Reviews about a different business are a recognised removal ground. Report it with a factual explanation, reply publicly in the meantime, and check whether a duplicate listing caused it.

It is usually confusion, not malice

A review arrives describing staff you do not employ, a location you have never occupied, or a service you do not offer.

The instinct is that a competitor is attacking you, and that is rarely what has happened.

Far more often the person has reviewed the wrong business: a similarly named one, a former occupant of your address, or a business they found on a map and confused with yours.

That distinction matters because mistaken identity is one of the few grounds on which platforms genuinely remove reviews, where a merely unfair one is not.

How it happens

The second is common for anybody who took over premises, since a listing tied to an address can carry history from whoever was there before.

Establish it before reporting

Because a report supported by facts is treated differently from one asserting unfairness.

Check your records for the name, the date, and anything specific mentioned, and confirm you have no matching customer.

Look for the business they probably meant: search the name, the street, or the service described, and see whether a similar one exists nearby.

Note anything in the review that could not be about you: a service you do not provide, a location you have never had, a staff name that is not yours.

That is what makes the report specific, and specificity is what gets these removed.

Report it factually

The mechanics, and the wording matters more than people expect.

Use the platform's reporting function and select the ground that matches, which is usually something like not being about this business.

State the facts plainly: this describes a service we do not offer, at an address we have never occupied, and there is a similarly named business at a nearby address.

Do not argue that the review is unfair, which is a different claim and one the platform will not act on.

Expect it to take days rather than hours, and expect the first report to be declined reasonably often, in which case reporting again with clearer facts is worth doing.

Where you have an account manager or a support route through a business profile, that is generally more effective than the public reporting form.

Reply in the meantime

Since removal is uncertain and slow, and the reply is what everybody reads while you wait.

Reply publicly, briefly, and without any hostility: we think this may be intended for a different business, as we do not offer that service and have not traded from that address.

Offer to help them find who they meant, which reads well and occasionally works.

That reply does the important job even if the review is never removed, because a reader who sees a one-star review with a calm factual response draws a different conclusion from one who sees it unanswered.

Do not say the reviewer is lying, since they are usually mistaken rather than dishonest, and readers can tell the difference in tone.

A worked example

A business received a review complaining about a delivery that never arrived, though they had never offered delivery.

Searching their own name turned up a business with almost the same name in another part of the province, which did deliver.

They reported it stating that they do not offer delivery, giving the name of the other business, and replied publicly explaining the likely confusion and pointing the reviewer to the right place.

The review was removed after about ten days.

The reviewer also replied to apologise, which was visible for the period in between and probably did more good than the removal.

They then added their city to their listing name and description, which reduced the confusion recurring.

Check for a duplicate listing

Because a repeated version of this usually has a structural cause.

A second listing for your business, or a listing left by a previous occupant of your address, can attract reviews intended for somebody else.

Search your business name and your address on maps and see what appears, including anything marked as permanently closed.

Duplicate listings should be reported and merged rather than left, since they also split your reviews and confuse customers.

Where the confusion is with a genuinely different business, distinguishing yourself helps: a more specific description, the area in your listing details, and photographs that make the premises recognisable.

When it is not mistaken identity

Worth separating, since the response differs.

A review from somebody who was never a customer, but who plainly means your business, is a different problem and is much harder to have removed.

So is one from a competitor, or from somebody with a grievance unrelated to a transaction.

Those are reported under different grounds, succeed less often, and are mostly managed through the reply rather than through removal.

Do not report a genuine negative review as mistaken identity, since a report that turns out to be wrong makes future reports less credible.

The counter-case

Removal is not always the best outcome.

A single obviously mistaken review, with a calm reply explaining the confusion, does you very little harm and demonstrates how you handle things.

Pursuing removal through repeated reports can consume hours for a result nobody would have noticed either way.

There is also a version of this where a business challenges every unwelcome review as mistaken, which is both unsuccessful and visible in the replies.

Report the clear cases with facts, reply calmly to everything, and let a single odd review sit rather than fighting it for a fortnight.

What to do

  1. Check your records for any matching customer.
  2. Find the business they probably meant.
  3. Note what could not be about you.
  4. Report on the correct ground, factually.
  5. Reply publicly and without hostility.
  6. Search for duplicate listings.
  7. Distinguish your listing if it recurs.

Step three is what makes the report succeed, since platforms act on specific factual grounds and decline general claims of unfairness.

Listings you did not create are covered in a second listing you did not create.

Frequently asked questions

Is a review about the wrong business usually malicious?

Rarely. Far more often the person reviewed a similarly named business, a former occupant of your address, or something they found on a map and confused with you.

Can it actually be removed?

Yes. Not being about the business is one of the few grounds platforms genuinely act on, unlike a review that is merely unfair.

How should I report it?

Factually, on the ground that it is not about your business, stating what could not apply: a service you do not offer, an address you never occupied, a staff name that is not yours.

What should I do while waiting?

Reply publicly and calmly suggesting it may be meant for a different business, and offer to help them find it. That reply matters even if removal never happens.

Why does it keep happening?

Usually a structural cause: a duplicate listing, a listing left by a previous occupant, or a genuinely similar business nearby. Search your name and address on maps.

What if it is not mistaken identity?

A review from a non-customer who plainly means you is much harder to remove. Do not report it as mistaken identity, since a wrong report makes future ones less credible.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Review describing a service you do not offer?

Search your own business name first. There is usually a similar one nearby, and naming it is what gets the report actioned.

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