Write a review, save the world-- the redux!

Google deleted our business profile, I got it back up, but your lovely reviews are (apparently) forever gone.

So, over the holiday break when I was working feverishly to relax (pun intended), someone reported my business, TOTEM Readings, to Google as a FAKE BUSINESS.

Yah, you read that right. Despite having an actual, registered LLC and paying taxes, having a physical space in Austin, TX, and touting lots of Google reviews from you lovely people proving out that I’m a real person running a real business, TOTEM Readings was placed under a review during the precise time I wasn’t answering strange phone calls or looking at messages over the holidays.

Kind of a perfect storm.

So, when I didn’t immediately respond with utility bills, LLC documents and tax evidence (I’m not kidding— that’s the beginning of what was required to prove TOTEM exists), they removed my business profile from Google.

Which means all of your thoughtful reviews from the last several years were removed, too.

Now, I got the TOTEM Readings business profile back up after a seriously Herculean (and very frustrating) effort, but the client reviews are apparently forever gone— at least insofar as the Google algorithm has been explaining it to me in fits and starts via a chatbot.

As you may know, Google is the primary way new and existing clients find my business, book appointments, and learn more about my products and offerings— especially so since I moved to Austin from Chicago two years ago. So, crippling this functionality and making my business profile look all kinds of sketch (after all, what kind of business doesn’t have any reviews?), my ability to function in my local market and elsewhere has been seriously crippled.

Which is why I’m asking for your help, yet again. If you feel compelled to share your experience with TOTEM Readings on Google via a review, please do so here: https://g.page/r/CemSCYxUjbs0EBI/review

Then, just screenshot and email this review to me at rachel@totemreadings.com to receive an incredible THANK YOU gift from me. It’s the very least I can do to return the favor of you very likely re-writing some shit you’ve already been kind enough to write in the past.

These reviews are tremendously helpful to TOTEM and to me, personally, and I’m incredibly grateful for any help you’re able to offer at this time.

Now, you might be wondering who reported TOTEM Readings to Google as a fake business and caused all of this heartache. Who are they? Where are they? What could their motives be?

Don’t worry. I figured it out. I know who they are. And now they know that I know who they are.

One of the upsides of taking the time and spending the money to secure a trademark for your brand is that you can wield a big f*cking stick when it comes to folks doing nefarious, malicious things to interfere with your ability to do business. And, after three years of blood, sweat and tears as a small business owner trying to survive in the midst of Covid, the last thing I’m going to do is allow this breach of etiquette to go by unaddressed.

They picked the wrong damn one.

And yes, this other party is a competitor in my local market. Likely someone that was comfortable half-assing this work in a market with very little legitimate competition. And yes, they’ve also tried to make false claims about not receiving a copy of the TOTEM Tarot Deck (from Amazon) while not being able to present proof of purchase. Something about being “signed in as a guest” while blowing up my Google Voice number late at night.

Eye roll.

They’ve been doing all of this, of course, while also reaching out relentlessly on the phone and email and Yelp messenger to see if they could stop by my work/ live space to “check out” my products and services.

Totally a coincidence, I’m sure.

When I’m done with this half-baked Moriarty figure I’ll be sure to salt the earth where their makeshift fortune telling shack once stood.

But, until then, I implore you for your help with re-establishing TOTEM’s once glorious Google business profile, starting with reviews.

Thank you all so much for your support. And yes, I will keep you posted;)

-Rachel