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!
#1 by André at November 10th, 2013
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What person did you contact in google ? or did you just use the normal form contact to send back again and this time you got a response ?
#2 by Tom Doyle at November 10th, 2013
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I went through the disputes form on their website
#3 by André at November 10th, 2013
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https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/troubleshooter/2993242?rd=1&hl=pt-BR
like this one ?
#4 by Tom Doyle at November 10th, 2013
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Yep
#5 by André at November 10th, 2013
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i just sent my first contact there today =[ would it spend 2 years to get my account back ?
#6 by Tom Doyle at November 10th, 2013
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Took a few days to get a response, my account was suspended for nearly 2 years
#7 by André at November 10th, 2013
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i was doing apps that redirect to websites, i saw a lot of this kind of apps in the store and so i though it would’t be a problem…but they suspended me…now i told em that i didn’t know about it, didn’t read it before and that i want to work doing apps but with my own material. hope they read it because the forums say they only make automatic asnweres.
#8 by johnny at December 11th, 2013
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my account suspended 2 month ago, i keep contact google try to find out whats wrong , but i got nothing but robot email. What person did you contact in google or email.
#9 by ThemeBowl at June 19th, 2014
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Did you get your account reinstated?
#10 by betty at October 16th, 2014
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Hello,
Our company’s account has been suspended too.
Could you help me to provide some google contact or any other solution way?
We can offer commission on this if we find back the account.
Many thanks.
Wait for your response.
Betty
#11 by Riaz at October 21st, 2014
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Im in the same situation. They removed one app and then same time without warning suspended account. I had this one for two years. I dont get it. They could have asked me to fix the problem and i could have in two seconds.
These guys need to stop cutting throats of small developers. We arent evil, we jus developers and human, so can make mistakes! So why cant these guys be more supportive and easier to work with.
Do you have any advice. I have appealed and no reply after 7 days!
#12 by George at November 10th, 2014
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You inspired me and i just contacted google again with an emotional message after 1 month of suspension. Tell me please, I still have the admob account in good standing and I still receive from Google Wallet the money that i earned in the past months. These accounts will be deleted as well?
Regards
#13 by kamran at December 1st, 2014
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my 34 applications were taken down because of the keywords violation made by another associated account i was earning my livelihood facing loss of $1200 loss every month it was gonna grow further
hope google will reinstate if they have limit of penalty period
#14 by kamran at December 1st, 2014
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#15 by Aziruxsoft at February 21st, 2015
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Donot write email to google, try to chat with them and you will quicly unsuspend your developer account in 1 hours. Got it ?
#16 by pedrosc1967 at September 28th, 2015
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How did you manage to access the chat with google? I have tried many times and I see that there is a chat, but no way for accessing it