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When I was in college I had a website that I ran google ads on. I let a balance build up over time so I could use the money to buy school books. When I attempte

by tedivm 8y ago

When I was in college I had a website that I ran google ads on. I let a balance build up over time so I could use the money to buy school books. When I attempted to cash out Google (which up until that time had no problem profiting off of my site) decided that I was part of a clickfraud ring and refused to pay out the money. There was no way to appeal. Honestly, to this day, I am still far less likely to use Google services (I won't touch Google's Cloud, for instance) because of how bad that experience was. The stress of being a college student who needed that money was definitely a multiplier, but at the end of the day I don't think it's possible to expect Google to do the right thing when it comes to customer support- especially when they can directly profit by hurting them.

staplers 8y ago
when it comes to customer support Do they have customer support? Last time I used my google account (a few years ago) to attempt to buy a Nexus, my transaction was flagged as fraud and I was locked out of my account.. I tried for a few days to find a way to contact anyone from Google.. never happened.. I eventually gave up and bought an iPhone and it was ironically the best thing that could have happened in that scenario.
- bitL 8y ago
  > Do they have customer support? Powered by Google Duplex(tm)
- paulpauper 8y ago
  if you are a big ad words spender, they have some support
  - janesvilleseo 8y ago
    They also have support for Google MyBusiness (local listing). This is their gateway to more AdWord spenders. Most noticeable because it’s the first pop up you get after you claim your listing.
  - busterarm 8y ago
    Some. It's proportional to level of effort. Good luck to you if their APIs are broken and you need engineering to fix it. Co-sponsored events (as in conferences) + AdWords 360 + Attribution 360 + high 8-digits/year spent on AdWords and another high 8 spent on YouTube isn't enough to get that sometimes.
- noitsnot 8y ago
  Sure, chat support is usually fast or you can have them call you. The cheap, outsourced labor is actually very good at English.
- markdown 8y ago
  > Do they have customer support? Their free services have no direct support channels, as expected. I wouldn't provide free support for free services either. I've received excellent support from Google for GSuite/Google Apps and Google Cloud over the years, both via chat and calls, usually out of their Ireland office. I live in Fiji and my account with them isn't worth all that much (~$100/month).
  - will4274 8y ago
    > Their free services have no direct support channels, as expected Why is this "as expected"? Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon all have direct support channels for free tier customers. They aren't as prompt, but it's only Google who doesn't have these things at all.
    - chipperyman573 8y ago
      Do they? * I don't believe Microsoft offers support for their free products to people who haven't bought an O365 licence, and instead you have to use their god-awful Microsoft Answers forum (they seem to change this up every few years though so this might not currently be the case). It's community support so if you're having an issue with your account this won't help you, but if you're confused about how to use a product Microsoft makes you might get a response. * Apple doesn't have any free products (even if you have only downloaded free apps and listen to free audiobooks, you have to run it on hardware you purchased from them). * Similarly, Amazon requires you to pay in one way or another (Buying an item, paying for prime to watch prime video, etc) to use any of their services. AFAIK AWS doesn't have free support. * Facebook has a "help center" that's marginally more useful than Microsoft's, but it has the same problem... it's all community support so nobody can "pull up" your account to fix any real issues (like being locked out).
      - code_duck 8y ago
        Apple makes some software available for other platforms without charge, such as Safari for Windows.
- mherdeg 8y ago
  > Do they have customer support? Two effective strategies I have seen are: (1) Contact a friend who works at Google and show them the comical chain of correspondence showing how your simple, silly problem got even sillier over time. Convince your friend or friends to show an interest in the problem internally. (2) Write a blog post about the problem and circulate it on social media (news.ycombinator and /r/programming front pages seem to work great).
kuschku 8y ago
Exactly the same here, I was looking forward to the day I could finally cash out and use it for stuff I needed (also a cash-stripped kid at the time), and then they decided I had committed fraud. Nowadays I’m trying to avoid using any hosted services at all due to that (and later, similar) experiences.
- paulpauper 8y ago
  are you talking about the $100 threshold?
  - kuschku 8y ago
    It was a 70€ threshold over here, but yes. I was waiting to cash out, and just days before I got a "oops it was fraud", and they decided to keep it all. It was my first negative experience with Google, and definitely not the last.
    - xur17 8y ago
      I was always extremely scared of that happening to my account. I was making fairly good money, but it was hard to trust it with all of the random shutdown stories I read about. I tried several alternatives, but none paid anywhere near as much. They effectively had a monopoly on the online advertising market.
    - scoggs 8y ago
      For lack of another comparison it reminds me of dirty cops pulling over a suspected criminal or known criminal and acting like they are doing the person a favor by taking all of their drugs, money, and loose possessions. It's a fucked up and weird world we are living in. Gotta protect what you can how you can.
    - namibj 8y ago
      Go to your local police station and file a report for criminal fraud? If the police/DA/whoever just ignores it, or measurably doesn't care what comes out of it, you should be able to start legal action against them for what basically boils down to 'too incompetent for this job', which by the way is even possible for judges, but the bar for it is high, and won't be hit unless the judge was careless in his misbehavior.
partiallypro 8y ago
This happened to me as well, virtually the same story.
checkyoursudo 8y ago
I had something similar happen. I still remember the cancellation notice. It was like, "don't bother contacting us; this decision is final." No way to see why they thought my adsense account was a risk. No evidence. Just, "thanks for the referrals, now GTFO" No way for me to even try to prove that it wasn't me doing anything. I had been spending a bit of money on AdWords for my law office website at the same time. Stopped that right away. It was my futile and meaningless attempt at retribution, of course. :)
- Radim 8y ago
  Makes your blood boil, doesn't it? The injustice just in this thread makes me gnash my teeth :-) > It was my futile and meaningless attempt at retribution, of course. :) Don't say that! Each journey starts with a single step, as frustrating and futile as it may seem. And as this thread shows, many are already marching in the same direction. When enough frozen raindrops merge, even mountains move. Anecdata: My customer experience with Google has been "OK" (a small paid G Suite account). I have no expectation of free support for their free services.
segmondy 8y ago
The truth is no one knows how much Google has stolen from customers under such excuses.
- kome 8y ago
  That's a very interesting perspective.
guardiangod 8y ago
Are you me? Same story, except that it's my users uploading questionable (not explicit) images, and I quickly restricted where the ad would show. Then suddenly I am committing fraud and bye bye account. Up to this day, I pretty much avoid all Google services except a forwarding Gmail account, Youtube, and some searches. I also continuously recommended anyone who asked my advice to avoid Google (even more than Facebook.) I've been doing this for the last 10 years already. Good riddance Google. Your Ad-Sense support was quite frankly, customer unsupport.
kbwt 8y ago
That's eerie, the same thing happened to me.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
RpFLCL 8y ago
I had the same experience, also as a college student with my personal site. I pretty much stopped using most Google services after that point (adsense, webmaster, even search thanks to ddg). It took me months to slowly watch it rise up to the $100 threshold and I was thrilled to get my first ever ad revenue check, small as it might be. Only to have it taken away after I had given them my personal information. Free ad space for Google, accusations of having a click ring for me (would have been a pretty pathetic ring if was anyway). /vent

by tedivm 8y ago

staplers 8y ago

when it comes to customer support Do they have customer support? Last time I used my google account (a few years ago) to attempt to buy a Nexus, my transaction was flagged as fraud and I was locked out of my account.. I tried for a few days to find a way to contact anyone from Google.. never happened.. I eventually gave up and bought an iPhone and it was ironically the best thing that could have happened in that scenario.

bitL 8y ago
> Do they have customer support? Powered by Google Duplex(tm)
paulpauper 8y ago
if you are a big ad words spender, they have some support
- janesvilleseo 8y ago
  They also have support for Google MyBusiness (local listing). This is their gateway to more AdWord spenders. Most noticeable because it’s the first pop up you get after you claim your listing.
- busterarm 8y ago
  Some. It's proportional to level of effort. Good luck to you if their APIs are broken and you need engineering to fix it. Co-sponsored events (as in conferences) + AdWords 360 + Attribution 360 + high 8-digits/year spent on AdWords and another high 8 spent on YouTube isn't enough to get that sometimes.
noitsnot 8y ago
Sure, chat support is usually fast or you can have them call you. The cheap, outsourced labor is actually very good at English.
markdown 8y ago
> Do they have customer support? Their free services have no direct support channels, as expected. I wouldn't provide free support for free services either. I've received excellent support from Google for GSuite/Google Apps and Google Cloud over the years, both via chat and calls, usually out of their Ireland office. I live in Fiji and my account with them isn't worth all that much (~$100/month).
- will4274 8y ago
  > Their free services have no direct support channels, as expected Why is this "as expected"? Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon all have direct support channels for free tier customers. They aren't as prompt, but it's only Google who doesn't have these things at all.
  - chipperyman573 8y ago
    Do they? * I don't believe Microsoft offers support for their free products to people who haven't bought an O365 licence, and instead you have to use their god-awful Microsoft Answers forum (they seem to change this up every few years though so this might not currently be the case). It's community support so if you're having an issue with your account this won't help you, but if you're confused about how to use a product Microsoft makes you might get a response. * Apple doesn't have any free products (even if you have only downloaded free apps and listen to free audiobooks, you have to run it on hardware you purchased from them). * Similarly, Amazon requires you to pay in one way or another (Buying an item, paying for prime to watch prime video, etc) to use any of their services. AFAIK AWS doesn't have free support. * Facebook has a "help center" that's marginally more useful than Microsoft's, but it has the same problem... it's all community support so nobody can "pull up" your account to fix any real issues (like being locked out).
    - code_duck 8y ago
      Apple makes some software available for other platforms without charge, such as Safari for Windows.
mherdeg 8y ago
> Do they have customer support? Two effective strategies I have seen are: (1) Contact a friend who works at Google and show them the comical chain of correspondence showing how your simple, silly problem got even sillier over time. Convince your friend or friends to show an interest in the problem internally. (2) Write a blog post about the problem and circulate it on social media (news.ycombinator and /r/programming front pages seem to work great).

kuschku 8y ago

Exactly the same here, I was looking forward to the day I could finally cash out and use it for stuff I needed (also a cash-stripped kid at the time), and then they decided I had committed fraud. Nowadays I’m trying to avoid using any hosted services at all due to that (and later, similar) experiences.

paulpauper 8y ago
are you talking about the $100 threshold?
- kuschku 8y ago
  It was a 70€ threshold over here, but yes. I was waiting to cash out, and just days before I got a "oops it was fraud", and they decided to keep it all. It was my first negative experience with Google, and definitely not the last.
  - xur17 8y ago
    I was always extremely scared of that happening to my account. I was making fairly good money, but it was hard to trust it with all of the random shutdown stories I read about. I tried several alternatives, but none paid anywhere near as much. They effectively had a monopoly on the online advertising market.
  - scoggs 8y ago
    For lack of another comparison it reminds me of dirty cops pulling over a suspected criminal or known criminal and acting like they are doing the person a favor by taking all of their drugs, money, and loose possessions. It's a fucked up and weird world we are living in. Gotta protect what you can how you can.
  - namibj 8y ago
    Go to your local police station and file a report for criminal fraud? If the police/DA/whoever just ignores it, or measurably doesn't care what comes out of it, you should be able to start legal action against them for what basically boils down to 'too incompetent for this job', which by the way is even possible for judges, but the bar for it is high, and won't be hit unless the judge was careless in his misbehavior.

partiallypro 8y ago

This happened to me as well, virtually the same story.

checkyoursudo 8y ago

I had something similar happen. I still remember the cancellation notice. It was like, "don't bother contacting us; this decision is final." No way to see why they thought my adsense account was a risk. No evidence. Just, "thanks for the referrals, now GTFO" No way for me to even try to prove that it wasn't me doing anything. I had been spending a bit of money on AdWords for my law office website at the same time. Stopped that right away. It was my futile and meaningless attempt at retribution, of course. :)

Radim 8y ago
Makes your blood boil, doesn't it? The injustice just in this thread makes me gnash my teeth :-) > It was my futile and meaningless attempt at retribution, of course. :) Don't say that! Each journey starts with a single step, as frustrating and futile as it may seem. And as this thread shows, many are already marching in the same direction. When enough frozen raindrops merge, even mountains move. Anecdata: My customer experience with Google has been "OK" (a small paid G Suite account). I have no expectation of free support for their free services.

segmondy 8y ago

The truth is no one knows how much Google has stolen from customers under such excuses.

kome 8y ago
That's a very interesting perspective.

guardiangod 8y ago

Are you me? Same story, except that it's my users uploading questionable (not explicit) images, and I quickly restricted where the ad would show. Then suddenly I am committing fraud and bye bye account. Up to this day, I pretty much avoid all Google services except a forwarding Gmail account, Youtube, and some searches. I also continuously recommended anyone who asked my advice to avoid Google (even more than Facebook.) I've been doing this for the last 10 years already. Good riddance Google. Your Ad-Sense support was quite frankly, customer unsupport.

kbwt 8y ago

That's eerie, the same thing happened to me.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

RpFLCL 8y ago

I had the same experience, also as a college student with my personal site. I pretty much stopped using most Google services after that point (adsense, webmaster, even search thanks to ddg). It took me months to slowly watch it rise up to the $100 threshold and I was thrilled to get my first ever ad revenue check, small as it might be. Only to have it taken away after I had given them my personal information. Free ad space for Google, accusations of having a click ring for me (would have been a pretty pathetic ring if was anyway). /vent