App Revenue from Google Play

App Revenue from Google Play (Photo credit: IntelFreePress)

It’s been nearly 2 years since my Android Developer Account was suspended. I was so disappointed that day. When I received the suspension notice, my dreams of building a successful app business had taken a serious knock. How could I truly build an app business if I couldn’t develop apps for one of the most popular app markets ever.

I’d spent many hours building up a nice little side business that I could see was finally starting to take off. I really believed that I was building something new, something exciting and something I could truly build into a strong and lasting business. But it was pretty much taken away from me in a second, without warning and without a chance of recovery, or so it seemed.

One of the most devastating parts of all this was that I had so many ideas, so many new apps that I had invested a lot of time into and they would never see the light of day.

For days I frantically searched the Internet to find ways of getting may Developer account reinstated. But every single article I read was “don’t bother, there’s no chance of getting your account back” or “don’t waste your time, just register a new account”. I sent many emails to Google Support, but never once got a response. I even asked a good friend of mine who worked in Google to see if there was anything he could do or even to see if someone could respond to my mails, but nothing ever came of it.

Many times I contemplated creating a brand new account as was suggested on many web forums and articles – but I really didn’t want to take that chance. I figured that if they ever caught me for doing this, there would be absolutely no chance of getting an account again. So for me, this was never an option.

Months later I tried again to email Google support to see if the test of time would in some way at least make them respond to me. I guess I was in some way hoping that my perseverance would show them that I really wasn’t a bad developer and that I truly believed in Play Store. But like before, I didn’t hear anything.

Of course, the Play store wasn’t the only market out there, which meant I could continue in the mean time – but I really always felt I needed an Android Developer Account to really do what I wanted to do.

Last weekend, I thought I’d try again to persuade someone in Google to have a heart and allow me to open my account again. At this point I had nothing to lose. I really didn’t expect to get a response, but I got one!

Yes – I got a response to say they would look at my account suspension and review the case. All I had to do was answer a couple of questions and they would decide whether I was fit to run an Android Developer Account. The questions were all about what I had been doing since I was suspended, what I had done on other Stores, what kind of apps I had released etc. I guess because of the nature of my account suspension, they also asked me what I was going to do differently this time that would prevent me from being caught in this situation again.

My response included some examples of apps that are available on other markets and some others that were in development. I also explained exactly why I wouldn’t fall into the trap that previously got me suspended.

I’m delighted to say that after a few days, I received notice that my account had been unsuspended! To say I that I was ecstatic would be an understatement. I’m absolutely thrilled and one thing is for sure – I will have a lot more respect for my Android Developer Account and make sure I don’t get suspended again.

So to anyone that has given up hope of getting their Android Developer Account reinstated – hang on in there, you may just get as lucky as I did!

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