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Reaching out to the Tessitura Community to see if any other organizations have experienced this issue with Google Grants.
We recently applied for a Google Grant and were told by Google that somebody in our organization had already applied and been accepted: we would have to get administrative access from the person with that email address. We thought it was from a long time ago, done by employees that are no longer here. When we were finally able to get Google to grant us administrative access, we tried to connect the Google Grants to Google Adwords, and were denied again because our account had been suspended due to violation of Terms of Agreement. When we checked the account we found the email under which the account had been created, and it was not ours.
It appears that somebody with a Google Gmail address may have used our non-profit Tax ID to create a Google Grant account in our name (hence why we could not locate the email address) and then used Grants to send spam to a video game YouTube channel. The scam lasted 2 days before Google shut it down. When we legitimately attempted to use our Google Grants, we were denied, presumably because they thought we were a black-hat spammer. When we applied for account reinstatement, we were denied twice.
We cannot get a live person from Grants to talk to us on the phone. We only get back form letter rejections through their web application, though we've explained in our reinstatement that it was not us, and perhaps fraud. We've been able to talk to somebody in Adwords on the phone, but that person does not have authority to reinstate nor speak for the Grants department that does.
We found this thread, which may indicate this is a growing problem.
https://www.en.advertisercommunity.com/t5/Google-Ad-Grants/Ad-Grants-Fraud/td-p/466892
We were wondering if any Tessitura organizations have experienced this issue and, if so, how (or if) they were able to resolve it.
Thanks, Drew
Your issue with Google Grants is 100% identical to what we experienced here at the Science Museum of Minnesota. It took me ONE YEAR - from August 2015 to August 2016 - to finally get resolved. I would pick away at it for an hour or so every couple weeks for that year. I bet I spoke with 20 different phone/email/chat representatives, each time having to start my story over. They gave me bad advice, I ended up setting up about 4 new AdWords account along the way. I posted about it here: https://www.en.advertisercommunity.com/t5/Google-Ad-Grants/Ad-Grants-Fraud/td-p/557667
I can honestly say Google AdWords support is the worst customer service I've ever experienced. I honestly got Google's version of a "you're dead to us" email -- saying any future account our organization ever created would be automatically rejected. "And don't reply to this email or call us." Frustrating.
What finally worked: Our new president is on a college board with the Senior VP of all HR for Google. Even after I was connected via email with several very senior staff at Google and the people that I think may have created AdWords, it still took two months to get resolved. My only guess on how it was fixed is someone from Google had to go flag our account so when I created a new AdWords account it wouldn't get automatically rejected.
Email me at emueller@smm.org or give me a call at (651) 221-9455 and I'd be happy to explain how we finally got things resolved.
Eric
After writing this, I got a response from Bass Performance hall that they're experiencing the same issue. Got me thinking: Maybe this is a more widespread issue?
If you're experiencing issues with getting your Google Ad Grant going, please respond to this thread. I'll compile a list and send on to my contact at Google. I'm not comfortable listing their contact info here because I don't want to upset Google. I've come to understand through this whole ordeal that they are VERY protective of AdWords and have strict systems in place for good reason. (the amount of money Google AdWords brings in per day is astounding.) I just wish they had a better system in place to help non-profits with fraud.
If you aren't getting a Google Ad Grant, get on it! $10,000/month of free advertising. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but it was worth the year of headaches. Sign up here (and only here, I also learned): https://support.google.com/grants/answer/1689506
Organizations so far with issues:Artis-NaplesBass Performance Hall
Hi Eric,
That sounds great! Thanks so much.
Please let us know how we can help.
Drew
The Pittsburgh Opera has experienced this issue as well. I'll let their marketing contact know about this thread. Thanks for posting!
I'm sorry to hear this has happened to other folks as well. My story is similar. I started working here at Pittsburgh Opera a little over a year ago. My predecessor had not heard of Google Grants, so I figured I'd apply and get some free Ad Words $. Boy was I wrong.
My Google for Nonprofits Affiliation Request was approved. But when I went to merge it with an existing Pittsburgh Opera Ad Words account, it wouldn't let me. I had to receive permission from the account owner, "edwardstedman20@gmail.com". No one at Pittsburgh Opera had heard of an Edward Stedman; we have no records of one in any of our archives, HR files, etc.
So we sent a permission request to edwardstedman20@gmail.com, and when 'he' did not respond after a certain amount of time, Google turned the account over to me. However, we discovered that edwardstedman20@gmail.com had already applied for a Google Grants account using our Tax ID, which of course is publicly available, and then gone ahead and run fake ads until the free Ad Words feature was suspended.
From Google: "While reviewing your account, our specialists identified suspicious behavior in the payment activity of this or your other AdWords accounts. To help prevent any unauthorized activity, we suspended your AdWords accounts."
I worked with a customer service rep named Nicole, who was very supportive and helpful. (Our Support thread was "[7-3665000009412] 11/24 Google Grants" in case anyone at Google reads this.) She was fantastic actually. But she wasn't authorized to reinstate our account. She had to talk to higher-ups to get that request approved. "I appreciate all of your patience! I'm doing everything I can to try to get the site suspension lifted, and thoroughly explaining the situation."
They told her No. She gave me a link to a form to file an appeal. I filled out the form and got the following reply:
"Thanks for your continued patience during this process. Our specialists have re-reviewed the account and confirmed that it is in violation of our AdWords policies. Since this decision is final, the account will not be reinstated. Please avoid creating additional AdWords accounts, as they will be subjected to the same suspension."
Nicole spoke with more supervisors at Google, to no avail. As I told her, "I'm baffled that, even though it seems pretty clear at this point that an outside hacker fraudulently created an account in our name, so many people at Google are effectively saying 'TS'. I believe our organization was the victim of identity theft, yet everyone at Google apart from you is treating us as the criminals."
FWIW, the ads that edwardstedman20@gmail.com placed on our account had opera keywords, but then linked to a YouTube video by someone using the name Robert Himler. https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertHimler/featured The video featured a pre-roll ad, and presumably the account holder was getting paid for each time the ad was played. So the perpetrator stole free Ad Words credits from Google, which was supposed to be for Pittsburgh Opera's use, then used it to trick people into watching his video, thereby earning real money.
Allegedly "Rober Himler" died in April 2015. According to http://www.autoevolution.com/news/supercar-youtube-personality-robert-himler-dies-of-cancer-aged-24-video-94934.html, he was a shady character who may not even have been real.
Why Google lets you create an corporate account without using a company email address is baffling. Had that safeguard been in place, this never would have happened.
Bumping this thread. Has anybody else experienced this problem with Google Grants?