Got a Fake or Unfair Google Review? What to Do While Google Is Slow to Remove It

You check your Google profile and there it is. A one-star review from someone you've never worked for, or a rant that twists what really happened. You report it, and then nothing happens for days, maybe weeks.

Google has said review appeals are taking longer than usual right now, and it can't say how long. This guide shows you how to report a review the right way, what to do while you wait, and how to stop one bad review costing you calls.

Why one bad review hurts more than you'd think

Picture a roofer in Guildford with 38 reviews averaging 4.9 stars. On a Monday morning a new one-star review appears. It says the roofer "never turned up and took a deposit". The roofer has no record of the name, no job at that address and no deposit taken.

For most people searching "roofer near me", that review is now the first thing they read. Some will scroll past it. Some will ring a competitor instead. The roofer never hears about the enquiries they lost, because those people simply never call.

That's the real cost. It isn't the star rating moving from 4.9 to 4.8. It's the handful of homeowners each week who read one angry line and decide not to pick up the phone. For a trade where a single job can be worth hundreds or thousands of pounds, it doesn't take many lost calls to add up.

The good news is that you have more control here than it feels like. Getting the review removed is only one of your options, and right now it's the slowest one.

What's going on with Google's review appeals

On Friday 16 October, a member of Google's team posted on the Google Business Profile community forum to say that review appeals are taking longer than normal. The reason given was a high volume of appeals. Google said it was working through them but couldn't give a timescale for pending cases.

Google also asked people not to send the same appeal twice. Once you've submitted it, you don't need to do anything else.

This isn't the first time. There were similar slowdowns in March 2025 and December 2025, and things went back to normal afterwards. But it does mean that if you're waiting on Google to sort out a fake review this month, you need a plan for the meantime.

Which reviews Google will and won't remove

Before you report anything, it helps to know what Google is actually looking for. Its help page on removing reviews from your Business Profile is clear that only reviews that break its policies can be taken down. It also says plainly that it won't step into disagreements between a business and a customer.

So a review that says "Overpriced and the job took two days longer than they said" will almost certainly stay, even if you think it's unfair. Google's rules for reviews and other content allow people to describe a bad experience, as long as they do it respectfully.

Reviews that are likely to break the rules

• Not a real customer. Reviews must be based on a genuine experience. Someone who has never used you, or a review clearly meant for a different business, falls into this.
• Conflict of interest. A competitor, a former employee or a family member of one of these leaving a review to drag your rating down.
• A sudden wave. Several one-star reviews in a short time from people you can't trace, which looks like an attempt to push your rating down.
• Abuse or threats. Harassment, hate speech, swearing used to attack someone, or threats.
• Personal details. A review that names a member of your team in a hurtful way or shares someone's private information.
• Off-topic. A rant about something that has nothing to do with using your business, like politics or a dispute with a neighbour.
• Spam or adverts. Reviews containing links, phone numbers or promotion for someone else.

Reviews that probably won't be removed

• A real customer who didn't like the price, the timing or the finish.
• A customer who left one star with no comment.
• A review you think is exaggerated, but which describes a job you did do.

Knowing which group a review is in saves you time. If it's in the second group, skip straight to replying (further down). Reporting it won't work, and you'll be waiting for an answer you can already guess.

How to report a review properly, step by step

Doing this once, carefully, gives you the best chance. It takes about ten minutes.

Step 1. Take screenshots before you do anything

Screenshot the review, the reviewer's name and the date. If you can, tap the reviewer's name and screenshot their other reviews too. A profile with one review, or a string of one-star reviews for businesses all over the country, is useful evidence. Reviews can be edited or deleted, so get this saved first.

Step 2. Check your own records

Search your job sheets, invoices, emails and phone for the name and anything else in the review. Write down what you find, or don't find. "No customer by this name, no job at any address in that road, no deposit taken in the last 12 months" is a clear note to keep with your screenshots.

Step 3. Flag the review with the right reason

From your Business Profile, open your reviews, select the report option next to the review, choose the reason that fits best and send it. You can also do this from Google's Reviews Management Tool, which is linked from the help page above.

Pick the reason carefully. "Conflict of interest" for a competitor, "Off topic" for a review about something else, "Spam" for fake or bulk reviews. The right reason helps the review get checked against the right rule.

Step 4. Wait for the first decision

Google says the first check usually takes several days. You can see where things stand in the Reviews Management Tool by choosing the option to check the status of a review you've reported.

Step 5. Appeal once if it's turned down

If the status says no policy violation was found, you'll see an option to appeal. You can only appeal each review once, and you can include up to 10 reviews in one appeal. Use the form to explain briefly and factually why the review breaks the rules, using the notes from Step 2.

Then leave it. Don't send the same appeal again or keep re-flagging the review. Google has said duplicate appeals aren't needed, and they won't move you up the queue.

Short, factual and calm. No accusations about who you think wrote it, and no long back story.

If someone asks for money to remove bad reviews

There's a scam doing the rounds where a business suddenly gets a run of one-star reviews, then a message offering to make them go away for a fee. Google has a separate page on reporting negative review extortion scams for exactly this.

Google's advice is simple. Don't reply to them and don't pay. Save screenshots of every message, including the date, time and the email address, phone number or social account it came from. Then fill in Google's extortion form with links to the reviews and the evidence. This form is only for extortion. Ordinary fake reviews go through the normal reporting route above.

What to do while you wait

This is where you can protect your enquiries, whatever Google decides.

Reply in public, calmly and briefly

When someone reads a bad review, they also read your reply. A calm, professional reply tells them you're reasonable and that the review may not be the whole story. An angry one tends to confirm it.

Google says the reviewer gets a notification when you reply, and they can still edit their review afterwards. So write as if both the reviewer and your next ten customers are reading, because they are.

Here are three replies you can adapt.

For a review from someone who isn't a customer

For a genuine customer who's unhappy

For a review that's partly true and partly not

A few rules that keep replies working for you:

• Keep it to two or three sentences.
• Never share the customer's address, job details or anything private.
• Don't call them a liar, even if you're sure. "We can't find any record" says the same thing politely.
• Move the conversation to the phone. Arguments in public never look good for the business.
• Sleep on it if you're annoyed. A reply written the next morning is almost always better.

We cover this in more depth in our guide on how to reply to Google reviews, even the bad ones.

Get some fresh, genuine reviews in

The most effective thing you can do this week has nothing to do with the bad review. It's asking your recent happy customers to leave one.

Most people see your newest reviews first. If the one-star review is followed by four or five recent, detailed five-star reviews, it stops being the first thing people read. It also has less effect on your average.

Think of a commercial cleaner in Horsham with ten five-star reviews. One fake one-star review drops their rating from 5.0 to roughly 4.6. Five genuine five-star reviews over the next month bring it back up to around 4.8, and push that review down the list.

Make a list today of every customer you've finished a job for in the last two months who was pleased. Send each one a short message with your review link. Our guide to getting more Google reviews without feeling pushy has word-for-word messages you can copy.

One important point. Only ask real customers, and don't offer anything in return. Google's rules ban incentivised reviews, and since April 2025 UK consumer law has had specific rules on fake and concealed incentivised reviews. The Competition and Markets Authority has a short guide for businesses on reviews that's worth five minutes of your time.

Give people other reasons to trust you

Someone who's just read a bad review will often click through to your website to check you out. Make sure they find reassurance there: real photos of your work, your address or area, any trade body memberships, and a few genuine reviews in your customers' own words.

If your website doesn't do this, it's worth fixing, because it helps with every enquiry, not just this one. Our website design and build page explains what a trust-building trades site looks like.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Reporting the same review over and over. It doesn't speed things up. Report once, appeal once if needed, then wait.
• Reporting every bad review. If it's a real customer with a real complaint, reporting it wastes your time. Reply instead.
• Arguing in your reply. Even if you win the argument, the reader just sees a business that argues with customers.
• Asking friends or family to leave five-star reviews to balance it out. This breaks Google's rules and UK law, and it can lead to genuine reviews being removed too.
• Paying anyone who promises to get reviews removed. Nobody outside Google can guarantee a removal. If someone contacts you out of the blue offering this, treat it with suspicion.
• Ignoring it and hoping it goes away. An unanswered bad review looks worse than one with a calm reply under it.

A 20-minute plan for today

1. Screenshot the review and the reviewer's profile (2 minutes).
2. Check your records and write a one-line note (5 minutes).
3. Flag it once with the right reason, or decide it's a genuine complaint (3 minutes).
4. Write and post a calm two-sentence reply (5 minutes).
5. Send your review link to three happy customers from the last two months (5 minutes).

Then put a reminder in your diary for one week's time to check the status in the Reviews Management Tool and appeal if needed.

Want help keeping your reviews working for you?

Dealing with a fake review is stressful when you're also trying to run jobs, quote and answer the phone. It's one of the things we take off your plate.

Our managing reviews service helps you ask for reviews after every job, reply to them quickly and flag the ones that break Google's rules. It sits alongside our Google Business Profile work, so your profile keeps bringing in calls. You can see how it's worked for other local businesses on our success stories page, including Mainstream Cleaning, who saw 55% more enquiries.

If you're a trade or local service business in Surrey, Sussex or Hampshire, book a free 30-minute call and we'll look at your Google presence first.

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