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A Google Adwords Bug That Cost Us

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Re: A Google Adwords Bug That Cost Us

#41

Post by jobu »

annnnd wrote: post #36
ksk wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course, Google should refund the money. But the support team didn't cause the mistake. My comment was to understand why the poster felt the support was inadequate.

Agreed. Also, explicitly asking for a refund might yield some results in this regard.

Google fucked up, and it took them days to resolve the issue. Decent customer service would offer a refund and possibly even a credit on top of that (without asking).

In my experience, Google support tends to have "the customer is always wrong" mindset.

Re: A Google Adwords Bug That Cost Us

#42

Post by wahsd »

This is interesting because it touches on a larger topic, what I call the Google bias. It is the bias that assumes that the search results from Google are the correct and most relevant results, when, in fact, they are simply the results that are the ones Google wishes / can output.

When I do a search for topics or resources that I come across on here on HN or Reddit or other sources that are extremely valuable and informative and useful, there is almost no chance that you can find those resources simply by doing a google search. That's only a small, anecdotal example, but it indicates a larger issue to me; like the top couple snowflakes that are sitting on top of the tip of the iceberg.

Re: A Google Adwords Bug That Cost Us

#43

Post by dmix »

rcarrigan87 wrote: post #9

When I saw the title my initial thought was, "here we go, another person complaining about Adwords who probably just doesn't have the time to fully understand the intricacies of the platform." But this was a legit bug! Google made a clear mistake. I didn't see it in the post, but did you ever explicitly ask for a refund? If it were me I would certainly be demanding my money back for any clicks associated with the bug…

The forwarding number was wrong but the Austin, Texas part was never proven though right? Was he using a Texas IP/VPN/fresh browser when searching results for it?

Re: A Google Adwords Bug That Cost Us

#44

Post by rcarrigan87 »

dmix wrote: post #43
rcarrigan87 wrote: post #9

When I saw the title my initial thought was, "here we go, another person complaining about Adwords who probably just doesn't have the time to fully understand the intricacies of the platform." But this was a legit bug! Google made a clear mistake. I didn't see it in the post, but did you ever explicitly ask for a refund? If it were me I would certainly be demanding my money back for any clicks associated with the bug…

The forwarding number was wrong but the Austin, Texas part was never proven though right? Was he using a Texas IP/VPN/fresh browser when searching results for it?

A good way to check is using the "Ad preview and diagnosis" tool in Adwords. You can set the location and see if your ad comes up. It's also a good way to look at raw search results (before google factors in your personal browsing history to serve up customized results).

Location targetting is a little trickier than just setting geotargetting in Adwords. The targetting issues could be Google or could be their account setup. Hard to say without review. Considering there was definitely a bug with the phone number, they should have Google review their account fully.

Re: A Google Adwords Bug That Cost Us

#45

Post by hellbreakslose »

golergka wrote: post #10

It really bothers me, how bad the Google's support is, especially for the products that make them money. It's common knowledge that they can close your advertiser's profile, lock the money and you won't be able to reach them about it. But at the same time, nobody is making a lot of noise about it, although it is a multi-billion dollar company and it is the product that they make most of their money from. Most of B2B…

A company with that size won't be able to having support that can actually assist you without going back to the technical team. You have to think of that... its not just press 1 button finished...

Re: A Google Adwords Bug That Cost Us

#46

Post by IanDrake »

Hello from Google's automated help system. I see you mentioned the word "refund" in your long winded email which would have fully explained your situation to a human.

You can apply for a refund here: https://support.google.com/adwords/refund/procedures

Was this response helpful?

Yes: https://support.google.com/adwords/Yes

No: https://support.google.com/adwords/FuckOff

Re: A Google Adwords Bug That Cost Us

#47

Post by newman8r »

They have always been pretty good about refunding me when directly requested and presented with evidence. I think you need to directly ask for a refund, but since this situation is public now it might not be as simple.

Re: A Google Adwords Bug That Cost Us

#48

Post by virtue3 »

silverbax88 wrote: post #39
easytiger wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess they don't want to open the floodgates to all the support queries they would get. But it is most frustrating as if one is dealing with the "computer says no" travel agent from Little Britain.

This has always bothered me. People always say that Twitter and Google can't offer real support because they would be able to handle the number of incoming requests. But that's exactly what companies like Amazon and Wal-Mart do every day. For crying out loud, even Comcast (COMCAST!) has better support than Google or Twitter for their paid products.

Amazon is pretty top tier. Just being able to email jeff@amazon.com about an issue is huge (and I've seen people recount what happens when they get the forwarded "?" email).

Also they will correct any mix up almost immediately and will almost always credit you when you ask (or at least throw in another free month of prime).

Re: A Google Adwords Bug That Cost Us

#49

Post by Silhouette »

simonbarker87 wrote: post #35
coliveira wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google adwords is not for small advertisers. Period. It may work fine if you spend millions of dollars or if you have so much time and experience in your hands that losing money is not a problem, but it doesn't work for the general population.

We find Google adwords an invaluable way of backing up our TV ad campaigns and we are a fairly small start up. I've spoken to a number of Google reps and they were all really bothered about making sure that as a small business we were able to get up and running quickly because they "know we don't have a big ad department" - so from my experience, Google absolutely wants small businesses using them. Thinking about it,…

We find Google adwords an invaluable way of backing up our TV ad campaigns and we are a fairly small start up.

I think if you're running TV ads, it's a given that you aren't a small advertiser in the sense that 'coliveira probably meant.

Re: A Google Adwords Bug That Cost Us

#50

Post by Rudism »

jobu wrote: post #41
annnnd wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Also, explicitly asking for a refund might yield some results in this regard.

Google fucked up, and it took them days to resolve the issue. Decent customer service would offer a refund and possibly even a credit on top of that (without asking). In my experience, Google support tends to have "the customer is always wrong" mindset.

It probably depends on how much money you're spending whether you'll get a dedicated rep who can initiate refunds without you explicitly hunting them down. $300/day is not even a spec of dust floating in a drop in the bucket to them.

A couple years ago when I was working for an advertising company that was spending several tens of thousands of dollars per day, we were offered large (hundreds of thousands of dollars) refunds on several occasions, including some where the screw-up was our own fault.

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