Local Guides Challenge: Toronto Event

[AndyL]

No, no,

Google has clearly indicated that 9/10 of their selected guides are fools to be jerked around.

How friggin hurtful.  

If I wasn't wanted, why get my hopes up?

For future reference:  http://people.howstuffworks.com/question450.htm

[Anonymous]

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[AndyL]

@marting I think Google is saying they have too many guides in Toronto and surrounding area and they'd like us to quit the guide program.

I, for one, do not feel very inspired to continue if this is how I'm to be treated.

I'd have been happy to continue participating for free, but after this insult, I'm disinclined to participate anymore.

[BrianD]

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@AndyL wrote:

@marting I think Google is saying they have too many guides in Toronto and surrounding area and they'd like us to quit the guide program.

I, for one, do not feel very inspired to continue if this is how I'm to be treated.

I'd have been happy to continue participating for free, but after this insult, I'm disinclined to participate anymore.

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I would be willing to forgive this abomination of a communication strategy if we were issued some form of apology. Own it, Google. It's staggering that I had to track down this information myself. I'm sure there are still hundreds of people out there in the GTA wondering what the heck is going on tonight.

To add to this, I can still update my reservation as of a few minutes ago, despite, evidently, being neither on the confirmed list nor the wait list. As it stands, this is a slap in the face to the very people who make this program useful. I won't continue to contribute. I encourage everyone else in this boat to flee this ship too. Evidently, the captain and crew are not to be trusted.

[StevenE]

MegS, why is this the first time I am hearing about this?  If you knew Friday that not everyone got the email, why wouldn't you send it again?  I had an entry in my calendar for tonight, and I was pretty sure I had heard nothing back, so I searched my emails (in Gmail, because, you know, Google is pretty good at email) and lo-and-behold, I found no mention of it.  I clicked the RSVP link again, and this is what I got.

My English is pretty good - confirmed doesn't mean "maybe".  To boot, the event page (https://events.withgoogle.com/local-guides-challenge-toronto/) doesn't exactly help - it confirms the language that we're all "confused" by.

It took a quick search, using Google of course, to find mention of the event here, on this message board, and this is the first time I'm hearing that I didn't qualify.  Scanning through the responses, I see people who are level 4 and 5 are attending, which begs the question: if space was limited, and you intended to invite the higher levels (which is totally fine), why didn't you send out the invites in batches?  The way you did this got people's hopes up and ultimately, upset.

I, and many others, expect more from a company like Google.  This was a shoddy invitation system, and your apology for "confusion and inconvenience" doesn't really cut it.  This wasn't just confusing, it was a shirking of responsibilities, and that is more upsetting to me than anything else.

I hope the next time I receive an event invite, it's actually a real invite, and not an invitation to get on a waitlist that might eventually result in a real invite.

[Anonymous]

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[JayY]

Maybe we should all show up at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) protest

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@marting wrote:

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@ChristianV wrote:

Jesus, you were really looking forward to this.. they messed up, we get it, try not to take it so hard..

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My name isn't Jesus, and I'm not taking this hard.  This is egregious. I'm a contributing member on a review based system who's expected to pass judgement on others for the betterment of this platform and it seems they feel they aren't expected to be judged them selves or that these excuses are going to be taken as reasonable explanation for them allowing too many confirmations to be accepted by thier system. If they are saying the system was allowing more to register than could be accommodated then that is thier mistake and it's at the cost of those who shifted thier schedules and put focus on Google guides over other things. For those of us who published posts and discussed this with colleagues who advertise with Google ad words and such these events show that Google respects us as contributing members of its society and to pull that credit away from us with no warning or email is despicable. I will be asked for the next few weeks questions like where it was and what we ate, my guest told friends we had rsvp'd and that the registration system cut off shortly after we did. We were feeling lucky to have acted fast and even talked to others about how limited an event it was going to be... All this only to be let down because a Google employee doesn't know how to limit the rsvp'd system to real potential guest numbers.... Jesus wouldn't have done that,  he would have found some loaves and fishes and got the whole crew together.  I expected better of you google. We all did. 

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@marting wrote:

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@ChristianV wrote:

Jesus, you were really looking forward to this.. they messed up, we get it, try not to take it so hard..

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My name isn't Jesus, and I'm not taking this hard.  This is egregious. I'm a contributing member on a review based system who's expected to pass judgement on others for the betterment of this platform and it seems they feel they aren't expected to be judged them selves or that these excuses are going to be taken as reasonable explanation for them allowing too many confirmations to be accepted by thier system. If they are saying the system was allowing more to register than could be accommodated then that is thier mistake and it's at the cost of those who shifted thier schedules and put focus on Google guides over other things. For those of us who published posts and discussed this with colleagues who advertise with Google ad words and such these events show that Google respects us as contributing members of its society and to pull that credit away from us with no warning or email is despicable. I will be asked for the next few weeks questions like where it was and what we ate, my guest told friends we had rsvp'd and that the registration system cut off shortly after we did. We were feeling lucky to have acted fast and even talked to others about how limited an event it was going to be... All this only to be let down because a Google employee doesn't know how to limit the rsvp'd system to real potential guest numbers.... Jesus wouldn't have done that,  he would have found some loaves and fishes and got the whole crew together.  I expected better of you google. We all did. 

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[Anonymous]

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[JLu416]

I too feel Google could have done a better job with the clarity of RSVPs. Typically, once an RSVP is replied to then that typically confirms your spot on the guest list. I get the frustration of those who made or changed plans only to be told they are on the wait list. I also think Google made it clear in their RSVP confirmation e-mail that you will receive another e-mail confirming whether you're on the list or not. The e-mail said: "We'll be in touch via email to confirm your place on the guest list."

Once I read that part I realised that my attendance would be tentative. If you RSVPed and didn't receive that e-mail then that's definitely an error that should be made up for. I also think we should keep in mind that I doubt anyone had any malicious intent in the wording. Google gains nothing from misleading contributors such as yourselves.

All in all, I think the Local Guides community that Google has set up is pretty great. I know it's difficult but for those who were let down by Google this time I recommend giving them another shot to make it up to you in the future. We all benefit everyday from the additional info everyone adds to Maps. Hopefully that can continue from all of you here who are clearly very passionate about this!

[JayY]

Folks should notify the media. I'm sure they'd love the story of Google leading their guides astray