We actually believe this is a problem with Google’s API that they are working on now currently. Getting reliable info from them is not easy, but we’re hoping it will all be resolved by Monday.
Hi Matt
You help me with the connection settings on this link when it was set up and it’s worked OK since other that a few bugs that you also fixed, but today for no apparent reason the Google+ Places Reviews Pro link to my Google+ has stopped working as attached snapshot! I’ve checked the ID in the wordpress plugin and it’s still intact and I saved it again but it’s made no difference! Google+ account is also active at
https://plus.google.com/+BestwestBuildingInspectionsChurchlands/about
Can you help?
This is a great marketing tool for our business and the loss of the plugin function is a significant loss. I also note the the plugin has our licence expiry in 51 days (License Expiration: 2015-09-27 02:32:12) when I reviewed it on the 17th October 2015!
Please help! I’ve updated wordpress access which you used before to enable to see the setup which hasn’t changed since you were last on the setup. You should receive a wordpress email for bestwestbuilding.com.au
hope it’s an easy fix as this plugin is invaluable. happy to pay if support requires a fee.
Mark@Bestwest
Hi Mark,
Recently it seems that Google has changed some things about their Places API. This is an issue with the Google Places API itself. You can test that with Google’s Place Automcomplete directly on this page:
https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/examples/places-autocomplete
You’ll see that when searching for your Business it does appear in the auto-suggest but it produces an error which prevents it from outputting the place on the map correctly.
Basically, if your business cannot be found with Google’s Place Autocomplete tool then it cannot work with our plugin and that is an issue that has to be resolved with Google.
I wish it were different, but unfortunately our hands are tied on that issue.
I really don’t understand Matt, how can I fix this? It’s worked for over a year and the Google+ reviews are still visible online at
https://plus.google.com/+BestwestBuildingInspectionsChurchlands/about
Hi Mark,
Did you try the Autocomplete tool? You’ll see the error there, which is on the side of Google, not our plugin. Unfortunately, that means I’m not the person who can answer this. This is an issue with Google Places, not with our plugin.
They actually just released a giant overhaul of G+ (see announcement here) which I suspect has something to do with the problem. Because if you enable the new look on your G+ profile then visit the link to your Business profile page, you’ll notice that there are NO reviews and the profile is incomplete. That is NOT the case with the “classic profile”.
But again, Google hasn’t been documenting these changes publicly, so these are just our best guesses as to what is going on, on their end based on what’s publicly available.
Sounds like you’re saying that upgrading to a new G+ profile looses the coveted Google+ reviews which we’ve been working hard to illustrate and would make your plugin of no further use then! Is that right, if so that’s damn annoying. Google really can be a pain.
I tried the aforementioned Autocomplete Tool and couldn’t find our business. I found another business correctly though and added this one to the widget for testing purposes but I get the same “Sorry, this business does not have a proper Place ID set.” error
I received a post/message from a Felix Garcia on the Wordimpress forum as follows;
“I believe i have found the solution.
Go to your google places under your regular account and click Manage Locations, on top Right there will be a Red Edit button click that. Under Address click Edit, You need to have “I also serve customers at my business address” Checked.
Most of us have it unchecked because we want to hide our business address or cuz we don not service customers at that address. But for some reason google api will only work if you have it checked.
I recommend whatever your reason, if you want it to work you check that box!”
I had disabled the Google Places Reviews Pro plugin as the error message looked crap on my web site, so I carried out Felix’s suggestion and dropped the widget back in web site and was delighted to see it working, thank goodness 🙂 it’s a great plugin and has been an invaluable tool for promoting the kind reviews from many satisfied customers so I’m delighted to get it back online again thanks to Felix’s recommendation.
After hours of research it took just a few minutes to fix.
Wow thank you for figuring this out. I made the change on my google plus page and it worked as well!
That’s excellent. Thanks for reporting it here as well Mark.
I’ll be updating our documentation to reflect that change. Obviously, this is a new requirement that Google implemented and hasn’t yet documented.
Heh Matt@WordImpress
Thanks for your input on this matter which is hopefully sorted now. You didn’t answer my other question though! as follows;
I also note the the plugin has our licence expiry in 51 days (License Expiration: 2015-09-27 02:32:12) when I reviewed it on the 17th October 2015!
I tried the solution Matt at Bestwest posted above and I can find our business now but the “Sorry, this business does not have a proper Place ID set.” error persists
Mark, regarding your license, we’ll resolve that on our priority support forum.
@sowhy that is related to your API Key. Review our docs on that and perhaps try creating a new Key completely: https://wordimpress.com/documentation/google-places-reviews/creating-your-google-places-api-key/
Try creating a Server Key and a Browser Key. Different users have different results depending on whether they created a server key or browser key or both.
@sowhy
Can you create a new ticket and provide a link to your website and to your G+ profile page? I can help you best that way.
Thanks!
@webdevmattcrom: Thanks for the offer but it’s not necessary. It started working now. Maybe Google was checking the address or something. Thanks for the great work!
