Email from Disgruntled AdWords Advertiser

I'll preface this post by stating that it is simply the content of an email I received from Larry Winger and I have no idea if any of it is true. I have also deleted or changed some parts of the email and links to offensive material (changes shown in square brackets). The opinions expressed below in no way represent the opinions of Kalena Jordan, Search Engine College or Web Rank.

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I’m looking for a new search engine to run ads on, because in my opinion, Google is now run by a bunch of crooks. The service is absolutely terrible, in every category. I just got off the phone with "Heather". Several times, I complained that her voice was cutting out. You would think that Google could afford better equipment for their representatives. On June 20^th, I spoke to "Heather". She didn’t give me her last name, but gave me a number to call. Like so many companies, Google uses an automated system. The recording asks for the last name of the person you’re trying to reach. If Google representatives don’t give their last names, how can anyone reach them? Is this the plan? Less work that way? Sure seems like it. The result is poor service.

I’m in finance and I work with some very wealthy clients. I don’t need bad publicity, bu my ad campain was dragged through the mud, when their affiliates tricked people into clicking on my link, by offerring loan programs that I don’t offer and my ads were even shown on [adult] sites. That’s all I need is to have one of my $40 million clients discover that I’m advertising on [adult] sites. So I complained to Google and all those links disappeared, but I kept the evidence on my computer and I can substantiate my claims, concretely. If you’re suing Google, in a class action lawsuit, I’d like to participate.

I complained to my credit card company and they reversed the charge, for one month only, but I was overcharged over a period of a few months. During that time, my bill quadrupled and I wasn’t getting any calls. That’s why I got suspicious and started checking into it. I found [adult] sites, featuring my ads, along with Countrywide, Ameriquest and others. The Ameriquest ad was adjacent to [offensive reference removed]. Imagine that! At the bottom of the page, ‘Google Search’. That proves to me that it’s a Google affliliate, not an Overture affiliate, as some Google people have claimed. I called [company reference removed] and others to inform them. Some responded by raising complaints, as I did, but the ads are still there, today. Some have been removed also, like:

[link removed]

If you click on this link, you'll find it's gone. So is this one:

[link removed]

The perpetrators have moved on, like charletons in the old west, selling snake oil, who would just set up shop in another small town. The computer programmers who fool their viewers into clicking on our ads will obtain another domain and be right back in business, tomorrow. Do you think Google is going to crack down on them if they’re making money from the fraud? Not if you know about human motivation, greed and if you ‘follow the money’.

Most small advertisers want to reach prospective customers from a small radius and for me, that circle is about 120 miles, but the IP address locates AOL customers, who live in California, with Texas or Virginia. That’s because of a rotary system. A user doesn’t know where it will appear they are located. When I used a radius, I received few clicks, so I paid extra to advertise nationally. Then my clickthrough ratio suffered. There is a lot wrong with the Google system and it’s not all about crooks running the ‘medicine show’. Some of it is incompetence and normal ‘growing pains’.

When you’re given a phone number by a Google representative and the options given don’t allow you to reach the rep, something’s wrong. When I complained, the Google rep who heard my complaint said he’d do something about it. I asked if I can have Heather’s last name and he refused. He said that nobody gives their last name. I asked, ‘Then why does the telephone message ask the caller to punch in the first letters of the last name? Are you aware of that?

I asked Heather if she ever thought of calling herself and going through the system she put me and her other customers through. She hasn’t. She added that she hasn’t had any complaints. I said, ‘No wonder! Your customers can’t reach you. Did you ever wonder why no one calls you back?’

So, with my ads rewritten and my good name dragged through the mud with association with porno sites and no way to complain to Google that results in anything, but an autosponder, I went to my credit card company and made my complaint there. [Company reference removed] was truly American and they expressed my ire with a chargeback. Ah hah! The good guys won, right? No. Google promptly cancelled my ads! They give me bad service and if I don’t like it, they simply cancel my account and cut me off from the world of search engine advertising. This kind of power reminds me of the days when Bill Gates controlled the world and if you said anything publically about him, he could crush you and your entire company would suffer the consequences.

The people at Google don’t care about their customers, in my opinion. If they did, they’d be more responsive to legitimate complaints about their systems. It used to be a great company, but I’m predicting that there will be a sharp decline in the stock’s value.

Join me in a class action lawsuit against them!

Larry Wingo of Torrance, California

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Have any other readers had similar problems with their AdWords campaigns? I personally haven't, but then again, I target a very specific market. Advertisers also have the ability to exclude particular sites from displaying your ads, although this is difficult to control on a large scale. Anyone else had issues?