Midland Gate” to “Adairs Midland Gate” recently.
From what I can tell, when it was changed over by whoever, the shopping centre profile was automatically generated again.
You can see the rough date this happened by having a look at when reviews starting going onto the other midland gate page.
I’ve marked the newly created shopping centre profile for removal, but unsure where to go from there. Was hoping there was a way of merging the reviews over.
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Sure I’ll give that a shot.
@benpalmer It is pretty clear the profile was hijacked. Keep making the edits. Keep suggesting duplicates and fixing the name. See if you can get other guides in your area to review the edits so that they can be verified and approved, and therefore implemented. Sometimes businesses can get overzealous on Maps and utilize unfair tactics… A town near to mine had a new hair salon open, and someone marked every other salon with any overlapping services in the whole city closed - over 30 of them. It was a mess to clean up, but every bit we contribute to maps helps someone, somewhere, get the information they need. Don’t be discouraged. Keep going!
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What a story! Good to hear things should eventually be fixed. 
How do you suggest I appeal to other guides in the area? I don’t really know anyone that is also a guide.
Is there groups/forums for local guides in specific areas? I set the midland area in this post.
@benpalmer Here’s your fix! It just went live today!!!
Google made a form where you can submit this exact kind of activity!
https://support.google.com/business/contact/business_redressal_form
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Oh damn! Finally!
Have already submitted it. 
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