# A competitor gives out free coffee for 'feedback,' but clearly means a Google review | Illia BizTech > A shop in Döbeln notices a competitor rewarding customers with free coffee for Source: https://illia-biztech.de/en/forum/ein-konkurrent-verschenkt-kaffee-fur-feedback-meint-aber-eindeutig-eine-google-bewertung 1. [Home](/en) 2. [Forum](/en/forum) 3. A competitor gives out free coffee for 'feedback,' but clearly means a Google review # A competitor gives out free coffee for 'feedback,' but clearly means a Google review A shop in Döbeln notices a competitor rewarding customers with free coffee for 'feedback' without ever using the word 'review,' and asks whether that's something worth challenging. * ##### Asked by GrumpyLedger261 * ##### Asked on October 20, 2026 On our street in Döbeln, a competitor put up a sign: 'Leave quick feedback, get a free coffee.' Talking to customers, it turns out they clearly mean a Google review, but the word itself never appears anywhere. Since the sign went up, their review count has been growing noticeably fast. Is this even a problem if the word 'review' is never used literally, or is there something we can do about it? #### Answers ![Portrait of Alina Belichenko, content and social media specialist](/_ipx/f_webp,q_75/https://cms.illia-biztech.de/uploads/small_Alina_Belichenko_author_ae667ebec9.png) ##### Alina Belichenko · Content & Video Specialist ✓ Accepted answer October 20, 2026 Swapping the word for 'feedback' doesn't change what's actually happening, a reward for a public review stays impermissible no matter which word gets used to advertise for it. What matters for the review itself is what the customer actually understands and does, the exact wording on the sign is secondary. The real difficulty lies elsewhere. Google mainly responds to reports on individual reviews, a pattern across many reviews at once rarely triggers action on its own. A single reported review where a customer mentions the coffee themselves has a real chance of being removed, while the sign itself is almost impossible to act on directly. It makes more sense to specifically look for reviews that mention the coffee or the feedback offer outright, and report each one individually, instead of attempting one general complaint about the practice as a whole. Over time, several individual reports build up into a clearer picture than any single one would. [Illia BizTech](https://illia-biztech.de/de) supports shops in Landkreis Mittelsachsen with exactly this kind of collecting individual, solid reports, instead of leaving them alone with a hopeless blanket complaint. ##### #### [In summer people search locally on their phones, in winter from home. How do you build a site for that?](/en/forum/im-sommer-suchen-die-leute-vor-ort-auf-dem-handy-im-winter-von-zu-hause-aus-wie-baut-man-dafur-eine-seite) October 19, 2026 [](/en/forum/im-sommer-suchen-die-leute-vor-ort-auf-dem-handy-im-winter-von-zu-hause-aus-wie-baut-man-dafur-eine-seite) #### [Can we just use 'Erzgebirgische Volkskunst' in our Google Ads copy in Annaberg-Buchholz?](/en/forum/durfen-wir-erzgebirgische-volkskunst-einfach-so-in-unserer-google-ads-anzeige-in-annaberg-buchholz-verwenden) October 19, 2026 [](/en/forum/durfen-wir-erzgebirgische-volkskunst-einfach-so-in-unserer-google-ads-anzeige-in-annaberg-buchholz-verwenden) #### [Should we just add 'Dresden' to our company name in the Google profile?](/en/forum/sollen-wir-dresden-einfach-in-unseren-firmennamen-im-google-profil-aufnehmen) October 19, 2026 [](/en/forum/sollen-wir-dresden-einfach-in-unseren-firmennamen-im-google-profil-aufnehmen) #### [As a supplier to microelectronics-industry companies in Dresden we spend almost nothing on digitalisation, is that normal for our scale](/en/forum/als-zulieferbetrieb-fur-die-mikroelektronik-branche-in-dresden-geben-wir-kaum-etwas-fur-digitalisierung-aus-ist-das-normal-fur-unsere-gro-enordnung) October 19, 2026 [](/en/forum/als-zulieferbetrieb-fur-die-mikroelektronik-branche-in-dresden-geben-wir-kaum-etwas-fur-digitalisierung-aus-ist-das-normal-fur-unsere-gro-enordnung) #### [Our tailoring and alterations shop in Dresden only has an Instagram page, can we just put that link in the Google profile's Website field](/en/forum/fur-unsere-anderungsschneiderei-in-dresden-gibt-es-nur-eine-instagram-seite-durfen-wir-den-link-einfach-ins-website-feld-des-google-profils-eintragen) October 18, 2026 [](/en/forum/fur-unsere-anderungsschneiderei-in-dresden-gibt-es-nur-eine-instagram-seite-durfen-wir-den-link-einfach-ins-website-feld-des-google-profils-eintragen) **Share** **Topics** * Google reviews * competition law