Unjust and Repeated Removal of a Legitimate Business Location in Tehran, Iran - [Sodalite Certified Translation Office]

[m0911]

Dear Google Maps Support Team / Local Guides Moderator,

I am writing to report the persistent and incorrect removal of a legitimate business from Google Maps.

This business location belongs to *Sodalite Certified Translation Office (دارالترجمه رسمی سودالیت)* in Tehran, Iran.

This office has been legally operating for over 13 years, providing official translation services to embassies and clients on a daily basis.

The legitimacy of this business can be verified through the official Iranian Judiciary’s website.

By searching for “سروش طوطیان” in the “نام مترجم مسئول” field at the following official link, you will find the full details, address, and phone number of the translation office:

https://sanam.eadl.ir/Home/TranslationAgenciesList

I am a Level 10 Local Guide with a long-standing contribution record, having successfully added over 3,000 accurate locations and made more than 12,000 approved edits across Iran. You can view my profile here:

https://www.google.com/maps/contrib/114912250857300876115

This business location was listed on Google Maps for several years and had accumulated over 150 organic reviews and ratings.

However, on May 8, 2025, the listing was removed by a user.

Since May 11, 2025, I have repeatedly tried to re-add the location, only to see it removed again within a few days each time. This cycle has occurred multiple times, most recently twice in the last 24 hours (September 14, 2025).

This situation is causing significant disruption for the business and its clients who rely on Google Maps to find it.

I have attached screenshots of the confirmation emails from Google Maps for my re-additions.

In all my submissions, I have meticulously followed Google’s naming conventions and guidelines, providing accurate and verifiable information.

The removal of this listing is wrongful and unjust, as it is a licensed and legally registered business under the Iranian Ministry of Justice.

Here is one of the most recent links to the removed listing:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/MEouLh8XvBxh3T3V8

Request:

1. We kindly request that you restore the business profile for this location.

2. Given that Google Business Profile is not available in Iran, we are unable to protect the listing from malicious edits. Therefore, we ask that you investigate the user(s) responsible for this repeated vandalism and take appropriate action in accordance with Google’s policies to prevent this from happening again.

To further prove the legitimacy of our claim, I have attached photographs of the office’s sign and the interior of the workplace.

Also attached are a photo of the official operating license for the head translator, Soroosh Tootian, and a photo of the original title deed for the commercial building, which clearly states the exact address and the name of the owner.

Business Details:

Name: Sodalite Certified Translation Office

Category: Translation Services

Address: [#9,3rd floor, No.1967, down the Quds Sq., Shariati Ave. Tajrish, Tehran]

Phone: ‪[+9821 22725490]

Official Website (I’m designing it now):
https://sodalite970.com

Old Website:

دارالترجمه رسمی سودالیت || Sodalite Offical Translation Office || 22725490...

We would greatly appreciate your cooperation in restoring our location so that our clients can easily reach us again.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

I am taking the liberty of directly tagging @ErmesT in this post. I am mentioning you by name due to your excellent reputation for being a highly engaged and helpful moderator, and I was hopeful you might be able to look into this pressing issue.

Sincerely,
Mehdi Abdollahi
Level 10 Localguide
Iran

[MortenCopenhagen]

As representatives of businesses are not allowed in the Local Guides program, it is not likely you can get the help you need here on Connect.

Repeated attempts to make the same edit are ringing bells in the Spamfilter.

Maybe @Amiran has some tips you can use.

Keep in mind, if Local Guides without personal knowledge about the business tries to add it for you, they risk their account when doing so.

[m0911]

Thank you for your prompt response and for explaining the potential spam filter issue. I also appreciate you tagging @Amiran for further assistance.

I would like to clarify my connection to the business, as you’ve raised a very important point. I am not the owner or an employee of the translation office. The manager, Mr. Soroosh Tootian, is a client of mine. I provide digital services for his business, including website management. As an experienced Level 10 Local Guide, I have also taken on the responsibility of managing his Google Maps presence to ensure it is accurate, especially since he is not familiar with the platform’s rules.

You are correct that repeated edits can be flagged. However, this situation is complicated by the fact that Google Business Profile is not available in Iran due to regional restrictions. This leaves the “Add a missing place” feature as the only available method for business owners or their representatives to list a legitimate establishment on the map.

I want to assure you that with every submission, I have strictly followed all Local Guides policies and guidelines for adding a place, ensuring all information is accurate and publicly verifiable. My goal is simply to help a long-standing, legal business be found by its customers. The current cycle of additions and removals is caused by what appears to be malicious reporting from another user, not spam from my end.

I hope this provides the necessary context. I look forward to any advice you or Amiran might have to resolve this.

[MortenCopenhagen]

As a contractor doing business with/for your client that will still disqualify you from the Local Guides program. You will need to (and you can) help him from a Google Account that is not signed up to the Local Guides program.

Sorry, to be so blunt. But hopefully Amir can help you as a local.

[m0911]

Thank you again for your candid feedback and for explaining the nuances of the Local Guides program policies.

To provide complete context and address the conflict of interest concern, I’d like to clarify the timeline of events. I have been a volunteer contributor to Google Maps for many years. The business owner first contacted me on May 11, 2025, specifically seeking help as a knowledgeable Local Guide with this recurring map deletion issue. For months, I assisted him purely on a voluntary basis.

The project to design his website is a very recent development, beginning less than a month ago. My only reason for mentioning it in my original post was for transparency, as a website URL is a standard field when adding a place. I wanted to be clear about which address would be associated with the listing. My primary role in this matter has always been that of a volunteer trying to solve a map problem.

Regarding your suggestion to use a different account, I must respectfully point out that in adherence with the Local Guides program terms, I maintain and operate only this single Google account for all my contributions. Creating a second account would violate a policy I am committed to following.

This brings us back to the fundamental dilemma we face in regions like Iran: a legitimate, legally verifiable business is being repeatedly targeted and removed by malicious actors. Due to the unavailability of Google Business Profile, the “Add a missing place” feature is the only tool available, and it leaves the listing completely defenseless.

My question to the moderators, is therefore not about my specific situation, but a broader one:

How can any legitimate business owner in a restricted region secure their Google Maps listing against repeated, unjust removals when the standard verification tools are not accessible?

This is a critical issue for map integrity in our area. Any guidance on how to protect this listing would be immensely helpful.

Thank you.

[ErmesT]

Hi @m0911 , thank you for the tag.
I’m sorry about the situation, that in your country can easily happens, as you mentioned, due to the fact the GBP isn’t available.
This expose the businesses to more inappropriate removals.
I know that this is not the ideal situation, and @Amiran for sure can confirm that.
But I also know by personal experience that, many times, the team was able to restore the listing.
However the key element is the time between the removal and the report about that, because a link to the original listing can be used, on Google Maps side, only for a few days. After that, as the listing is declared, all the info and the contributions will be deleted.
So please, when it happens again, kindly share the information to us as quick as possible.
I will escalate the issue in any case, but as the listing was removed in May, it will be difficult to restore it

[Amiran]

Thanks for tagging me, dear @MortenCopenhagen and @ErmesT

Indeed @m0911 is a good member of the Iran Local Guides community from several years ago and is familiar with the rules. So, I think he didn’t add this POI on the map as a business activity, while this would be effective to reach more people.

Unfortunately, there is no exact way to secure businesses in Iran from such spam edits. And because of this, I expressed this idea.

On the other hand, I always told in the local community that the best place for such issues related to an ordinary POI/business is the Maps support community @m0911.

Also, please note that the Persian name has descriptions which is wrong. The word “رسمی” is an extra one, and I don’t know why you added it. Moreover, this is so wonderful to me that you added the name of the translator to it in some edits! This is really wrong. The system will read such a detail from the website and should not add it to the Maps.

Anyway, fortunately, about this business and this time, as @ErmesT mentioned he will escalate the issue to help. The team could stop the spammer if the problem continues.

[m0911]

Hi Dear Mr @Amiran

First, I want to express my deepest and most sincere gratitude to you. For many years, you have been an invaluable guide and mentor for the entire Iranian Local Guides community. So many of us, including myself, have learned the rules and best practices of Google Maps thanks to your consistent support and patience. Thank you for everything you do.

Thank you also for vouching for my intentions in your post and for the critical feedback on the naming conventions. This is extremely helpful.

1. Regarding the word “رسمی” (Official):
   You are correct. My logic was to differentiate it from non-official translation services, similar to how the term “Certified Translation” is used in English. I now understand this is considered a descriptive word and is against the guidelines. I will be sure not to include it in any future edits. Thank you for clarifying this.

2. Regarding the translator’s name (Soroosh Tootian) in the title:
   This is a very important point, and I need to clarify it. I was not the one who added his name to the title. A few of those submissions you might have seen in my email screenshots were made by a friend of the business owner. My role in those specific instances was limited to minor edits, like correcting the phone number or business hours. Because Google’s confirmation emails include the full, existing name of the place, the incorrect title unfortunately appears in the screenshots I provided. In all the instances where I added the location from scratch, I only used the business name.

3. Regarding the correct forum:
   You are absolutely right to point out that you had previously guided me to use the Maps Support Community about three months ago. I sincerely apologize; in the frustration of the past few months of re-adding the location repeatedly—honestly, hoping the person removing it would simply stop—I overlooked that important piece of advice.

I am very grateful that you and @ErmesT are looking into this. I am hopeful that with your help, we can find a permanent solution and protect this legitimate business listing from further vandalism.

Best regards,
Mehdi

[m0911]

Hi Dear Mr @ErmesT,
Thank you so much for your quick and understanding response. I am incredibly grateful for you taking the time to explain the situation and for your willingness to escalate the issue. It’s reassuring to know you understand the challenges we face in regions without Google Business Profile.

You mentioned the importance of a recent link. I wanted to highlight that I did include the most recent one I had in my original post, but for your convenience, I will list it here again along with two others I managed to save from the various removals:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/k3HYnWnKAmSzJTwr5
(This is the most recent link from the removal on September 14th).

Also this is the link removed on May-11-2025
https://maps.app.goo.gl/nzGssM3nKNM1uzPN9
The first time I added the place was after deletion this link, and before it I didn’t do any contribution on this place.

Hopefully, one of these, especially the last one, is recent enough for the team to use for a restoration.

However, if they are no longer viable as you mentioned, I completely understand. I will be vigilant, and should it happen again, I will follow your advice and report it to you here immediately with the fresh link.

Thank you once again for your invaluable support.
Best regards,
Mehdi

[ErmesT]

Thank you for updating the links, @m0911
I want to inform you that, as my previous reply is not solving the issue (not yet, at least) I am removing the Solution attributed in there

[Amiran]

@m0911

As I check it deeper, I see more strange things!

In the link you provided, why is the Persian name placed in the English field?! And why is it said that this office is placed inside Auto Soroush, while it is a separate location?

Plus correcting the name, these should also be edited.

No need to mention that the 5-star (any star) review from the employees is wrong.

Such wrong things cause the system to give less credit to the POI, and removing it becomes easier.

[m0911]

@Amiran

As I check it deeper, I see more strange things!

In the link you provided, why is the Persian name placed in the English field?! And why is it said that this office is placed inside Auto Soroush, while it is a separate location?

Plus correcting the name, these should also be edited.

No need to mention that the 5-star (any star) review from the employees is wrong.

Such wrong things cause the system to give less credit to the POI, and removing it becomes easier.

Hi again Mr @Amiran,

Thank you for investigating this so thoroughly. Your sharp eye for detail is truly valuable, and you are absolutely right to point out these new errors.

To clarify, these recent mistakes were not made by me. I always use Google Maps with a Persian interface on my devices. After the location was deleted again two days ago, the business owner felt hesitant to trouble me once more, as I have had to re-add it so many times for them. Consequently, they asked another person to add the location this time. That individual used an iPhone with its language set to English. Due to their inexperience with the platform, they mistakenly filled out all the fields, which resulted in the Persian name being placed in the English name field and the translation office being incorrectly defined as located inside Auto Soroush.

Furthermore, I believe the user who made that edit is the same person who left the 5-star review and added photos. I checked his profile, and he have only 3 contributions in total, which strongly suggests they are simply unfamiliar with the policy that employees or associates should not review their own business. For contrast, when I first reviewed this location years ago, it was long after I had used their translation services multiple times as a regular customer.

I have already tried to correct the current listing by adding the proper name to the empty Persian field twice, but both of my edits were instantly marked as “Not Applied” by the system.

At this point, I believe the best course of action might be to wait for the vandal to inevitably remove this listing again. Once it is gone, I can re-add it from scratch myself, ensuring—as I have in the past—that all fields are filled out correctly in their proper languages.

Thank you again for your incredible help and for pointing these critical issues out. They explain why the listing is so vulnerable right now.

[kurumipan]

Thank you for bringing this important issue to light.
It’s clear that your contributions are backed by long-standing effort and accuracy, and I hope this matter is resolved fairly soon.
Your persistence really shows your dedication to the Local Guides community.