A Review on the Wrong Branch: When It’s Removed and When It Isn’t
Published October 17, 2026 · 5 min read
A detailed negative review on your Riyadh branch, about an incident that happened in Jeddah. Or a review about a restaurant with a name similar to yours and no connection to you at all.
This case looks simple — "an obvious error, it'll be corrected" — and is in fact one of the hardest. Because Google doesn't remove a review for being in the wrong place.
Key takeaways:
- A mix-up between your own branches is not a violation — don't expect removal.
- A mix-up with a different business is a stronger basis to report, but still not guaranteed.
- Reply clarifying gently, and handle the complaint if it genuinely is yours.
- Never say "this isn't your experience with us" — it may be, at another branch.
- Prevention: clear branch names and distinct photos per location.
Two cases — handled differently
1. A review about another of your branches
The customer visited Jeddah and wrote on the Riyadh profile. Very common, especially when they later search the business name and find their nearest branch.
Will it be removed? Usually not. From Google's side the experience is genuine, with your business; getting the location wrong doesn't make the review violating. A report here will probably be rejected.
What to do: treat it as yours — because it is. The complaint is about your service and the customer is your customer.
We're sorry about your experience and we take responsibility for it. It looks like the visit was at another branch, and the feedback has reached their team. We'd like to resolve it with you — email us at [email].
Note: you acknowledged first, then clarified. The reverse — "that isn't our branch" first — reads as disowning.
2. A review about an entirely different business
A similar name, a map mix-up, or a customer simply mistaken. The review mentions services you don't offer, or a location that isn't yours.
Will it be removed? Better odds. Google's policy requires a contribution to reflect "a genuine experience at a place or business", and prohibits content "that does not accurately represent the location or product in question" (Prohibited & restricted content).
What to do: report, then reply. Steps in reporting a policy-violating review.
We couldn't find a visit in our records matching these details, so there may be a mix-up with another business of a similar name. Happy to check with you at [email].
⚠️ Don't deny sharply. "You never visited us" makes the reader see a business calling a customer a liar — and the customer may genuinely have visited a branch you forgot. Deny from "we couldn't find", not from certainty. Detail in 7 mistakes that make your reply worse than silence.
How to tell which case it is
Two minutes before replying:
- Is the service mentioned actually yours? If they name a product you don't sell, it's another business.
- Do the details match one of your branches? A staff name, a dish, a spot inside the building.
- Search the similar name on Maps. If there's a business with your name nearby, that's your explanation.
The third point resolves most of the confusing cases, and everyone skips it.
Prevention — more valuable than the cure
Mix-ups recur because your profiles look identical. Four steps reduce them noticeably:
1. Put the branch in the profile name. Not "Al-Aseel Restaurant" three times, but "Al-Aseel Restaurant — Al-Nuzha" and "— Al-Rawdah". This is allowed and isn't keyword stuffing, because it's a genuine location distinction rather than a keyword.
2. Different photos per branch. The same photos on three profiles make it impossible for the customer to tell them apart: photos and posts.
3. A description naming a nearby landmark. "Opposite [landmark]" helps the customer confirm before they write.
4. Check for duplicate profiles. Sometimes the "wrong branch" is a duplicate of the same branch: why your business isn't showing on Google Maps.
The effect on your average
A negative review in the wrong place hurts twice: it lowers the average of a branch that did nothing wrong, and leaves the branch that did with no signal.
Which is why internal handling matters even when the review looks "not yours": pass the feedback to the branch concerned. Otherwise the incident repeats, and so does the review.
FAQ
Should I ask the customer to move the review to the right branch?
You can invite them politely once, without insistence. But don't build on it — most customers don't come back.
Two branches in the same building — how does the customer tell?
If they're separate entities, each gets its own profile with a distinct name. If they're one with two entrances, one profile is correct.
A review about a branch we closed?
Treat it like any historical review, noting the change: "that branch no longer operates, and we're sorry your experience there was like that."
Does repeatedly reporting these hurt me?
Yes if they're repeatedly rejected. Rejected reports weaken your later ones: Google rejected your report?
The bottom line
The decisive rule: a mix-up between your branches is not a violation; a mix-up with another business may be. That distinction alone sets the route; everything else is detail.
And in both cases the reply opens with acknowledgement, not denial — because the reader doesn't know which branch was visited, and judges you on your tone rather than your details.
When you run several branches, keeping up with each profile separately is the real burden. Raddly brings every branch's reviews into one place with a per-branch filter and drafts a tailored reply for each in your business's voice — so no review is lost on a profile nobody is watching.