Ask HN: Help Launched a startup, banned from Google AdWords

[andryharyanto]

Help! I just help one of my friends launch a startup, and one of our cofounders used multiple credit cards on the account, which apparently violated Google AdWords Terms of Service. A big chunk of our traffic comes from Google.

Anyone in this situation before? Is it remediable?

From: AdWords Support <[e-mail]> Date: Thu, Mar 15, 2012 at 12:49 PM Subject: Re: [#984727456] Contact Us

Hello Deepak,

Thank you for your email.

I did get reply from my specialist team.

After reviewing your account , it has come to our attention that your Google AdWords accounts do not comply with our Terms and Conditions. As a result, your account, and any related accounts you may have created, have been suspended.

As you may recall, the Terms and Conditions to which you agreed to when you signed up for AdWords state that Google reserves the right to review and stop running any ads when deemed necessary. You can review these Terms and Conditions here: https://adwords.google.com/select/tsandcsfinder.

NEXT STEPS

- If you are a prepay customer and have a balance remaining on your account, please visit http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=8440 to learn how you can request a refund for the remaining balance. Please note that the activation fee and any service adjustments are non-refundable.

- Please refrain from creating any new accounts, as they will be subject to the same suspension.

- For privacy reasons, AdWords Support is unable to provide any additional information regarding this account.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Sincerely,

Amita. The Google AdWords Team

[ScottWhigham]

This doesn't make sense - it's not against the TOS to have multiple credit cards on the account. EVERYONE has multiple credit cards on their account - that way if one declines, it just rolls over to the other card.

Can you elaborate on what you mean?

And off topic, that email - what little is human written (and not copy/paste) is full of typos and bad/non-standard grammar. That's unfortunate - I'm used to better from Google when I actually do hear from/talk to them.

[AznHisoka]

Going through Adwords support is like going through a black hole - here's an idea: create a new domain name, and use a credit card with a different name, and see what happens. I think they might even have banned your domain entirely.