Very Important...Possible Credits for all the inconvenience

[bostonseo]

So I just tried to login today (8/24/05) 3 full days after the 'system enhancements' and cannot. I asked my account manager what, if any, compensation for these ongoing service interruptions is being considered and the good news is that it is being discussed at Yahoo. They are actually considering acknowledging fault and recognizing how much of our time has been wasted this week; not to mention all the previous system problems we all have to deal with but are never publicly recognized.

<snip>

[edited by: werty at 1:57 pm (utc) on Aug. 24, 2005]
[edit reason] Please see TOS #26 - No calls to action. [/edit]

[eyeinthesky]

Thanks, bostonseo. This has got to be the best piece of news all week :)

[bostonseo]

Well I wouldn't count on it yet as a done deal. <snip> Like I said they are 'discussing it' I was told. But they've discussed credits for things like this previously and never issued them. <snip>

[edited by: werty at 6:25 pm (utc) on Aug. 24, 2005]
[edit reason] Please see TOS #26 - No calls to action. [/edit]

[gdawg]

The DTC down again, what a surprise. I will have to say that this is getting old and I am considering moving my budgets from Yahoo to Google because of this. Apparently no third party application that use the API are functioning right now either.

[eWhisper]

API reports and access have been failing for a few days now.

Not sure what they're doing, but lack of both API and DTC access is causing a lot of problems.

With the AdWords changes, if this system had been running well this week they probably would have seen a revenue increase, guess they're missing this opportunity.

[bostonseo]

Yeah it's totally ironic that Adwords makes a change very few like and probably shift a lof money to Overture. Overture like
the incompetent fools they are cannot capitalize because once again their system is completely down.

Right now there is no real good option for where to spend your $$$. Pretty funny in a way.

[Elric99]

Let's hope MSN come up with a viable alternative. ;-)

[bostonseo]

The reality is that it is acceptable to have infrequent system downtime. Yahoo is so far beyond acceptable though; and they are so smug and try to cover everything up. That's what agitates me so much about them.

[sem4u]

I doubt you will see any compenstation.

I still can't log in, but at least it is the same for all of us.

[growingdigital]

I'm absolutely furious about this. I hope that Yahoo Search Marketing executives are cracking the whip on this team. After all, it's ultimately their responsibility.

[tsinoy]

I wouldn't hold my breath regarding the compensation.. ;)

[take42]

Presentation is everything. DTC's overly long downtime is completely unacceptable. The types of people who use Yahoo's Search Marketing can make or break Yahoo. When I give seminars about Web site marketing or when I consult with clients about the various offerings for online advertising, I cannot honestly praise Yahoo or pretend like it's a good route to go. Like they say, for every person who complains, there's another 30 potential customers who will hear the bad news and steer clear.

Today, Overture abnormally double charged my account about 1 hour apart for the ad budget and I cannot even login to see why. Normally, I am charged once a week as planned and I'd like to know what is going on.

This is deviousness or serious incompetency. Either way it stinks.

[growingdigital]

The only way that YSM could compensate it's advertisers is by crediting us with 2 full days of spend (possibly more depending on the total amount of downtime). Anything short of that would be a complete injustice to their advertisers.

Regardless of the credit, more of my ad dollars are going to Google from this point going forward.

[bostonseo]

Well we know they're not going to credit anywhere near a day or two spend. If there is anything offered it will be a flat amount regardless of your spend. The last time I remember then issuing a credit to all advertisers was July 2003...remember that hell? I think I remember the amount all advertiser getting was like $100.

Again I'm just stating I complained and asked if they are discussing a possible form of compensation and my account manager said that it is being discussed amongst management. <snip>

[edited by: werty at 6:29 pm (utc) on Aug. 24, 2005]
[edit reason] Please see TOS #26 - No calls to action. [/edit]

[growingdigital]

I think I remember the amount all advertiser getting was like $100.

I'm losing about a $100/hr right now. $100 total compensation would be a slap in the face for someone who spends thousands of dollars a day with them.

[gdawg]

Finally, it looks like it is backup.

[bostonseo]

Yeah but it's so slow, it might as well still be down.

[StupidScript]

Earlier today I timed out trying to connect to the account management interface. Now I'm getting "Document contains no data" ... so there's some movement, if backwards.

Man ... I don't even change an include file on a stupid website without making sure it won't disrupt anything when implemented.

Don't they have a development environment or something, or does everything go live as soon as it's out of alpha?

<edit>
Oops ... hey! Logged in and getting reports. I guess they _do_ know what they're doing!
</edit>

[beren]

I don't want a credit for the inconvenience.

But I do want Yahoo to bill me for what I bid for the words. Last Friday I reduced my bids more than 50%, and stayed at that level all weekend and Monday and Tuesday. This morning, my bid was back up high - Yahoo appeared to have reverted to the system state as of late last week.

I couldn't log in to lower my bid to where it had been. I just don't want to pay the high cost. As long as they charge my account for the lower cost per click, everything will be OK.

[bostonseo]

Just spoke with another supervisor who informed that they will have the ability to issues credits for various scenarios.

1) If you were on a daily budget and went over you won't have to pay for the extra clicks.

2) Sounds like they may be flexible if you had a scenario where the clicks from today were at a higher CPC price than normal, but since you cannot go in and make adjustments...they will have some flexibility to apply a month to date average CPC on certain keywords versus just forcing you to pay whatever the rate was today. This is of course very vague.

But the bottom line again is that you need to make a case for credits and you will find some form of compensation.

[Tropical Island]

...daily budget and went over you won't have to pay for the extra clicks.

Let me see if I understand this.

If they overcharged you by exceeding your daily budget they will refund the difference.

This is a concession?

Wouldn't they automatically have to do that anyway?

They really kill me!

[Xeal_PM]

Its still down for me. In the off chance I DO get in, it goes so slow that I can't do anything anyway.

[Paul_N]

This is unbelievable. For a mainstream online advertising service and company like Yahoo to provide this kind of catastrophic system. It's been only just bearable at the best of times, but after this 'update', when I did manage to get in, it tool me 5 minutes to make a change to one ad!

It's times like these you realize what's holding you back from investing more in Overture. Still can't access my account, and it's been over 24 hours now.

Can you imagine Google Adwords having this problem? I can honestly believe they would never in a million years. They've had a little slowdown recently, but we're talking a few seconds, not total blackout.

Overture could do with investing some of their cash in getting some real programmers in.

[take42]

I can confirm that my current daily spending is about 40% higher than my daily budget. I contacted them yesterday but have not yet heard their answer to my "What is going on?!" question.

[adamxcl]

It's amazing they do this right after a high profile event like San Jose SES. I guess there's always something going on in the world, but you would think they get a huge boost of business after such event and this will just kill any of those benefits. This is bad service for a mom and pop but a supposed big company like this? That makes it more unbelievable.

[eyeinthesky]

Finally got an email from them. Yes, they apologized for the error on the 22 Aug and will be crediting my account in 2-3 days (for the the click over-charge).

Give them some credit, at least they took responsiblity for it :)

[briggidere]

give credit where credit is due, yes.
But in their case accepting responsibility is not when you give them credit.

[OvertureRep]

All,

I know you are aware of our recent systems upgrade last weekend and that you’ve had difficulty accessing/managing your accounts as a result. On behalf of Yahoo!, I apologize for the inconvenience and obvious frustrations (noted in this thread). Ted Meisel, president of Yahoo! Search Marketing, sent an update email to all of our advertisers today but I felt it was also a good idea to post some excerpts here to make sure the information is shared as quickly as possible.

Here is the update:
•Per my last post, Yahoo! Search Marketing is undertaking a series of updates to get more performance from its current systems, as well as a comprehensive technology upgrade that will make it easier for us to roll out and scale new features globally.

•Last weekend, the core databases that process and store listings were upgraded. It was a complex, broad effort to lay the groundwork for performance and availability improvements that you will see over the coming months. We encountered some challenges that made it difficult for advertisers to access accounts and manage listings, and bids.

•The good news is, we’re now beginning to see some of the intended benefits that will ultimately enhance the performance of our systems.

•The majority of the issues have been resolved and core service has been restored. We are hopeful that any additional service interruptions will be minor as we continue to fine-tune our systems.

We absolutely understand that any system downtime creates difficulties for you and we want to hear from you. YSM has set up [e-mail] for this reason. I encourage you to use it. Your message will be read.

Feel free to reach out to your rep with any direct questions and if you aren’t sure who to contact, you can always send me a private email for help. Thank you again for your patience and understanding.

YahooSarah

[bostonseo]

Anyone get this email? I have about 5 accounts and have not received this email.

[Tropical Island]

I have 5 accounts and I received it on one.