Google is stupid

tonlilaz

tonlilaz

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today, one of my longest running campaigns was shut down because the ad was disapproved by google. The site i was marketing was a simple review site...nothing was being sold or anything like that.

the reason they gave for shutting down my site was 'selling counterfeit goods'. WTH?!?!?!?! As stated, not only does my site not sell any product on the site, but the ads i have up go directly to the actual vendor's website...not some 3rd party site or anything like that.

i wonder which moron at google thought that one up. how can anyone look at a review site that's not selling a thing come up with 'selling counterfeit goods'?

needless to say, i shot G an email complaining about the baseless accusation...but i'm sure they really wouldn't care
 
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ok, this is getting serious....i could use some advice now.

I complained to google. I said that not only does my site not sell ANY GOODS...but that all banners/ads redirect to the actual vendor's website.

they sent me back this response:

Thank you for waiting patiently. I understand that your website
'WEBSITE-URL' does not sell counterfeit goods.

But we've received a complaint from a third party indicating that your
advertisement directs users to a website that sells counterfeit goods. At
this time, your website does not meet our policies. Google policy does not
permit the advertisement of websites selling counterfeit goods.
Click to expand...

I honestly can't believe this. The ads redirect to the actual vendor's webpage who make/develop the product. I sent G screenshots of the vendor's page to show that it's not a counterfeit page...but is there anything else I can do?
 
tonlilaz said:
ok, this is getting serious....i could use some advice now.

I complained to google. I said that not only does my site not sell ANY GOODS...but that all banners/ads redirect to the actual vendor's website.

they sent me back this response:



I honestly can't believe this. The ads redirect to the actual vendor's webpage who make/develop the product. I sent G screenshots of the vendor's page to show that it's not a counterfeit page...but is there anything else I can do?
Click to expand...

Show Google the proof and demand they show you the proof or give another reason. If they can't they should turn your campaign back on.
 
ForeverNever said:
Show Google the proof and demand they show you the proof or give another reason. If they can't they should turn your campaign back on.
Click to expand...

Yeah, i demanded proof too...and sent them screenshot of the vendor my site promotes...i also said that the complaint is obviously from somebody not wanting the competition..
 
Google don't care once a campaign is shut down its shut down for good, they won't send you any personalized emails either explaining their reasons just generic reasons. Move on theres no winning with them.
 
big g sucks ..........the biggest blackhatter of us all ...

signature_test.31.jpg
 
nope, they're not getting away with it that easily...this time they are clearly in the wrong, accusing me of illegal activity (promoting counterfeit goods) based on somebody lying (or sabotaging my campaign) about my site....this can effect my account history with them.

it's one thing if they didn't like my site, but in this case, they are flat out lying to me. If they don't restore my campaign, i'm going to demand they remove the official vendor's site from Adwords....

they might not care, but i do...and
ak2ae said:
Google don't care once a campaign is shut down its shut down for good, they won't send you any personalized emails either explaining their reasons just generic reasons. Move on theres no winning with them.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Tonlilaz, sorry to say, there is no winning with them. They're fucking sons of bitches.

This site might help you understand more: http://adwerdz.com/
 
Gupnup said:
Tonlilaz, sorry to say, there is no winning with them. They're fucking sons of bitches.

This site might help you understand more: http://adwerdz.com/
Click to expand...

i've won a case with them before when they closed one of my accounts....

they apologized to me and reinstated it after a few emails..

in this case, i'm not giving up. this is a 100% white hat site.

i do not need google adwords, because my major revenue comes from different search engines...but i use adwords to send cheap traffic to my legit white hat sites...
 
That really sucks man, hope you get it worked out, I just had a blogger account deleted and have been fighting to have it restored.
 
They are such assholes, way too powerful I bet they wouldn't be so flipant if they had competiton breathing down their neck (which hopefully they will do soon)
 
I'd be willing to bet $$ that if you also have adsense running on the site, the legitimate company saw an adsense text ad or something for a counterfeit product and reported your site

Gotta love the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing!
 
Fwiffo said:
I'd be willing to bet $$ that if you also have adsense running on the site, the legitimate company saw an adsense text ad or something for a counterfeit product and reported your site

Gotta love the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing!
Click to expand...

No, i'm not running adsense on my site...it's a niche site and it's just a review for the product i'm promoting. I've got personalized creatives and text links that link directly to the vendor's site (w/my aff)

i'm not working w/a cpa company here...it's an private affiliate program w/the vendor
 
I would ask here: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/AdWords

But I dont know if these people are real employees of google or if this is only a forumtitle. But they normally know answers. Better than these stupid mailanswers.

Second thought for me would be to file a lawsuit against jon doe (or whatever its called in this case) for whatever your lawyer says. I mean he lied to hurt your business.
Adwords would need to give out all data google has about this guy so you can sue him. And so on. Google will see you are serious about this and I think your chance of being reinstated is high when everthing works in your direction.
 
SebastianJu said:
I would ask here: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/AdWords

But I dont know if these people are real employees of google or if this is only a forumtitle. But they normally know answers. Better than these stupid mailanswers.

Second thought for me would be to file a lawsuit against jon doe (or whatever its called in this case) for whatever your lawyer says. I mean he lied to hurt your business.
Adwords would need to give out all data google has about this guy so you can sue him. And so on. Google will see you are serious about this and I think your chance of being reinstated is high when everthing works in your direction.
Click to expand...

depending on google's final decision, i'm going to see if i can get the info on the '3rd party' that did this.

if they insist on declining my site, i will first try to get the official vendor removed from AW..afterall, if google insists on claiming that they are a counterfeit site, then they should be equally aggressive to the vendor... i mean, if google insists on saying VendorURL.com/?affid is a counterfeit site, then VendorURL.com should be banned from Awords too, right?


I'll make a note here to say that it's google's discretion whether or not they approve my ad and site. Not only that, but if my site clearly violated the TOS i would have accepted the decision and lived with it. But in this case, my site abides 100% by Google's TOS....Google even stated that they acknowledge that my site doesn't sell counterfeit goods....they pulled my ad because they:

received a complaint from a third party indicating that your
advertisement directs users to a website that sells counterfeit goods.
Click to expand...

in other words, they pulled my ads and denied my site because of what a third party said...not because of something Google saw or caught me doing.

anybody w/have a brain cell can CLEARLY see that non of my links or Ads go to a site that sells counterfeit goods....
 
You'd of thought with the millions of dollars Google makes every hour, if they are not, then I can't see why they aren't altering the SERPS to dominate some major keywords - But that's just me, they can't afford to hire some staff who's job is sololy to reply to e-mails and sort out problems like yours, well I'm sure they have staff, but they could at least invest in some sort of training for them!
 
I'm surprised you even got through to Google. They have ZERO customer service. They closed my google checkout account without warning and refunded all my transactions that I had filled.

They never told me why or what the problem was. I emailed them and got canned responses. I even called their corporate numbers and couldn't get past the voice system.

GOOGLE SUCKS BALLS!!!!

Don't get me started on paypal.
 
UPDATE: After sending screenshots and proof that my site does not sell counterfeit stuff, Google ignored me. As a result of this, i had stopped all of my campaigns.

Saturday night, I received an email from Google as to why I paused my campaigns and wanted to know if I needed any personal assistance setting up my campaign. They offered a personalized email consultation free of charge.

My response went something like this (edited somewhat):

....
I am not using adwords because you unfairly and unethically shut my campaign off based on the false accusation of a third party without checking the validity of the claim and without demanding proof from the third party in question. Furthermore, when I gave you proof and maintained my innocence that my website did not sell or advertise counterfeit goods, I was ignored.

Why should I spend the time and energy setting up a campaign w/Google when some anonymous third party can come in and destroy months of work with a false accusation and Google simply act upon that accusation without doing nothing to validate the accuracy of the claim? What is to prevent the same competitor from sabotaging my work 3 months from now and Google continuing to unfairly shut down my campaigns based on false accusations?

I am having just as much traffic and conversions with [other search engine here], and they are treating my business with more respect.
Click to expand...

This morning I received this email from Google:

I looked into your account and also went through a few previous emails.

I have a confirmation that your URL has been cleared off from our system
and your ads have been re approved as of [date today] in your campaign [my terminated campaign] I do not see any ads in your account disapproved for selling counterfeit goods anymore.

I hope this information helps and I apologize for the inconvenience that
you have faced.
Click to expand...

The moral of the story: Squeeky wheels do get the oil....Google isn't the only game in town any more....and they know it.

:D
 
congrats bro, im glad that they findly cleared up for you, and it pays off to own a whitehat website lol...
 
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