It's taken me literally 2 weeks of frustrations getting the Google Module installed and every time I solved a problem I encountered another.

Today I corrected one small error which I made when copying and pasting and HOORAY I GOT GOOGLE CHECKOUT WORKING 100%

Once I got to the google checkout page I closed my window and went back to VirtueMarts configuration settings and I changed the item description settings to 'short description'.

I then tested the checkout again and was informed on the checkout page that 'this merchant is no longer able to process orders' (or something similar).

Assuming this was a mistake I tried again, and got the same results. I checked my email to see if anything had been sent from google and I had nothing.

Next I tried logging into my account and was greeted with ...

Your merchant account has been closed

Per Google Checkout's Terms of Service (Section 2.3), GPC has the right (i) to change, suspend or discontinue the Service, in whole or in part, as necessary to perform maintenance or updates to the Service and (ii) to impose limits on certain features or restrict access to parts or all of the Service without notice and without liability. GPC may decline to process any Payment Transaction in connection with, among other reasons, fraud prevention activities, applicable law, or GPC policies.

Your account will not be reactivated. For all future orders, please use an alternate payment method.
Why was my account closed?
For security reasons, Google Checkout cannot provide specific information regarding the closure of your Checkout merchant account.

Can I apply to get my account reopened?
No. Your merchant account will not be re-activated. Please utilize an alternative payment method for future orders.

Can I open a new merchant account?
No. Any merchant account opened in connection with this current account will be closed without notice.

I'm stunned! This is the second $US googlecheckout account we've opened (Google told us to open a second one so we could use different API's). THe account's been open jsut 2 days - not even long enough to verify the bank account.

We've used exactly the same credit card, bank account and contact details as our other account which is still active and working. The nearest we've even come to an order was to complete the checout process and to arrive at the google payment page.

Has anybody else experience this kind of craziness? Is it possible in any way that somethign I've misconfigured may have caused a security alert. The speed at which the account got closed was so fast I'm sure it must have been automated.

I've completed an appeal form to google already although I'm really not optimistic. I am really horrified that this has happened and wonder if anybody else has experienced this and / or if you can offer any advice.

Best wishes,

Martin

Well, I have my web store about half done and am looking at possible payment processors. I thought Google Checkout would be a good one.

BUT

After reading the above posts and I have found quite a number of others in the same vein, I think it would be really good to just stay away from Google Checkout. I think that Google has gotten to be so big that they are near impossible to do business with so I'll just have to look at other merchant accounts that cost money. Must cost money for some reason, maybe it is because they actually care about their customers.

Then, the new kid on the block is going to be Amazon Payments from what I have been reading. Maybe they will work?

Amazon is not easy to deal with either from my experience as a seller there.

Hello happy_martin!

Sorry to hear this happened.

You mentioned that you have two Google Checkout accounts. It's important that your Public Business Website URL is defined, and defined properly. Google can, and will shut down an account if this area is blank or incorrect.

Are you sure that your Public Business website URL was set properly within your second Google Checkout account?

The area I'm referring to looks similar to the following (with a different URL of course):


Your second account must use a different Public Business website URL than your first Google Checkout account.

If you can log into that second account, you should check it and change it if necessary. Then, whether it needed changing or not, or if you could not access the second account, try emailing "Safiuddin" at checkout-merchant-support@google.com to see if your account can be reinstated.

Hope this helps a bit.

Yes the same thing happened to me with an account I have had for two years and having a lot of sales through then one day I received the same email they also really messed me up as I had $450.00 in sales that had not been deposited into my bank account yet and it was all refunded with no explanation I lost all the sales but one when I explained that I was having a problem with google checkout.

I will never use google agian, the way around this is to use a different card and bank account and open another account but i am not going to take the chance. good luck sorry this happened to you.

My merchant account was just closed for no apparent reason, and I have spent the last 1/2 hour trying to find a number to call, so that I can speak to a manager about this. Even though I am NO fan of PayPal, at least you can call them, and speak to a human after they screw you over. I'm sick and tired of spending my limited time as a small business owner dealing with such ridiculous situatons. A couple different times PayPal limited my account for no reason, and then after days of communication, released it without any explanation. As a result, I stopped using Paypal, and began to use Google Checkout as an alternate method of payment, in addition to direct CC, COD, or company check. Looks like I jumped out of the PayPal frying pan into the Google fire here, doesn't it?

If a company is willing to summarily close or limit your account without notice or reason, and then won't even publish a phone number to call, I am no longer interested in doing business with them! I have been in business for over 20 years, and only in the last couple years have I seen such a complete lack of customer service in this country. It is obvious that companies such as eBay and Google have been the biggest reason for this serious decline in good customer service. It's the new, give me your money, shut up, and don't bother me corporate culture that eBay, PayPal, and Google live by that will send most merchant like myself back to our local banks to clear payments in the future.

Finally, even if this problem was caused by a misunderstanding or error, the summary judgement, and lack of communication is COMPLETELY INEXCUSEABLE! It is shameful for Google to treat it's good customers this way, and I look forward to the day the free market system corrects these corporate juggernauts for the horrible customer service they have dished out to their good, loyal customers.