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2. Cancelling an account is like finding a needle in a haystick.
3. Can't pause ads.
4. Looks like a total bidding war--whoever has the most money wins, as opposed to those who work hard at figuring out the system, such as it is.
4. Last, but certainly not least--I don't like the way they just automatically charged my account when it ran out this month and made it sound like they were doing me a favor!
These are my impressions after having joined just over a week ago. I'm about to cancel as soon as I figure out which Type of Inquiry to choose in the drop-down menu in the Support Request Form which was about as obvious as a needle in a haystick. Why do I get the feeling they don't want people to easily cancel an account? And what could be the reason? Hmmmm....
I can understand your problem.
In a normal mature business sector, someone of Oveture's comptence wouldn't last a week. The reason that they do is internet history, and you just have to accept that. :)
To your points
1. Interface is too complicated and confusing.
Answer. Yes
2. Cancelling an account is like finding a needle in a haystick.
Answer. Yes.
3. Can't pause ads.
Answer. No
4. Oh don't get me started on this one.
I have my budget set to £1 per day, just to keep my account active. These are the figures for the first two days in March
Date Impressions Total Clicks Total Cost £ CPC £Conversions Conv. Rate Cost Per Conversion Current Budget Amount
Mar 01 2005 3642 77 7.70 0.10 0 0.00 0.00 1.00
Mar 02 2005 6336 187 18.70 0.10 0 0.00 0.00 1.00
I paused my account after this and sent them an email, asking for a refund, they never replied. ;)
Don't get me wrong Overture does work for certain products, you just have to know what you are doing.
Its their system that doesn't work.
dregs33
I haven't sent anything to them yet.
Why not? If your house was on fire, would you put out the fire or just go get a new house?
They are out to make money, and they are succeeding. But I don't agree with the way they are doing it. It reminds me of the description of the insane Colonel Walter Kurtz as described by General Corman in Apocalypse Now: they're ideas...methods, became... unsound.
Great news! You'll be happy to hear that your site has received a large amount of targeted clickthrough traffic from us! As a result of this traffic, your Overture account balance was low. We processed a new credit card transaction on Mar 13 2005 06:19 PT and
deposited $XX.00 to your Overture acct: XXXXXXXXXX.
The credit card transaction was successful. The details of your transaction are as follows: etc....
So my account balance was "low," and that gives them the right to steal?!
I just cancelled and reiterated my above points, via their confusing web form (note--no drop down category for cancellation, so I sent it to Billing), and demanded a refund. Good luck to me. They are not home on Sunday. I guess I'll scream at them on the phone tomorrow.
seeing how Overure functions, I don't think they really give a damn about what me or thousands of other disgruntled customers
That is completely wrong. You should have seen how bad they were a couple of years ago. Sure just about all of your comments are valid, but it used to be a lot worse.
It would be nice if they do this--I remain open-minded and I'll see how they respond tomorrow, but they are not stupid--they know they are ripping people off. They have set up their site and their system that way by design.
The fact they were once worse doesn't mean that they don't still harbor the same business attitudes as before. It just means they have adapted. Same BS, different day.
Budgeting
Minimum daily budget amount is $1.00.
Please Note: If you wish to add funds to your account, please click here. If you select one of the budgeting options below, your current payment plan will be deactivated and your credit card will be charged the amount you choose below every time your account balance is low.
What now?
It can look that way but you soon get used to it.
>2. Cancelling an account is like finding a needle in a haystick.
Just call them up.
>3. Can't pause ads.
Yes you can and I do sometimes.
>4. Looks like a total bidding war--whoever has the most money wins, as opposed to those who work hard at figuring out the system, such as it is.
Yes but that is the way it has always worked.
>4. Last, but certainly not least--I don't like the way they just automatically charged my account when it ran out this month and made it sound like they were doing me a favor!
The emails could be better worded!
BTW--they are apparently not open (on the phone) Sunday, although they managed to charge my credit card and send nonsense emails.
Go into 'manage bids', select the listings you want and click on the 'listing on/off' button; then use the drop down menu to select 'offline'. This should pause the selected ads.
They also offered me a refund, but instead I have put my acount on hold. They walked me thru the whole system, making my ad more targetted and due to the inconvenience they're giving me a free $25 worth of clicks.
So I've decide to keep my ad for now, and, at least use up my monthly budget, and then take it from there. I was impressed with their customer service -- I just wish their interface and their business model (particularly their billing system), was better. Beware of the Budget On/Budget Off button!
