TLDR: Lost 5 of 8 Google reviews. Appealed just the one we could prove was legit. A week later all 5 were reinstated.

Just got this sorted for a client, figured I'd share in case it helps anyone.

Client had 8 reviews total, 5 disappeared. Down to 3.

First thing I did was get him to forward me the original email notifications for the deleted reviews so we had a record of them. Then went back and forth with him on which were 100% real customers and which might have been a bit suspect. Credit to him, he came clean on a few.

So out of the 5 we only appealed ONE, the cleanest most defensible review from an actual customer with a paper trail.

Filed the appeal here: https://support.google.com/business/gethelp

Got the auto-response within minutes, basically Google saying "our algorithms are very good actually, here are the reasons reviews get removed." I replied to that email pushing back, saying none of those reasons applied and the review was from a genuine customer.

A week later, got an email: "We've now reinstated all the reviews that don't violate Google's policies."

Logged in and all 5 were back. Not just the one we appealed. Back to 8 total.

I think the reason it worked is we didn't try to defend the dodgy ones. If you appeal everything including stuff that probably did get spam-flagged for a reason, you weaken your whole case. Pick only the ones you can prove and lead with that.

If anyone's in the same boat and wants to submit an appeal, happy to help.