A Surprise small business owner says his company was shut out of Google's platform for over a month, and he couldn't get a clear explanation why.
Preston Hiller, owner of Gecko Garage Doors, discovered his business account was suspended when he logged into his accounts and saw they were restricted.
No one could find his business on Google Maps, and all of his company's 5-star reviews disappeared.
"We've been in business over 30 years," Hiller said.
The garage door company relies on Google for 30 percent of its leads and has earned over 2,000 Google 5-star rating reviews.
"Google is a critical tool for any business, just as far as people being able to find you," Hiller said. "I don't know if there's a single service business out there that can survive without Google. Definitely not anybody who's having any reasonable amount of success."
"Our reviews are real customers with real experiences, sharing," he said. "You know that people are looking at your reviews, reading your reviews, so it legitimizes business."
Hiller said that Google told him there were violations on their account. Gecko Garage Doors tried to appeal several times but got stuck in the process without clarity.
"It felt like we were just wandering around with our eyes closed, just trying to find what it was that got us locked up," Hiller said.
Hiller believes the suspension happened around the time Google rolled out its major AI update.
"We discovered a lot of these issues are coming from Google, using more AI to verify accounts and verify pages for businesses, and our particular industry seems to be one that's a very, very tricky for the AI to decipher," Hiller said. One of our, our Google volunteers told us they were getting 25,000 inquiries a day about, you know, verification status, and so it's just a mountain of people who need help.
For nearly 40 days, his account was locked up, hurting business. The suspension was costing him thousands and he was afraid he was going to have to lay off employees.
Hiller decided to email ABC15's Let ABC15 Know team. After Investigator Christel Bell contacted Google for an explanation, Gecko Garage Doors was back on Google Maps less than 24 hours later. All their reviews returned.
A Google spokesperson said: "This listing was incorrectly removed and we have since reinstated it."
Hiller says the situation highlights the challenges of AI, he's now rethinking the role of AI in his own business. "So just as much as I am a customer of Google, I would have liked to talk to a person when I had a problem."
Hiller said he's grateful for the customers who helped during the suspension.
"So, the first people to help us out were our customers we already had," Hiller said. "The same ones that leave those reviews. They called and scheduled stuff, stuff they were putting off."
Hiller says the situation highlights the challenges of AI, he's now rethinking the role of AI in his own business.
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