Chris Waldron.com

You would think that if you are the David in a David vs Goliath situation, You would employ your resources to make process as easy as possible for everyone involved. Apparently Microsoft does not feel that is necessary with Bing.com and BingAds.com.

I recently decided I wanted to give Bing Ads a shot to capture some extra leads for my Website Migration service. So I took a stroll over to BingAds.com to sign up..

I spent about 30 minutes trying to sign up in three different browsers. The latest version of Chrome, Firefox 14, and IE9. I typically never even open IE but i figured if anything it would work in their own native browser.

Try #1 with Chrome, Firefox, and IE9:

Chrome v.22.0.1229.94: (tested in incognito as well, javascript/flash/shockwave all installed and active/current)
Filled out their signup form completely. No conflicts with password or email username. Everything was fresh.
Submit button is dead, you click and nothing happens.

Success rate = 0%
Firefox 14 and Internet Explorer 9: ( also tested in private modes on each, all plugins enabled/current)
Filled out form with new data, all fresh, no conflicts.
Submit button clicks and refreshes page and captcha. no conflicts shown.
Added in fresh data, same ordeal. Each submit just refreshes the captcha.

Success rate = 0%

Ok, maybe there is something I am doing wrong here. I get on Bing’s live chat system and wait a bit for a Bing rep to help me out. Unfortunately I did not save a screen shot of that conversation. The rep “Stacie” told me that this is a known issue and has been for a week or so now.

Microsoft has known about a simple account form issue to advertise on their search engine they are spending millions to advertise… FOR OVER A WEEK and it is still not fixed.

So Stacie went through the normal motions of having me clear cache and cookies etc. All with no forward progress, She asks if she can email me when it is fixed and she will apply a coupon or credit once i finally get signed up. Sure, good job stacie, i know this is not your fault, you are a CSR not a programmer.

Meanwhile I mentioned the issue on Bing’s Facebook page to see if they would respond with any sort of answer, NOPE, the only thing the choose to respond to is anyone that took a side by side test from their new ad campaign. Selective reading i guess from the social media team over there.

Fast forward a few days: (this is where it gets funny)

I get an email from Stacie to try again, I did, same test as above. Again, I got the exact same results and reactions from the form. I sent her an email letting her know the results. Then she sent another email with new suggestions…

 

Dear Chris,
I am so sorry you are having so much difficulty trying to sign up for your Bing Account.
If going to bingads.com is not working for you, I would suggest a few things.
Suggestion number one, please clear your cache and your cookies.

Second, if you do not have Silverlight downloaded on your computer please go to: www.microsoft.com/silverlight and download this tool.

Also, when starting to sign up for the account, please do not opt out of MS communications.

If none of these suggestions work for you, please let me know. If you could supply me also with a good contact number, I would be happy to call and assist via phone.
I have documented this email under the reference number 1185610727. If you have additional questions or concerns you can reply to this email, or call 1-800-518-5689.
We want to thank you for allowing us to help build your business by advertising with Bing Ads.
Thank you for choosing Bing Ads.

Sincerely,

Stacie
Customer Care Professional, Bing Support

So you are telling me, in order to sign up to spend money with Microsoft, i need to download their software AND opt in to their marketing communications (not the TOS) In order to fill out the sign up form.

Microsoft, You should be thoroughly embarrassed. Maybe you aren’t focused on advertisers as much as you are users, but having a simple web form broken for over a week and having to jump through hoops won’t help you progress forward. Stacie did tell me some people were able to get through, I imagine that may be the case… they must be on Mac’s.