Just when you thought the problems with Google Business Profile reinstatements could not get worse, the progress refresh bug appears.
Unless you have been hiding under a rock Google Business Profiles have seen an unprecedented spike in suspensions over the past 4 months, which of course has led to a large amount of reinstatement requests which Google Business is struggling to keep up with.
Current response wait time for a reply to a reinstatement is 25 – 30 working days.
However there is a new bug in the system that is causing confusion and frustration with business owners.
Initial Reinstatement Bug
This bug re-appeared around two months ago.
Around the 4 week waiting period, the business would get a non standard reply about their reinstatement request – saying the profile is live.
Needless to say the profile has not been reinstatement BUT because there has been a “reply” it resets the progress report.
Reinstatement Bug Cycle
The reinstatement bug cycle then appears to escalate in frequency with the weird non standard auto replies.
Which leads to a viscous cycle of the case progress report being updated / refreshed.
Progress Report Refresh Bug
The reinstatement bug with non sensical reply seemed to have gone quite and progress report looked to be on track again.
Until today, when the progress report just refreshed without a reply (auto or otherwise) from Google Business.
So now we have the progress reports on cases with Google Business randomly updating and unless you happen to be keeping an eye on this, the business owner would be none the wiser.
This is not the first time this reinstatement bug has reared its head, the last time was Nov 2021 but it is the first time the progress report bug has appeared.
Personally I think this is even worse, because the business owner does not have any clue as to this happening, even the non sensical reinstatement bug reply was better than nothing, at least they then had an avenue to reply or chase with business support.