[tpittpayne]

I have recently used google answers for the first time. I think it is an excellent idea and I was really impressed with my researcher. I agreed to pay $100 plus a tip of $50. Then the problems started.

My account page showed that my credit card payment had been declined. I got an email from google telling me the same thing. My credit card company tells me that the payment has been authorised at their end but that for some reason google are declining it. I have sent 3 emails to google accounts billing asking them to tell me what the problem is - no answer.

What do I do now?

It strikes me there is a problem at google. Try putting the words "google customer service" into google and see the results that you get.

Google is an $80bn company for 2 reasons - it worked out how to do search before anyone else did - and then it worked out how to make money out of search before anyone else did.

But in order to keep its advantage it needs to keep its customers even when its rivals have learned to do the things that google can do. And that means being able to respond to customers when there is a problem.

Here's a suggestion. Every time there is an interaction between a customer and google's customer support, the customer should be invited to rank the service he received (say on a 1 star to 5 star system). If the customer ranks the service at 1 star or 2 stars he should have the option of having someone else at google look at the issue. Customers services assistants who regularly get high rankings should be rewarded - money, promotion, etc. Those who get low rankings should be let go or else moved on to other work.

In time google could have a customer support function that is second to none.

In the meantime - what do I do about my google account billing problem? How do I get google to tell me why this payment is not going through?