Contribution - NOT APPLIED

[RussKH]

We have a retail park nearby named Hollywood Park - spelt in the same way as the famous place where dreams are made! However on Google Maps one of the stores has the address as Holywood Park. I suggested the edit to Hollywood Park and after a couple of days have just had the Not Applied message! This is what I don't understand - I'm a level 5 guide yet Google don't accept my suggestion to update a simple thing as a typo. What is the point of putting in the time and effort, doing reviews, posting photos when they ignore an actual factual update to an erroneous address?

[sputnikjim]

Greetings from across the pond.  I hope that you are having a pleasant Spring there.

I have searched on Google Maps for the intentionally-misspelled "Holywood Park" in the UK, and Google did not show any places with that spelling.

However, it did try to correct my "mistake" and it gave me this: Hollywood Park, Hindpool Rd, Barrow-In-Furness.  According to Wikipedia, this is a retail park.  Is this the place that you believed was spelled incorrectly?  

However, I did find one additional use of the word "holywood" and it was also in Barrow-n-Furness.  There is what I call a bus stop at 130 Hindpool Rd that bears the name Holywood Park in Google Maps. I submitted a name change for that feature, but it may require an edit to the Stagecoach company's data base to get this change applied permanently.

Hope this has helped find a solution to the issue.

JimB

North Carolina, USA

[RussKH]

Thanks for your assistance JimB - I mentioned in my previous post that it was the address of one of the stores on the retail park that was erroneous (please see the image attached). I appreciate your input, however as you say - you are 'across the pond' many thousands of miles from here, yet you have still not spotted the particular typo I have suggested editing using LOCAL knowledge. My frustration is that the ethos behind being a LOCAL guide is that as a LOCAL resident with knowledge of my LOCAL area my edit wasn't applied as it wasn't verified ... I guess by someone located thousands of miles from this location. Go figure! 🙂

I truly believe in the ethos behind being a Local Guide, I enjoy making the reviews and I'm a level 5 local guide with over 1000 reviews under my belt. My images have over 300,000 views and I feel it's a good service for the community - yet when situations like this occur I have to ask whether we are wasting our time? Does our LOCAL knowledge actually count for anything if suggested edits aren't trusted.

Russ

[Pea]

Hi @RussKH your problem here is that this listing https://goo.gl/maps/42wPRkpsCwt is Claimed by the owner, who is able to edit the details via their Google My Business dashboard. This is a common problem and somewhat insoluble. Even though our edits as Local Guides may be 100% correct, if the business is Claimed then you'll be pushing water up hill. Sometimes edit works but even then they may be reversed within days or hours.

---

@RussellH-MW wrote:

I'm a level 5 local guide with over 1000 reviews under my belt. ... Does our LOCAL knowledge actually count for anything if suggested edits aren't trusted.

---

Regarding L5 status, that has no impact on your trust level for edits - it's possible to reach L5 by writing reviews without ever making a single edit, so Google gives edit trust based on other metrics which are hidden to us.

[sputnikjim]

@Pea How does one determine that a business feature on Google Maps has been claimed by it's owner?

[Pea]

---

@JimB wrote:

How does one determine that a business feature on Google Maps has been claimed by it's owner?

---

Look for the words "Claim this business", if you don't see them, then the business is already claimed. Most chain stores, franchises, banks etc will be claimed, often if you see a chain store which isn't claimed, then it's been added by a LG and can sometimes be a sign it's a duplicate - so look around so the genuine listing nearby

[HelloSamsonR]

@Pea thanks for your useful information. @RussKH had the same problem also but with @Pea explanations, I have been made to understand clearly.

---

@PhilipF wrote:

---

@JimB wrote:

How does one determine that a business feature on Google Maps has been claimed by it's owner?

---

Look for the words "Claim this business", if you don't see them, then the business is already claimed. Most chain stores, franchises, banks etc will be claimed, often if you see a chain store which isn't claimed, then it's been added by a LG and can sometimes be a sign it's a duplicate - so look around so the genuine listing nearby

---

[RussKH]

In the situation where a business, quite rightly, has claimed their place on the Google Map but they have made a typo in the listing what happens then? This typo could be accidentally misdirecting people which actually harms Google Maps reputation. If a local guide with local knowledge spots the mistake and reports it for an Edit then at least Google should contact the business and give them the opportunity to edit the erroneous information themselves - it is in their interest to ensure visitors can actually find their business after all.

[Pea]

---

@RussellH-MW wrote:

In the situation where a business, quite rightly, has claimed their place on the Google Map but they have made a typo in the listing what happens then?

If you find a problem of any kind, a typo or anything else, as a Local Guide you can edit the listing. You would be right to do so, but it's useful to be aware that it may be rejected or overturned when the business is Claimed. Many chain businesses regularly run script updates to hundreds of locations by bulk uploading data to their Google My Business dashboard. When they do this it will overwrite the correction that's just been made by the Local Guide.

There is no real way round this, it's just a quirk of Maps. Those of us who have been mapping for years long gave up worrying about it. Businesses that claim their listing often buy adwords and that pays for the map, so Google turns a blind eye to the problems GMB causes.

If you have failed to fix an error by the normal edit process and are determined to pursue it you could report the issue:

In the desktop version open the map at the desired location
Click the hamburger icon ☰
Click Send feedback
Click Other feedback
Describe your issue or share your ideas
Add a screenshot as directed

[sputnikjim]

Having learned a bit more about this in the past week, I now believe that the only way that Google will update the address of the Curry's PC World store in Barrow-In-Furness is for whoever at Curry's or DSG Retail Ltd, their corporate parent, is in control of the "Google My Business" relationship to transmit the correct data to Google.  They have claimed the map feature, so they must initiate the work to fix it.

The Curry's Contact Us page on their website provides addresses and phone numbers where you can reach the customer service staff.

For the same reason, I would try contacting Stagecoach Bus to fix the "Holywood Park" bus station at 130 Hindpool Rd.  That Google feature is also claimed by its owner, which is Stagecoach because you can link to the bus schedule from directly from the Google Maps feature.