We had a small coronary event the other day. Logging into our favourite web site, Google Merchant Account, we were greeted with a message at the top of the page. ‘Your account has been suspended’.
The Agonising Wait
Google said that, not only would they suspend any payments, but also stop sales of our apps. Why?!?
Further, checking email, we had found that Google now wanted proof of my identity, where ‘proof’ in this case was an electronic copy (photo, scan, whatever) of my driving licence or passport. I hurridly snapped a copy of the photo-driving-licence and uploaded it to their web page. Now the wait… …8 hours later, we get an email saying that the account had been re-activated.
Growing Pains
So we lost quite a few sales and hope that they never do this again. Apparently this is all down to Google wanting to be squeaky clean with the old bill and make sure that the Play Store isn’t used to clean up moody dosh. When you start to push thousands through their app store, they want to make sure you’re not up to anything dodgy. Or, at least, go through the motions of making sure that you’re not doing anything dodgy. I’m sure that truly dodgy people could rustle up a fake JPG of a driving license or passport photo page.
Anyway we’re back in business and hope that the next time, if there ever is one, that Google will ask for the ID first and then, only if they’re not satisfied, pull the plug on us.