Daily Thoughts

This is the email I received from Google today:

Hello,

We understand you are concerned about the overdraft fee that your bank
charged you. Per your request, we are crediting your account balance with
an amount of $8 for the overdraft fee. However, please note that this
credit is a one-time exception, and it is not standard Google policy.
Thanks for your patience and understanding.

For any other questions, please visit our Help center at:
http://www.google.com/adsense/support.

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

Could it be I will actually get all this money? I doubt it. It just isn’t within the realm of their understanding, so this was my reply:

Thank you for responding to reason. Now please add all this together ($xxx.xx, $x.xx, and $8 for a total of $xxx.xx) and send it to me in a check ASAP, and I will never darken your door again. The worse thing that could happen at this point is for me to have to put Adsense back on my pages for the purpose of trying to work back up to $100 to actually GET that $8. No doubt, you’d find a reason to suspend my account once again so I would never receive it, and I would be forced to keep blogging about you forever. I’m sure neither one of us wants that.

Actually, it’s been pretty good for me, because I get a lot of traffic from this. Do you realize how many people out there actually don’t like Google? Amazing.

So just send me $117.88 and close my adsense account, and we’ll be done. How soon can I expect that check?

Sincerely,
XXXXXXXXXX
Ex-Google Junkie

I fully expect to get an email saying that they can’t send me the $8 until I earn $92 more to go with it. Tune in for what will hopefully be the final chapter in the Google Adsense Saga.

This is the email I received from Google today:

Hello,

We understand that you are concerned about the payments of your AdSense
account. As mentioned earlier, a credit of $x.xx was applied to your
AdSense account for your earning for the current month and also $xxx.xx from the stopped check was credited back to your account balance. You will
receive a check this month for your finalized earnings.

Please know that Google is not liable for bank fees due to stopped checks.
According to our Terms and Conditions, publishers disabled for invalid
click activity may not receive any further payment and therefore,
payments on any outstanding checks may be stopped. We appreciate your
patience, and apologize for any inconvenience. If you
have any questions, please visit our Help Center at
http://www.google.com/adsense/support, or contact us at
http://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/request.py.

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

What a load of BS. They screw me out of my adsense money, cost me overdraft fees, give me BACK my money (pretty much admitting they shouldn’t have done the aforementioned in the first place), then hide behind their policies to keep from paying me back a measly $8. This is my reply:

Sorry, not good enough. I know you aren’t going to listen, but a lot of other people are, because I’m putting this whole story, every letter, on my blog. You’re coming across sounding very arrogant and unconcerned with the pain you inflict on others.

I understand that according to your policies, you aren’t liable for bank fees, but this was YOUR fault, not mine. It would be a good moral gesture, and since I’m blogging all of this, it would be letting people know that you aren’t so petty as to make a mistake that costs someone money, then to use your policies as an excuse not to compensate them for YOUR mistake. I don’t even know why you closed my adsense. You’ve never given me a reason, just a nightmare. I tell you what. I’ll put up a poll, and people can vote on whether you should give me back my measly little $8.

It may be legal for you not to pay it, but your morality and general business sense is what is in question here. I can see not paying it back if I was the one at fault, but (by your own admission) I wasn’t, was I? Should I get punished for trying as hard as I could to obey the rules?

Your call, but your company is already getting a very bad rep with the government, so I read. Good will goes a long way.

Sincerely,

I’m sure it’s not over yet. They seem to possess a seemingly endless repertoire of canned BS to toss out when the occasion suits.

I will not give up. I want my money, and I want my $8, and I WANT IT NOW!

I have a gardening blog on Blogspot. As many people do, when they’re experimenting with page layouts, etc., they create a “test” bloglet to get it perfect before finalyzing the real blog. So I had a test blog for my potential “About Me” page. I had it set so nobody could see it, like I’ve done other test blogs, and I’ve never had a problem.

So today, I get an email from Google:

Hello,

Your blog at: http://cg-aboutme-test.blogspot.com/ has been identified as a potential spam blog. To correct this, please request a review by filling out the form at http://www.blogger.com/unlock-blog.g?lockedBlogID=xxxxxxxxxx…

Your blog will be deleted in 20 days if it isn’t reviewed, and your readers will see a warning page during this time. After we receive your request, we’ll review your blog and unlock it within two business days. Once we have reviewed and determined your blog is not spam, the blog will be unlocked and the message in your Blogger dashboard will no longer be displayed. If this blog doesn’t belong to you, you don’t have to do anything, and any other blogs you may have won’t be affected.

We find spam by using an automated classifier. Automatic spam detection is inherently fuzzy, and occasionally a blog like yours is flagged incorrectly. We sincerely apologize for this error. By using this kind of system, however, we can dedicate more storage, bandwidth, and engineering resources to bloggers like you instead of to spammers. For more information, please see Blogger Help: http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=42577

Thank you for your understanding and for your help with our spam-fighting efforts.

Sincerely,

The Blogger Team

P.S. Just one more reminder: Unless you request a review, your blog will be deleted in 20 days. Click this link to request the review: http://www.blogger.com/unlock-blog.g?lockedBlogID=xxxxxxxxxx…

**Heavy sigh**. Google, please get your act together, and stop seeing boogey men where there are none! First I’m a danger to your advertisers, now I’m a spammer. Funny thing was, there was NO text on this blog, so how on earth could it have been spam?

Perfectly ridiculous ending to a perfectly horrible day.

If you’re new to this story, read here.

So you’ll remember they wrote to me saying that my money was back in my account, and that I would be able to “view my balance” this month. Not good enough! How about I will be able to SPEND my balance this month? This is my latest correspondence to them on Nov. 29. O.K., so there was the weekend, but I haven’t heard anything yet.

In view of the fact that I was vindicated as to illegal activity, I would really consider it a gesture of good faith if you would overnight a check to me for the full amount in my account, plus the $8 overdraft fee I lost when you wrongly stopped payment on the other check. I need to get this resolved immediately. I’m still overdrawn at my bank, and I need to pay my water bill. I’m sure you don’t want me to have my water cut off. I’m in a “dead zone” as far as cash flow is concerned, as I am a freelancer, and only get paid at certain times of the month.

Please advise asap.

So far I’ve closed most of my gmail accounts (even ones I forgot I had and had never used), all my Google Pages accounts, and several Blogger accounts. I’ve opened Yahoo mails in almost all of the gmail account names I wish to keep, and am in the process of moving everything on Blogger to another site. When I’m done, except for watching YouTube, I won’t be using anything Google anymore. Don’t watch that much YouTube, so you catch my drift.

I know they have hundreds of my personal emails stored on their computers, and even though I know it will do no good, I’m going to ask them to remove them. Can’t hurt to ask, right? I mean, if you delete an account, all the content should be gone. Of course, that’s in the real world. In GoogleWorld, they can do whatever they want for as long as they want. From what I hear, it will be 2083 before they’re deleted from their computers.

Guess all I can hope for is that something really evil happens to their computers, and all their data is destroyed. That could happen, right? There has to be some hacker out there somewhere capable of wreaking havoc on Google’s database.

O.K., I’m not advocating this, just in case someone might think I am trying to get someone to attack their computers. I’m never in favor of extreme measures. I’m just saying that with the way they are treating publishers and customers, there is bound to be somebody one day who is capable, and who is pissed enough with Google to do it.

The hackers did it to Microsoft, remember? And Microsoft wasn’t screwing people out of money on a daily basis with no reasonable explanation, other than “It’s in our terms of service, and our policies, so we can do it.”

Someone even hacked into the Pentagon computer once. It was a kid, I think, who just sort of stumbled into it. Didn’t cause any damage, from what I remember, but got in a lot of trouble.

So mark my words, one day Google will piss somebody off just enough to set this chain of events into motion, and then all hell will break loose! Half the data in the free world will be in the hands of evil forces…no, wait…Google is the evil force aren’t they?

Got this email today:

Hello,

We understand you are concerned about the earnings from your AdSense
account. When we reinstated your account under the log in
xxxxxxxxxxxxx, we also applied a credit of $x.xx to your earnings
for this month, reflecting your valid earnings prior to the account
disabling. Additionally, $xxx.xx has been credited to your account for the
check that was issued to you earlier. You’ll be able to see your finalized
earnings for this month when they’re posted to your account’s Payment
History page during the first week of next month.

We appreciate your patience, and apologize for any inconvenience. If you
have any questions, please visit our Help Center at
http://www.google.com/adsense/support, or contact us at
http://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/request.py.

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

O.K., so this still does not tell me WHEN I will be getting said check. I want it now, and intend to make it very clear to them that I expect it ASAP. I did reply asking if I could expect the check next month, but thinking about that, that’s not soon enough. I want it express delivered to me next week. I’ve suffered enough.

I’m still moving my stuff off of Google. I’m still not using Adsense anymore. My love affair with Google is done.

Today I was notified that Google had reinstated my adsense account. When I went to check my account, I found that they had, in fact, stopped payment on the check.

I don’t intend to line their pockets with anymore adsense activity until I receive full payment from them. This is the letter I wrote to them today:

I really must insist that you reissue the check you stopped payment on. If I was vindicated through your own investigation, then there was no reason to deny me legitimately earned payments. Having this check bounce caused me to have to pay an $8 overdraft fee, which I must also insist that you repay to me. I know you will say that I should have read your terms of use, but I’m not in agreement with not paying someone who has worked faithfully for you for 14 months, with no problems, and then because of someone else’s actions, has lost every penny she worked for before.

Like I said in a previous correspondence, I will pursue this as a labor issue. I have no problem spending my time on this. It’s a matter of principal, and when I consider the thousands of people you have done this to, and the millions of legitimately earned dollars you have denied adsense publishers by these methods that are questionable if not illegal, I will, as I said earlier, pursue this to the ends of the earth.

I will expect to see a check for the full amount owed me, including the $8 overdraft fee, within the next few days.

Sincerely,
Deborah Aldridge

So we shall now see what Google will do. I wanted to be vindicated, but I don’t know if I will ever feature adsense on my blogs again. This whole incident has left a nasty taste in my mouth where Google is concerned. I’ve already started looking for other places to house my blogs, and will probably be closing all but one of my Gmail accounts as well.

In a country where corporate greed runs rampant, Google was one of the good guys, but evidently, that has changed. You know the old saying, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Like the Who sang so many years ago, “Won’t get fooled again!”

Awesome video, obviously made before the election, but still awesome.

My internet life pretty much revolves around Google. I use so many Google services that to change them all now would literally take longer than it took me to start them all.

Everyone who reads this blog knows about my recent Google woes. If you don’t, the relevant posts are listed on the bottom of this post. To summarize, I’ve been through attacks by pornographers that led to the disabling of my account, several correspondences back and forth with Google to try to get reinstated, having the owner of Hubpages get involved on behalf of several other Hubbers who were disabled for the same problem (which originated at Hubpages) and now a bounced adsense check.

Today, I once again wrote to Google, and I will write to them and to anyone else I have to until this is resolved. To some, it’s only $100. To me, it’s a matter of broken trust.

This is the letter I sent to Google today.

Hello again,

The situation has gotten worse, because now the check you sent me has bounced. This money was earned legitimately, before the illegal activity on my account by the pornographers. All invalid clicks up to the this money was earned was reported to you and dealt with by you. It took me 14 months to earn that $101.59, and the problem did not start until a couple of months ago, so there is no need for you to have stopped payment on my check.

I cannot let this go. I have this thing about fairness, and this isn’t fair at all. To take legitimately earned click money away from me due to some sick person attacking me and taking down my adsense account is just not right. I need that money. You don’t. This is akin to working for someone for 14 months, unpaid, then getting fired for a rules infraction and having them tell you that they are not paying for the previous 14 months because you broke a rule.

This has now become a labor issue. Please do not make me pursue it as such. I am an activist. I am a fighter. I will take this to the limit. Please don’t make me do this. Please just let me give you my banking information and wire transfer the money into my account, and I swear, I will never darken your door again.

I loved and trusted Google. I beta tested Google Pages. I was one of the first people to have Gmail. I have several Blogger Blogs. I use Google Docs on a regular basis. I use Google Analytics and Google Alerts. I even read my RSS on Google Reader. I was thrilled to be accepted into adsense. I had fully intended to be an adwords customer when I could afford it. Being a part of Google was like a dream to me. Now my dream has turned into a nightmare. I’m crying as I write this. I cannot believe you are doing this to me.

Please make this right.

Deborah Aldridge, an ex-Google faithful.

It’s going to be interesting to see what Google does about this. If I can fight them and win, it will be a moral victory, but a very hollow one, because they have lost my trust and allegiance.

I’m now looking for somewhere else to house my blogs, which breaks my heart, because I spent many hours making unique templates for them. I would leave them where they are, but I’m afraid that Google will delete them for no reason at all, and I’ll be left with nothing. The best I can probably do is to move them all to Wordpress until I can afford outside hosting, and learn enough about the Wordpress program to put them up there.

I don’t want my adsense back. I just want my $100 and to be done with Google. They frighten me now.

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Google: The Worst Possible Model for Customer Service

I used to love all things Google. I had one of the first gmail accounts, and now have several. I was a beta tester for Google Pages. I have several Blogger blogs. I had adsense on all of my blogs, plus my hubs on Hubpages.

I was a happy camper. Until now — and it seems I’m not the only one.

Google has become one of the worst companies in the United States to do business with. Yes, it shows up on the Forbes “Best 100 Places to Work” every year, either #1 or #2, but that’s only half the story.

If Forbes had a “Best 100 Places to do Business With” category, Google would not be on that list. Customer satisfaction with Google is plummeting, and they seem not to care, and not in a great hurry to do anything except make it worse.

Google Adsense is a disaster. The program was wonderful at first, providing a meager income to millions of bloggers and webmasters, and a very good income to some. Then people started abusing adsense, Google AdWords customers started balking, and afraid of losing its paying customers, Google took measures to stop this. Unfortunately, when they couldn’t tell the good guys from the bad guys (or just didn’t want to spend the resources to do so), they resorted to the wholesale disabling of adsense accounts of perfectly innocent people. The appeals process is a joke. Maybe one out of every 1,000,000 accounts disabled ever gets reinstated.

Then the adsense checks started bouncing. Not surprisingly, Google denies that there is no money in the account, and places the blame squarely on the banks. They say that the tellers don’t know how to handle the checks. The fact is, that their checks are so easy to replicate, that there are fraudulent Google checks floating around all over, and banks don’t want to accept them. Google says it is “looking into the problem” with the checks. They have been looking into it for years, with no resolution.

Now it’s happened to me. My Google check bounced, putting me in a real financial bind, since I only had $40 in the bank to begin with. It put me into overdraft, costing me fees, which will probably amount to more fees before it is over. I’m out of work. Heaven knows when I will be able to deposit that money into the account. In the meantime, a debit of less than $3 is going to bounce, costing me even more.

I am not happy with Google anyway, since they closed my account without good cause. I tried to send them a message through their contact form, but you have to have the date of issue of the check and the check number, which they suggest you get from your account. Therein lies the problem. I can’t get into my account!

So I contacted them through another contact form, then found an address I could email them directly, and did that. I don’t plan to hear from them anytime soon. It’s been weeks since they got the appeal for the disabling of my account, during which time they have also gotten calls from the owners of HubPages appealing to them to reinstate he accounts of many of their members (see link at the bottom of the page for the full story), and to date, nothing but an email saying they are considering my further information submitted to them.

Today I’m going to go to the bank and try to ascertain why they bounced the check, and what I can do from that end, but from what I’ve read online, there is probably no solution there. This takes a lot of time out of my day, that I should be spending working.

If I should find that Google did, in fact, stop payment on my check, I will go to the ends of the earth to fight them. They may think I’ll forget it, because they are so big, and I don’t have a chance, but they don’t know me. I will call or write anyone I have to, up to and including the White House. Obama promised change, right? He promised that he would not let the huge corporations treat us like crap. So I will go to him. I will take this to the airwaves, to the limit. I will get everyone who has ever been screwed by Google to join me, and we will storm the headquarters.

$100 my ass! This is about more than $100. This is about a huge, seemingly evil, corporation trampling on the rights of its customers, not only in the U.S., but all over the world.

They would do well to just to send me the money and be done with it.

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