Edited for less mystery. Sorry Google, I wanted to keep your name out of it.
I'm an independent software developer, a solo entrepreneur, publishing apps at Google Play. About a month ago, Google quietly disabled the in-app-purchases without any warning or notification. So while the app is still available for download, it does no longer generate any revenue. Which leads to the first two questions: Is quietly cutting off the revenue, without letting the affected party know about, a righteous behavior according to the legal conception in California? Doesn't this require at least some form of communication?
After contacting 11 (!) support staff members, one was found who started to work on the problem. But for three weeks, nothing has changed. The in app purchasements are still disabled. Contacting support just resulted in pointless, generic replies. Nobody ever answered any questions. Nothing was accomplished. Long story short, by today a full month of revenue is lost, while communication with all the support staff was a total waste of time.
Considering that we're talking about Google, this appears to be a extraordinary long chain of persistent incompetence. Hence these questions:
- What can be done against it?
- Is there any legal way to convince (force) them to fix the problem? ASAP?!?
- At what amount of time wasted (or financial damage done) would it be justified to demand compensation? Right now we're talking about a few thousand euros in damage.
- At what amount of time wasted (or financial damage done) would it be considered malice rather then just incompetence?
- What course of action do you recommend?
Any advise on that matter is welcome. Thank you.
