How can we get Google to offer postcard verification for our Place Page?

[DenisL]

Most of the time, when we claim a Google Place Page, they give 2 choices to verify ownership:  1) phone verification and 2) postcard verification.  But right now (and for several weeks), for our listing, they are only giving the phone verification choice, which unfortunately won't work with our automated phone system.  How can we get our Place Page listing verified through a postcard sent to our address, when Google isn't presenting that as an option?

[EGOL]

Wait (or pray) for postcard verification to come back...

... or... change your phone number to one that will work.   How about your cell phone number?

[JordanJudson]

One problem that I have seen in the past is that if you are claiming a listing and you change either the address or the phone number before you claim it it can screw with the verification process and sometimes create a duplicate listing. I would claim it without changing either of those and once its verified go back and change that info (if it needs to be changed).

Also, if you pay for any of Google's paid services sometimes you can get support for Google Places and they will manually edit a listing. However we have only been able to pull this off once.

[belasco]

don't change your phone number. this is a bad idea that can have ramifications beyond getting your listing claimed. Sometimes if the phone verification is not successful, they'll offer the postcard option.

[JordanJudson]

I forgot about that, I have had that happen to me too when the client doesn't give me the right pin after a couple tries it will only allow postcard verification.

[DenisL]

Yikes!  Is there really no other option than to just wait for the return of postcard verification?  Isn't this a relatively common problem, that companies have automated phone systems?  How do others deal with it?

[JordanJudson]

Did you try what Mike suggested? Submitting it as a phone verification and then once it calls your system and fails to reach a person you go to get another pin and then it offers the verify by postcard option.

[DenisL]

I tried Mike's suggestion (thank you Mike, and Jordan).  It didn't work -- first few times anyway.  Then I took the Suite # out of the address (to change the address, but with only a slight edit) and tried verification again.  Again, only the phone option was offered.  I tried Mike's suggestion again, failed the phone verification and this time -- Google DID come back with the postcard option.  Yahoo!

I'm not sure whether the multiple tries is what did the trick or if the address edit did it.  I hope the address edit hasn't made things worse.