Adwords and Adwords Support Complaint

8 days now and no answers

[shortbus1662]

Our TV ad was declined due to "technical guidelines" or something to that effect about two weeks ago.

When you click the diagnostic tool link to see the technical specs, a dead page comes up that says there's been a problem and they are working on it or something like that.

So we set out to figure it out ourselves. We resubmmitted, and again didn't meet technical guidelines and can't see why because the diagnostic tool isn't working.

So we submit a support request on the 11th since we couldn't see the technical guidelines page.

They answer with a link to the guidelines page that of course didn't work. Here's the message we got when we clicked the link: We're sorry, but the information you've requested cannot be found. Please try searching or browsing the AdWords Help Center for answers to your AdWords questions.

We reply and let them know they linked to a dead page.

They apologize and escalate the ticket. THAT was on the 12th.

At this point, we try another technical change in the video and resubmit. Now remember we can't get a reason for disapproval as it says there was a problem with the page or something and that it will be resolved soon.

So we include that in the next submission. They respond on the 13th with:

Our technical team has identified a technical issue
affecting a limited number of accounts that gives an error message when
viewing Ads Diagnostic Tool. Our technical team is currently working
diligently to find a resolution.

Also, regarding the approval status of your TV ads I have escalated this
issue to our specialist team and I will contact you once I have an update.

So I respond again and they never respond back. Then I respond again and on the 16th I get this the next day:

Thank you for your reply and I apologize for the inconvenience caused. I looked in your account and noticed that your ad failed because of audio loudness (technical requirement). I suggest, you make the necessary change as per our technical requirements mentioned at [adwords.google.com...]

Don't bother going there. It says this:

We're sorry, but the information you've requested cannot be found. Please try searching or browsing the AdWords Help Center for answers to your AdWords questions.

Helpful! Link me to a page that doesn't exist NOT ONCE BUT TWICE! Great support! Fantastic. Why don't you just send me to zoo and have me ask the Monkeys.

So I have the guy we hired to make the video specifically for Google TV ads included in the support emails and he gets this response from them the 19th at 4am. So not last night be the the morning before:

Thank you for your email. Please be assured we have escalated this issue and are awaiting a resolution from the specialist team and will get back to you as soon as we hear from them. I appreciate your patience with this issue.

So the links they put in their emails do not work.
They have escalated my ticket, re escalated my ticket (did it get unescalated?) and then escalated it again and I have yet to get ANY KIND OF ANSWER other than "audio loudness" which couldn't be any more vague, along with a non existent link to guidelines.

We hired a guy to make the video. Set up a test budget of 2k dollars a day. It's been about 2 weeks since we uploaded the first video and it's been 9 days since we submitted the first ticket. That is 24,000 dollars Google Adwords has lost out on.

If I'm having this kind of trouble, how many other people are and how much money is Google losing? Are they making so much money that 2k dollar a day accounts aren't worth messing with? I know in the TV advertising world 2,000 dollars a day is nothing, however we would be happy to spend 10 times that much once we have some data to go by.

But it's about to be with anyone but Google Adwords.

And why do I have to deal with Adwords India? Maybe they are the best support people for the topic, but when they send me scripted replies with dead links, all I can picture is the stereotypical help center with people that don't know the language well enough do to anything other than copy and paste issues into a program that spits out answers for them to copy and paste.

Obviously, that is what it appears as though I am dealing with.

Has anyone had an experience like this?

Is there a better way to get help?

[shortbus1662]

Also, I forgot to mention that now, when I login I'm taken to the account snapshot page, which is the only page I can view. No matter what link I click, it simply refreshes right back to the snapshot page.

I can't view or change my TV ad or settings at all.

I can't view or change or pause my text adwords ads campaigns.

I can't do anything!

[limoshawn]

this sounds a lot like google radio ads shortly before they announced that they were no longer going to offer the service.

[RhinoFish]

specs you're looking for:
[adwords.google.com...]

says here they will fix sound levels for you:
[adwords.google.com...]

on the first link above, there are links to editing tips for specific edit software platforms (like finalcut, adobe premier, etc) - have your video guy check there.

[mrguy]

Isn't it kind of sad that RhinoFish posted good links that actually might help you when several layers of technical support from one of the largest companies in the world could not even help you with their own system?

[zett]

Are they making so much money that 2k dollar a day accounts aren't worth messing with?

2k dollar a day accounts aren't worth messing with.

Yeah, that's the ugly truth. Have a look at this thread [webmasterworld.com] and read the sad story of SuperF who experienced a shut-down of a multi-million Google Adwords account.

And is it reasonable to think that you get only the lousiest of the lousy support options for "just" 24k? Yes. Look at it this way: In 2009, Google made a revenue of $23,650,563,000 (that is $44,997 per minute, 24 hours a day, 265 days). So your 24k in revenue is merely 0.0001% of the annual revenue. If even you HAD a million Dollar budget, you would probably only get a phone support person in some call center in India.

[PayMePerClick]

The last few experiences I've had with support were phone calls and IM conversations and they were pointless as well. One time the support person did not know what Google-specific reports/areas of the UI were called and actually mentioned Yahoo/MSN-specific terminology and names. The other time the support person had no idea what Google Webmaster Tools was.

Is Google using third parties to handle support now? Or are the teams in India just that bad and not receiving proper training?

[bwnbwn]

shortbus1662 I am finding way to many broken links on Google. Happens all the time in different accounts, adwords, adsense, checkout, webmaster tools, just about very account I have with google when I am trying to find information for an issue I can't find the information because the link to the page is a 404. I am not really sure what's up with their site maintaince but if it were my site I would be in trouble with the link rot going on in Google.

They really need to have a team go over the site and clean it up as it is really bad.

[netmeg]

Because of the lack of support, I no longer recommend AdWords as being suitable for small businesses (who aren't there already) This issue has pushed it past the point of acceptable risk, as far as I'm concerned.

[shortbus1662]

Thanks for all the responses, Rhinofish, and everyone else. Since I posted this, I have still not received a response from them. The last one was on the 17th, before I posted this.

[shortbus1662]

UPDATE:

So I hear from them on the 24th. They say the investigation is complete and that the ad was declined because the url that is spoken on the audio is www.sitename.com but the url shown on the screen is www.sitename.com/tv.

Okay...that doesn't sound like an "audio loudness" issue but I'm thinking fine, easy to fix.

They then say: Please let me know if this is fine and then we will be approve the ad.

So I respond saying, YES please approve the ad.

You would think that would be the end of it. They would get my response and approve the ad and I would be in business, right? No...not so much.

Today, the 27th I receive an email from them stating:

Thank you for your email. I've decided to escalate this information to our
technical team, which will perform a thorough investigation.

We aim to complete these investigations within two business days. I'll
contact you to let you know when our specialists have found a resolution.

I appreciate your patience while we investigate for you.

WHAT? What happened to approving the ad? There's nothing to resolve! You said it was good to go!

This is a nightmare of epic proportions.

[netmeg]

I suspect there are multiple people involved and they aren't talking to each other.

Also I wouldn't be surprised if there are only a handful of people dealing with Google TV ads.