Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Make Frontpage of Slashdot, Reddit, Hacker News == Google Disables AdSense

hizook.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 164 posts

Re: Make Frontpage of Slashdot, Reddit, Hacker News == Google Disables AdSense

#91

Post by qeorge »

MattCutts wrote: post #42
patio11 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As happy as I am that you're Google's unofficial ombudsman, Matt, you're a big billion dollar company who many of us are intensely reliant on for our businesses. There needs to be a support channel other than "make a PR issue for Google and Matt Cutts will swoop by to save the day". I had a big issue with AdWords earlier this month. Google made it all but impossible for me to reach anyone about it. Earlier this year,…

There is a support channel for appeals, and it sounds like hizook.com submitted an appeal via that channel earlier this week. My guess is that the Google team is already looking into it; I just wanted to let people know that I'd ask the relevant team from my side as well. Given the hundreds of millions of users, tens of millions of webmasters, and many advertisers and publishers that Google interacts with, it would b…

I'm so tired of big companies pointing to their huge userbase as a reason for bad customer support. I've heard it from Google, Skype, and HostGator.

I've also specifically tried to contact AdSense via the contact form, email, and the forum about a missing payment. Never heard a peep back, so I stopped running AdSense.

I'm happy to read the FAQs, search a knowledgebase, and communicate via email or a ticket system, because I know its not feasible to talk to all customers on the phone. But you can't just leave people in the lurch when you want to be their business partner.

Successful companies see customer service as an opportunity to right a wrong and impress their customers, not as a nuisance.

Re: Make Frontpage of Slashdot, Reddit, Hacker News == Google Disables AdSense

#92

Post by jhancock »

lucifer wrote: post #71
shiranaihito wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd wager that he's offering to help not because Google is such a friendly and benevolent business entity, but because it's in the spirit of Hacker News (and ultimately, in Google's best interest to do so). The credibility of Don't Be Evil is taking a lot of hits these days. Some of us were never really convinced.

I fail to see how this is "evil". The evil one worries about in context of a company like Google is information privacy.

Google and PayPal both fall into the category of not putting enough profits into customer support.

This is what most fear from market consolidation and extremely large companies. They squeeze more profits from doing things that a company without monopoly-like characteristics could not get away with. To me, when you cross this line, you have become evil.

fyi, I spent more than 2 hours last night getting my PayPal personal account unlocked. It was an awful web and phone customer support and terrible security practices.

Re: Make Frontpage of Slashdot, Reddit, Hacker News == Google Disables AdSense

#93

Post by MattCutts »

drp wrote: post #72
pg wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Though it may not be a complete answer, it is encouraging that people from Google will reply on public forums. You'd never see an Apple employee posting on a thread about someone whose iPhone app had been sitting in the pipeline for months, or a Paypal employee posting on a thread about someone whose account had been summarily frozen.

I'm not saying the poster is necessarily faking, but how should we know that someone who chose the name MattCutts is the Matt Cutts he claims to be? Do we assume he's not an impersonator because we like his answer? This comment is the very first activity on that account.

I like the way you think! I tweeted to you to prove this account is really me: http://twitter.com/mattcutts/status/3603379916

Re: Make Frontpage of Slashdot, Reddit, Hacker News == Google Disables AdSense

#94

Post by MattCutts »

calambrac wrote: post #70
MattCutts wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a support channel for appeals, and it sounds like hizook.com submitted an appeal via that channel earlier this week. My guess is that the Google team is already looking into it; I just wanted to let people know that I'd ask the relevant team from my side as well. Given the hundreds of millions of users, tens of millions of webmasters, and many advertisers and publishers that Google interacts with, it would b…

A part of that frustration has to be from that email that gets sent out. I haven't been on the receiving end, but I've read it in a couple of blog posts about this sort of thing, and honestly: that letter is awful. It contains exactly one piece of "useful" information, the link to the disabled account FAQ. The rest is just simply terrible. It starts with a very serious accusation, intoning "significant risk" and "fin…

calambrac, I personally agree with you about the wording/tone of the current letter. I would like them to take a look at changing that, although no one will ever be delighted to get that letter.

Re: Make Frontpage of Slashdot, Reddit, Hacker News == Google Disables AdSense

#95

Post by youngian »

dcurtis wrote: post #81
pg wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Though it may not be a complete answer, it is encouraging that people from Google will reply on public forums. You'd never see an Apple employee posting on a thread about someone whose iPhone app had been sitting in the pipeline for months, or a Paypal employee posting on a thread about someone whose account had been summarily frozen.

The difference is that Apple is just being Apple while they try to figure out how to handle the App Store. I'm not saying it is right, but there's a certain intelligence and style behind the way Apple ignores people. Google, on the other hand, is just incompetent. (And PayPal is, too, but they seem to be slowly learning.)

I disagree. Google is just being Google. They've always been a company that does very cool (and non-evil) projects, but doesn't really bend over backwards to listen to customers. I always get the impression that they're too busy working on their latest game-changing scheme to be bothered with little details like keeping customers happy.

Re: Make Frontpage of Slashdot, Reddit, Hacker News == Google Disables AdSense

#97

Post by gcheong »

pg wrote: post #40
patio11 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As happy as I am that you're Google's unofficial ombudsman, Matt, you're a big billion dollar company who many of us are intensely reliant on for our businesses. There needs to be a support channel other than "make a PR issue for Google and Matt Cutts will swoop by to save the day". I had a big issue with AdWords earlier this month. Google made it all but impossible for me to reach anyone about it. Earlier this year,…

Though it may not be a complete answer, it is encouraging that people from Google will reply on public forums. You'd never see an Apple employee posting on a thread about someone whose iPhone app had been sitting in the pipeline for months, or a Paypal employee posting on a thread about someone whose account had been summarily frozen.

"You'd never see an Apple employee posting on a thread about someone whose iPhone app had been sitting in the pipeline for months"

No, but you might get a call from Phil Schiller.

Re: Make Frontpage of Slashdot, Reddit, Hacker News == Google Disables AdSense

#98

Post by youngian »

trezor wrote: post #55
MattCutts wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a support channel for appeals, and it sounds like hizook.com submitted an appeal via that channel earlier this week. My guess is that the Google team is already looking into it; I just wanted to let people know that I'd ask the relevant team from my side as well. Given the hundreds of millions of users, tens of millions of webmasters, and many advertisers and publishers that Google interacts with, it would b…

Given the hundreds of millions of users, tens of millions of webmasters, and many advertisers and publishers that Google interacts with, it would be difficult to have one-on-one conversations with all of them even if everyone at Google did nothing but try to provide that support. Not saying it is easy or free to get there, but the same arguments can mostly be said for Microsoft and they seem to be doing pretty OK. I'…

Your last sentence is dead-on. Microsoft ascribes to the traditional enterprise-y business model. The products work okay but often need support, and if you pay enough you get great support (and if you don't pay enough you get passable support). This has made them (and many other companies) a ton of money, but Google is absolutely killing all competition by following a very different path. It's hard to say how much of Google's success is due to their aversion to acting like a regular enterprise company, but I think it's safe to say they won't be drastically changing tack any time soon. The stories like this of people getting screwed are unfortunate - it's collateral damage.

Re: Make Frontpage of Slashdot, Reddit, Hacker News == Google Disables AdSense

#99

Post by jhancock »

dcurtis wrote: post #80
gjm11 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you really mean that they closed your husband's account and walked away with money they owed you, then this seems like exactly what the legal system is made for. (Though I'd expect them to settle rather than actually go to court, unless they think you're lying outright.)

If your customers have to invoke the "legal system" to get around your incompetence, you've failed in every way that matters.

unfortunately, I do not see this as incompetence. Google has made a choice to not put "enough" of their profits in customer service.

Re: Make Frontpage of Slashdot, Reddit, Hacker News == Google Disables AdSense

#100

Post by MattCutts »

patio11 wrote: post #44
MattCutts wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a support channel for appeals, and it sounds like hizook.com submitted an appeal via that channel earlier this week. My guess is that the Google team is already looking into it; I just wanted to let people know that I'd ask the relevant team from my side as well. Given the hundreds of millions of users, tens of millions of webmasters, and many advertisers and publishers that Google interacts with, it would b…

http://www.kalzumeus.com/2009/08/01/my-adwords-are-turned-of... Here's the short version of my recent experience: Half of my business comes from AdWords and I'm pretty happy with it. Actually, you could go substantially farther than that: I'm literally a case study for it, recommend it any chance I get, and despite what I'm about to tell you continue to recommend it. One day, for no reason I could be certain of, AdWo…

I'm glad that the ads are running again. Reading through your blog post, it seems entirely possible that the @welcome variable not being defined could cause an issue with conversion tracking (although I don't have any first-hand knowledge). I wonder if the AdWords rep worked to make sure that the issue got escalated/resolved, but was working under the impression that you didn't need to be contacted back afterwards?
Post reply on HN