I have been bloody shaking my head over this one. One would think that a company the size and worth of Google wouldn't have to stoop to such scummy low levels to make money.

On the other hand, perhaps that is a part of WHY they ARE Billionaires. Who fights corporate america anyway? Or tries to...me; that's who. I began today. Here is my story and I am sticking to it - it is 100% TRUE.

Over 4, yes, FOUR months ago, I deleted the 2 google adwords accounts I had as I didn't need them any longer; not paused but - DELETED. The first thing I noticed a week or so later was when I did a search on google for one of my keyphrases, I happened to notice on the right that - BLAM! - there was one of my domains in the paid search listings. It wasn't supposed to be there - I had DELETED it.

So I wrote to Google and eventually they replied and here is their reply in there reply in total:

--BEGIN QUOTE--

Hello Melanie,

Thank you for your email. I've looked at your account and found that your ads stopped running on June 8, 2008. Please be assured that you didn't accrue new or additional charges after this date. After you pause or delete all of your campaigns, you may continue to receive charges for up to 60 days due to the AdWords postpay billing cycle. (Me - what kind of BS is THAT!?)

The bill you received on July 27, 2008 was for charges accrued between June 20, 2008 and June 30, 2008 when one of your campaigns was active. These charges were not included in any other bill. You can verify details of this charge, such as date range and campaign name, by clicking on the Invoice number link beside ‘Payment received' on your Billing Summary page.

You can also verify campaign activity for this specific charge by adjusting the date range on the Campaign Summary page of your account (according to the instructions found here https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=45950&hl=en_US.) You'll then see the statistics of clicks and impressions accrued between the selected dates. (ME - adjusting what? the account is DELETED.)

If you have additional questions, please visit our Help Center at https://adwords.google.com/support to find answers to many frequently asked questions. Or, try our Learning Center at http://www.google.com/adwords/learningcenter/ for self-paced lessons that cover the scope of AdWords.

We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising available.

Sincerely,

Syeda

The Google AdWords Team

---------------- Want more info on AdWords? Check out the official AdWords Blog, "Inside AdWords," at http://adwords.blogspot.com to get the latest news, information and tips.

(Original email from me to google)

Original Message Follows: ------------------------ From: custsup@xxxx.xxx Subject: WHY do you keep CHARGING ME!?

Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:53:04 -0700

Why do you keep charging me when my account was on PAUSE for MONTHS and nthen DELETED and STILL this shows up on paid for advertising on your site: # Cell-Phone-Numbers.com Official Reverse Cell Phone Numbers Site Get Cell Phone Numbers Here - 100% Guaranteed or Money Back

I am really UPSET about this!

Does someone ELSE have access to my account?

Please reply ASAP!!

Melanie Kxxxx

AdWords_Email: peye25@xxxx.xxx AdsUserLocale: en_US Customer_ID: Language: en Name: Melanie Kxxxx Source: cuf aw_user: yes topic: none

--END QUOTE--

So, here it is August 30 - I just got ANOTHER bill for 160.40$; I immediately grabbed the tely and phoned up my credit card company who assured me the last THREE months of charges would be immediately removed from my account balance for September.

I can't WAIT to see if I get a nasty note from Google. No doubt I will be expunged from google forever - but, truthfully - I DON'T CARE. I enjoyed a #1 to #4 spot on their front page for over 3 years - then one sad night it was gone...just like that int he blink of an eye. I wrote to them to ask why; what happened to no avail - they never replied.

I guess you need to mention money or scream fraud before they write back...

Anyway - Buyer Beware. This is what WILL happen to you if you cancel your account.

Credit Cards:

I don't run a balance on any credit card I have - I pay them off entirely each month. I mean who would pay 17% to 20% in INTEREST to these clowns by running a balance and only paying their monthly minimum amount?!?? That is insane.

Now I do know that probably 80% of people DO this (I have NEVER understood why) because if you cannot pay off your card, you are obviously living beyond your means and by doing so, are getting farther and farther into a credit hole each month that you will be lucky to ever dig yourself out of.

Of course I understand things of an emergency nature/situation; however, this is generally Not the case for most people.

The credit card companies probably don't much like people like me who never run a balance because they don't make one thin dime from me.

The reason the interest rate they charge keeps going up to where it is now an insane 19% standard is because they have finally gotten well over half of america in debt over their eye-balls and they know these people will ALWAYS be paying that minimum amount.

If this is something that you have done to yourself - if I were you, I would consolidate (transfer) all your debt onto one card. Most (if not all) the credit card companies offer this and Want you to do it so badly! - Why? Because they really win!

After you have done this (making sure to not forget any auto-payments that come off the other cards) Cut the rest up into tiny little pieces before you even have a chance to THINK about it and never use the one you have left ever again. You will be paying on it Forever if you only pay the minimum amout so try hard to budget and pay as much as you can each month on the debt. You Need to escape credit card hell.

I hope this helps you in more ways than one!

Melanie