! WARNING ! - Consequences of a TINY mistake!!!

[andyz]

Ok, that really SUCKS. :angry:

I wanted to bit 0,08€ (about $0,11) for a campaign, and google made $11 out of it. In only a FEW MINUTES I got about 300 impresions and 1 click, that cost me about $10.

I was some time ago trying some campaigns in google, I have worked a lot with it, so I KNOW IT VERY WELL.

Maybe they have changed something, because I never had that problem before.
I typed 0,08 in CPC max bid, and it was accepted at first. Then came the traffic estimation screen. I looked, and saw, ok, to much cost, so I need to change it. I still thought, it was 0,08€ max bid. Then I saw 8€, and thought hey, what's this, and changed it back to 0,08. Then came a screen where it said at least 8€, but it was so unreal, that I thought IT WAS THE DAILY MAX COST!!
So I clicked OK. And I have realized it in some minutes, that something was wrong, if I didn't realized it I might have lost over $1000 dollar until the next day!!!

Now who wonders? It doesn't matter to google.
I've asked them not to bill me that $11 but the representant didn't care.
He said ok, you've fixed that problem so you won't lose more money.
the conversation seemed to be over for him then...

Oh, how GREAT!!!

How sweet cash for google.

Excuse me, I must... :throwup:

How about their GREAAAAAAT philosophy of the Best Customer experience??

From their Corporate Information - Philisophy:

To find here: http://www.google.com/corporate/tenthings.html

"1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.

From its inception, Google has focused on providing the best user experience possible."

HAAAAAAAAAAAAA-HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAA HAHAHA .. HAAAAAAAAA
(imagine now of Tom Hanks standing before the big hole in the floor of the house ruin in the movie "The Money Pit")

Not that the $11 was then the time worth for me to speak further with that guy, but I think it's an impossibility to take advantage of the mistakes of a customer. It's unethical. A customer makes a mistake that is likely possible because of their input fields, that have a misinterpretation which can VERY EASILY HAPPEN to a customer.

I wonder how much money they earn on people that make this mistake?
I can think that it's worth 100.000s of additional sweet income for them. Not bad, eh?

With some words I have come so far that he said, ok, he don't bills that money, IF I AGREE to not claim ANY refund af another future mistake!!!!:shock:

Hey, think of it: What if I make another mistake, and lose 100s or 1000s? And what if I DON'T make any mistake, but GOOGLE makes a mistake, and they only CLAIM that it was my mistake?
Could easily happen, eh? Happens all the time with companies...

So to have agreed to that conditions, I must have been a total MORON, or?
Well, I have refused, and left google that $11.

I then said, I think Matt Callen would surely not like to take the $7 of me because I have made a mistake. and how much it is worth to google that I found that problem and reported them so GOOGLE CAN ENHANCE THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE which it soooo importand for them?
Ohhh, thank you for the feedback, I will give it further, he said.
WOW great, that really helps me, and I am another happy customer now. (NOT)

Also the question how much profit loss they will have when their reputation suffers if I post it in internet forums and 1000s or 10000s people will see it doesn't moved him a bit. Of course I said, I assume that google would have no problem with it if I post it in the open, because it's their policy. Yes, it's their policy, he agreed again.

Well I'm not sure yet, but I imagine it's just one of those dumbheads that stick stubborn to a instruction or policy, people that can make no onw decision, who can take no responsibility, who have no spine or enough intelligence to overview what it's really about. That's the reason why such people are where they are.
Yes, that gives me a good feeling again, because that's why WE have damn good chances to live a better life and have control over ourselves and make our dream life reality! YEAY! :lol:

[BoogalooDude]

Dude, Google can't hold your hand all the way through the process, you made a mistake, deal with it.

[pixels]

i feel for you.. but it's not google's responsibility, it's yours.. you can't expect google to give you the money back, that's just not how things work..

[Mpio]

They say you are not really working or doing anything productive if you NEVER make mistakes.

Everyone who works makes mistakes.

What can you do except learn from it. Losing $11 isn't that big of a mistake allthough no one ever likes losing Money no matter what the amount is.

You'll survive.

TIP
Make sure you set your Daily Budgets Low at the onset of any campaign until you are sure of your actions going forward.

[ArtColombia]

I agree with MPIO....set you daily limit first......but, I bet you are not the only one to have made that mistake...I have done it too - there, so you don´t feel all alone !!:sad:

Having said that it didn´t rack me up prints in a few minutes...and let it be a lesson to all...go through your campaigns AFTER you set them up...it is easy to confuse the max bid with the daily at times...

...I know I have done it at least twice while updating campaigns during Miller Time!:innocent:

[andyz]

Yeah, that's it. I guessed so, that it must happen to others too, because it's easy to do so. And everyone can type easily a comma intead of a period, and then google makes $8 out of 0,08. So if google would be really concerned of the best customer experience, then they must have THANKED me for making them aware of it, and gladly give me the money back (it's not even giving back because I didn't pay yet).

Yes, one can say it is in my responsibility what I do, but what responsibility is that? I have made no damage to google, I have no make THEM lose money.
If they would give me the money back, they would have no disadvantage whatsoever! So what?
If I work for a company, and I should clean a house, and I clean the wrong house, ok, then I can't expect them to give me money for it, because then they have really lost something, but if google wants to take money from me for a mistake that brings no disadantage to them, then it's just TAKING ADVANTAGE of me. It is easily to see that it is not reasonable to bid so high.
It is almost the same thing if you go to a shop, buy something for $10, give a $100 bill in mistake, and go out. And the vendor doesn't say hey wait, you get something back. And when you realize, and go back to the shop, then he says hey it's your responsibility what you do with your money. I can't give you anything back.

I don't care abot the $11 anymore, but I care about how I am treated here as a customer. It's NOT customer friendly. They could easily have given me the money back and it wouldn't have done them any harm!
And they could have improved that with the messing up with the comma.
But THAT would lose them maybe 100s of 1000s of dollars!
This is not the only example where one can see that google cares about profits with bad consequences for the customers, only one of many.

[BoogalooDude]

Yeah, that's it. I guessed so, that it must happen to others too, because it's easy to do so. And everyone can type easily a comma intead of a period, and then google makes $8 out of 0,08. So if google would be really concerned of the best customer experience, then they must have THANKED me for making them aware of it, and gladly give me the money back (it's not even giving back because I didn't pay yet).

Yes, one can say it is in my responsibility what I do, but what responsibility is that? I have made no damage to google, I have no make THEM lose money.
If they would give me the money back, they would have no disadvantage whatsoever! So what?
If I work for a company, and I should clean a house, and I clean the wrong house, ok, then I can't expect them to give me money for it, because then they have really lost something, but if google wants to take money from me for a mistake that brings no disadantage to them, then it's just TAKING ADVANTAGE of me. It is easily to see that it is not reasonable to bid so high.
It is almost the same thing if you go to a shop, buy something for $10, give a $100 bill in mistake, and go out. And the vendor doesn't say hey wait, you get something back. And when you realize, and go back to the shop, then he says hey it's your responsibility what you do with your money. I can't give you anything back.

I don't care abot the $11 anymore, but I care about how I am treated here as a customer. It's NOT customer friendly. They could easily have given me the money back and it wouldn't have done them any harm!
And they could have improved that with the messing up with the comma.
But THAT would lose them maybe 100s of 1000s of dollars!
This is not the only example where one can see that google cares about profits with bad consequences for the customers, only one of many.


You know I would have given you the benefit of the doubt if you had just held up your hand and taken responsibility for what is basically a trivial mistake. Your attitude that google ripped you off is ridiculous.

Your behavour is typical of the blame culture that exists today. Nothing is ever your fault and if you fuck up, hey, someone else should take the blame and put everything right too....right? Google should give everyone their money back when they say they've made a mistake right?

It's not your fault that you're looking for someone else to blame, it's societies fault as a whole for allowing this kind of behaviour to become the norm, you're just a victim of a general laziness but I'm fighting that attitude right now by taking you to task for your mistake and your 'blame someone else' attitude.

So in a nutshell....You fucked up not Google, it's nobodies fault but yours, you're a grown up, take responsibility for it, deal with it and hopefully learn something from it.

[ColinSick]

Damn BD........Despite our differences, we share many of the same views on the world.

Great post........albeit perhaps a tad harsh on andyz. :)

At any rate there is wisdom in your words. Very well stated.

[BoogalooDude]

Damn BD........Despite our differences, we share many of the same views on the world.

Great post........albeit perhaps a tad harsh on andyz. :)

At any rate there is wisdom in your words. Very well stated.

Gracias senor, I think that we do indeed share some core values.

Andyz, I appologise if I vented on you but I stand by what I said and I hope other people reading this will consider that position.

It's up to all of us to stop this blame culture by not letting people get away with it and by not doing it ourselves.

Be the change you want to see in the world.

[andyz]

BD, however you see it, fact is, that they take advantage of my mistake and shove money in their bank for no value in exchange. That's just plain unethical, and THAT's the point, my friend. You have no right to say how I should behave, because you're not my father or what.
I have the right of free speech and critisize a bad behavieour from a company, and that should help others also, so in fact what I've done is SOCIAL! Do you think I post it here so that I get my money back? No, it's because of warning others, so that it doesn't happen to them, and maybe when this theme is more in the open, then google become more concerned to treat their customers well.

In fact society suffers badly from individuals like you, that hit on other people. The world would be much better without such :throwup: postings like yours.

[Miles Baker]

All of this bitching and moaning over $11? Good grief!! :confused:

[BoogalooDude]

All of this bitching and moaning over $11? Good grief!! :confused:

Don't miss the point Miles, the bitching and moaning is a symptom of a larger problem that needs to be addressed.

[andyz]

Yes? And what is your problem that you need to insult me?


All of this bitching and moaning over $11? Good grief!! :confused:

It's NOT about the $11, it's about their attitude, I just said that before.

They have offered to pay the money back, but I didn't take it, so I think that it's proof enough that it's not about the money. Right?

[john324]

I didn't read it all, but at the end of the day you have to pay for your mistakes. You are the one that made the mistake and not google. Google have many tutorials on how to use their system and if you make a mistake it's your fault. If they compensated everyone for their mistakes then Google will be facing much more fraud compared to what they currently have. There will be hundreds of people bidding and pretending they made a mistake if they make a loss when infact they knew how to use their system, but just were not quite sure how to make a ROI.

[dealsabound]

Losing money sucks. :angry: Hopefully this will help prevent you from losing more money in the future and so the experience will save you money in the long haul. :)

Cheers.

[Hypothermic]

I noticed that the way you express something in just cents. You juse a comma.
($0,11)

Can I ask why so?
It's not Gooles Job to make sure you enter the write bid amounts.
If it's to low, they will tell you. If it's to high, they assume you know what you are putting in.

You are the only one putting in numbers for you CPC, not Google.

If you enter 0,11 into Google. It will read it as 11.00 Dollars.
The same would go if you wanted to enter 0,25, it would be 25 dollars.

I understand when you were entering this, you were thinking, I am going to bid 11 cents. Basically, Google does not understand your syntax of numbers, so it converts it into something it understands.

Can I ask something, have you always typed things like this.
Or was it merely consequential that use used a comma when enter bid prices in Google and wen wring this post?

[andyz]

I'm used to use comma I guess. It's normal.