Anyone here deal with Google AdWords?

[seafoamgreen]

I figure we're a young, hip, professional message board of tech savvy individuals. Someone else here certainly used Google AdWords for work or their own stuff. So anyway, probably just venting here, but thought I'd throw it out there.

I ran a campaign last month on Google TV Ads. It's like Google AdWords for television commercials. Some differences, but the interface is very similar. Basically what happened is that I spent the entire month of July managing this campaign (which had a $2000 budget), adjusting the budget and bids on a daily basis to make sure that we didn't overspend. The cost column's total changed daily and I would change my bids accordingly- always adjusting the daily budget to be $2000 minus whatever it was saying we had already spent.

Google TV Ads billable impressions counts change every day because it takes 4 days to get all the data in, so I was meticulous about checking every day. At one point, after our costs hit $1900, I paused the campaign and figured we had gotten close enough. I logged in a few days later to check the adjustments and the total had dropped to under $500. I contacted our rep and he said he'd look into it (he's an utter douche, BTW).

The next day, I woke up to an email from Google saying they had tried to charge the card attached to the account for $5200 worth of impressions. I freaked out and called our rep, who was nice enough to agree to help "even though it didn't affect his metrics." He called back a few hours later and said, "Yeah, I talked to tech and they said it was a known technical issue on our end. For some reason, it was switching the Costs column totals with the Overdelivery column totals. It affected about 1000 customers and they said it was like $500k worth of backbilling they had to do. Should be all fixed now so that billing amount is accurate."

I almost pulled a Mattress King on that guy right then. He argued with me for a while about how I should have known better even though the data they were supplying me with was inaccurate. Every day I was adjusting my budget, I was basing it on the Costs column and, unbeknownst to me, Google was erroneously shifting stuff to the Overdelivery column (that clearly states is unbillable). So I was working for an entire month on inaccurate data due to a technical glitch on their end and now they've fixed it and are trying to bill be for 10X what my account told me was billable by the end.

So I've talked to another person at Google who basically said the same thing, ("The billing is accurate. Pay up.") and I'm beginning to feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone. No real person in the real world I've talked to has said, "Well they can't be expected to pay that difference either." Everyone has been shocked that I'm being asked to make up the difference. I feel like I'm in the fucking Twilight Zone.

My question for you guys is, do you have a contact at Google that would listen to reason? Has anyone had a positive realtime experience with a Google rep, account manager or support person with whom I can be put in touch? My next step is to bring in a lawyer (who said we absolutely have a case) and I can't even get a direct line for anyone but my rep. The place is like Willy Wonka's factory or something. If anyone knows a friendly ear there, please let me know.

[bengalimenace]

My friend Jason used to work for legal at Google until all he ever had to deal with was shit like this and told them to fuck off. He says:

"With a company as big as Google, skip all the bullshit and go straight to filing suit. You win. They get some fun time with the SEC. Simple as that. DON'T settle out of court. Nothing makes the news that way."

[seafoamgreen]

My friend Jason used to work for legal at Google until all he ever had to deal with was shit like this and told them to fuck off. He says:

"With a company as big as Google, skip all the bullshit and go straight to filing suit. You win. They get some fun time with the SEC. Simple as that. DON'T settle out of court. Nothing makes the news that way."

Great advice! Too bad I don't know how to file suit against a company that won't even give me a direct line to someone other than my sales rep. Risky hiring a lawyer knowing you may be stuck paying him as well.

These two articles gave me pause:

Why I Sued Google (and Won)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aaron-greenspan/why-i-sued-google-and-won_b_172403.html

Why Google Bothered to Appeal a $761 Small Claims Case (And Won)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aaron-greenspan/why-google-bothered-to-ap_b_213176.html

Fascinating reads for anyone who thinks that faceless companies are taking over the planet.

[seafoamgreen]

My friend Jason used to work for legal at Google until all he ever had to deal with was shit like this and told them to fuck off. He says:

"With a company as big as Google, skip all the bullshit and go straight to filing suit. You win. They get some fun time with the SEC. Simple as that. DON'T settle out of court. Nothing makes the news that way."

Great advice! Too bad I don't know how to file suit against a company that won't even give me a direct line to someone other than my sales rep. Risky hiring a lawyer knowing you may be stuck paying him as well.

These two articles gave me pause:

Why I Sued Google (and Won)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aaron-greenspan/why-i-sued-google-and-won_b_172403.html

Why Google Bothered to Appeal a $761 Small Claims Case (And Won)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aaron-greenspan/why-google-bothered-to-ap_b_213176.html

Fascinating reads for anyone who thinks that faceless companies are taking over the planet.