Extension removed without cause referencing previous email we never received

[Alex Groth]

Woke up to a 5am email from CWS that our extension was removed from the store. The reason given: 

We have not received an update from you on your Google Chrome item before the expiration of the warning period specified in our earlier email.

Because your item continues to not comply with our policies stated in the previous email, it has now been removed from the Chrome Web Store.

We never received an earlier email that specified a policy violation or a warning period! (yes, we checked trash and spam, etc) 

We filled out the accompanying form within minutes asking for clarity, and also to reinstate our extension during this process so we'd have a proper "warning period". We received no response until 26 hours later when we got the automated email "your appeal is under review"

Removal without proper notification and communication is completely intolerable. The mere existence of this possibility deflates the value of all extension businesses, and worse, when it actually happens, brands can be irreparably damaged. We average 500 downloads/day mostly from word-of-mouth, and all of those people are currently reaching a 404 page. 

We have been in the CWS since 2011, been through multiple policy, permission, and other changes, and even survived a few "accidental" takedowns or update rejections like this in the past. We proudly have 100s of thousands of users, and are extremely transparent with our code, financials, and business decisions: https://tab.gladly.io/

Obviously, we hope this gets quickly resolved through the form we filled out or otherwise, but we also want to see changes in this process @Simeon Vincent. Here are some simple suggestions that would have made our last 30 hours more tolerable: 

- Info in the developer dashboard of what policy was violated and how to fix it. A "prior email" is a terrible way to communicate crucial information
- Advance notice (we see no record of an earlier CWS email, even after verifying filters/spam, and we received the takedown email). It seems like this was the intention, but it didn't happen for some reason.
- Improved response time and action time for reviews of extensions that are currently taken down. It is beyond infuriating to have to wait until 3 am PST for automated responses to urgent matters that happened at 7:30am PST. Honestly, we'd happily pay a monthly fee to support having a responsive human in this situation (but really, we all know Google has the resources to do this). 

To be clear, we are more than happy to respond to CWS requests and ensure our extension is fully compliant to policy. That’s our goal, too. But we can’t do so when the CWS team doesn’t communicate about what’s going on. 

[Vladimir Yankovich]

Colleagues, good afternoon. Sorry what happened to your product. Your tab is a great product.

I can assume that you have fallen into one proposal policy. Since you have shown ads, and this is prohibited, unless this is the main purpose of your product. Second, it is possible that you have shown Google Adsense in extension, which is also prohibited. These are just my assumptions.

Hope you can solve your problem. Keep us updated.

[Alex Groth]

To close the loop. We got an automated email this morning saying that
"Hello Developer,

Thanks for reaching out to us. We apologize for the inconvenience caused to you in this matter. Upon a subsequent review, we found your extension is compliant with all our policies. The submission is approved and the latest version of the extension will be published in the Chrome Web Store shortly.

Thanks,"

And our extension is back in the webstore: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tab-for-a-cause/gibkoahgjfhphbmeiphbcnhehbfdlcgo

Obviously, we are really happy that this was resolved, but still extremely frustrated at this process. For a few days, no one was able to install the extension and people wondered if we had done something wrong to force Google to remove us. To hear that it was a mistake with no clarity on what happened or why doesn't really help the underlying problem of existing under threat of these decisions/actions. Can't stress enough how seriously a takedown can affect a business/brand, especially with no warning. 

[Vladimir Yankovich]

I know many teams of mobile developers and have not heard any such story. But on this forum every week a new one. Hell! Google how did we deserve it?

[Pawel Kacprzak]

@Alex I just woke up and received exactly the same email with the same situation you described. I'm about to fill the accompanying form you did, do you remember which of the available reasons you have chosen? I see that I cannot choose "The action against my item was a mistake" because it requires me to provide the violation reference ID mentioned in the previous email which I didn't receive.

[Alex Groth]

Hey Pawel,

Sorry to hear that! Super frustrating... 

In the form, I believed I used the field that was "I was not contacted" as it didn't require using the color fields since we didn't know what the policy violation was. Fingers crossed you hear back fast! 

Alex

[Pawel Kacprzak]

Hey Alex, 

Thanks for the response! I just filled the form choosing the option you mentioned. Now I'm waiting for the response.

[William A.]

Was wondering how these all worked out for you all? We got a similar take down 2 days back and it has been difficult to get clarity. I have created a forum here:  https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/chromium-extensions/c/UvE53ZidM48

Can any of you help over here? It is a bit urgent for us.

[Pawel Kacprzak]

I described what happened in my case (mentioned above) in this thread: https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/chromium-extensions/c/ZtN57W_27-4/m/lWZ3eWJdAwAJ

[William A.]

Thank you for sharing this. 

I had applied for the appeal and then got a standard email that it cannot be taken down. Definitely, our extension does not do what they mention it does. I responded with the details, and have yet to get a response from them. We also made the chages that they required, but still havent got a response. 

[William A.]

Just an update. We were taken back up. Have updated the forum now with the experience.