Merchant centre rejected feed for misrepresentation

Ask Me Anything Q&A Googleshoppingamarepo
1

I’ve had my website www.futureisretro.com for several years, and no matter what I do, and no matter what articles I read, I cannot resolve this Merchant Centre feed automatic error. I have spoken to Google assistance, and they advise that they “cannot provide information as to why, as you will just make the changes”. Isn’t that the point? The merchant centre feed is so antiquated and everything has been checked multiple times, It’s impossible to know or fix whatever this problem seems to be.

There are so many of us having this problem. Why can’t Google provide support by solving these issues or at least telling us why we keep getting rejected? WHY IS IT A SECRET?

Stupidly, I can still run ads, but the merchant centre is a failed project.

2

Hello Kidtwist, thank you for your question, my name is Emmanuel your host for todays AMA.

Since 2020, Google has had to deal with lots of spammers, scammers, low quality merchants etc. Due to this, Google has stopped sharing what the issues are. Yes pre 2020, Google would explain what you needed to do. But since then, not anymore, and the only reason is to stop these bad actors or low quality merchants from entering the platform.

That means it’s a lot harder for honest merchants to get approved.

Then there is a policy nobody talks about, but I do. And that is that even if you comply with all policies, Google can suspend you, if they don’t want you on the platform. It’s cruel, but that is unfortunately the reality.

So even if you check everything and you are perfect, which honestly 99% of the mechants I help, are not. But lets assume you are, Google can still say, you are not allowed, by using the misrepresentation policy.

So why it is a secret is purely to protect the platform from low quality and or bad actors as well as real policy violators.

I know this is not what you want to hear, but it’s the reality.

I had a look at your website, and one big policy violation, just from the get go, is your etsy reviews. You are not allowed to import reviews from other websites / marketplaces. This is called misrepresentation.

You can only show reviews from sales made on the website futureisretro.com, not from etsy, ebay, amazon etc, you can not import them as they are considered fake.

Now, I am sure there are more issues on your website, but checking a website is a big task, but that is one of the most obvious with my knowledge why you are suspended. Don’t request a review from Google Merchant Center after just removing these reviews as you most likely have more issues.