Yesterday, my ad delivery slowed. I had a feeling that for the 3rd time in 3 months, my account was under review.
The first phone call, the girl had no clue why the ads were slowed. I was expressing my concern, and all she could do was giggle and act airheaded about the situation -- That clearly rubbed me wrong considering this is one method that I make my living. I swear the CSR's smoke weed all day or something...They don't seem very clearheaded...Kinda disturbing when you have dropped over 15k in advertising over the past 3 months.
The girl called back a second time after saying she will investigate the situation. She confirmed my account was under review. She was still giggly and seemed to think it was funny that I was troubled with her news.
She proceeded to explain that one of my landing pages didn't contain enough 'original content'. I told her I followed an official email from google about what is an acceptable landing page. She kept saying "the policy changes all the time, and you may violate policy"
I asked her when was the last policy change on this issue, and she said she didn't know.
Ok, you are a CSR, you are preaching that I have violated policy, and you can't tell me when the last policy change was? She had NO CLUE.
I was sure that I wasn't caught by any landing page policy changes...Unless there has been another one in the past month. The last supervisor I dealt with sent me an email and explained everything. I followed those rules.
Back to the landing page, she said that there was a banner that lead directly to the merchant page that stood out and because it stood out, it was clearly the main point of the page to redirect to the merchant, and that violated policy.
You know telling me that I can't have a banner?
I pointed out to her that there was useful content on the page, and original content not found on the merchants page.
1) I had three links to HELPFUL articles that are very relevant to the subject matter
2) I have adsense running on all my pages so I give the customer alternatives.
She said the above two, 'doesn't stand out'.
What the hell am I supposed to do? Again, I did everything that google claims keeps you complaint.
Oh, and the girl said that since adsense is running at the bottom of the page, it isn't relevant because people won't click links so far down on the page.
If that's the case, why do I get a nice check from adsense every month?
The girl was CLUELESS!
Again, like I asked AWA, I asked the girl to show me an online example of an acceptable landing page and one that isn't acceptable. I argued with her that this process is WAY TOO SUBJECTIVE -- What pleases one reviewer obviously won't please another reviewer. Especially since I have had ads reviewed that passed with flying colors, then upon another review the ad was rejected later.
And what really pisses me off is that my competitors have landing pages that simply offer a banner and a link to click.
While I have had 3 reviews, these clowns keep their landing pages the same way.
Why is google discriminating against me? Why do I feel picked on?
Google just tells me, "Eventually they may be reviewed." Or something like that...But yet they can review me THREE TIMES.
And again, since my ads have been super slowed, my conversions fell off. Thanks google...
Why do they have to slow ads when reviewing? And these reviews have taken a few days!
WHy can't they review ads and let them be delivered at full speed like before they started reviewing?
Google really makes this more stressful than it has to be? Why do they treat people like me who spend a decent amount of $$$ so bad?
They must really not give a sh*t about affiliate marketers or something.
And for goodness sake, TRAIN YOUR CSR'S. I HAVE GOTTEN HORRIBLE INFORMATION IN JUST ABOUT ALL MY CALLS TO THEM!
now let me also say that my experience with their customer service hasnt been the best, usually when i ask a question via email, i get the answer for something totally different, then i have to say...
HELLO, THATS NOT WHAT I ASKED, PLEASE READ THE EMAIL!
but still, they usually get around to giving you the right answer. i have spoken with many customer service reps from the management end to know that most customer service from companies are pretty terrible, particularly unionized major conglomerets (sp?)
still tho id say my experieince with google has been average to above average when comparing them to other companies.
but i will agree with you in that something strange is going on with google as far as adwords is concerned, im having some campaigns not work at all, some that are getting way way way more traffic than usual (used to be 3-4 clicks a day, then suddenly over the past 3 months it has gone to 20-30 clicks a day)
and some with the exact opposite, with minimal changes made on my end.
anyways, i sympathize, but since they gave you an answer, that it is under review, and you may have violated their TOS, i wouldnt get bent outta shape, i would just chill, and wait to see what happens.
you could always escalate this if you like to get a manager involved, generally u get some sort of immediate resolution, tho if u push it, it might be against you, rather than for you.
Also the fact that I'm clearly upset by being told differnt things by different people and giggling about it.
I'm telling you, they don't have have CLUE.
Last time under review, some CSR had the nerve to tell me that affiliates aren't allowed to have any kind of landing page, PERIOD. Even with original content.
And when I asked for his supervior, he figured he was making the wrong argument, and shocker -- hung up...
I offer more than most mall-type websites...but the big guys don't get harrased like me...
I believe your experience is true without having to try the 'customer service experience' myself. I think when a campaign hits a peak or a plateau, they change something so it appears less often than it had been in order to extort more funding for the ad. Once you increase the budget, it extends the problem from happening proportionatel depending how much you increased it, then when you hit the next peak, it resets everything , and the whole thing starts over again. I have witnessed this same policy take place before when Googlebot stopped indexing my site. They gave no real reason, but they did promote adwords as a solution. It happened right after my best month of traffic refered by Google, which is no coincidence at all. Now that you are suckered in hook line and sinker, you are in for a penney, in for a dollar so to speak. I know if someone thought my problems were funny after I paid them good money, I would give then a verbal thrasing the likes they would not ever have heard.
I would give then a verbal thrasing the likes they would not ever have heard
I don't know how much good that would do. As much as it might hurt, I've had pretty good success getting answers about problems, and getting resolutions of adwords problems when I ask to speak to a supervisior, and at all times remain nice. It seems they are more apt to help you when it's a problem that can go either way... if you don't "let them have it". I guess that goes for just about anything, and I know it's hard sometimes when they have really ticked you off, but they hold all the cards, and have all the power.
I think the reps have been taught to escalate when they have reached the end of the rope with their usefulness...lol
I'm not sure that G has the most awful CSRs ever...
I once had a CSR issue with Microsoft UK that was so bad that I had to escalate it all the way to Mr Gates himself by telex (yes, the really old days), and boy did he get things moving! 6-week-old-issue resolved by the end of that very day (thanks Mr Gates).
And then again, an ex of mine used to work for MSN customer support and when customer email went down for several days was effectively told to lie and say it was a "system upgrade". Not directly Microsoft's command, but the hopeless/feckless local call-centre management...
So G would have to go a fair old way to be worse than just those two examples IMHO!
Rgds
Damon
I have done that on a few times...Right off the bat...
But the CSR always counters with, "Let me see if I can help you..." Or something like that.
I always get suckered in, waste more time explaining stuff they don't have an answer to, and then 15 minutes later, I ask for the supervisor.
The supervisors are never available, but waiting for one to call you back is pretty rewarding.
If I have to speak with a supervisor on the majority of my calls, there is a problem.
Because the knowledge the supervisors have blessed me with should be reinforced clearly by the CSRs.
And I'm still kind of bitter that while I'm clearly angry for not getting a clear answer of why my ads weren't running and how I explained I make money to pay bills with Google, that this CSR is giggling. :(
Yes, giggling CSRs are inexcusable, I completely agree.
I think that a CSR that laughs at you is guilty of gross misconduct, *whatever* you did or said. Part of the job description is to be polite and diplomatic and reasonable whatever the provokation...
Rgds
Damon
I think that a CSR that laughs at you is guilty of gross misconduct, *whatever* you did or said. Part of the job description is to be polite and diplomatic and reasonable whatever the provokation...
I can only agree.
However, since this particular phone call is somehow being discussed at length in a very public forum, I hope that you all will at least consider that perhaps what metakomm perceived is very different than what was intended.
It'll probably come as no surprise that this thread has been rather disturbing to me, since (as many of you know) I've answered advertiser emails and phone calls for several years. Thousands and thousands of them.
As part of the Customer Support team, I have a pretty good insight as to whom is doing the job, what's important to them, and what their intentions are.
And I hope you'll trust me when I say that laughing at advertisers is not on anyone's mind.
This thread disturbed me enough to take the time to find and talk with the phone person you describe in your first post, metakomm. It turns out to be someone whom I've known for quite some time, and who I know to be bright, friendly, and personable to the point of being bubbly.
I don't know if my 'word' carries any weight in this case, but I give you my word, with complete assurance, that you were not being laughed at, nor were your concerns being discounted. And, at the same time, metakomm, you have my apology if that is how it felt on your end.
Sometimes I think that our customers are a little bit caught off-guard when the discover that our phone support folks actually have noticeable personalities, which may be different from phone support folks at a lot of organizations. But in this case it seems as if bubbly was mistaken for 'airheadedness' and a lack of concern. Having talked at length with the phone person, I can assure you this is not the case.
All in all this is actually a pretty interesting case of how messages can be heard in an entirely different way in which they were intended - and I think I'll pass this on to a manager as a great one to discuss in future trainings for the phone team.
Anyway, thanks to all for 'listening'.
AWA
And when I commented to the CSR that her attitude was a bit off due to what I considered to be a serious situation, she NEVER apologized or attempted to say that I was perhaps misreading her phone demeanor.
I have done customer service extensively in my college days, and I have a pretty good idea of what is over the line.
Maybe you just had to be there. *shrug*
