My Experience with Goclick - horrible

Discussion in 'Pay Per Click Advertising' started by guitarpaul, Jun 4, 2007.

  1. #1
    In my opinion, goclick is the most blatent example of bot clickfraud in the market today. I thought i would give them a try today, signed up with $10, and got no clicks for about an hour. Then all of a sudden, 190 clicks show up ONLY in their system, and not in any of my reporting (I use extensive reports). I try to get a customer service rep on the horn and for your reading pleasure here is the conversation:

    (To SUM IT UP - AVOID GOCLICK AT ALL COSTS)















    Please wait while we find an agent to assist you...
    You have been connected to Chantel .
    Chantel : Hello how can I help you?
    me: hi Chantel
    me: I just checked my account and saw th that
    me: that my account balance is completely depleted, that I received those clicks - however, NONE of my

    weblogs show any traffic from goclicks
    Chantel : There are a number of reasons why your stats differ from ours... below are the most common reasons.

    * You may have the wrong URL listed on one or more of your keywords. Double check the URL that you have submitted to

    us to make sure it is accurate. You can do this by clicking on the "Modify Keywords" link then click on "Change URL"

    to view the current URL. You can also test a link by looking up one of your keywords and clicking on it to make sure

    it reaches your site.

    * Your website, or the network to your website, may have been down for a period of time. We forward all traffic to

    the URL you send us and count the traffic only after we have forwarded it. Unfortunately, we cannot keep track of

    what happens to the traffic after it has been sent on. You may want to check with your website host to see if they

    have had any problems with the service recently.

    * Depending on how you are tracking, your tracking may be incorrect. The only truly accurate way to track traffic

    from goClick is to have a specific URL just for goClick traffic. For example, if your website URL is:

    http://www.joe.com, you would need to have a special link to send goClick traffic to that no other traffic went to,

    like: http://www.joe.com/goclick.html If you do not, your website logs are most likely reporting "REFERRAL"

    statistics to you. Referrals are reported by a visitors web browser -- the problem is, not all browsers send the

    proper referral information. In those cases, traffic that is really from goClick may appear as coming from an unknown

    source.

    * If you are using a webpage counter, your webpage counter may not be working properly or, if it is hosted by a third

    party website (as is the case with many "free" web counters), the counter website may have been down at the time. If

    the third party web counter website is down, you will not get an accurate count.

    * If your web counter is located at the very bottom of your webpage, and your webpage takes a long time to load due

    to heavy graphics, etc. your counter may not be accurately recording all visitors since it is never properly

    triggered.

    * Our statistics are updated every 3 hours and we are located on Pacific Time. If your web statistics are, for

    example, based on Eastern time or are updated in a different time frame than ours, you may not be properly matching

    up statistics. For example, if your web servers are based in New York, a "day" in your statistics will not match up

    with what a "day" is in our statistics. The numbers may be off a certain percent.
    me: everything is correct, and my tracking works . I believe this is click fraud
    me: I want my $10 refunded to my credit card, my account closed.
    me: There is no way I could receive over 900 clicks in 20 minutes
    Chantel : We can not refund your money without investigating on our end. Are you using a tracking URL to track the

    traffic from our partners?
    me: and not even one show up
    me: I am using google analytics and tracking all traffic through them am my affiliate partner
    Chantel : The traffic will not show up as goclick on that end because 90% of your traffic will come from our partners

    not our site directly. if you are not using a tracking URL you will not be able to see the traffic from o ur partners
    me: I didnt show ANY kind of traffic
    me: I show 6 hits today
    me: I want my account refunded. I can simply call the BBB, fight this with my credit card, and post this

    HORRIBLE EXAMPLE OF CLICK FRAUD on any and all forums I am a member of
    Chantel : and that's probably from our side directly. If you want I can give you instructions on how to set up a

    tracking URL in your account to track the traffic from our partners and you should see a big difference in your logs

    on your end.
    Chantel : I will not refund your money without researching on our end first. What is the e-mail address on the

    account?
    me: I want my account refunded. its ****.com
    me: how long will your research take?
    Chantel : I will not credit the account without research first. I have closed your account for you as of right now.
    Like I said check back later today regarding the credit.
    me: tell you what, I'm also going to post this conversation all over every webmaster forum I can find, so

    you will be losing WAY MORE than $10 that you just defrauded me of
    Chantel : Do whatever you feel you need to do on your end.

    so there you go. Any reps from goclick care to comment? I spend thousands with the other networks (google, yahoo, msn) and love it. Mysteriously, all their traffic actually shows up in my logs....

    /rant
     
    guitarpaul, Jun 4, 2007 IP
  2. Daz

    Daz Guest

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    #2
    I've been wary of goclick from the start.
    For some reason I've just never liked them.. No idea why.
    An affiliate of one of my sites lost hundreds sending traffic to my site without any conversions.
    What else can I say, I agree goclick isn't sending as valid traffic as you'd like, or so it seems.
    Without a valid rep here from goclick I can't make a real statement.
     
    Daz, Jun 4, 2007 IP
  3. tlbuckingham

    tlbuckingham Peon

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    #3
    Can you request a list of websites that they supposedly placed your ad on?
     
    tlbuckingham, Jun 4, 2007 IP
  4. dougeetx

    dougeetx Peon

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    #4
    They are the BIGGEST FRAUD EVER! I went through the same thing a year or so back! Never got the $10. Chalked it up to experience!
     
    dougeetx, Jun 4, 2007 IP
  5. sputnik17

    sputnik17 Peon

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    #5
    I have used them a while ago but only for arbitrage.
    It cannot be all bots - unless bots also click on Adsense ads:)
     
    sputnik17, Jun 4, 2007 IP
  6. SFOD_D223

    SFOD_D223 Peon

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    #6
    I'm glad I never went along with their proposal. This isn't the first spot I heard of their garbage.
     
    SFOD_D223, Jun 4, 2007 IP
  7. guitarpaul

    guitarpaul Peon

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    #7
    they have been very uncooperative. I called my credit card, and they said once the charge finishes processing (! already got all those clicks and the charge hasn't even finalized - cmon! Even google isnt that fast) then I can dispute it with them. I used my chase visa - I love chase.
     
    guitarpaul, Jun 4, 2007 IP
  8. gkgk11

    gkgk11 Peon

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    #8
    They are complete garbage, all of thier traffic ( even if the traffic comes), is complete bot traffic. Might aswell light money on fire than give to to goclick.
     
    gkgk11, Jun 4, 2007 IP
  9. anglewhiz

    anglewhiz Peon

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    #9
    I used them a couple of years ago...I put 20 dollars or so in my account but did not activate my campaign. Came back a couple of weeks later and it all was depleted. Very strange I tell ya...lol
     
    anglewhiz, Jun 28, 2007 IP