If I tried, I couldn’t make up a story like this. First, there was the problem, then, there was the solution, and now comes the comedy. I hope you’re wearing your laughing pants.
Catching everyone up to date quickly:
- Google Adsense technical gitch screwed up my address change for a month
- The check is already six weeks overdue per Google’s schedule
- I chatted with them via email for a week
- Result, I must wait until the check is redeposited in my Adsense account and whatever monthly check issuing cycle that hits is when I get a new check sent out (maybe July, maybe August)
- I blogged about the experience
- Matt Cutts from Google stopped by, tipped his white hat and passed the case to someone in Adsense management
- A day later my check was sent via FedEx
So, today I go to cash the check. I’m standing at the teller window, and realize, gee – this is taking a long time. She looks up at me and says, “There aren’t sufficient funds in the account to cover your check.” *stunned silence* I say, “Excuse me, could you repeat that?” She does. My reaction?
First, denial and disbelief. I say, “Are you sure? Do you know who Google is? You’re kidding me, right?” She says she does know who Google is, but that this particular account doesn’t have enough funds to cover my check. I’m too stunned to move. I look down at the check handled back to me and look back up at her confused.
Next, shock and awe. I say to the teller, “How does a gazillionaire company like Google have a bank account with so little money in it?” She laughs. I laugh. What else is there to do?
Finally, the teller suggests I call someone. I stare at my mobile phone realizing I don’t have any numbers for any of the people I’ve spoken to at Google. She says, “Call the number on the check.” Great idea! So, I do.
It’s the main inbound number at Google. The Voicemail Lady and I have an exchange. You all know her voice.
Voicemail Lady: If you know the extension of the person you’d like to reach, dial it now followed by the pound sign.
Me: Nope, I don’t know any extension numbers.
Voicemail Lady: Press 8 to dial by name.
Me: Great! Pressing 8. *whistling to myself a bit*
Voicemail Lady: Please enter the first few letters of the last name.
Me: Hmmmmm, Brian the payments operations guy probably won’t work as a name in this system. That’s the result of Google’s employee privacy policy. I don’t know the guy’s last name. I know, Matt Cutts! Surely, Matt can get me transfered to Brian the payments operations guy or someone else. I type in Cutts.
Voicemail Lady: Please enter more characters.
Me: More characters for his last name? Or should I start on his first name, now? I’ll do both alternatively until some combo works.
Voicemail Lady: Please enter more characters.
Me: Entering Cutts, Matt.
Voicemail Lady: That userid is not valid. Goodbye.
So, finally I get over the enter more characters hurdle and hear what I believe was Matt’s voice – sternly.
Matt: This voicemail box is not active. It is not checked on a regular basis. Do not leave messages in this voicemail box. Beep.
So, I call back having heard an option given by the Voicemail Lady for customer service.
Voicemail Lady: For customer service/technical help press 5.
Me: I’m so there!
Voicemail Lady: (gives options 1 & 2) Press 3 for all other questions.
Me: Done.
Voicemail Lady: As Google does not currently authorize customer support, please see our website.
Me: Doh!
Google sent me a bad check! Now what?
I’m sure this is a result of someone trying to do something outside the normal and timed operations of this huge monolithic organization, but still…. WTF?
July 1st, 2008 at 9:09 pm
ooh! Note for Nadin ..
The Google competition are the likes of goodsearch.com. I search for Blue and Grey Search and Rescue Dogs .. maybe you should try it .. there are other search engines ..
July 1st, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Bloody good show! hysterical! Loved the whole thing. forget putting the check on ebay .. I’d frame it .. it’ll probably be worth something someday and whomever you leave it to can have the worth assessed by Antiques Roadshow. Maybe it would assess at half a mil by then. Now that would be some good humour! ha! thanks for the laf
May 23rd, 2008 at 5:15 am
You write really well! That was hilarious! This kind of automation of systems all over is really getting irritating.. Its a big problem.. Everytime we dial the number it takes a lot of time and patience to reach some human being.. and everytime the person is different.. then we prove our credentials.. he logs into our account.. basically the problem never gets solved… its used to be great in olden days… go to a particular office.. talk to the same person.. get the issue resolved then and there…
April 11th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Google has done it again. I am going through this situation right now. My bank has a hold on the check saying that Google’s account is showing as closed. So I am out $150 right now and I can’t get ahold of anyone.
March 24th, 2008 at 9:18 am
Very funny. We like it most. This is how attract blog thema.
March 11th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Google Adsense is the flagship of contextual advertising! Really the best webmaster program for earning money!
November 19th, 2007 at 6:04 pm
If it comes back canceled, auction it on ebay with the “canceled” stamp talking in a about a big profit!
November 2nd, 2007 at 1:10 am
wow, i can’t believe that happened to you….. did you ever get it taken care of?
i hope i never experience that
September 11th, 2007 at 7:18 pm
Was this Wells Fargo? If so, then I’m sure it’s more to do with the bank than Google.
September 9th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
This is priceless. I was reading it to my husband and my son replied “Google’s broke.” MY hubby is having the same problem with Adbrite. They are six weeks past due.
July 23rd, 2007 at 12:51 pm
This is way too funny, sorry, but it is
I had a problem with a check I lost and was re-issued, but the ‘good” thing is that I live in Romania and won’t call in the USA for the life of me. I think it would cost me more than the check’s value
I can relate to these issues with “automated” voicemails. They use this in many areas and sometimes it’s way too frustrating.
I never thought I’d read something like this, but as much as a problem for you, this was in the end something ‘funny’ for us, people who weren’t involved in this. I think I would have dropped unconscious if my check wasn’t accepted in the bank. There are still so many issues with the bank system in my country, that it would in the end be “normal’ to have this issue. Best of luck and many many GOOD checks from now on in any ad system you chose to monetize the site in. Awesome read
July 21st, 2007 at 4:26 pm
Which bank did you use? Chase? Bank of America?
July 17th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
No disrepect to yourself but that is hilarious – I still can’t believe what I have just read, lol.
July 17th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
What a story! Google must be super pissed that their bank did not help them out in this situation and in stead made them criminals by bouncing their check.
If our next checks from Google are issued in a new bank, it would be fair (and kinda funny!)
July 17th, 2007 at 7:30 pm
I think it’s interesting, in over a hundred comments so far, that NO-ONE has said “I had the same problem.”
I find it quite sad that when a company makes a single mistake, the natural reaction of the “blog commenting community” is to suggest that you run for the District Attorney, talk about the felony that has been committed, and criticise Google as being penny-wise, pound-foolish.
I agree that Google would be “more useful” if there was a customer support representative that I could talk to, but I know the problems running a help desk myself, when you end up on the phone for an hour with a customer who’s never used a computer before trying to set up what turns out to be a $5 purchase.
July 16th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
I’m surprised at the responses to this post. First and foremost, it is clear that the check was presented at Google’s bank not the bank of the presenter. How else would have the teller known to check the balance on the account before *cashing* the check? Also, the check wasn’t presented for deposit because the presenter didn’t have an account with institution.
Secondly, this problem was caused by the ignorance of a bank teller, not Google. As explained in posts above, the account is likely a ZBA. This, however, would not have prevented the check from being cashed, as it would have been at the bank’s discretion and there is no doubt that the bank would generally want to avoid embarrassing publicity for such a large client. The teller made a mistake, perhaps out of inexperience or perhaps some other reason — who knows what hell the teller had already gone through that day for the low pay and huge responsibility that is offered tellers at most institutions.
Finally, a link above explains that Google doesn’t want you to cash the checks, they prefer deposit only. Their desire that you deposit a check versus presenting it for cash, though, is not written in law or stone, so you were within your rights as a check-holder to determine your preferred method of requesting the funds.
You hit the customer-service trifecta in your experience. One that has entertained the hell out of me and many others: good show!
July 16th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
haha, what a story..funny and hilarious..how did the gazillion comp. got no enough fund to pay..hm..
July 16th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Wow… that is really shocking to me. I can not help but wonder how many empty bank accounts Google has, and how incompetent their accounting department has to be to actually cut a check from one of those accounts.
I agree with Jeremy… Auction it on E-bay.
July 16th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
Even istockphoto.com also ran out of funds.
A friend of mine who is photo contributor at istockphoto.com also had similar situation such as yours.
July 16th, 2007 at 9:32 am
Really Hilarious, specially the teller reaction !
And, is this the worst Customer Service from the top internet company ?
July 16th, 2007 at 4:52 am
hehehe, why get it simple when you can do complicated !!
Funny story, but must be a pain to live.
Thanks to share.
July 16th, 2007 at 3:36 am
All those saying you can’t cash a check at your bank unless YOU have funds to cover it… that’s rubbish, outright.
Your bank will cash a check, and they will hold the funds until the check clears… that’s been the case everywhere I’ve ever seen. Saying “You have to have the funds to cover it” is nonsense, and only relevant if you are making a withdrawal at the same time (in which case, if you had the funds, what does the check have to do with anything?)
Further, you can simply walk into the bank the check was issued from and cash it yourself, for cold hard cash… after all, that’s what a check is ultimately for.
July 16th, 2007 at 12:29 am
Er…must have had something else on my mind — “ass” should be “ask”.
July 16th, 2007 at 12:28 am
Just a clarification for those who thought it was wrong for the bank to say Google had insufficient funds; it wasn’t.
A bank cannot disclose the actual account’s balance, however, it can say whether or not there is enough money to cover a specific amount.
In my previous leasing job, many moons ago, we would regularly call the banks to ass “can XXX cover a check for $xxx.xx?”; we couldn’t, however, call and ask “how much money does XXX have in his account?”
-KB
July 15th, 2007 at 10:07 pm
You deserve a medal and a big lump of compensation for the time you wasted through no fault of your own and the mental anguish. Have you considered legal action for sending out bad checks ?
July 15th, 2007 at 9:37 pm
“Finally, that Google (and Yahoo, and AOL, and others) don’t ever offer the option to talk to a human being is just, plain STOOPID. It alienates your customers, and drives them to your competition. It’s simply penny-wise and pound-foolish.”
>>> Alienates customers and drives them to the competition? And WHO, is the competition? This is monopoly with textbook precision.
No matter what people say, at least today, the Internet BELONGS to Google (My memory is a bit rusty, did Al Gore SELL the Internet to Google after inventing it?)
July 15th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
While I don’t have an account with adsense, I can completely empathize with the customer service story…It took me some 6 weeks to have my email verified. So it was my firt acquaintence with Google and an issue that affected me directly. It didn’t matter who I tried to contact or what I did, my email just never got verified. Finally when I set up Google as an RSS feeder they verified it. Otherwise, I have two websites and a blog. A support email got back to me once explaining how to get your email verified, which of course I had already done or made requests for 3 times, with no luck.
What struck me about my situation was the fact that I had no recourse….there was just plain no one to talk to; so no Google Analytics for me! And tough–I’d thought about contacting someone my daugther knew who was interning at Google to figure out to get through their system. While it sounds as if most people get along well with Google and maybe I am in that 2% as somone mentioned, it was more than unusual to come across such a giant mega business who doesn’t have a handle on this part….or at least a customer service center. FAQ didn’t help much either. The questions were much more complicated than my problem so not necessarily touched on. Goofy.
July 15th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
I would think that you are going for the EFT now Mojo? Checks are just too much trouble.
July 15th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
This is going to be fun for those who received a bad check from Google. Luckily I haven’t even reached $100 since I only earn $2.00 from last year. Just hope that is a mistake or accidentally enter the wrong account by their employee?
July 15th, 2007 at 11:28 am
That sucks so bad!
I hope you get it worked out.
July 15th, 2007 at 8:05 am
Very funny and weird at the same time!! I guess that even the big players make mistakes sometimes…
July 15th, 2007 at 5:16 am
Could someone please post a link to a google check with a phone number on it please? Ive seen several hundred adsense checks, and none of them had phone numbers on them. So please, if you have one, post a link…
July 15th, 2007 at 2:35 am
Bank Expert – Stay in banking. Because the rest of the free world can spell holes.
I have worked in Banking for 20+ years as well. Some of your points are not necessarily true.
Point 1 is obviously true. But I work for one of the top 10 banks in North America and it is not our policy to honor checks in cases #2 or #3 because larger corporations don’t have this problem. Only smaller companies.
And #4 is not really going to happen. Try calling the Signer of checks you get from a larger corporation. You won’t be able to get them.
July 15th, 2007 at 2:01 am
That’s cool how you turned something that could have been perceived as really bad into something we can all get a laugh at. I guess laughing on the way to the bank is one thing… but when Google laughs at you as you leave the bank is another!
July 15th, 2007 at 1:42 am
come on, just one story found in google and yahoo for ‘google bad check’
maybe just a glich. 0.00000000000% error of issued check.
peace
July 15th, 2007 at 12:34 am
Hey, what was the ammount of the check? I meas was it a “normal” adsense check or $X00.000?
July 14th, 2007 at 11:23 pm
This is why I use the electronic funds transfer
July 14th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
Hahahaha,
Who loves google now?
July 14th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Ok now this is really weird. Even tho it can happen even to huge companies such as Google. Actually, i would rather worry if it happened with a smaller company instead.
Wonder if you will receive a compensation by Google for this mess. As someone actually did mentioned early, if your check is a low 3 digits…and you have the check bounce stamped..give it a try and sell it on eBay .. i think it is worth the try. (just don’t get made the G guys
)
July 14th, 2007 at 8:00 pm
Ok, this is really, really weird. That picture of you up above – is a dead ringer for what I looked like about 30 years ago. I mean, I’m actually looking at an old high school photo of myself, and looking at the pic of you on this page, and going, uh-huh, that’s me!
Hmmm…I wonder if my father cheated on my mother however many years ago that you were born.
July 14th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
How much was the check for? You should photocopy it and put it on here (without the account number details or anything).
You could also just email larry page and ask him to make it good.
July 14th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
Excellent. I wonder if in the end it was Google, their bank, or your bank that messed up.
July 14th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
Great story. I hope the check was for more than the cost of the bad check service charge.
I thought Google wasn’t paying us because their check hadn’t come but it turned out that Google sent our check in a plain envelope – no sender name. It looked like junk mail and had been put with all the mortgage offers.
July 14th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
I think adsense checks can’t be cashed. They have to be deposited… yup, I just searched for “cashing adsense checks” on google and the second link is: https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=32858&topic=8452
It says the checks are for deposit only.
July 14th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
Thanks for reminding me that I still have an active Adbrite account. I forgot about that thing. Maybe they owe me some money?
July 14th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Did your bank charge you a fee?
July 14th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Haha, hilarious entry
July 14th, 2007 at 10:49 am
I enjoyed your humor very much. Thanks for the great laugh. ^_^
Sorry to hear about what happened. I hope everything will work out for you.
July 14th, 2007 at 9:39 am
You just have to laugh, that or go insane
Clearly Google aren’t trying to dodge paying you the check, though it would be funny if you had in face discovered that Google had no money left!
The best bit of the story for me is Matt’s voicemail, or the invisible customer support
General fun, hope it gets worked out soon!
July 14th, 2007 at 9:18 am
A love Google services (search, maps, etc.) but itself.. Google is a mess.
I got 2 job offers from them and my experience with their HR is only terrible. They schedue phone appointments that never happen; they offer a position in Dublin just to let you know, when you close to the end of the process, that it is actually in Poland, etc. One of the HR persons didn’t know how to use Google Calendar!
They have localized customer service centers; one is Poland and they have some people working in Dublin. The problem is that at least in Poland, the money they offer is not at all competitive in order to attract good grads from the market.. and their Polish benefits don’t match the Irish ones in 20%.. not to mention the US ones. Moreover, the people I encountered were very inflexible.
Anyway, maybe the situation will improve in the future but what we need is a strong competitor to AdSense as for now there really isn’t one.