A sync of BAM’s internal listings into SOCi, the platform BAM pays for local search, rewrote its stores’ Google Business Profile names to the territory alone: where the system’s form is Bricks & Minifigs Bountiful, a cut store reads Frisco (TX). On October 30, 127 of the 267 open stores on BAM’s own locator read that way, two of BAM’s four company stores among them, and some stores had emails asking them to re-verify their locations. Matthew McNeff, BAM’s operations chief, told the owners overnight that BAM believed the issue was corrected and would coordinate with them in the morning. On October 31 the owners were still comparing damage, and the thread carries no reply from BAM.
PRIMARY SOURCEMatthew McNeff’s message, overnight into October 30, and the owners’ thread, October 31, both below.
CONFIRMEDGoogle Maps, October 30: 127 of the 267 open stores on BAM’s locator read as a territory alone. On October 31 the three posting owners’ stores still did.
CORROBORATEDA public forum reported a similar renaming on SOCi from October 25 and, on October 27, that it “turns out it was a Soci issue,” days before BAM wrote.
UNRESOLVEDWhether BAM’s sync and the forum defect are the same thing, and whether a fix an owner makes on Google holds against BAM’s next sync.
“We believe we’ve corrected the issue, but some stores have received emails asking them to re-verify their locations.”
Overnight into October 30, #announcements_general. Matthew McNeff is BAM’s Chief Operations Officer.
Morning of October 31, #forum_operations.
On October 31 all three stores still read as the territory alone. The listing said to have been moved gave its usual address, and sat on Google’s own point for it. The reviews are the owner’s to characterize. The thread carries no reply from BAM.
| Store on BAM’s locator | Its name on Google Maps, October 30 |
|---|---|
| Frisco, Texas | Frisco (TX) |
| Avondale, Arizona | Avondale (AZ) |
| Southington, Connecticut (BAM’s own store) | Southington (CT) |
| Billings, Montana (BAM’s own store) | Billings (MT) |
| Bountiful, Utah | Bricks & Minifigs Bountiful |
127 of the 267 open stores on BAM’s locator read that way on October 30, each matched to the locator by street address. 132 kept the brand. 8 had no listing.
The last week we have had some odd random changes to Google Business Profiles where the locations Name is changed as well as website url, phone number, hours and description deleted from their profiles. The only clue is that all of the effected profiles are using Soci for social media posting and review management. The name changes match their nicknames in the Soci setup.
Turns out it was a Soci issue. Waiting on engineers to diagnose the cause and the fix.
The sync was BAM’s own: “attempting to sync data from internal listings to SoCi,” in the message’s words. The defect it ran into was already on the record. That is a member of the Local Search Forum on October 25, with access to Google Business Profiles for more than one location. The poster opened a ticket with SOCi that day, reached its Level 3 support on October 26, and on October 27 posted the answer, above. BAM wrote to its owners on October 30. SOCi has posted nothing public about it; its blog’s posts from October 22 to 30 are on other subjects. Whether SOCi told its customers directly, BAM among them, is not known. BAM pays SOCi out of the marketing fund the owners pay into. At the Q3 town hall its marketing lead, Katelyn Fagan, listed the platform among what the fund had bought, and told the owners what it gave them.
“We have a brand new website coming out this week, which I’m very excited about, as it’s much better marketing tool. And then reputation and local search with the SOCi platform. Next. And then when it comes to empowering the stores, we’ve implemented the marketing playbooks … And then we have reputation and local search again, but it applies for you. You have the tools now to influence and to respond to your risk to your views quicker, faster and manage them easier.”
The platform she sold the owners as their tool to manage reviews “quicker, faster” is the one through which their names were cut, and on October 31 an owner’s word for what a store could do about its reviews was “can’t do anything.” Whether anyone at BAM watching the platform it pays for saw the thread is not known. The order is: the forum had it on October 25, the poster had SOCi’s answer on October 27, and BAM’s owners heard from BAM on October 30, after the names had changed and with re-verification emails already arriving at some stores. A warning on October 25 or 27 would have reached the stores before the message did.
Google may require a profile to be verified before its name can be edited, and a name changed after verification may have to be verified again, by a method Google picks, in a review of up to five business days, longer on rare occasions. Where a listings platform holds the data, a fix made on Google can be undone by the next sync: SCORE, some of whose chapter listings run through SOCi, tells its chapters that “the system will override any changes made natively within the Facebook, LinkedIn and Google management systems” (SCORE, How Do I Update Chapter Information on Social Media Profiles?). BAM’s franchise agreement does not name Google Business Profile. It gives BAM control of the Website, ownership or control of the domains, URLs and registrations used for the system with no franchisee interest in those domains or related digital assets, puts social media in BAM’s hands, “We will manage all social media relating to Bricks & Minifigs, as set forth in the Operating Manual,” with a right to charge a pro rata fee for it later, and on termination treats telephone numbers and “directory listings associated with any Mark” as the franchisor’s and has the owner drop “any other electronic media associated with your Store” (Sections 10.F and 15.C). The Google profile is the listing none of those clauses names and the one the sync rewrote.
The fair reading, and its limit. The message says BAM believed it had corrected the issue by the time it wrote, and Google reviews edits before it shows them, so a name already corrected in SOCi may still have read the old way; the count shows what customers saw. Nothing in the message says any store lost its profile, and the 127 listings still showed a website, a phone number and hours, with one exception each for website and hours. The October 31 thread is three owners’ words, and whether BAM’s sync and the forum poster’s defect are the same thing is not known. The right of reply is open to BAM and to SOCi.
The Q3 town hall: the marketing fund, the SOCi platform and “reputation and local search”. BAM’s September message to its owners. This site’s stores page, the locator roster and the owners behind it. Item 6, Item 11, Item 12 and Item 20 of the disclosure document, on this site’s guide. SOCi’s integrations page. SOCi’s 2020 announcement of its listings product. SOCi’s 2025 post on Google re-verification. Google: Guidelines for representing your business on Google. Google: Verify your business on Google. Google: Edit your Business Profile. The Local Search Forum thread of October 25 to 27, 2026. SOCi’s 2025 guidance on business name changes. SCORE’s page on the chapter listings it runs through SOCi.
Sources. Matthew McNeff’s message in the #announcements_general channel of BAM’s Slack, overnight into October 30, 2026, and a post with three replies in #forum_operations, October 31, 2026; owner identities and store locations withheld. Bricks & Minifigs store locator at bricksandminifigs.com, October 30, 2026, 267 stores marked open. Google Maps, October 30, 2026, the 267 open stores by street address; October 31, 2026, the three stores whose owners posted, and Google Search’s panel for one of them. Local Search Forum, thread 63459, GBP Name Changes and Important Information Deleted - Potentially by Soci, posts of October 25 to 27, 2026. SOCi’s blog at soci.ai, posts of October 8 to 30, 2026. SCORE, How Do I Update Chapter Information on Social Media Profiles? (last updated February 11, 2026). Google Business Profile Help: Guidelines for representing your business on Google; Verify your business on Google; Edit your Business Profile. BAM Franchising, Inc., 2026 Franchise Agreement, Sections 10.F and 15.C; 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document, Item 2 and Exhibit H, Notes 1 and 2. Katelyn Fagan’s remarks at BAM’s Q3 2026 System Town Hall, reported on this site on September 1, 2026. Everyone named here is presumed to have acted lawfully.