Jamie Lynn Morgan

I sat here all yesterday and part of this morning mulling over in my head whether I would do this post or not. The reason I had to think about it is because I do not like to ever post when I am angry and upset. It usually comes off like more of a whine than a thought out entry.

To say that I am not still angry would be wrong…I am still very angry, but will try and keep to the subject as best as possible.

For some background: My husband has been in the Furnace and Air Conditioning Repair business for over 23 years and has been self employed for a great majority of that. The last 2 years specifically he has been completely independent (meaning he is a one man shop). Because we are both self employed and do not have a set monthly income that we can rely on there has never been any money to be included in a “Marketing Budget”. That is why we have focused all our efforts on online marketing (done by yours truly) and our Google Places listing has been a major part of that plan.

The reason Google Places has been a focus for us is that when someone does a search using Google for a local business their map/places always shows up at the top of those results. The likely hood of someone calling your business is pretty good if you show up in that list and have good reviews from customers that others can see on that listing. Tom’s Google places listing has shown up on the top of those results for both Furnace Repair and Air Conditioner Repair for 1 1/2 years and has been a big source of business for us.

About 6 months ago something started to happen. Our listing would just disappear and Google, (when you finally are able to get them to communicate with you), had no explaination for why or how it was happening. Because of this, I worked even harder on making sure his website showed up at the top of the search results, so at least we were there on the first page to be noticed. The volume of calls did drop significantly during the time the listing was down though.

Eventually, everything was worked out with Google and our listing was back in the maps/places listings where is was before at number one and now we also had his website there on page one as well…until last week. His Google Places/Maps listing disappeared again! This time I decided I would do a bit more of my own research since Google is so “quick” to respond. Now I am not a computer hacker, guru, or any of the above I am just probably a tad bit more savvy than the regular user.

This is what I uncovered:

Doing my usual search for Air Conditioning Repair 83814 I discovered what looked like our listing at the top of the search results on the Maps/Places…it had our website listed…but wait…that isn’t our telephone number? If you clicked on the heading it went right to our website, but if you went to the Places Page it showed Air Control and their contact information. What? Maybe this is some mistake that Google has done wouldn’t be the first time. But when I go to the Edit Listing Option and click on see recent edits I discover that someone made an edit to the listing and purposely put our website address in it and Google approved it.

Not sure why Air Control or someone else would do this, but for a few days it helped Air Control be on the top of the search, and because of the website confusion got ours deleted, AGAIN, (keep in mind we have captured our listing and it still showed in our dashboard, but when you clicked on it “We currently do not support the location”). Thankfully our website has still remained on the first page independent of the Google Maps/Places, but again when the listing is gone the call volume decreases.

Whether this is some independent SEO company, one of our competitors, or in my opinion just some dirt bag doing something nasty to make sure their client shows up before us, I would just like to tell them this:

We are not some big corporation or large Heating and Air Conditioning Company, do not have thousands of dollars pouring in every month from a huge customer base, and this is how we pay our rent, feed our three children, and put gas in our old used vehicles.

All we have done is get our name on top the old fashioned way with hard work, persistance, and exceptional customer service, (hence the 5 star rating and 12 excellent customer reviews from actual customers not paid reviews or fakes). So shame on you whoever you are!  I also hope you remember that Karma is a bitch. What happens when someone decides to do the same thing to you?

See the full gallery on Posterous

PS As of this post I checked and Google has at least for the moment removed Air Control’s listing, but we are still no where to be found on the Map/Places.

I was impressed with this tasting and how knowledgable the Brewer from Big Sky brewing was about all things beer. We also tasted the beers in an order that would not harm our palet. IPA last… finally someone who knows how do do it right!!

Big Sky Brewing as been around 14 years and is one of Montana’s largest breweries.

Now for the Beer:

Bitterroot Sawtooth - Blonde with a nice smooth flavor. Good for a warm day.  Use 100% Montana malt and they are currently the first and only craft brewery to do that.

Bitterroot Huckleberry Honey Ale - not bad- strong smell and balanced flavor, but I am not really a fan.  Would probably taste really good with a vodka :)

Bitterroot Nut Brown Ale — nice smooth malty finish Traditional English style - nutty toasty flavors 5 Malts including Montana and a chocolate malt —Tettining hops grown here in the NW 

Bitterroot Porter — Very nice smoky flavored English Porter — Single Malt Scotch style using Pete Moss. So far this is my favorite of the evening - but you all know I am a porter/stout fan. This would probably be really nice with a single malt scotch.

Bitterroot Single Hop Ale— there are some hops in there but nice and balanced citrus profile is forward on this - IBU’S 38 Columbus Hop — Strong Northwest Pale Ale

Bitterroot India Pale Ale — English Style not too hoppy Balanced and the malt profile 4 malts Three C’s from the northwest instead of earthy hops used in Original English IPA’s