Suspended google Merchant account fo Misrepresentation of self or product (Untrustworthy promotions)

[WoooSaaaW]

My site is www.hobby-addicts.com

I received notification about being suspended from google after using the Shopify app to upload all of my products using the product feed to sync my shopify product with google merchant center. It google merchant center it flagged every single one of my products and a generic violation of google policy.

After requesting a manual review and speaking to many google reps, they all just copy and paste the same generic policy violation text back at me and dont provide any details about why this might have happened. It's very clear that they will not help resolve the issue.

With that said, I'm using the FREE minimal template and have properly filled out every category with a proper barcode, sku, description, price, cost, quanity, pictures and title. I don't fill out the customs information since i only ship within the US. I'm not even sure if google suspended my account for product violation or something they didnt like on my website. What's funny is all my product gets approved for FREE listings but not for paid listings on google merchant. I've tired manually loading product and within 1-2 minutes it automatically gets disapproved.

Any help here would be greatly appreciated!!

[Flo111]

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You are not alone.

google don’t care and you probably won’t get the reason why. You can try and resubmit if you think your store is ok.

We tried 2 months and at the end didn’t bothered anymore. Funny thing, we deliver products to stores that are eligible for Merchant account. Last thing is to sue them for blocking a market. 

Iam sorry Iam not a help here 

[EmmanuelFlossie]

While you may have policy requirement issues, one of the main issues is trust related. For example you have no reviews that Google has collected: https://www.google.com/shopping/ratings/account/lookup?q=www.hobby-addicts.com

Google requires a track record of order fullfilment.

I recommend having a look at the following policies:

https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7052112?hl=en

https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6363310?hl=en

https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/4752265?hl=en

https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6149970?hl=en

The most common issues are:

1. Not adding full contact details page linked from the footer (email, phone number, address, contact form): https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6363310?hl=en

2. Not having a valid checkout: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/9158778?hl=en

3. Not having returns and refund, delivery, privacy policy and terms of service pages

4. Selling products that are not allowed: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6150006

5. Selling products that are not stocked: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6150127#:~:text=Unavailable%20promotions

6. Not adding any added content, and simply copy-pasting other sites

7. Having multiple websites in the same niche

8. Not being honest with what you sell or how you portray the business

9. Having a low trust factor or no track record of order fullfilment

You can ask Google for specific examples of policy violation. To do so ask here and check the box, I need more info : https://support.google.com/merchants/contact/suspended

Hope this helps.

[littil]

WoooSaaaW, 

You are correct, this is a confusing process and the support from Google is horrible. We set up a website for LITTIL which had five products. I created a feed through the Flexify app and then uploaded it to Google Merchant Center The feed was immediately flagged and after reading the misrepresentation page multiple times and submitting several requests for review, all I would get back from Google support is the same automated response. Its like an episode from the twilight zone. I called Shopify and they had no idea how to resolve this. At this point, I've spend hours reading every support document, forums and other people talking about the same issue. It's a nightmare and Im starting to think we'll never be able to run Google ads. The sad part is I still have absolutely no idea why the website is getting flagged and stated as misrepresentation. 

[EmmanuelFlossie]

Consider using my checklist to help you: https://community.shopify.com/c/Ecommerce-Marketing/Checklist-Suspended-Google-Merchant-Center-Accou...

[littil]

We had two people on our team yesterday reach out to Google support. Both had calls with a support person from Google and both got a list of three different things to change. All six items were changed and the site was resubmitted. Today Google still came back with a "misrepresentation" error. Its so frustrating that no one on the google support team can help resolve this or even clarify where the error is coming from. Working down Emmanuels list of changes next. 

[SiyufyINC]

This comment is for @EmmanuelFlossie I have read a lot of your help and found it super useful. In fact, there isn't much I haven't solved for my clients using your advice however I am caught on a stump. I really really have used your checklist and have gone through everything I can possibly go through to fix this issue for one of my clients. the Misrepresentation of self or product issue. Would you by chance be willing to take a look at the site for me? Is there a possibility I can work directly with you? 

[EmmanuelFlossie]

@SiyufyINC thank you for the kind words. Feel free to contact me here: https://feedarmy.com/contact/

[anerdylifeforme]

Hi! I am opening up a shop and having this same problem, although with free listings as well...Did you ever get this resolved? 

[littil]

We ran into this issue and it was a nightmare. The google team was not very helpful so we started going through everything we thought might be raising a red flag. This included lots of things like 

- Pop up requesting email for coupon

- Discounts and coupons page 

We ran through probably 10-15 different things and our site was eventually approved. The process of working with google was stupid if you ask me but our site did get through this. Im still not 100% sure what element it was actually got us flagged but we're running ads now.  

[Sayat]

WoooSaaaW

Hi, have you been able to resolve your problem? I have set up new store in shopify and faced the identical problem, can you please give your roadmap on resolving this issue? I have tried to fix it twice, so now i am on a cool down period.

My store is: https://keytechno.me/

[EmmanuelFlossie]

@Sayat while you may have a similar sounding issue, no to solutions are the same. I recommend you have a look at the checklist: https://community.shopify.com/c/Ecommerce-Marketing/Checklist-Suspended-Google-Merchant-Center-Accou...

Have you checked, if you found things you do not comply with?

[WoooSaaaW · Accepted solution]

I wanted to close this topic since i ultimately did nothing. I didn't find any direct solution to the problems google was stating becuase didnt exist to begin with. After 6 months i checked back in and the issue was gone. I'm not sure why but it was resolved and i've been using google merchanat for the last couple of years.