Google Account Suspended for Bad Reviews???

[terrencegordon]

Hi all. Long time no post, but in 16 years of working with Google (oh the joy), I was shocked at what I found this week.

A prospect of ours had his Google Adwords campaign shut off due to bad reviews on RipoffReport.com and a bad rating on BBB. THIRD PARTY WEBSITES!?! Meanwhile, their Google reviews are stellar!

Our prospect has good reasons as to these reviews and ratings (we all know BBB and RipoffReport are extortionists, and his industry is prone to taking hits). He pleaded his case, but nonetheless Google did "manual" research and decided that this went against their User Safety policy.

Here's the email from Google.

Most dealers go through agencies with MCC's so this wouldn't be an issue, but just curious if anyone has dealt with this and had success resolving it?

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Welcome back Terrence.

Ive never seen anything like this. I can't imagine why Google would place themselves in the middle like this. I wonder which review site had the most impact in their decision. I hear the BBB has made some internal changes.

 

[Advertisguy]

The BBB handles complaints no differently if the company is Accredited or not. The BBB did not file complaints against your dealer.. Their customers did!
Many Car dealers don't like the BBB because the BBB makes them back pedal to resolve a problem. They also don't like the BBB because they review their advertising for deceptive claims.

Ripoffreport on the other hand IS an Extortionist-- More claims of extortion aimed at consumer site | wfaa.com Dallas - Fort Worth I am not sure why Google gives them page 1 ranking and has defended them in court! Google has actually suspended Ripoffreports Adwords on their site.. does not make sense!

 

[Advertisguy]

Have the dealer contact the BBB and get their complaints resent out and get them to resolve the complaint! That should be step#1.

 

[terrencegordon]

Have the dealer contact the BBB and get their complaints resent out and get them to resolve the complaint! That should be step#1.

The BBB has given them an F rating. It's not about one complaint or even two. And resolving Ripoffreport.com is an impossibility.

They can't spend any money with Google until someone over there has subjectively deemed them worthy.

Google is absurd...for a lack of a more inappropriate term.

 

[JessicaRuth]

I don't understand how Google can do this or why they would do this. Do you have any other examples of this happening?

 

[mcampo2501]

We all know BBB and RipoffReport are extortionists, and his industry is prone to taking hits.

Could it be that your client was/is genuinely not following good business practices? If it's not about 1 or 2 reviews, I'm thinking your client actually does have a reputation problem. In fact, I don't know that I'm convinced this is a problem at all. [Begin rant] Dealers that do business nefariously should have to pay some kind of price. Our industry is prone to taking hits because some dealers still act in such a way that warrants these bad reviews. I'll also point out that your client's customers most likely didn't post their "reviews" on google, yelp, or other sites because they didn't feel like they simply had a "bad experience". It seems as though they are going to places like ripoff report and the BBB, because whatever your client is doing goes above and beyond a bad experience. I'm tired of competing against crooks, and though this may not apply to your client in this case, I'm glad SOMEONE is looking into providing consequences to dealers who are obviously unfamiliar that such things exist. [End rant] I would suggest that to begin resolving these issues, you should tell your client to stop doing whatever it is that is causing these reviews. Unless of course that would be a result of bad advertising. If that is the case, he should simply fire his advertising company. Hope that helps!

 

[terrencegordon]

Mike, I couldn't agree with you more. Bad business practice warrants bad customer reviews.

However, this isn't the topic. The fact that Google, which has been almost 100% automated when it comes to individual Adwords accounts, would take a subjective view of peripheral websites that aren't even part of their own network is unheard of.

I can't find anyone with a similar situation.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Found this - "Google’s Busting Bad; 350 Million Ads Get Kicked to the Curb" -

In 2013, Google removed 350 million bad ads and banned more than 270,000 "bad advertisers". This article points out Google banning ads/companies that are "scammers".

"Google says this is a result of a more thorough screening process which is keeping scammers out of the system in the first place."

The article mentions nothing around others being banned for negative reviews across other 3rd party review sites so this could be the first of many to follow.

Love to know if other dealers have had this happen to them...

 

[yagoparamo]

Terrence's case is all but estrange and scary.

Unchecked reviews on biased (towards getting a payment!) 3rd party extrusion websites are being used to judge the validity of a business.

Lots of dealers are potentially at risk based of this not just because they are bad people, but just because they may have not invested time on checking their online reputation.