Don't even think about using Overture

Overture is a service which places your advert in prominent placements on search engines like Yahoo and MSN. They work like Google Adsense whereby you register a keyword and some text that will appear when that keyword has been searched on - except that Overture has an unscaleable process where they have humans check the contents of your advert. This means that your ad does not show up on the search engines until after somebody has checked it (unlike Google adsense whereby it goes live immediately).
To make matters worse, when there is something about your ad that does not agree with them (does not meet their guidelines), they give you a vague message like "reason that your ad could not be approved='not allowed to be displayed'". I went through this crap with Overture Japan many times ( tweaking my web sites and text in the ads many times to meet their guidelines) until I decided to call them. Some smart fart came onto the phone and treated me as if I was being a pain. Then he goes onto say that because I am not a registered company, they cannot display my ads. I was thinking "oh lord, WHY DID YOU NOT SAY SO IN THE FIRST PLACE!"
. So, I decided to cancel my Overture account and get my money back (you have to deposit some money when you open the account). The smart fart says "can you send us your request to close the account by mail?". So I did. Again. And again. Until they decided to reply to me. The mail is below (in Japanese)
----- Original message -----
From: "オーバーチュアお客様サポートセンター"
clientservices@jp.overture.com
To: danny choo
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2004 00:51:41 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: ケースID32300211

【オーバーチュア】お問い合わせについて
CHOO DANIEL　様

平素はオーバーチュアをご利用いただき誠にありがとうございます。

お問い合わせ頂いた件につきまして回答させていただきます。

お調べいたしましたところ、御社より8月27日にお電話とEメール
にて弊社にご連絡をいただいており、その時にアカウントのキャンセル
とご登録のクレジットカードへの返金の旨を口頭でご案内させていただ
いているようでございます。

今後ともより良いサービスを提供できるよう鋭意努力して参りますので、
オーバーチュアをどうぞ宜しくお願いいたします。

オーバーチュアお客様サポートセンター
担当　：　XXXX
URL ：　http://www.jp.overture.com
Email ：　clientservices@jp.overture.com
TEL ：　0120-123-076（平日9時 -18時、土日祝休）
--------------------Original Message--------------------
返事ください。
----- Original Message -----
From: "danny choo"
To: clientservices@jp.overture.com
Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2004 11:04 PM
Subject: Re: ケースID32300211 アカウント: 1739009311

> そちらから何の返事もないまま、アカウントが使用できなくなった。返事待っています。
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "danny choo"
> To: clientservices@jp.overture.com
> Sent: Wednesday, August 25, 2004 6:52 PM
> Subject: Re: ケースID32300211 アカウント: 1739009311
>
>
> > 返事はいつごろいただけるのでしょうか？
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "danny choo"
> > To: clientservices@jp.overture.com
> > Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2004 8:19 PM
> > Subject: Fw: ケースID32300211 アカウント: 1739009311
> >
> >
> > > 解約のお願いのメールです。
> > > 後は、２０，０００円を返金してください。
> > > お願いします。