Showing posts with label unethical. Show all posts
Showing posts with label unethical. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
AdSense Scam Forces Move
My research has provided me with numerous examples of people in the same spot as I am. AdSense uses our intellectual collateral to promote their customers ads and then trumps up phony charges against us to avoid having to pay us for hosting their advertisements. That is not cool with me so I am moving my blog. Where you ask? I am not sure yet. I am looking into wordpress as an option, but was hoping for some suggestions from all of my readers. I haven't had any yet, so if you use a format other than blogger and have been pleased with it, please let me know. I will keep you posted. I am also trying to figure out how to erase this blog so it is not on blogger anymore, but that seems as difficult than getting paid by AdSense. What a scam google is running all around huh?
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
GoogleAdsense Business Practices Are Unethical
For all of you out there who have been screwed by GoogleAdsense, I am on a mission. Below is the ONLY information I received in my correspondence with them. The first e-mail arrived a day or two after I inquired into a check they were overdue in sending me. I hit a threshold in July and they did not mail my check. I hit a second one in August and they did not mail my check. I inquired in September and on September 15th they sent this first e-mail.
If you can read it you'll see that they ask you to defend yourself without ever telling you what you are accused of. How can anyone do that?
"No officer, I didn't shoot that man."
"We know that mam, we brought you in because you forgot to sign your taxes."
I mean really? Can they do that? Is anyone out there a lawyer who knows whether someone can use your services for two full months, place their ads and get them seen for two full months, have people patronize the advertising companies for two full months and then choose not to pay you without so much as a specific explanation? There has to be a law against that. There have to be a number of people to whom they have done this. It has to be illegal. It is certainly unethical. It is stealing and I bet there will be a class action suit sooner or later. If they don't give me an explanation soon, I bet it will be sooner. (Do you think they read any of this material?)
So I do my best to defend myself against my non-charges. I tell them that to my knowledge I have done nothing wrong. I have a friend who checks my site regularly. (Who doesn't?) But I even checked with her and she told me she only clicks on ads relevant to her and has even "patronized" a site or two. So if she is doing more than just looking, isn't that what advertising is about?
And so I fill out that stupid generic form which asks you to address specifics they never give you and submit it and THIS is their response:
Really? WHY NOT? What did you investigate? What did you find? Did you even read my response? Why didn't you answer my questions? Address MY concerns? Doesn't the accused have a right to know what she is being accused of before being convicted? Did a person even look into this or is it a computer generated e-mail?
Hello,
After reviewing our records, we've determined that your AdSense account
poses a risk of generating invalid activity. Because we have a
responsibility to protect our AdWords advertisers from inflated costs due
to invalid activity, we've found it necessary to disable your AdSense
account. Your outstanding balance and Google's share of the revenue will
both be fully refunded back to the affected advertisers.
Please understand that we need to take such steps to maintain the
effectiveness of Google's advertising system, particularly the
advertiser-publisher relationship. We understand the inconvenience that
this may cause you, and we thank you in advance for your understanding and
cooperation.
If you have any questions or concerns about the actions we've taken, how
you can appeal this decision, or invalid activity in general, you can find
more information by visiting
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team
This is wrong on so many levels. First of all, WHAT is it they think I did wrong? Define invalid activity? They give you no specifics just point you toward the generic agreement telling you what you can't do, not what they accuse you of doing. Then there is this appeal form:
11_ExampleUrl: www.weneedaflood.blogspot.com
12_DisablingMonth: Sep
13_DisablingDay: 14
14_DisablingYear: 2010
15_AlreadyAppealed: no
16_OtherAccount: no
17_OtherAccountList:
18_WebAudience: Moms and the General public
19_UserGeography: I assume the US
20_UserAccessMode: how would I know?
21_ScrapedContent: no
22_ContentSources: me own writings
23_NumAdmins: 1
24_UpdateFrequency: about twice a week
25_BoughtTraffic: no
26_UsePayTo: no
27_TrafficSources: I visit other sites and comment and also word of mouth
28_AdvertiserValue: Because it targets their market and people often click
on ads and rememebr seeing products they see on a regular basis
29_UserIncentive: I have a few friends that check me out regularly but
other than that not that I know of
30_ViolatedTerms: No
31_InvalidActivity: I have no idea what invalid click activity you are
talking about. No specifics were given in the e-mail. It also seems
coincidental that I JUST sent an e-mail asking why I hadn't received my
check from August then I got this e-mail in return.
32_SuspiciousData: I don't usually check them so I don't know how to tell.
I am fairly new at this blog thing.
If you can read it you'll see that they ask you to defend yourself without ever telling you what you are accused of. How can anyone do that?
"No officer, I didn't shoot that man."
"We know that mam, we brought you in because you forgot to sign your taxes."
I mean really? Can they do that? Is anyone out there a lawyer who knows whether someone can use your services for two full months, place their ads and get them seen for two full months, have people patronize the advertising companies for two full months and then choose not to pay you without so much as a specific explanation? There has to be a law against that. There have to be a number of people to whom they have done this. It has to be illegal. It is certainly unethical. It is stealing and I bet there will be a class action suit sooner or later. If they don't give me an explanation soon, I bet it will be sooner. (Do you think they read any of this material?)
So I do my best to defend myself against my non-charges. I tell them that to my knowledge I have done nothing wrong. I have a friend who checks my site regularly. (Who doesn't?) But I even checked with her and she told me she only clicks on ads relevant to her and has even "patronized" a site or two. So if she is doing more than just looking, isn't that what advertising is about?
And so I fill out that stupid generic form which asks you to address specifics they never give you and submit it and THIS is their response:
Hello,
Thank you for your appeal. We appreciate the additional information you've
provided, as well as your continued interest in the AdSense program.
However, after thoroughly re-reviewing your account data and taking your
feedback into consideration, our specialists have confirmed that we're
unable to reinstate your AdSense account.
As a reminder, if you have any questions or concerns about your account,
the actions we've taken, or invalid activity in general, you can find more
information by visiting
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team
Really? WHY NOT? What did you investigate? What did you find? Did you even read my response? Why didn't you answer my questions? Address MY concerns? Doesn't the accused have a right to know what she is being accused of before being convicted? Did a person even look into this or is it a computer generated e-mail?
By the way, while I am jumping ship and taking my ark into more legitimate waters, does anyone else have a suggestion as to where I should go? Thanks for all your help readers, I wouldn't be here without you.
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