Google listed my restaurant's number as its British HQ

I was recently traveling in London and wanted to buy a Google Pixel phone (it is unavailable in my home country.) I thought it would simple enough as walking into the Google Store and picking the colour I like along with any accessories.

Well, turns out that since COVID there is no such thing as "Google Store" in London. In fact, Google does not have any physical consumer presence whatsoever in the whole of UK. Even the "YouTube creator space" at King's Cross has been shuttered. Their only presence in the city are the offices for their employees.

Google's commitment to removing any ways from consumers to actually interact with the company is truly extreme. And probably results in people turning to desperate measures when they run into troubles with Google products.

It isn’t a good look for the guys whose entire business is information and advertising to not be able to advertise their own phone number correctly, for 3+ years.

Some might argue that Google is coasting on inertia, and has already begun its decline, and is reminiscent of Yahoo!, back in the day.

Set a voicemail, "hello, you've reached Google UK support. Please say your username, password, and nature of issue and we'll call you back to assist shortly"

Google: Our mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Notice, there was no mention about correct. Congratulations your restaurant's number is universally accessible and useful (as long as people use it!)

Seems entirely on-brand for Google's support.

It's actually insane Google does nothing in this regard.

The possibilities for a bad actor impersonating Google support are endless.

I suspect if they had been able to document the steps taken that got them there and reported it as a vulnerability they might have not only got it fixed pretty much immediately but also possibly a bounty.

At this stage, sale the number to a security researcher for $50, and change the number.

They will make their money back and some, and you'll get compensation.

Then sue Google with the money.

Some jester tagged one of the houses on a new build estate near to me as the Burger King UK headquarters on Google Maps.

/Got it removed.

Would this be grounds for a lawsuit?

IMHO, would be easier to get a new restaurant mobile number and update that on the restaurant/google website than to contact Google support. However, this article in the Guardian will likely attract some attention from Google employees.

I mean asking for the login information of every caller, and then using it in the most disruptive way you can think of, would probably start to get someone's attention pretty quickly.

Look, if you have a serious issue requiring Google support, it's quite simple to get it resolved - there's an established process:

First, spend a couple of years suffering and being ignored by Google. Eventually your suffering will become bad enough that it's an interesting news story. At this point, contact news media. Hopefully a few hours after the news story is published, the issue will be resolved. You may be able to resolve the issue before the story is even published, when the journalist contacts Google to obtain a statement. It's quite simple.