I really want Microsoft to be successful in the paid search business. I think it would be wonderful for all of us involved in the search engine marketing game if Google had some viable competition for search engine ads. Unfortunately, Microsoft continues to shoot themselves in the foot.

For example…

We have a new client for whom we are running paid search ads on Microsoft’s adCenter platform. But Microsoft insists on billing for paid search in $50 increments. As a result, our client has his credit card revoked by his credit card company because they thought it was suspicious that his card kept getting charged $50 at a time.

This is the SECOND client for whom we have had this same problem! Why does Microsoft insist on billing this way? They are the largest software company in the world…and they can’t figure out how to charge someone’s credit card for more than $50?

It makes my company look bad when this happens because we have to explain the whole problem to our client, tell them why Microsoft sucks so bad, have them go and get another credit card, etc.

Come on, Microsoft…

You’ve been promoting the hell out of Bing, spending hundreds of millions of dollars trying to boost your search engine business…

Fix your billing!