[Shank]

+Matt Cutts commented on this particular issue on Google+: https://plus.google.com/109412257237874861202/posts/RpNNBRr6...

"I can't easily imagine Jef Poskanzer was click-spamming AdSense, while at the same time I trust the judgment and abilities of the AdSense team. +Jef Poskanzer , I hope someone digs into the case to investigate deeply and reaches out if there's any more info we can share."

I have to agree, though the robotic reply with non-specific answers doesn't help one bit. Edit: In reference to the article, not this post.

[franklindholm]

It disgusts me tremendously that a known name gets this special treatment, in my eyes it only proves how corrupt Google are becoming. If they would have treated Jef Poskanzer exactly like anyone else, that is ignore his obvious innocence and send him a form letter and freezing all of his money, that would have in some way given legitimacy to the claim that they trust the judgment and abilities of the AdSense team. Going out of the way to help someone with a reputable name proves imo that they DON'T trust their judgment and abilities, and even implies that they know that they incorrectly close innocent peoples accounts.

I would even go as far as to say that I suspect fraudulence from Google in this case, if they were honest why don't they offer proper support and help in cases like this? Imagine any other business doing this, a bank "We have closed your account and frozen all your money because our secret algorithm indicates that you have violated our agreement. We won't say what in our agreement you have violated, you have one appeal and after that the final decision is made" and the response to the appeal "We have read your appeal, but decided that our secret algorithm made the right call, and you have violated a part of our agreement, but we still won't say what part."

Why aren't Google called out more on things like this? Their business needs to be regulated just as much as any other businesses.

[kmfrk]

It basically comes across as "We're sorry we got caught with our shitty treatment of customers" instead of as an apology.

[Shank]

It looks as if Thomas Siegel was informed by this post.

"Thanks for raising this Matt. I work with the Ad Traffic Quality Team and we'll look into this and investigate right away. I'll reach out to Jef to discuss in more detail."

[nidennet]

The question is though, even if this was a mistake and Google admits it was their 'robot' or something like that, is the bridge totally burned by now.

Yes Jeff was making a fair amount of money and why not? For all the work he put in through the years, why not get a monetary compensation that will allow him to at least cover the hosting expenses. If Google turns back and says yes we made a mistake, we are reinstating your account, will Jeff go back to them or will he say eff this.

It is very difficult for someone to forget when they have been treated unfairly.

Again the above is all what-if scenarios but just saying...

[NameNickHN]

But what hope is there for people les famous?

[narad]

It is too sad to notice that Google only serves famous people. All those people who raised their voice on blogs and HN are given priority. What about the people who post on the Google Adsense forums and GAN Forums? Nobody from Google even replies to those legitimate queries.

[GFischer]

Even when they do, their answers are not informative.

I asked about whether one website offering a free AdSense coupon was sponsored by Google or not, and I received contradicting answers.

Edit: The website was www.googleadwordspromos.com/ and an example of conflicting answers is here: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/adwords/thread?tid=62a...

[sireat]

Only solution is to become famous or have someone famous take on your cause.

This has been the case with Google forever(and discussed on HN multiple times), you get customer support if you are notable or raise a big enough stink.

Reason Google does it, is because they are not a customer centric company, they are engineer driven company(or at least used to be, what they are now is an open question). They save serious amount of money by not having human employees evaluate each AdSense account on case by case basis.

Just don't put all your eggs in Google basket is all I can say.