Warning

Hey everyone. I just wanted to take a moment to warn you about this.

As other blogspot users you may have received something from Google Adwords in May that was a promotional offer to induce people to run adwords campaigns for their blogs. They offered $100 free as a startup for your own personal campaign. They said that it was no obligation and that you could cancel at any time if you decided you didn't like it.

Like a schmuck I signed up. The website was ridiculously cumbersome and I saw no real effectiveness from the 'campaign' as they called it. Within a week I figured out it was a scam and decided to cancel the account. The website was such a maze and so difficult to navigate that it took me over an hour to try to find out how to cancel my account. On top of that there was no genuine way to get help. Any time I clicked on their 'help' button it took me right back to all the other pages I'd just dragged myself through so I had to go through the whole process again. They provided no email address and no phone number to get direct help. From the way the thing was set up, I'd had to give my credit card details to set up the account to begin with and I couldn't figure out a way to take that off. It wouldn't let me go beyond that point. Finally, after over an hour of stress, I canceled the account and was glad to be out of the scam.

I heard nothing from them for two months, all the time that I was traveling out of the country.

Then, out of the blue and one day before I was to fly back to the states, I got an email from Google Adwords that said the card on my Adwords account had been declined when they'd tried to charge me $91 for my July bill.

WHAT!

What Adwords account? What July charge? What $91?

I immediately went to the Adwords website to find some way to contact them, since they said I couldn't reply to the email they'd sent me.

I couldn't find any way to contact them. What a surprise. It took me over half an hour of find some way around their 'help' button and locate an extremely obscure way of contacting them. I sent an email stating that I'd canceled my account in May and that I didn't owe them anything and for them to refund me the money they'd charged.

They emailed back saying that the charges were legitimate (in June they charged me over $50) and that I had to pay the $91 bill for July.

I emailed back explaining that I didn't owe them anything, especially not for any 'campaign'. I'd canceled everything within a week of setting it up and if their faulty website was trying to get money out of me then they had to refund it.

They refused. Repeatedly. I went to my bank as soon as I got back to the states and found out about all these overdraft fees caused by these fraudulent charges from Google Adwords. Not only was I out of pocket by the significant amount Adwords taken from me in June, I was stuck with all these overdraft fees. I explained the situation to my bank and put in a claim for fraudulent charges.

Now I'm waiting to get my money back although I recieved another email from them just now saying that they weren't going to give me my money back and instead expected me to pay them for my 'campaign' in July! It's such a massive headache to know that I've been cheated by them for the past two months and I didn't have any clue about it.

Whatever you do, don't get involved with Adwords. It's a major scam. If you're already involved with Adwords then I suggest you keep a sharp eye on the charges they're making on your account. And if you're in the same position I'm in and can't find a way to contact them for help then this is the email address I found after ages of searching for it:
adwords-support@google.com
I hope it proves to be more help for you than it has for me and if not then at least you won't have to spend forever looking for a contact method.