Thanks, Google
Jul. 20th, 2020 03:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
offcntrI shoulda just hung up.
I get phone calls all the time, Your Google business listing is incomplete, blah blah. (And occasionally, Your listing is not available on Amazon Echo, don't even go there.) They're from scammers who want to charge you to "manage" your listing, something you caneasily do yourself online, for free. (As you may recall, "easy" has nothing to do with it.)
No, this was actually Google, or rather, a Google bot, calling to see if our open hours had changed due to COVID-19. Of course, we don't have open hours, because this isn't a store. It's my home studio, which doesn't have a sales space, I sell at Saturday Market, online, and, in a kinder world, out at art fairs and festivals.
Try explaining that to a bot.
After saying "No" in increasingly exasperated tones, I finally snapped "We don't have open hours."
Which is how I spent a frustrating hour at Google Maps trying to get them to take the "Temporarily Closed" flag down.
Finally managed to do so and to get all the spurious open hours (they automatically reset for you. Very helpful.) removed. Almost thought I could get the type of business changed from "Pottery Store" to "Pottery Manufacturer," but upon reflection, they refused the edit. I did successfully add a description to the listing:
Off Center Ceramics makes and sells stoneware pottery at the Eugene Saturday Market and at various Northwest art fairs and galleries. Contrary to Google's inflexible category choices, we are not a pottery store or ceramic supplier.
So, yay?
I get phone calls all the time, Your Google business listing is incomplete, blah blah. (And occasionally, Your listing is not available on Amazon Echo, don't even go there.) They're from scammers who want to charge you to "manage" your listing, something you can
No, this was actually Google, or rather, a Google bot, calling to see if our open hours had changed due to COVID-19. Of course, we don't have open hours, because this isn't a store. It's my home studio, which doesn't have a sales space, I sell at Saturday Market, online, and, in a kinder world, out at art fairs and festivals.
Try explaining that to a bot.
After saying "No" in increasingly exasperated tones, I finally snapped "We don't have open hours."
Which is how I spent a frustrating hour at Google Maps trying to get them to take the "Temporarily Closed" flag down.
Finally managed to do so and to get all the spurious open hours (they automatically reset for you. Very helpful.) removed. Almost thought I could get the type of business changed from "Pottery Store" to "Pottery Manufacturer," but upon reflection, they refused the edit. I did successfully add a description to the listing:
Off Center Ceramics makes and sells stoneware pottery at the Eugene Saturday Market and at various Northwest art fairs and galleries. Contrary to Google's inflexible category choices, we are not a pottery store or ceramic supplier.
So, yay?