We had a snow day today which rarely happens here and everything basically shuts down so I decided to do some checking on the internet and quickly noticed two listings on page 1 of google local/places which obviously are not local. One for Victoria and one for Nanaimo which are obviously done by the same company even though they have different names.
One is Victoriaflowers.info which also shows as Flower Delivery Sens and the other is localblossom.com which also shows as Mikes Flowers in Nanaimo. Both show only 888 phone numbers. The one in Victoria is really a parking lot and if you check Canada 411 there is no listing for a local phone number in either Victoria or Nanaimo at that address.What business would ever operate without a local phone number? Why is that not a clue to google that something is wrong? Both are claimed listings. Why doesn't google require a local phone number for them to call and verify the listing is really local?
Both of these phonies have all "excellent reviews"-5 star ratings. One has 17 and the other has 13. They are mostly written in broken bad English which should also be another clue for google.
They also both have the same one picture supplied by the owner on their place pages.It really makes me sick that google allows these companies to bump out real local florists on their place pages. About 8 months ago there was another "localblossom.com" in Victoria which had an address that was actually a Mediterranean Deli that hadn't claimed their listing. They had nothing whatsoever to do with flowers and had no idea that Localblossom showed their address so now Localblossom have simply changed their name and used a parking lot for a location. I realize the listings are free with google but I think they should at least verify that listings are really legitimate before showing them.
Dianne
One is Victoriaflowers.info which also shows as Flower Delivery Sens and the other is localblossom.com which also shows as Mikes Flowers in Nanaimo. Both show only 888 phone numbers. The one in Victoria is really a parking lot and if you check Canada 411 there is no listing for a local phone number in either Victoria or Nanaimo at that address.What business would ever operate without a local phone number? Why is that not a clue to google that something is wrong? Both are claimed listings. Why doesn't google require a local phone number for them to call and verify the listing is really local?
Both of these phonies have all "excellent reviews"-5 star ratings. One has 17 and the other has 13. They are mostly written in broken bad English which should also be another clue for google.
They also both have the same one picture supplied by the owner on their place pages.It really makes me sick that google allows these companies to bump out real local florists on their place pages. About 8 months ago there was another "localblossom.com" in Victoria which had an address that was actually a Mediterranean Deli that hadn't claimed their listing. They had nothing whatsoever to do with flowers and had no idea that Localblossom showed their address so now Localblossom have simply changed their name and used a parking lot for a location. I realize the listings are free with google but I think they should at least verify that listings are really legitimate before showing them.
Dianne