Well, if Google doesn’t want them as clients, why does it expend so much effort in helping affiliate recruitment scammers to sign up users it doesn’t want? It’s just a recipe for pain.

I’m not blaming Google for the schemes. I’m saying that the situation in the AdWords Help Forum is that it can no longer be an effective user to user help forum. And amongst the reasons is that Google is itself working hard to recruit advertisers that it would rather not service. You don’t think that’s a bit, well, counterproductive?

It’s *Google* that is supposed to be turning off the Google Money/Cash/Treasure accounts that it doesn’t want. But drop in a cutout or two and, hey, there’s Google subsidised advertising and Google co-marketing vouchers. Join the dots. You want to deliver better customer service, and have a better reputation? Then stop recruiting people you’ll disappoint. Seems pretty easy. If you’re recruiting too many of the wrong prospects, stop recruiting them.

In this article, I’m not defending the people who fall for these scams. I am suggesting that when Google lends its name and reputation implicitly to these scams, it causes brand damage and a poor customer experience. And that’s probably not a good idea, except in the very short term. (And by short term, I mean “as long as it takes to discover that you are subsidising people you will inevitably later ban”).

Clearer? :)

However, to my mind, blaming Google for these dishonest schemes is like blaming the phone company because a dishonest telemarketer called you and led you to fall for a scam.

I’m a big believer in personal responsibility. The people falling for these scams without doing any research to figure out how legit the offers are can’t blame anyone but themselves.

If they have complaints, they need to take them to the companies that sold them the scheme, not to Google. I wish they didn’t wind up at the forum, but I can’t honestly say I think it’s Google’s responsibility to offer them customer support.

As far as the other issues–credit card failures and promo voucher problems, I suspect that the percentage of people having problems is small in comparison to the number of people submitting credit cards or receiving vouchers each day.

Theresa