Is there no limit to Google's greed?

Anthony Higman recently documented something that perfectly captures a serious problem inside Google’s Local Services Ads (LSA) platform that we should all be concerned about.

His client was charged $400… not for a new lead, not for a new customer—but for a call from an existing client.

And then, after a full review and despite Google agreeing that the person who called was already the law firm's client, they upheld the $400 charge anyway and refused to issue a refund.

The Situation

Here’s what actually happened:

• An existing client used the LSA call button to contact the business
• They were following up on an ongoing case
• They asked for a specific staff member by name
• They identified themself as an existing client and left a message for a callback

In any normal business context, this is not a “lead.”

It’s called… doing business.

One would expect this to be one of those open/shut cases for a refund, right?

Well, not exactly.

The following transcript of Higman's initial customer service chat (extracted from an image he posted here) shows that Google is acknowledging the call came from an existing customer but refuses to issue a refund.