If you run Google Local Services Ads, Google charges for missed calls from October 1, 2026.

Yes, and it should. Google counts an answered call as a lead, and a call that reaches voicemail or an automated greeting during your business hours too, once the caller stays on more than 20 seconds. Wakeman does not make the charge go away. It makes sure the call you are paying for is answered in your business name and turns into a job, instead of a voicemail they hang up on.

It does change the charge. Google's help page says that when callers must press a key to be routed, the 20 seconds start at the key press, and a caller who never presses one is not charged. But the people who hang up at a menu are still people with a leak who called the next plumber. You stop paying for them and you also stop getting them. A menu cuts the bill by losing the customer; answering is the only option that keeps both.

For the charge, yes. Google's help page says business hours are the hours on your Google Business Profile, and if you've set an ad schedule that differs from them, a missed call is charged only when it falls inside both. If your profile says open 24 hours, which is common for emergency plumbing and HVAC, every missed call over 20 seconds counts. Missed calls at any hour still cost you the job and can count against how responsive you look.

Every plan answers the calls your team misses at any hour, which is what this change bills for: Starter from $49 a month, Pro at $149 for most shops. Leave “Answer only while we're closed” off: with it on, calls in your open hours ring your own phone, so it won't catch the business-hours misses.

No. Your ad keeps sending calls to the number you already have. You set that phone to forward the calls nobody picks up to Wakeman, and you can switch that off from the phone itself. Wakeman answers as your business and never asks a caller to ring a different number — Google's rules forbid sending callers elsewhere to dodge a lead charge, and we would not want to anyway.

Google has replaced manual disputes with automatic lead credits in the US, plus a "Rate this lead" survey on each lead. Wakeman sorts the calls it answers — spam, wrong area, a real job — and you can download that list from your dashboard, so you know which charges to question. Any recording, transcript and call summary depend on the caller's consent. Whether Google credits one is Google's decision.

Nothing in Google's Local Services rules requires a person to answer or bans automated answering, and Google already counts calls handled by an automated system as leads. What the rules do require: the call is answered as your business, the job goes to your business and not someone else's, and nobody is told to call a different number. Wakeman answers in your business name and books or alerts your own team.

The October 1 date is for the US. At least one UK advertiser reports November 1 on the same notice. Check the date on the email in your own Local Services account.