Google AdWords ripoff

Some time ago, Google sent me an AdWords voucher of $75 for advertising on Google. Since I've been running my business for a while, I decided to advertise on Google, and Facebook at the same time.

With plenty of technical experience behind me, I hosted my own business site. And since I am hosting my own site, I have an unique insight into the visitor demographics. A while ago, I discovered that my business competitor is clicking on my ads, and so I contacted AdWords Support, providing indisputable proof that a competitor is clicking on my ads, depleting my budget.

Hi Mrinalini,

Below, I explained the process I go through in order to determine that the click originated from a competitor clearly out to deplete my budget.

Go to www.google.com.sg
1. Enter IT maintenance as the search term.
2. www.care.net.sg shows up as the first item (most of the time).
3. ping www.care.net.sg and it turns out the IP address for that is 202.73.54.248 (see attached ping-www.care.net.sg.jpg)
   
4. Go to http://wq.apnic.net/apnic-bin/whois.pl and enter 202.73.54.248 in the Search field (see attached apnic.jpg)
   
5. The attached apnic.jpg shows that the company is Computer Analysts and Recovery (CARE), and it owns the IP addresses 202.73.54.240 to 202.73.54.255.

In my initial report, I reported that the IP address clicking on my advertisements is 202.73.54.250, which falls within the range of the above company.

Since I also advertised on AdWords using "IT maintenance", doesn't that prove that CARE is a competitor and is clicking on my advertisements?

Below is the relevant web server log again:

The above log clearly shows that CARE is clicking on my advertisement (from the IP address 202.73.54.250) which shows up when a search for IT maintenance is run on www.google.com.sg.

Under what technical process did your engineers determine that the logs I submitted do not reflect an invalid click?

As you are clearly not a technical person, get your engineers to explain why it is not an invalid click.

Excluding the IP address is the equivalent of blindfolding your eyes when you see  someone stalking you. Clearly, blindfolding your eyes will make you unable to see them anymore. So does that mean no one is stalking you once you're unable to see them?

I hope the above proves my case. Now, get your engineers to prove why it is not an invalid click.

Thank you.

And their response, over the course of 15 emails are, in essence: trust us, we charge you even for competitor clicks. Also, Google admitted their own technical incompetence. In addition, where else I am open with the process with which I determine that my competitor is clicking on my ads, Google is not open on the process by which they determine that the click is not invalid.

However, we do not
have any method at the moment where we can detect which clicks are coming
specifically from your competitors and block them if they are not
suspicious.

Due to the proprietary nature of our algorithm, we cannot disclose certain
details about our monitoring technology or the specifics that we find in
your accounts. For your security, we also want to be sure that these
details remain confidential so they aren't used by someone wishing to
evade detection in the future.

Read Google's Ad Traffic with plenty of pinches of salt (not just a pinch).

So the take away lesson from my blog posting is, if you're going to advertise on Google AdWords, you're going to have to trust them, even in the face of indisputable technical proof. Be prepared to get ripped off when you advertise on Google.

Also, if you're currently a Google AdWords customer, my question to you is: How do you know if Google is not doing the same thing to you?