Extension rejected for "Spam and Placement" after previous approval with no changes to screenshots or description

[Jake Marsh]

Our extension ID is: megchchilhekbbnfcklodmndefbhkbco

We've been round and round with submissions and rejections and don't understand what the reviewers want us to change.

We were approved a few weeks ago with the *exact* same screenshots, description, etc. and of course it all explains in great detail what the extension's features are and even how it works under the hood.

Please help!

[Jake Marsh]

We're still stuck with this, been pending review for a while now too. Anyone have any ideas?

[Simeon Vincent]

Hm, I'm not quite sure what's going on in this case, so I'm going to escalate this for a second opinion.

Simeon - @dotproto

Extensions Developer Advocate

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[Jake Marsh]

Thanks so much for looking into it for us Simeon, please let us know what you learn.

We're quite eager to get the update released, and we'd love to be able to release updates without these issues from now on.

Cheers,

- Jake

On Tuesday, April 14, 2020 at 2:02:00 AM UTC-5, Simeon Vincent wrote:

Hm, I'm not quite sure what's going on in this case, so I'm going to escalate this for a second opinion.

Simeon - @dotproto

Extensions Developer Advocate

On Mon, Apr 13, 2020 at 4:29 PM Jake Marsh <ja...@shopsavvy.com> wrote:

We're still stuck with this, been pending review for a while now too. Anyone have any ideas?

On Friday, April 10, 2020 at 11:15:30 AM UTC-5, Jake Marsh wrote:

Our extension ID is: megchchilhekbbnfcklodmndefbhkbco

We've been round and round with submissions and rejections and don't understand what the reviewers want us to change.

We were approved a few weeks ago with the *exact* same screenshots, description, etc. and of course it all explains in great detail what the extension's features are and even how it works under the hood.

Please help!

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[Sagor Mamun]

I am having same prob...

[Jake Marsh]

...and we just got rejected again. We've just resubmitted. Really just can't figure out what they want us to change.

- Jake

[Simeon Vincent]

Jake, just heard back from review. Looks like there may have been a good old fashioned technical hitch. Please resubmit your extension now.

Sagor, please share an extension ID if you'd like me to investigate.

Cheers,

Simeon - @dotproto

Extensions Developer Advocate

On Thu, Apr 16, 2020 at 10:02 AM Jake Marsh <ja...@shopsavvy.com> wrote:

...and we just got rejected again. We've just resubmitted. Really just can't figure out what they want us to change.

- Jake

On Wednesday, April 15, 2020 at 4:45:47 PM UTC-5, Jake Marsh wrote:

Thanks so much for looking into it for us Simeon, please let us know what you learn.

We're quite eager to get the update released, and we'd love to be able to release updates without these issues from now on.

Cheers,

- Jake

On Tuesday, April 14, 2020 at 2:02:00 AM UTC-5, Simeon Vincent wrote:

Hm, I'm not quite sure what's going on in this case, so I'm going to escalate this for a second opinion.

Simeon - @dotproto

Extensions Developer Advocate

On Mon, Apr 13, 2020 at 4:29 PM Jake Marsh <ja...@shopsavvy.com> wrote:

We're still stuck with this, been pending review for a while now too. Anyone have any ideas?

On Friday, April 10, 2020 at 11:15:30 AM UTC-5, Jake Marsh wrote:

Our extension ID is: megchchilhekbbnfcklodmndefbhkbco

We've been round and round with submissions and rejections and don't understand what the reviewers want us to change.

We were approved a few weeks ago with the *exact* same screenshots, description, etc. and of course it all explains in great detail what the extension's features are and even how it works under the hood.

Please help!

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[John Boyd]

Simeon- we just heard back and were rejected for the same reason.  ID: megchchilhekbbnfcklodmndefbhkbco

Just to reiterate - we have not changed the screenshots, title or icon since the extension was last approved.  We've been at this since March and keep getting the same rejection reasoning despite multiple requests for clarification.  

Since it was rejected again since your inquiry it doesn't appear to be a technical glitch either or if it is - it's persisting with 8+ day weeks between rejections.

We'd really like to get these updates and bug fixes out- it's been a month just in this last go round.  

Can you tell us what exactly they'd like us to change? 

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[Jake Marsh]

Hey Simeon,

We did resubmit and like John said above we were rejected again for the exact same reason.

So... if it is a technical hitch it continues to persist I guess? Can you share any more info on what specifically is going wrong?

Is it some kind of bug in the system? Or is there more to it?

I just resubmitted the extension yet again (this is try number 7 i think? for this 1.1 version).

This time we're trying shortening our description and removing a bunch of marketing language. (This is after we found a blog post about people being rejected with "Spam and Placement" for using the word "Chrome" in their description).

We're really proud of our work with this extension and really want to push updates more frequently, any more specific info you can provide would be awesome.

Also, please feel free to reach out privately at ja...@shopsavvy.com.

Extension ID: megchchilhekbbnfcklodmndefbhkbco

- Jake

[Jake Marsh]

Anyone have thoughts? We're still waiting to hear from Simeon with more info about our rejections (hopefully), but until then, does anyone else have any stories or anecdotes about unexpected things in your description or screenshot that once fix you got approved? Might help everyone to hear some concrete examples of what *not* to do in this area.

Cheers y'all.

- Jake

[Jake Marsh]

Just wanted to post an update on the situation with our extension.

We got rejected again, but this time with a different reason under the "Use of Permissions" heading and not "Spam and Placement".

We were of course disappointed but felt the change must be some kind of forward progress towards approval (mind you this is on a 1.1 point release update with a few new features and fixes, we really just want to be able to release updates more regularly, for context we ship multiple updates to our iOS and Android apps on any given week, and would love to have our Chrome Extension as up to date and developed with the same pace of improvement).

Anyways, like we've done with every rejection email, we replied asking for more specific info on what was wrong.

We've never gotten any useful replies other than the same form response text repeated but this time... *we got a specific reason for our rejection!*

We were delighted to finally receive a useful reply saying that we were using the "tabs" permission and did not need to be.

The bad news is we actually DO need to require the "tabs" permission for this reason:

Users can change their options in the extension's options screen. When they do, we need to "apply" those new chosen preferences on each tab the user might have open currently showing our extension. For this we use the chrome.tabs.query(..) function to query for the tab identifiers of the tabs currently showing our extensions interface. We use the returned tab identifiers to send a message with the new chosen options to each relevant tab.

When we tried to use this function without the "tabs" permission, an error was thrown, so the "tab" permission seems required. 

We explained exactly what I just said above in the "justification" field for the "tabs" permission in the Developer Dashboard, yet the rejection still occurred and said we didn't need it.

So... we're a bit lost on what to try next.

We could change our extension to not update when the user changes their options, but that would make the "options" flow feel pretty broken to our users.

We've replied back to their reply with everything I've written here, and we're hoping Simeon will see this post and maybe point us in the right direction?

Would appreciate hearing any other info anyone may know about any of this, cheers everyone!

- Jake

Reminder our extension id is megchchilhekbbnfcklodmndefbhkbco

[SoerenM]

I have had the spam rejections as well a couple of times. Then it changed to rejections for "Use of Permissions" (out of the blue). I still don't know how exactly I got out of the "spam jail"...

I guess we (as many others here) are all in the same boat.

The process right now is incredibly broken/flawed imho and it is quite disheartening that it doesn't seem to be improving!

In my case I was lucky to get one update through but the next one is failing again. Which also leads me to believe you can probably have completely different outcomes or success/failure in trying to publish just depending on the date when you submit the update into the "blackbox" that is the review process. (it really feels like a slot machine currently!)

I see mainly two forks in the road:

a) Either document CLEARLY what the requirements are for compliance or what got a particular submission rejected...

(and no, "security by obscurity" never works.. isn't Google usually the one preaching this?)

or

b) At least give us some possibility to more directly contact a human being in this process for all the cases where the automated (I guess?) review process fails.

I know it says in the rejection email "please respond and the Chrome Web Store Developer Support team will follow up with you" but I have had the same experience like John that this does seem to be a false promise at best.

It's not really a nice feeling to take the time and write a detailed "rebuttal" of the rejection just to get the same rejection email as a reply while all arguments are basically ignored.. (I'm really curious if somebody is currently reading them in the first place?)

Cheers

[Simeon Vincent]

Hey Jake,

Unfortunately we're still working through the process of fixing the issue that's causing your extension to be rejected for not providing it's stated functionality, but I think a colleague and I were able to locate the root cause yesterday. (Today? Why am I still awake?)

FYI, you do not need the tabs permission to use chrome.tab.query. That permission only gives you access to the url, pendingUrl, title, and favIconUrl properties of a Tab instance. I did a quick skim of your source and it doesn't look like you're accessing these properties. Have you tried removing the permission and testing the extension's functionality? 

Cheers,

Simeon - @dotproto

Extensions Developer Advocate

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[Jake Marsh]

Hey Simeon,

Thanks so much for your continued work and help! We really appreciate all that you do to help folks here.

Thanks for the update on the first issue, sounds good. I work best in the middle of the night myself, so I understand the feeling heh.

On the “tabs” permission, we were in fact able to get it working without requiring the “tabs” permission, so yay!

We’ve resubmitted without the “tabs” permission which hopefully should clear the extension for approval.

Let us know if you need anything at all on the first issue, we’re happy to help in any way we can - hopefully it won’t affect our new submission! :)

Seriously thanks again, having someone to advocate for us in these situations is really nice. Great work!

Cheers,

- Jake

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[Simeon Vincent]

Jake, please resubmit your extension.

Simeon - @dotproto

Extensions developer advocate

[Jake Marsh]

Yep already done bud, we're currently "Pending Review" again without the "tabs" permission, thanks again!

Cheers,

- Jake

[John Boyd]

Simeon-

It was just rejected for Spam Placement again.  

It's been 5 months now - of this same "Glitch" stopping us.

Google has 70% of the internet market and we are unable to update features or fix bugs or innovate.   We approaching half a year now with this same issue.  

What would you like us to change to get approved?

  

[John Boyd]

Simeon 

 

While we understand technical glitches.  It’s been almost half a year of this same exact technical rejection for “Spam” glitch with no end in sight.    

 

I’m not sure Google is aware how devastating this “glitch” has been.   Does Google not envision that this kind of capriciousness gravely impact jobs and business and the very ability of startups to innovate in the internet?  Is this system one that anyone finds good, desirable or decent? Isn't it important that a company that owns 70% browser share have a system that allows people to innovate on the internet?

 

We’re developers so we understand glitches.  And while glitches do occur- after a few weeks a human intervenes rather than fruitlessly telling people to resubmit time after time. 

 

To that end, until this glitch is resolved, can we get some sort of manual approval until the technical glitch can be fixed so we can get past this?

 extension ID is: megchchilhekbbnfcklodmndefbhkbco

[Simeon Vincent]

Jake, please resubmit. I think we've got the bumps ironed out. I mean how many more could there possibly be  🙃

Simeon - @dotproto

Extensions Developer Advocate

[John Boyd]

Simeon.

We are developers and we understand glitches happen.   

But with all due respect,  just resubmitting for half year over and over doesn’t seem to be a winning strategy.   Is there any sense of responsibility at Google for this process? It doesn’t seem clear that Google understands the impact this has on developers. 

Further review times are way up at week or more.  Can anyone claim this is a fair or reasonable process? How can a company with 70% of browser share block others from innovation in a market so important as the internet ? For a glitch?  Our extension is on other markets like Edge but if we can’t get on Chrome which has 70% share which crushes small cos and innovation. 

While we know and appreciate glitches happen, usually when there is a glitch in an approval process a human intervene after a few weeks.     At this point after almost half a year of rejections in no way related to the extension submitted, can we get a real live human to intervene and get us past this glitch?

[Simeon Vincent]

Hey John,

Apologies for not addressing you directly until now. I didn't realize you were also with Shopsavvy and my silence was an attempt to keep the thread focused on one developer.

But with all due respect,  just resubmitting for half year over and over doesn’t seem to be a winning strategy.

For clarity, I'm not asking you to blindly resubmit. I'm working with the review team to identify and address the systemic issues you're running into. The review team can't publish an item on behalf of a developer. Instead, a developer must submit a publish request in order for review pass a verdict on that request. That's why I've occasionally popped back in to ask you to republish.

At this point after almost half a year of rejections in no way related to the extension submitted, can we get a real live human to intervene and get us past this glitch?

You've had a human intervening to help you get past the issue I mentioned since April 14th. That human is me. Hi :)

As for your note about almost half a year of rejections, that appears to be a gross exaggeration. It looks like you've had intermittent rejections due to extension functionality not working as described since late February, but it appears your extension started encountering the pipeline issues I mentioned at the beginning of April. That's roughly two-fifths to a sixth of the timeline you implied. Your frustrations with CWS are well founded, but that doesn't justify misrepresenting your experiences. 

Cheers,

Simeon - @dotproto

Extensions Developer Advocate

[Online Hipdf]

Hi Simenon,

Our extension ID is hinahkgdgmpapihkahnfpogoldoaepmk.

Our team has revised the settings and enhance our extension many times.

But we still receive the email from Chrome Web Store about "Chrome Web Store: Removal notification for HiPDF Converter"

Could you please tell me how to deal with it?

Our extension is similar to our partner's extension. But theirs is still on the platform.

Your answer will be really appreciated!

Best,

HiPDF Team

[Josh Shatkin-Margolis]

I am having the same issue.  Did you get this fixed?

For the past two weeks my Chrome Extension has been taken down despite repeated attempts to fix it, which has been in the Web Store for years without issue.  I have made changes trying to comply but it continuously gets taken down for reasons that don't make any sense to me.  I keep emailing support and receive back the same automated email with the same one sentence reason.  I read through all the policy guidelines and believe it meets them all.  What should I do?

Reason for rejection every time:

"Spam and Placement in the Store"

Item has a blank description field, or missing icons or screenshots, and appears to be suspicious.

When I email them they say:

We may remove your item if it has a unclear description field.

But I have rewritten my descriptions ten times and they still get rejected:

Title: Purple Cloud Click-To-Call

Summary: Initiate and track a customer phone call with a single click in your DealerSocket or ELEAD CRM.

Detailed Description: Purple Cloud Click-to-Call helps you track your phone calls so your boss knows you are working hard and your CRM system gives you credit for completing that phone call task.  Tracking your phone calls also helps ensure you receive commission for any sales calls you make.

Just click the customer's phone number and you are in direct meaningful contact with your customer and on your way to closing your next sale.  It saves you time not having to type in a phone number and ensures you don't dial the wrong number.

Single Purpose Description: This extension allows a user to initiate and track a phone call with a single click in two popular customer relationship management systems: ELEAD and DealerSocket.

Host Permission: This extension integrates with two customer relationship management (CRM) systems: ELEAD and DealerSocket.  This extension needs access to these two CRM's hosted web pages to highlight the phone numbers and detect when they are clicked.

For two weeks the extension has been down and my paying customers are cancelling because of it.  What can I do?  How do I fix this?  How can I talk to someone? 

 

[Paul Draper]

https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/topic/chromium-extensions/2U89HVwBLog

https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/topic/chromium-extensions/Ax8EWeDsli4

https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/topic/chromium-extensions/ML2-irQQBDw

https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/topic/chromium-extensions/OZ0ZUmJj7Xc

https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/topic/chromium-extensions/iV97cuFbaZA

https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/topic/chromium-extensions/rJY5zynwXAI

https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/topic/chromium-extensions/sNnPRolI5HM

https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/topic/chromium-extensions/tOaIMvnQ9QU