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Tell HN: Dear Google support” ad in SJ Mercury News today

85 points by Tempest1981 ↗ HN
This company ran a full-page ad in the SJ Mercury News today, on page A5, asking Google for help:

Screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/7h0H4lO

Interesting strategy to get help from support. But might it backfire?

  __________________________
Dear Google:

We love you. We really do.

SO MUCH THAT WE SPENT $865,346.15 WITH YOU LAST YEAR. AND THIS YEAR WE WANT TO SPEND EVEN MORE.

But we're having an issue with our Google Ads account and it's preventing us from taking this beautiful relationship to the next level. Nothing major. Should be an easy fix. We just can't seem to find the right person over there to help us fix it.

Please don't take this the wrong way, your phone agents have been great and very friendly (especially Surabhi, we could talk to her all day) but they've been unable to point us in the right direction and, as a small company that relies on your awesome Googleness for much of our success, we're growing concerned.

Any chance someone over there could spare 5 minutes for us and make our dreams come true? We'd sure appreciate it.

  Much (much) love,
  Corey Newhouse - Founder & CMO
  ICG America, Inc.
  <phone>

39 comments

[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 94.8 ms ] thread
sattoshi
Is this the new escalation process?

1. Twitter 2. Hackernews 3. Full page ad

Minor49er
4. Start a competing ad agency 5. Get bought by Google 6. Google dissolves the company because they can't resolve the issue
greenyoda
A full page ad in the SJ Mercury News may be more likely to be seen by upper level Google management than a post on HN. It's also more likely to be seen by other big Google customers, who might be convinced to put additional pressure on Google. And it might be noticed by other large news publications.

If Google is alienating customers who spend almost $1M/year, they may have deep systemic issues that require a significant course correction. That would need to happen at the highest levels of the company.

reaperducer
A full page ad in the SJ Mercury News may be more likely to be seen by upper level Google management than a post on HN.

So true. There's a reason that Facebook takes out full-page ads in newspapers almost every week.

Rastonbury
It looks like 800k a year doesn't even give you an account manager as the ad refers to phone agents

A monopoly doesn't care, this ad shows it - a business is begging for Google to take their money and is reliant on them. If this happens anywhere else it's an immediate switch to a competitor

Same thing with FB, there are numerous accounts of local businesses losing a chunks of revenue when ad accounts get restricted

dusted
4. is probably to sue them for "15 minutes to talk to someone"
Trias11
4. Billboard ad

5. TV Ad

6. SuperBowl Ad

askhertwice
Kinda genius and very well written. But full page? That's gotta be a $10k buy.
pcthrowaway
Might be worth it for them in PR alone
greenyoda
Definitely. It gets the name of "ICG America" in front of thousands of potential customers, and demonstrates that they can think of innovative ways of solving difficult problems. And mentioning Google is a very effective way of attracting readers' attention, since it's a name that's much more recognizable than their own.
reaperducer
That's gotta be a $10k buy.

If you're losing $10k/day because nobody at Google has the power to fix things, it's a bargain.

Trias11
There are LOTS of people at Google that has THE power to fix things in minutes.

The thing is NONE of them gives any shit about customers.

layer8
That’s just 4 days of what they are already spending, according to the ad.
jhpaul
Full page was likely a cost-effective option to get this on someone influential's kitchen table or desk - or maybe on a coffee table in the google offices. A smaller might be cheaper (though not always), but less impactful.

Assuming a slight increase from BayAreaNewsGroup's 2019-20 prices[0], this cost between $6K and $13K as a black-and-white, full-page (6col x 21in) run on a Monday.

A full-page ad lists for $12,205 with opional distribution to Marin for an additional ~$1K and color for a 15% surcharge. There's also an "Early Week - Two Insertions in Three Days, Monday thru Wednesday" offer for $6K which gives an idea how much discount they may have gotten by running on a Monday instead of Thursday or Sunday where the impressions would be higher.

[0]: https://s3.amazonaws.com/convertlyimguploadeast/eab8e660-893...

xhkkffbf
Maybe they could have purchased targeted ads on a search engine-- ads that went to the right eyes. If only there were a search engine who could fulfill that wish.
sebastien_b
Our company’s Adsense account got blocked for no apparent reason, with no communication as to why for over a month - total radio silence. We eventually gave up and just created a new account.

The way I see it, any company that sells a service for money should be legally required to respond to their clients, and there should be an ombudsman to handle any complaints.

Nobody should have to resort to posting an ad in a paper to get support for a paid service.

schappim
I had the same thing happen w/ our Facebook ads account (we were not running ads).

I'm sure it was just another case of Algorithm run amock.

I went to lodge an issue and they required me to associate my personal mobile number with my Facebook account, something I've been avoiding doing for years. F that!

sjtgraham
I don't think it's necessary to legislate for that per se. This is just indicative that Google has monopoly power in online advertising. With at least somewhat functional competition you would have an alternative to buying shame ads in Google's local newspaper.
sebastien_b
> I don't think it's necessary to legislate for that per se. This is just indicative that Google has monopoly power in online advertising.

Unless the government actually steps up and breaks up the monopoly, the only other possible solution I can see is legislation.

deathtrader666
Is there no way to serve a legal notice to Google in this case? I reckon they are bound to respond once their lawyers get involved..
xhkkffbf
I've heard that the thing to do is sue them in small claims court. Apparently Cali regulations prevent them from sending a lawyer and so Google has to send a real manager.
sebastien_b
That I would sit in a courtroom to listen to.
Trias11
Why is Google behavior of shutting down AdSense accounts just before payout is due haven't seen a gigantic class action yet?
chevman
Does nobody in Silicon Valley understand how to negotiate a contract anymore?
yumraj
Contracts are negotiated when both parties are somewhat equal and have at least somewhat similar power. When dealing with a monopoly, contract terms are simply dictated.
amznbyebyebye
As much as folks like to hate on AWS on here, it’s definitely an area where they got things right. Call it customer obsession or just good ol fashioned business but making sure customers can get things resolved in a timely way, even at the cost of the bottom line, goes a long long way to maintaining trust. Especially for customers and businesses that are your money makers.
sebastien_b
Customer service is something we pay special attention to at work, and it's really paid off for us. We've had many people reach out to us after resolving an issue they had about how attentive and helpful our staff is to their concerns.

If clients don't feel they can trust you with your service, they won't stick around.

ThinkBeat
I would say I have had a different experience with AWS customer/ technical support.

The company hired two "certified elite" AWS consultants and they needed the same help they were not getting it either but the last sentence made a lot of sense.

We are far far too small to be real money makers for AWS.

is_true
A friend got a lot of help from AWS support and he spends less than USD 10 a month. Even if they don't help you at least they answer, it's a nice touch for those of us with anxiety issues
WisNorCan
A good approximation of market power is how poor your support can be while still having a thriving business.
taubek
I don't see how could it backfire except for a fact that they will probably get a lot of offers from Google Ads experts/agencies that will tell them "We can do this for you".
dusted
I sometimes think about how utterly screwed I'd be if googles bot decided that I'd done something wrong.. I'm not a celebrity, and not a company, there'd be zero change of getting my life back. I get depressed just thinking about it.
AA-BA-94-2A-56
The monopoly is so bad that the first words uttered after "Dear Google" are "We love you". A petty king bowing before his feudal overlord.
ralston3
It really does read that way. How are you (the customer) spending so much money with them (Google) but you're using these words? Wild times indeed
mdrzn
This is so depressing.. and Facebook has the same exact issues with their Ad Manager. I doubt there will be a way to fix these issues.
ThinkBeat
This seems to be a good approach for FAANGish companies if you can afford it. Does anyone have an estimate on how much an ad like that would cost?

(The desperate obsequiousness of whatever sycophant put this together is vomit inducing. ) Also more from the consumer side:

"Hey Facebook, I am FFFFFFF why did you delete my account? You suck" "Amazon why did you remove 50 Kindle books from my collection, I -bought- them didnt I ?"

Actually, typing that the New York Times or The Washington Post should have a feature once a week or every day where frustrated FAANGish customers get vent ti a large audience and have a chance at being heard.

It would help those who can't pay for huge ads out of pocket.

glaucon
Others have commented on the fawning nature of the communication (and I do appreciate if you're ICG America you might feel like you have to fawn) but what about the "But might it backfire" ?

Gawd this is an absurd situation. BREAK IT UP NOW and put FB on the block beside it.