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$11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

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121–130 of 137 posts

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

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 pro…

Apple makes some software available for other platforms without charge, such as Safari for Windows.

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#122
post #39

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 s…

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

That's a very interesting perspective.

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

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 pro…

> I don't believe Microsoft offers support for their free products to people who haven't bought an O365 licence

Over a year ago I had a couple of polite email exchanges with MS support about a family member's free OneDrive account, using the email address they put front and center.

(They were courteous but did not budge on MS unilaterally curtailing the 15 GB offer used to sell phones to consumers a few months prior.)

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#124
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well whoever filed this lawsuit seems to have succeeded.

Plaintiffs were represented by Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, a Limited Liability Presidium.

> ... a Limited Liability Presidium.

Shouldn't that have been Limited Liability Partnership? Autocomplete fail?

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#125
post #48

This one still stings, even though it was years ago. I built and ran a mobile sports news application, we amassed millions of users and were written up in several publications. One day our AdSense account was disabled, no warning, no nothing. We had never resorted to a single 'trick' or 'hack'. Nobody at Google could even tell us what exactly we were supposedly accused of. After months of escalation, the final word w…

I was once banned from a large company's (not Google's) ad program for alleged click fraud and was told there was no appeal process and that they would not be providing additional information. After demanding proof, I was told that they would not provide it due to trade secrets. However, I didn't give up. I was eventually able to convince them to give me proof by being extremely annoying and repeatedly e-mailing the…

Can you go into more detail about the proof or technique they thought you were using?

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#126
post #67

I had an adsense account to profit from an IP address i randomly purchased from an ISP, which was formerly apparently a somewhat popular porn site. Racked up about $950 in a month, then they turned me off, something about violating terms etc etc. It was a glorified 404 page with a google search widget & adsense ads on it.

Putting Adsense ads on pages without content is an obvious violation of the ToS.

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#127
post #124
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plaintiffs were represented by Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, a Limited Liability Presidium.

> ... a Limited Liability Presidium. Shouldn't that have been Limited Liability Partnership? Autocomplete fail?

No.

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 scen…

> 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).

I thought that Google took a cut from every AdWords transaction - in which case the service is definitely not free. Is this not the case?

Edit: applies even if you're referring to the Nexus purchase.

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#130
post #39

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 s…

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

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