Overture Australia's Customer Service is Atrocious!

If you are reading this you have probably typed Overture Australia's name into a search engine and this site has popped up alongside the Overture Australia page. You may be considering using the Overture Australia service. My advice is: DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME WITH OVERTURE AUSTRALIA.
My experience with them has been very bad. Their customer service is atrocious.

If you have time to spare; read on. If not why not check out the SENSIS or GOOGLE services - I have no shares in either of these companies and neither do I recommend them, except to say their customer service has to be better than Overture Australia's.

I include the GOOGLE ad's on the right as an ironic touch rather than an attempt to become rich beyond my wildest dreams.

How to annoy someone so much they set up a website to complain about you.

This is a ludicrous tale of a company unable to communicate adequately with it's customers.

I'm not really sure how bad the problem is, for all I know it could be just one employee who has taken a particular dislike to me, but the fact is the company has behaved very unprofessionally, and there seem to be no channels available to access anyone in higher management.

I have made several requests to find out about the setup at Overture Australia, but they have refused to give me any information. Using the Internet I have been able to discover that the Managing Director is Mel Bohse, I think the marketing manager may be Marcelo Silva - although I have sent a couple of faxes addressed to that name and got no response.

So it's possible that there are just 4 or 5 people working there. If you make it through to the email transcripts you will see that one name dominates, I have a feeling that the other one may be fictional, I am pretty certain that there is no position of "Office of the Editor in Chief", but it's hard to know what other claims may be fraudulent, because no one responds to my queries.

Quick update: As of the 30th August no one has responded to either of the faxes I sent. What arrogance. What contempt for thier customers.

Some of the story ...

I signed up for the Overture Australia service. With Overture US and Overture UK you can expect to wait a couple of days to get your keywords approved. Overture Australia took 11 days. And at the end of it they rejected 34 of my terms. Terms suggested by their own tool and already accepted by Overture US and Overture UK.

I asked them to reconsider their judgement. Then followed a chain of ridiculous attempts to justify the decisions. Ultimately 16 of these keywords were silently approved. But two days later 19 different (but previously approved) keywords were taken off-line.

There can't be too many businesses in Australia that have time to put up with this kind of nonsense - even I had to throw in the towel. It might have been worth fighting for if Overture Australia had been generating any traffic to my sites, but there was just a trickle, nothing that was going to generate any revenue.

Transcript of Emails

I do not recommend that you read this. I include it only for completeness. Unfortunately the emails are actually arranged backwards, and I don't want to waste any more time re-arranging them. So you'll need to go to the end of this page and scroll backwards. The emails are unchanged except that I have removed my email address (I get enough spam already).

Here is their last response.
17 Aug, 2004

Dear Mr. Tregonning,

Thank you for your inquiry.

As requested, we have placed your account offline and processed a refund for the remaining balance of $72.84 to the credit card ending in 3739. This refund should be reflected in your next billing statement.

Sincerely,

Marc Stevens
Overture Australia Customer Solutions

--------------------Original Message--------------------
Most of my ad's have been cancelled, so there does not seem to be much point in continuing with your service. You might as well refund my payment and close the account.

Regards,
Mel Tregonning
MakeYourWill.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Overture Client Services [mailto:billing@cms.au.overture.com]
Sent: Tuesday, 17 August 2004 3:03 AM
To: my email address
Subject: Reminder: Meeting Your $25.00 Minimum Monthly Spend


Dear Overture Advertiser,

We wanted to remind you that Overture requires all accounts to incur a minimum of $25.00 a month in click-through charges. Because the month is now half over, we thought it might be helpful for you to know that your account 3603599330 has accrued approximately $15.67in click-through charges. If your account does not reach the $25.00 minimum by the last day of the month, you will be charged the difference between your spend and $25.00.

You can avoid this charge by ensuring your site receives at least $25.00 in click-through charges this month. Doing so will also deliver more targeted customer leads to your business and provide you with more opportunities to sell.

To help you receive $25.00 worth of clicks, you may wish to consider using one or more of these simple strategies:

(1) Bid your listings higher
(2) Turn on Phrase Match or Broad Match to broaden the distribution of your
existing listings and receive more targeted leads
(3) Add new listings to your account
(4) Make sure your account doesn't go offline before receiving $25.00 in
click-through charges for the month

To try these strategies, use the link below to visit the Manage Bids page or the Add Listings page within the DirecTraffic CentreR.

https://secure.overture.com/s/dtc/center/?mkt=au&lang=en_GB

Remember, Overture is one of the most cost-effective online advertising methods available, delivering millions of targeted customer leads to advertisers every day. Make sure you're receiving your share of these sales opportunities by accruing at least $25.00 in click charges each month.

*Accounts that are offline for the entire calendar month are not subject to the $25.00 minimum. However, accounts that go offline at any time during a calendar month are still subject to the $25.00 minimum monthly requirement.

Sincerely,

Your Partners at Overture


QACode=AU_ENG_Min_Spend_Mid_Month



Subject: Re: Case #31737166


Aug 6 2004 17:22 PT

Hello Mel,

Thank you for contacting Overture.

Although we cannot provide you with specific information about the staffing in our Australian office, we can advise you that the Customer Service Manager of Overture Australia is Marc Stevens. Per your request, he has forwarded the term in question, 'slide scanner', to the Office of the Editor in Chief for additional consideration. After a careful review, however, we must stand by our original decision.

As you know, our agreements with our affiliates require us to apply our listing guidelines across the board. Please be assured that our intent is not to single you out. Rather, we are trying to ensure that we consistently provide users with relevant search results. That ultimately translates into more (and better) targeted traffic for you.

If you?d like to read more about our listing guidelines, please see:

http://www.overture.com/d/AUm/ac/ba/relevancy.jhtml.

Please don't hesitate to contact us in case of further questions.

Sincerely,

Timothy Jay
Executive Services
Overture Customer Solutions




--------------------Original Message--------------------
My phone number is fine. You are aware that I am outside of the US?

But I am happy to use email.

Can you tell me what the setup is with Overture Australia? How many staff they have and who is in charge? I have a complaint, but I need to speak to someone who understands the business.

Regards,
Mel Tregonning
MakeYourWill.com

Aug 4 2004 19:08 PT

Hello Mel,

Thank you for contacting Overture.

We attempted to reach you by phone however we do not currently have a valid telephone number on file for you. If you would like to speak to someone in our Executive Services, you can reach us at 626-685-5600, Ext. 4608 between the hours of 7:00 A.M. and 7:00 P.M. PST.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Timothy Jay
Executive Services
Overture Customer Solutions

E-mail Customer Solutions using our Support Request Form through our Support Center link found in DirecTraffic Center® dtc.overture.com

Visit the Overture Advertiser Center for helpful information on managing your account http://www.adcenter.overture.com


--------------------Original Message--------------------
Just in case you really believe what you are saying I'm going to explain it to you one more time.

A person (or company) that paints a house can be known as a "house painter". A person (or company) that scans a slide can be known as a "slide scanner".

If I'm looking for a person to paint my house, I think I might key in the words "house painter". With Overture Australia would I find someone, or not?

Not surprisingly I am a little annoyed at the way you have wasted my time on this matter. Please give me the name and direct phone number of your boss/supervisor.

Regards,
Mel Tregonning


-----Original Message-----
From: Overture Client Services [mailto:customerservice@cms.au.overture.com]
Sent: Monday, 2 August 2004 9:05 AM
To: my email address
Subject: Re: Case #31536582


1 Aug, 2004

Dear Mr. Tregonning,

Thank you for your reply.

The product you promote allows slide scanning in the sense that slides/photos are burned into digital form and then can be displayed on a monitor/TV. However, the product is not a slide scanner in the pure sense of the word. Such a search term is reserved for equipment designed to display slides as they are.

The Phrase and Broad Match feature is designed to expand the searches for which your existing listings are displayed. If the primary term
("transparency") cannot be approved due lack of direct content on the site, then you would need to apply for the secondary terms ("transparency alternative"). Currently Alta Vista AU is the only local partner that displays Phrase and Broad matches.

Also please note that the Term Suggestion Tool allows users to see :

- Related searches that include the term typed in
- How many times that term was searched on last month

This tool does not review your Web site against the terms returned. Therefore the results have no guarantee of being approved for your site.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if we can be of any further assistance.

Sincerely,

Marc Stevens
Overture Australia Customer Solutions

--------------------Original Message--------------------
Hi Marc,
Are you telling me that I have to think of the exact phrase that anyone might use concerning "transparency"? For example "a company that can copy my transparency onto a dvd disc"? In Overture UK and US they have a feature where you key in a significant term and flag it as a broad term. And just to make sure people don't fill up the ad' space with non-relevant ads they have software that automatically stops ad's that have a poor response.

So if "slide scanning" is ok why not "slide scanner" we scan slides therefore we are a "slide scanner". If you want your slides scanned you are looking for a "slide scanner" we SCAN SLIDES. I'm sorry to be so aggressive about this, but this is such a waste of everyone's time. If the ad's are not relevant they will be automatically dropped. It's not like I'm trying to sell porn under the heading of "garden furniture". The keywords are relevant and they were suggested by your tool.

Regards,
Mel Tregonning
SlidesOnDVD.com.au


-----Original Message-----
From: Overture Client Services [mailto:editor@cms.au.overture.com]
Sent: Thursday, 29 July 2004 9:09 AM
To: my email address
Subject: Re: Case #31472294


28 Jul, 2004

Dear Mr. Tregonning,

Thank you for your reply.

Our records indicate that "slide scanning" was approved and is online on the account. As far as the search "transparency", the site would have to sell equipment such as slide projectors or transparencies in order for you to bid on that search term.

Although we understand that someone searching on that term may be interested in your product, our Content guideline would prevent you from adding it to your account. On the other hand, you would be able to bid on a term such as "transparency alternative". We hope this clarifies the matter.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if we can be of any further assistance.

Sincerely,

Marc Stevens
Overture Australia Customer Solutions

--------------------Original Message--------------------
It seems that who ever is reviewing the ad's has insufficient knowledge of the subject matter. For example a Slide is also known as a "transparency". People looking to buy a slide projector would be very interested to know that they don't need to buy one they can view their slides on their TV. Some of the rejections are bizarre "Slide Scanning" that is precisely what we do ... how can that not be relevant? All the search terms I have submitted were suggested by YOUR site as relevant terms. Please review the rejections and reinstate ones that ARE appropriate. If you need any explanations of the links please feel free to ask. You could also consult your database that recommends the use of these key words.

Regards,
Mel Tregonning
MakeYourWill.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Overture Client Services [mailto:editor@cms.au.overture.com]
Sent: Wednesday, 28 July 2004 3:39 AM
To: my email address
Subject: Re: Case #31441329


27 Jul, 2004

Dear Mel Tregonning,

Thank you for your inquiry.

The majority of the declined terms lacked detailed and explicit content on the site in order for you to bid on them. As far as being able to view the Decline reason in the DirecTraffic Centre, please make sure that the language you have selected in your Account profile is set to English UK and not English U.S.

You can verify this through the Edit Profile link under the Account section of the DirecTraffic Centre. Please let us know if this does not solve the issue of no decline reason being listed in your Declined Listings page.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if we can be of any further assistance.

Sincerely,

Marc Stevens
Overture Australia Customer Solutions

--------------------Original Message--------------------
There are no reasons given for the listings being declined.

Regards,
Mel Tregonning
MakeYourWill.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Overture Editorial Services [mailto:editor_review@cms.au.overture.com]

Sent: Tuesday, 27 July 2004 9:10 AM
To: my email address
Subject: Re: Case #31132293 Account: 3603599330


Jul 26 2004 16:09 PT

Dear Mel,

Thank you for submitting your Overture search listing request. We have processed your request and have listed the results below.

For detailed information regarding your submission, please visit the Editorial Status page in the DirecTraffic Centre(r) (http://dtc.au.overture.com).

If you have Receipt IDs with pending listings, you will receive further notification when those listings have been processed.

Account ID: 3603599330
Account Name: Fabric Finder Pty Ltd
Account Status: Online


Receipt ID: 3147844
Case ID: 31132293
Total Submitted Search Listings: 74
Approved Search Listings: 40
Declined Search Listings: 34
Pending Search Listings: 0








Please do not respond directly to this e-mail because we are unable to receive e-mail responses to this address. If you would like to contact us remember to use the Support Request Form in the DirecTraffic Centre(r) (http://dtc.au.overture.com).

* To assist you with getting your search listings online, Overture may revise the title(s) and/or description(s) of some listings to help you to comply with our Listing Guidelines.



Sincerely,



Overture Editorial Services