To my shock I opened my credit card statement today to find the charge from Google Adwords
I couln't believe it, I had not advertised with Google Adwords in over 12 months, probably more like 12 months. I paused my account, because I felt I was the victim of fraud.
Well, today, I was charged for advertising by Google Adwords Advertising which I never authorized. Somehow my account with Google had been reactivated, and clicks had started to accrue. I am not talking a million dollars but several hundred dollars.
Google Adwords responded quickly when I complained, but the response was a joke. Google said that I only cancelled the account today, what are you complaining about. Their customer service representative was very rude - which is typical of these big internet companies like Google - they make it impossible to call them. They say they are all about "No evil" - well it should be no customer service.
Of course I cancelled the Google Adwords today, did they think I was going to leave it running forever - they would love that so they could continue to bill me without my knowledge.
It did not occur to them to look at the last 18 months and just see how many charges they had sent me, which was Nil.
So if you have a Google Adwords account that you have placed on hold, make sure that they haven't reactivated it.
If this is some sort of programming error from supposedly the kings of programming. Then what else can you trust them with? I read a report, where Google claims they only had a 0.02% fraud rate. Can you believe that!
Click fraud on Google Adwords is a huge problem - so is their 'secret' organic search algorithm. I hear they plan on making all the search results paid so they can make more money. Most of their non-Google Adwords initiatives have been a total failure, so they have to get growth from somewhere.
After today, I cannot believe anything Google says!
Even if I was so stupid as to leave the account active and ads running then how can they explain not sending me a single bill in the last 18 months.
And I know I'm not that stupid.
If you know anybody that has a Google Adwords account. That may be deactivated and therefore they are not expecting bills. Tell them to check that account, because they might be surprised to find it's been reactivated, probably in an attempt to boost their quarterly numbers.
Jim
Miami, Florida
U.S.A.