I received the following email last night, and it still has my fur standing-on-end (defensive rage).

Subject: Google AdSense ad serving has been disabled to your site

This message was sent from a notification-only email address that does not
accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello,

During a recent review of your account we found that you are currently
displaying Google ads in a manner that is not compliant with our program
policies
(https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=48182&stc=aspe-1pp-en).

--------------------------------------------------
EXAMPLE PAGE: http://foolswisdom.com/

Please note that this URL is an example and that the same violations may
exist on other pages of this website or other sites in your network.

VIOLATION(S) FOUND:

It is important for a site displaying AdSense to offer significant value
to the user by providing unique and relevant content, and not to place ads
on auto-generated pages or pages with little to no original content.

Your site should also provide a good user experience through clear
navigation and organization. Users should be able to easily click through
your pages and find the information they are seeking.

Please review Google's Webmaster Quality Guidelines (
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=66361 ) for
more information.

ACTION TAKEN: We have disabled ad serving to your site.

ACCOUNT STATUS: ACTIVE
Your AdSense account remains active. However, please note that our team
reserves the right to disable your account at any time. As such, we
encourage you to become familiar with our program policies and monitor
your network accordingly.

Issue ID# 3227412

--------------------------------------------------
Thank you for your cooperation.

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team
----------------
For more information regarding this email, please visit our Help Center:
https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=113058&stc=aspe-ai4-en.

Emphasis was mine.

The only pieces of useful information would seem to be “EXAMPLE PAGE: http://foolswisdom.com/“. The reason is provided as an exercise for the reader to solve, and the status of disabled, but active almost makes the whole thing humorous. The email also has the feel of treating good customer’s like criminals, because of how “bad” customers behave.

So what do I do with this information? “Please do not reply to this message.” That’s the real problem, not my AdSense account. I’ve received an anxiety causing email, and I’m helpless.

Don Dodge, then at Microsoft, now at Google(!), wrote October 27, 2007 what still resonates with me today “Will Google Docs and Spreadsheets succeed in the enterprise? I don’t think Google will succeed in the enterprise. Why? Customer Support.”

“Google doesn’t understand people,” [Don Norman] said. “Have you ever spoken to a Google support person on the phone? They don’t have them. Sure, they’ll direct you to their blogs — where you’ll be lucky if you can find the answer you’re looking for — or they’ll let you give feedback. But do they ever give you feedback on your feedback?”
FROM “DON NORMAN: GOOGLE DOESN’T GET PEOPLE, IT SELLS THEM” BY BOBBIE JOHNSON ON GIGAOM.COM, SEPT 5, 2011

I think they do understand people, and have a stubborn resolve to demonstrate that machines can be programmed to help man better than man can help herself.

They’ll tell you it’s a scalability problem:

If you have a billion users, and a mere 0.1% of them have an issue that requires support on a given day (an average of one support issue per person every three years), and each issue takes 10 minutes on average for a human to personally resolve, then you’d spend19 person-years handling support issues every day.

If each support person works an eight-hour shift each day then you’d need 20,833 support people on permanent staff just to keep up.

That, folks, is internet scale.

That is cold, machine cold, comfort.

Customer support isn’t the 1 in a 1000, 10 minute on average problem, customer support is the support you receive under exceptional circumstances. This is when you need support, and when most companies fail to deliver.

So what do you do when you need support from Google? Either you know a Matt Cutts (there is only one!), or you hope your friends, like Chris Messina, working on Google+ and other promising tools with warmth, will help Google find balance and treat their customers, like you know, people.

Oh, and if there is anyone on the Google AdSense team reading this, I suspect that there is a bug in your “review of your account” software, as you probably should have terminated CloudFlare’s account, not mine.

I actually own a Google shirt and enjoy wearing it. I admire the people of Google.

While at Flock I had the tedious, but very important task of reading (and responding) to all of the emails sent to feedback@flock.com — this was one more task in my 14 hr+ day and there was a lot of spam both automated and hand written, but I digress.

Sometime in the first few months of 2006, a friend told me that the following was on their internal forums:

Change the default search to Google.

With the response from Lloyd Budd of Flock:

It takes two clicks to change… your loss.

Dang, I thought, I must have been in a really bad mood to have written such an inappropriate response. So at the time, using gmail ironically, I quickly found the discussion. Dec. 4, 2005 the feedback read:

Change the default search to Google.

Why on Earth is it Yahoo!? I’m not going to use Flock based on this alone for now.

Now, my response is still poor, but it makes a little more sense in that I was responding to a hostile email. I definitely should not have responded if I wasn’t able to respond politely.

I’m not going to share who that feedback was from, but I did email them letting them know that it hurt hearing that they had misrepresented the conversation.

Its good to know that if you ever write or say anything about Google it may end up on their internal forums, maybe not the way you said it. It’s highly searchable.

Only as I start to research for this post did I rediscover my own writing “Lloyd, wanna quit your day job?“. I fondly remember Paul Rosenfeld’s excellent presentation about his QuickBooks Online team at Intuit blogging; it is ironic that as of March 28, 2007 “This QuickBooks Online Edition blog is no longer active.” and the content has been removed.

Last year , I used TurboTax to file my trivial 2005 US taxes before I dealt with the challenging Canadian taxing situation as a foreign citizen. I went to do the same for my 2006 US taxes as I was living in California for the first two-thirds of the year working for Flock.

Now, I don’t have a US address, so I get to the very end of the process and discover that the way the fields work I can’t pay the $49.95 for the service, so I can’t get print or file my return. (At the time I also discover I haven’t used any of the deluxe features and I can save $30 if I switch to “free” version, but you can’t switch later, so I would have to create another account).

Customer support is measured by the support you receive under exceptional circumstances. That is when you need support, and when most companies fail to deliver.

2007-03-19 I contacted support by email:

I am trying to pay for TurboTax Online ($25.95 plus applicable tax), but I have moved from USA to Canada. I can’t enter my Visa Billing Address because I no longer have an US address only a Canadian one.

(Their support web form does not accept + in the email address although their account system does. It is a valid email character.)

I don’t recall the day, but I also phoned and tediously spelled out my account name, email address, etc, and was promised a call back, but that never happened.

2007-03-20 I receive an advertising email “Finish TurboTax to Get a Fast Refund”. I shake my head and think “I am trying to finish”.

2007-03-20 I receive an email “TurboTax Help and Support Customer Survey”

2007-03-22 I receive a similar advertising email, this one titled “TurboTax: How Big Will Your Refund Be?” Commence more head shaking.

2007-03-24 I receive a similar advertising email, this one titled “TurboTax Support: Finish Your Return in Minutes” This has become a sick joke, I guess.

Other similar please finish advertising I received to another account:

• “TurboTax Help: We’ll Help You Finish Today” I wish!
• “TurboTax Refund: Your Refund Could Be More Than $2,000″
• “TurboTax: File Now And Save $20″
  

No one ever got back to me from me email (Reference Number: 070319-014535) nor my phone call.

Having exhausted email and voice support, today I try my last resort, “live support”. Ugg, only supports IE or Safari. Ok, ok, I am desperate enough to use IE7.

The wait was reasonable, but once connected to support, the conversation was very jilted with me sitting waiting for long periods of time hoping the support rep received my questions. Here is how it ended:

02_Vimal Venugopal: Okay then, I’m going to disconnect the chat session believing your questions are answered..
Lloyd Budd: the answer being you can’t help me.
Lloyd Budd: and Intuit does not want me as their customer.
02_Vimal Venugopal: Yup. We are really sorry for that..

I spent less time using Firefox successfully filling out and paying $12.95 with that same credit card to TaxACT Online then I spent wondering if TurboTax’s support rep was still having a conversation with me — I don’t mind if the person has to research an answer, just say so. I guess I am luckier than Vimal thought (see below).

As TaxACT Online says on their website, there were no gimmicks.

Please wait while we find an agent to assist you…
You have been connected to 02_Vimal Venugopal.
Lloyd Budd: hello
Lloyd Budd: hello?!
02_Vimal Venugopal: Hi and how are you doing today, Lloyd ?
Lloyd Budd: phew, this is working. I am doing well thank you.
02_Vimal Venugopal: I understand you that you are not able to log in with your password . Please do not worry, Lloyd. I will definitely help you with this issue.
Lloyd Budd: No, that is not my problem. I can login with no problem. It is paying that I am unable to do.
Lloyd Budd: I do not have an American address, only Canadian, so I can’t seem to pay by credit card.
02_Vimal Venugopal: We are sorry to inform you that you will not be able to process the credit card with the Canadian address, Lloyd.
Lloyd Budd: How can I pay then?
02_Vimal Venugopal: I would suggest you to use any of your known (friends or relatives) U.S credit card and the U.S Billibng address, where you can use and file your tax returns for the tax year 2006.
Lloyd Budd: Sorry, that is not an option. I use your other Quicken products. This is very annoying. What other options are there?
02_Vimal Venugopal: Oh.. We apologize for the inconvenience caused to you, Lloyd.
02_Vimal Venugopal: Is there anything else I can help you with today?
Lloyd Budd: Yes, I am still waiting for an answer to what other options are there?
02_Vimal Venugopal: Nope, Llyod. There is no other option.
Lloyd Budd: Well, I will probably never use another Intuit product again if I can help it. Good day sir or madame.
02_Vimal Venugopal: We are very sorry, Lloyd. Its the company policy.
02_Vimal Venugopal: I hope you agree that I have helped in resolving your issues today. You may receive a ten question survey from us through email in approximately 24 hours asking you about my performance on today”s contact, as well as comments you may have in regards to the TurboTax product. So we can continue with our promise to provide our customers with the best support available, please take a few minutes to complete the survey.Thanks again and have a good day!
Lloyd Budd: You have to be kidding.
02_Vimal Venugopal: So what have you decided, Lloyd..!
Lloyd Budd: You have provided no options. It is absurd to suggest that I could give access to a friend to pay for your service. The details are very confidential.
02_Vimal Venugopal: IWe are sorry to inform you that we are not authorized to do such. And also I have given you a suggest. There is no other option, Lloyd. I apologize you again.
02_Vimal Venugopal: And am going to disconnect our chat session now since your questions are answered.
Lloyd Budd: There is always another option. You could have chosen to give me this ~$20.00 product free, really costing you nothing, and had a happy customer.
02_Vimal Venugopal: So I will suggest you to go ahead and use the program and file your tax returns. Then I would kindly request you to contact us through phone at 1-888-777-3066 (or) through chat at http://support.turbotax.com to assist you in processing a refund for the extra charges.
02_Vimal Venugopal: Is that okay for you, Lloyd.
Lloyd Budd: I can’t print out without paying and I can’t use your payment method.
02_Vimal Venugopal: Is there anything else I can help you with today?
02_Vimal Venugopal: But if this really does’t work then there is no other option. You have to use any of your known U.S billing address and payment method. And charge their card. Then you can pay them later on. This is just my suggestion, Lloyd.
Lloyd Budd: I guess you can’t help me, because I no longer have a US billing address.
02_Vimal Venugopal: Then its really unlucky, Lloyd.
02_Vimal Venugopal: Go ahead and please disconnect if you have no other questions.
02_Vimal Venugopal: Okay then, I’m going to disconnect the chat session believing your questions are answered..
Lloyd Budd: the answer being you can’t help me.
Lloyd Budd: and Intuit does not want me as their customer.
02_Vimal Venugopal: Yup. We are really sorry for that..
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