@Todd Certainly did — as you see, Dave is now almost a *fan* of these people!

@Jeff There's a double reputation management here too. The company in question itself should have proactively monitored their outgoing repuation statements. That ad/statement or whatever it was on Craigslist shouldn't have been made that way.

@Mikael More often than not first contact is semi-threatening. This email is really good.

@John Yup, indeed, like I said to Michael; it's the real, human, open honesty that "did the trick"

@Joel Google Alerts works great, yes. I also use Copernic Tracker. Jeff authored a nice reputation management issue resolution flowchart which usues it as the first tool!

Just today I handled a phone call from a competitor who had called the business manager 3 times previously, demanding we stop hacking her Google account and inserting our data under her company name. Bizarre claim, but delivered in a nasty, accusatory tone with threats of legal action. I was nice but firm – she's wrong in her assumptions that Google local errors are due to my hacking her account, and wrong to threaten when she is the abusive one. I did offer to help her, and haven't yet decided if I will charge her a consulting fee to fix her problems.

We are humans…. except for Google. You'll get a lot farther if you treat us that way.