Reports have been coming in about flakiness in the verification process. Optilocal reported earlier in the week issues with service area and he also noted several users having reported temporary issues with phone verification which Google reports is fixed(Image from Michael Borgeit of 51Blocks.com), frequent system errors (We’re sorry but we are unable to server your request). I have also noticed issues with verified listings not showing up in Places in a timely manner.
Steve King from Simpartners.com spotted this change to the Places page. Although one presumes with all of these other quirks that more significant changes are likely on the way.
I’ve got at least one service client (at least one – I’m afraid to look at the others) that has reverted back (at least at the Dashboard | Edit view level) to “No – all customers come to this location…” for areas served.
I’ve tried to change this 3 times and it will not “stick”. However, the searches that I do in the areas where I have previously specified for their service areas are still doing well.
The carnival game “Whac-A-Mole” comes to mind here. Like I have nothing better to do with my time than to continually babysit changes that should be set in stone in a database and not EVER messed with…
Insert *pounding-head-against-brick-wall-emoticon* here.
Comment by EdW (7 comments) — September 25, 2011 @ 4:01 pm
@EdW
this is a known current issue, so until it is fixed by Google I will give you my standard advice:
Take two beers and return another day
Comment by Mike (2469 comments) — September 25, 2011 @ 7:15 pm
[...] Bugs keep cropping up in the Places Dashboard and Places. Yesterday I received the “No such State/Province in this country” message as did several other users. Today I am getting the “System Error – We’re sorry, but we are unable to serve your request at this time. Please try back in a few minutes” bug when trying to save a listing. [...]
Pingback by Weird Google Places Bugs: The Smooshed Phone Number Bug | Understanding Google Maps & Local Search — September 27, 2011 @ 1:11 pm