Somebody connected to LV Cannabis Boutique posted in two different Google-themed subreddits about losing almost 1900 reviews. Like most business owners, they say Google never warned them. Google doesn’t send warnings before removing reviews. Google does, in a few situations, email the business afer they lose reviews. This happens when Google suspects the business has fake positive reviews or incentivizes for reviews. LV Cannabis Boutique is unsure what happened and how to get its review back.
In this case, I have identified two possible culprits. First, the business offers free Wi-Fi for its customers. Google does remove reviews when they all come from the same IP address. The next likely culprit is that the business has QR codes for its cleints to scan to leave a review. I have seen a sharp uptick in businesses that have lost reviews using QR codes. If these were the only two issues, the business could contact Google and get most of the reviews back. This business deserves to lose more reviews.
This business started off offering a 5% discount in exchange for Google reviews in Febuary 2023. Then they switched and started offering a free joint in exchange for a Google review. Google needs to remove all or the reviews dating back to February 8, 2023. Google needs to email this business and tell them to stop this practice.
If you don’t want to be like LV Cannabis Boutique and lose reviews, don’t use a QR code to ask for reviews, don’t allow customers to use your Wi-Fi, and don’t offer a discount in exchange for reviews.
Update: While writing up this post, the Reddit user LVCannabis deleted the posts. They didn’t delete all of their comments on one of the posts. In one comment, they admitted to incentivizing reviews. “Fair point. We did have that promotion in the past. We’ve removed it now and changed our review process.”
