Bug leaves publishers waiting on AdSense payments

By Source Seeker on Mon, 03/02/09 - 10:38am.

latepayment Search Engine Roundtable reports that several AdSense publishers have been waiting months for payments from Google due to a bug in AdSense that put an invisible payment hold on their accounts. While Google promised it had fixed the bug and all payments would arrive by the end of February, that didn't happen. And now, many of the affected publishers won't get paid until the end of March.

The problem started in early January, when many publishers hit the Google AdSense Help forum complaining about lack of payment. Google said it found a bug in the AdSense code that put an invisible payment hold on their account and promised all payments would be issued by end of February. Now that February has come and gone, Google posted yet another thread on the AdSense Help Forum, this time promising payment by end of March. As AdSense Pro William says:

If you were one of the publishers who ended up with your AdSense account on hold for payments due to an AdSense bug, you were reassured that payments would be processed to be included at the end of February. Originally, the payments were to be included in the payments at the end of February. However, because Google had to remove these holds manually, it seems as though this wasn’t done until after the February 15th cut off time. So what does this mean for affected publishers? You have to wait another month to receive your payment due to Google’s bug.

And let's hope Google doesn't run into any more issues releasing the holds. Search Engine Roundtable puts it aptly:

All I have to say is that this looks really bad for Google. Some publishers may depend on this income to pay their rent and buy food. If you are one of these publishers, I would try to get on the phone with Google or send them an email to make sure everything is in order for the end of March payment.

Good advice. In this economy, publishers can't wait months for payments from Google, especially when the problem is on Google's end. Perhaps the long-overdue payments, plus some kind of "inconvenience fee" would make it sit better? Let us know what you think.

* * *

Like this post? Visit the Google Subnet home page for more news, blogs and podcasts.