Emily... that scares me too!
After a week or 2 of being logged in unable to reply to reviews & seeing the "Are you the owner? Manage this page" button (once clicked took me from the new Local Pages+ Page to the old places manager) the blue "Verify" box finally popped up on my existing G+ business page - all on the info was the same as the old places page and all under the same manager's log-in. After I requested the code, got the card in the mail for my g+ biz page and verified it- the next day my old places/new Local page merged into the existing g+ page. I lost the photos & videos from the places page (easy fix); I also lost all of my responses to reviews (not so easy of a fix); but we only lost 1 review & it was from a non-active account.
I hope you find a pain-less fix!
Reading through this, I'm wondering if it is worth it? Don't we have enough review sites? At a big store, this, like most social media, should be handled by a customer relations person. Google just isn't ready for prime time.
I'm with you there! It took 3 weeks from when Google told me to delete the account until I got the nerve to do it. But, my Places page had already merged with my Local page. Both logins took me to the same place within Google...So, I was slightly comforted by that.