Hi all — Level 4 Local Guide. I’ve read the hidden-reviews threads here before posting, so let me say upfront what I’ve already done, because I’m hoping to learn what comes after the standard steps.
Since January, one of my reviews keeps getting hidden — visible publicly for days or weeks (I check signed-out in incognito), then gone, then sometimes back. Across six-plus cycles: no removal notification ever, no policy named, and the “Appeal removal” option has never appeared on the review. An earlier version was actually reinstated after an appeal, so the content has passed review once already.
What I’ve done: read the content policies and the hidden-reviews explainer; filed the Local Guides Appeal form six times (every response says my account has no restrictions — true, but not the question); and this week filed the Account Investigation form, which I understand is manual, takes a couple of weeks, and shares no results.
My question for those who’ve been through this: once the investigation form is filed, is there anything else — or is silent waiting genuinely the end of the process? And has anyone actually had a review reinstated through it? I’d love to hear how long it took and what it looked like from the outside, since there’s no notification either way.
No, just waiting. In my case I had to wait for 6 weeks, then my reviews were reinstated.
Of course. That form is about issues in the account, so the response was simply that you have o restrictions. In conclusion, the restriction in not on the account, but simply on the review that, for some reason, is caught by the filter.
We had a lot of cases like yours: normally customers that have a negative medical experience (if you are taking about the review that is the subject of your previous post) wants to add a lot of personal details (cost, clinical details, and so on) that can be easily end in filtering the review, when reported by the business.
Normally simpler reviews, with less personal details, are working better.
When a review disappears the first step should be to edit it, removing the personal details mentioned above.
But in this case, as you already appealed, you should not touch it, because a modification of the review will automatically cancel the appeal.
My suggestion is to wait at least 3 weeks then, if the review is not reinstated, edit it.
This is normal. That notification appears only for reviews about places located inside the EU, because it’s required by the European law.
So I think you should now follow the steps mentioned above, and wait a few weeks
Hi @ErmesT — thank you, this is the most useful explanation I’ve received so far. The 6-week datapoint and the EU-only notification rule both answer things I couldn’t figure out on my own.
I’ll follow your steps exactly: no edits, no resubmission, wait at least 3 weeks (planning for 6), and only consider a simplified edit if it isn’t reinstated.
One clarifying question if you happen to know: when your reviews came back at 6 weeks, did they just silently reappear — is checking the listing signed-out the only way I’ll know the outcome?