Google Merchant Center Misrepresentation - cannot fix!

Shopify Discussion
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Hey all, first time posting here, really hoping that someone might have the experience and knowledge to help me out!

We started our store (https://card-mart.com/) in December 2024 and over the festive period/early Jan we experienced phenomenal sales. Google Merchant Center and Google Ads were really helping drive traffic to our site for the new Pokemon TCG set and we sold out in a couple days.

Early January we got hit with the dreaded Google Merchant Center Misrepresentation policy issue. Paired with a very limited and vague email from Google; I set about trying to research and understand this issue

For the first review, I made some changes myself based on the Google Policies help sites, things like tightening up returns policies as well as removing any products that were pre-orders but over more than a couple weeks away. I also added robust contact options, procured a business landline number, and set up company info, about us pages, opening hours, set up Google My Business pages. Despite this the first review failed.

I then worked with two “professionals” from Fiverr and Freelancer who made some small tweaks but both of their subsequent work and reviews failed which left me with a bricked GMC account that was unable to request further reviews.

I shut down the GMC and Ads account, and left it a few weeks before creating a new one. Things were fine for about a week with just the GMC up, but then when I thought I’ll try and run some ads again, after the first 24 hours or so, I’m hit with a further Misrepresentation issue.

Can anyone help with this issue? Maybe take a look at my store and see if anything jumps out? I’ve looked at plenty other forum posts on here and I honestly think I’m doing all the right things in terms of the information available on my site. This whole thing really sucks, we’re just a really small, family run business looking to build something and it feels like we’re really getting kicked whilst we’re down by Google.

Thanks to everyone who takes the time to read, and all the best!

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Hi @card-mart can you share the mail that your receive from google.

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Can’t really say that Fiverr are professionals. Most of them have fake reviews, and most of them just share your website on the Google ads community and ask for help. Also you put yourself at great danger of getting a permanent ban because you only have a limited amount of reviews you can request.

Creating new accounts is a big issue, what you did is called circumventing policy violation, and you will now have a more serious issue. You should re-open your original accounts and close down the duplicates you creatd.

If you think about what you did, it would be rather pointless to suspend you if the solution was just to create a new account.

For example when I look at your website, you have template product images and titles, Google does not allow template elements.

2025-02-10_10-00-55.png
2025-02-10_10-00-55.png1755×718 41.6 KB

Make sure your reviews are real, from real sales made on your website.

Missing in or out of stock info on the product landing page.

You will have more issues, so make sure to check:

https://support.google.com/google-ads/community-video/318699100
https://support.google.com/google-ads/community-guide/304792695
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6150127
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6363310/follow-the-merchant-center-guidelines
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7052112
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/4752265
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/13693865
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6149970
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/9158778
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6150244
https://support.google.com/google-ads/community-guide/241068758

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When you say template product images and titles - those images are just images from the supplier, used by pretty much everybody selling Pokemon products - what’s wrong with that? Should I take my own photos?

And the titles - I wrote them myself and I wrote them to be somewhat clear and uniform as in:

Pokemon TCG - Name of the Set - Name of the product

What’s wrong with that? It’s not a template?

Sorry for the confusion I just think it’s all very subjective

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So you are saying, you are selling products named Example product title for £19.99 GBP. That makes no sense to me. I believe you didn’t check my screenshot I shared.

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Hi @card-mart I will tell you the things in a simple way first you have a products line on your homepage that like this

Screenshot 2025-02-10 155838.png
Screenshot 2025-02-10 155838.png1339×414 22.6 KB

Please remove these products.

Second its better to use your own clicked images instead of others.

Third Pre-orders (Even Short-Term): While you mentioned removing pre-orders over a couple of weeks, even shorter-term pre-orders can trigger misrepresentation issues if not handled with absolute clarity. Google is very strict about availability. Ensure every single product listed is physically in your possession and ready to ship immediately. If you have any pre-orders, even if they are just a few days out, you should either remove them until you have the stock or clearly mark them as “Pre-Order” with the exact date the product will ship (not when you expect to receive it). Be prepared to back up this date if Google asks. Consider pausing ads for pre-order items.

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If you need more help tell me

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I see what you mean - that was the product block of the pre-order items that I removed again last night, I thought it would auto-remove the section but I was in a rush and should’ve checked.

Just to be clear - the site was never like that with templated products when any of the Misrepresentation issues arose, or for any of the reviews for that matter.

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Thanks - that product block was only there last night after I deactivated the pre-order products. It was not like that when the misrepresentation issues occured just to clarify.

I had requested a review previously after removing all pre-order items from the feed and google still persisted with the misrepresentation issue.

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can you please remove these thing and also remove pre order collection page form store

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I have been dealing with the same GMC misrep for over a month now and the only thing left to try is turning off the option to place pre orders via the app Pre Order Global. Anyone have experience of this? The app was running fine and google had no issues last year. www.casafenix.co.uk

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The first thing I did was remove my pre-orders and still failed review! Didn’t disable the app just removed the products which were available for pre-order

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I never recommend you request a review, when just changing one thing.

You might not have noticed the links and info I share, here is what I recommend you check before you request a review:

14

So has your ban been fixed?

For me it could be pre orders or many other things so I will turn off and remove ‘pre order global’ and see what happens.