After I told Google two days ago that the bot hadn't been on the site that day, they apparently just dropped the whole thing and stopped trying to determine what the problem is or how to fix it.

As of this morning Googlebot 239 is back on the site and back to indexing the same page over and over again.

This is the clearest example of ineptness that I have ever seen, the most well defined example of ignoring the user and the problem in the hopes that they'll go away on their own, and the most tiresome and tedious theft of service that I have ever witnessed.

Google is stealing my bandwidth and refuses to fix the problem — after nine days.  It's like trying to teach a wall how to be a car instead of a wall — impossible.

Google has no focus on the user.  Google has no sense of customer service.  Google has no clue how their own technology works or how to fix it when it breaks.  Google simply has no clue.

Googlebot 239 is on the site now and is doing the same thing it's been doing for nine days.  How can Google not fix the issue after nine days?

I've suggested this to Google on multiple occasions: why not just shut down that bot until it can be fixed?

This entire situation is beyond preposterous.  It's beyond laughable.  It's truly pathetic, and that's the best word I can use to describe Google.

I'm not going to claim that this entire event is over, but it looks as though Googlebot 239 hasn't visited me since yesterday.

Could Google have finally found and fixed the problem?  I'm not sure.  They're still asking me about other sites on the server and, apparently, still trying to track down the problem.

I can't say that I'm at all happy about this.  I'm so far over my monthly bandwidth limit that I'm surprised I've not heard about it from my provider.  Then again, I'm sure they'll let me know when it's time to pay the bill.

Google's apparent lack of ability on this issue is most disconcerting and troublesome.  To admit to making recent changes to the bots and to have this significant of a problem would indicate someone didn't do their homework.

To add insult to that injurious activity, the idea that it took me three days of increasingly hostile communication with them just to get someone to respond — and only after I started calling executives' offices — is indicative of a significant fault in their understanding of customer service and the first tenet of their own business model (you know, the one about focusing on the user).

I've always been an advocate of Google.  They've always had the best search engine with the most accurate results, they've always seemed like a very cool company, and they've consistently endeared themselves to the public and the press with relative ease.

This experience has certainly shown me that looks are quite deceptive, that façades are just that, a deceptive appearance to give one impression while underneath something entirely different is taking place.

Did I just stumble on the crack in Google's façade or did I happen upon a singular incident?  I hope it's the latter.

Did you really expect there to be a positive update about this Google fiasco?  I didn't.

As of this morning Googlebot 239 is still on the site and still hitting the same page over and over and over again.

This is the ultimate example of ineptness.  This situation is now a week old and Google has yet to resolve the problem.

I've given up thinking they know what they're doing and that they care about the damage they do to others through this kind of problem.  The fact is Google hasn't a clue what they're doing, has shown a complete disregard for the financial harm they're doing to me by continually chewing up my bandwidth well above and beyond what I pay for each month, and is in fact completely unable to fix a problem they created.

This is truly a pathetic tale to tell.  I'm sure the Google stockholders would be quite interested in knowing about this situation.  It demonstrates a lack of control from the top down, a lack of technical expertise and a lack of customer service, not to mention a deceptive business practice of claiming the user is their number one priority when in fact they've shown that to be entirely untrue.

I sent another e-mail this morning with more information from the log files.  I copied the executive assistant who has been the only one to show any customer service attitude whatsoever.  I've given up hoping it will make a difference at this point, but at least I have a document trail that shows they intentionally stole my bandwidth when they've known about the problem for five days and have yet to resolve the issue.

It's becoming increasingly clear to me that Google hasn't a clue what they're doing.  The problem has continued all day today with no progress.  Googlebot 239 continues to hammer away at the same page time and time again, and no one at Google has a clue how to stop it.

Has anyone thought about shutting down Googlebot 239?  Of course not.

The most recent communication from them asked me to verify precisely what web site was being impacted by all of this.  That came with the statement that they'd like to investigate further.

I'd certainly hope so, you idiots.

Let's see, I've sent more than a dozen e-mails, several copies of the log files, submitted the web form multiple times, and only now does someone say, "Can you tell us what web site we're talking about?"

What the fuck ever.

I'm so sick of this.  The bandwidth Google continues to consume is going to cost me a fortune — and the month isn't over yet.

I can tell you they recently updated the bots and, from this experience, those updates were done by a dead person, someone who hadn't a clue what they were doing, and the people in charge of troubleshooting and resolving issues don't even know how to spell Google, let alone resolve a problem with their code.

Simply amazing.  They were able to build the largest index of web sites in the world and yet they're entirely unable to fix a problem with their damn program.

It's worse than a bad dream — it's a nightmare.

I've lost all respect for Google at this point.  The lack of customer service, the inability to fix a simple problem they obviously created, their inability to pay attention and actually read the various problem reports I've submitted to them, and the fact that they intentionally made it impossible to get immediate help (or any help at all if this experience means anything) goes to show me that the company has lost control.  They're so overwhelmed with the success of their IPO that they've decided the little guy is meaningless and can be stepped on at will.

I will say that one of the executive assistants that I contacted yesterday sent me an e-mail asking if I'd been contacted because they'd assured her that they would get right on it.  She can teach the rest of those boneheads a thing or two about customer service and "owning the issue" — a concept which appears to escape the rest of the employees there.

Here's the response I got from Google last evening (around 8:00 PM CST) when I last reported that their bot was still hammering away at my site:

"Thank you for your reply. This process may take an hour or two to propagate completely. We appreciate your patience."

Since I get up at 4:45 every morning to go to the gym, I had no intention of staying up to see if they had actually resolved the problem.  I decided I'd check it again in the morning and promptly went to bed.

When I got up this morning, what did I find?

Absolutely nothing had changed.  According to the server logs, Googlebot 239 had spent the entire night banging away at the server — again hitting the same page over and over and over again.

I responded to Google's e-mail — again — and told them the problem was not solved.  I sent along a snippet from the log file to show them that the bot had spent the entire evening doing the same thing it'd been doing for the last five days.

So now we're on day six and Google continues to be unable or unwilling to resolve the problem.

At this time Google has, in the month of February alone, consumed at least 2 GB of bandwidth and has hit the site more than 70,000 times.  For the sake of comparison, consider that the next highest consumer of bandwidth is 90.3 MB and 21,013 hits for the same time period.  Big difference, huh?

Googlebot 239 is still hitting the site as of this posting.  I'd say the hour Google needed is long gone and the problem continues.

Sorry, Google, but I'm long out of patience at this point.  My server stats are now so skewed that I'll never be able to make accurate comparisons on bandwidth consumption, page hits, site visitors, or anything else.  I've consumed far more bandwidth than I pay for each month and will end up having to pay for the additional usage that Google stole.

How pathetic.