In a world of ATM’s, online bill pay, and self check-out lines we are becoming further removed from the companies that we do business with.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t reminisce about waiting in bank lines as a child or go spend an afternoon down at the DMV just to see how things are going…

But sometimes you want a real live human to actually just take a few minutes and actually LISTEN.

Like the recent back and forth we had with the search juggernaut Google.

The short version is that our Google Adwords account (which has been pretty much inactive for months) was suspended. Permanently. Without warning.

Now, it wasn’t even for trying to launch the prototype Easy Bake Meth Lab®, but rather a fitness site that we tried promoting as an affiliate… back in 2009.

Not a domain we owned or had any control over, but an experiment  from way back that we stopped promoting after only a few weeks.

So what did we get when we tried to use just a little bit of basic logic to get the account reinstated?

You guessed it! A canned response.

With this little gem:

Once a site is advertised via an AdWords account, the advertiser is required to take responsibility for it. Therefore, if the site is found to be in violation of our policies at any time, we reserve the right to take account level action. This holds true for paused ads and paused or deleted campaigns, which will still be reviewed based on our guidelines.

I don’t think I need to elaborate on just how ridiculous this is, but I just can’t stop myself…

If you try promoting something new as an affiliate with Google Adwords, and even if you decide that it sucks and stop promoting it, Google will come back years later and hold you responsible for any of their landing page violations. Including but not limited to:

  • Data collection sites that imply delivery of free items or other incentives to collect private information
  • Sites without relevant and original content that are designed for the purpose of showing ads
  • Affiliate sites without relevant and original content that are designed to drive traffic to another site with a different domain
  • Sites that make unrealistic promises of income claims or financial gains
  • Sites that are deceptive
  • Sites that distribute malware or spyware
  • Sites that contain extremely misleading/unverifiable or inaccurate claims

This includes future violations that will take place without your knowledge on a site that you have no control over… even when you are no longer even running ads!

Now when you go and dispute it, you get a round about, vague response that starts with “We’re sorry you’re experiencing difficulties with your AdWords account.”

A Lesson Learned?

Will our account get reinstated? Maybe…

Will we be looking for hot new get rich schemes and fat loss pills to promote? Hell no!

(Though I have heard good things about Schlonger® brand “enhancement supplements“)

The take away from all this is how you treat the people you do business with. While automation is great, simply firing off a canned response to everyone can end up hurting you in the end. You may end up with nut jobs on the internet posting pictures of your logo dressed up like the devil…

A key component of any business is recognizing when you do something wrong (which you will), and working to fix it (which you should).

Like when we refunded in full all the early adopters of the Easy Bake Meth Lab® (Which was surprisingly never the commercial success we had hoped for…)

It just goes to show that you care.

~ Dan!

So what is your most frustrating automation-gone-wrong story? Share it in the comments below: