Adwords Phone Support Down?

[SuperF]

We tried to phone them first thing Monday morning, to complain about the stats outage over weekend, and after being on hold for 90 minutes, we quit without getting to speak to anyone.

So we decide to put it off until later. At 2.15pm Pacific we go through the automated menu system again, and after entering our Client ID it goes to, wait for it.....

... A FAX MACHINE.

A new low for Google customer service.

[mortgagemax]

I am sure they are closed due to the Presidents Day ---- I am going do my best not to mention that Google's customer support hours are pathetic and an insult to their advertisers. I also won't mention that they have $13,000,000,000 of cash on their balance sheet to pay for weekend support.

[bcc1234]

mortgagemax, it wouldn't matter if they don't also make the "specialists" take on issues during weekends.

The phone support staff's only two jobs are:

1) convincing you that everything is fine and getting you off the line
2) if #1 is not possible, escalating the issue to the "specialist"

So why would you want someone convincing you that going from 1000 clicks per day down to 3 clicks per day is "totally normal, just a fluctuation", and maybe you just need to "add more keywords and write better creatives", or "wait a week" just in case -- all that during a weekend?

Don't you get enough of that during the work week? :)

[SuperF]

Aaaah, Presidents Day (I wouldn't have known, I don't live in the USA, but my business is there).

So the greatest technology company on the Planet can't leave a message saying "Sorry we are closed, call back tomorrow"?.

Why do Google change things on long weekends? Perhaps they don't appreciate that the end users might have problems with whatever has changed, and will have to suffer three days of not getting any help instead of two.

[avalon37]

The only communications Google is good at are the numerous retread PR releases they constantly do on the same product or upgrade. I mean seriously they same the same thing every 3 months just to sound "fresh" and "new" and keep stockholders excited. Their support hours are awful. They are not even extended on the biggest cyber day of the year Black Friday. In fact when I called on Black Friday the representative I spoke with had never heard of Black Friday - that was inexcusable. Google doesn't care; it's all about the botton line and customer service does not make them one cent...in fact not having adequate phone supports hours makes them millions.

[netmeg]

AWA, I think this counts as feedback to take back to the troops...

[AdWordsAdvisor]

AWA, I think this counts as feedback to take back to the troops...

Agreed - and already done, actually. ;)

To be more specific, the Advertiser Feedback Report that I send out each week has traditionally been more focused on product than on support issues.

That said, several weeks ago I started a whole new section in the report to focus just on support, and am including compelling quotes from this forum and others.

Along those lines the quotes from this thread as of Feb 16th had already included - and I'll include the rest (and/or link to the entire thread) before the report goes out late on Thursday evening.

So, bottom line, it will be done. :)

AWA

[SuperF]

Thanks AWA, appreciate it.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Thanks AWA, appreciate it.

A pleasure.

Everything posted here so far is now included - and I'll check back at least once before the report goes out - in about 4 to 5 hours from now.

In addition, I've sent the link to this thread (and the other one on support experience, as well) to a number of interested colleagues.

AWA

[shorebreak]

AWA, why don't you put this thread up in the lobby of Bldg 40/41/42 at the 'Plex in place of the scrolling real-time search query video? That would definitely get people's attention.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Long day, and kind of tired. But that still got me to chuckle out loud, shorebreak. ;)

Though after a few years I think that Googlers get "scrolling real-time search query blindness." Heheh.

AWA