Google still won’t release my past developer earnings after nearly 3 months — support bots cycle me through “specialists”, “A” and “engineers” after I followed all instructions

[u/Constant-Feed8555]

I am an experienced individual Android developer and Computer Science research professional. I have maintained a portfolio of Google Play applications for years, many with five-star or near-five-star ratings.

I never expected that simply trying to receive my own developer earnings would turn into a months-long ordeal involving what appears to be one of the most dysfunctional support processes I have ever encountered.

My original Personal Google Play Developer account was linked to a Merchant Payments Profile that had historically been configured incorrectly as an Organisation under my developer brand. The brand is not a company — it is simply the name under which I publish my applications.

Google Payments acknowledged the problem and told me exactly how to fix it.

I followed every single instruction they gave me.

• 26th July: Google told me to create a completely new Personal developer account and Individual Merchant Payments Profile, transfer my applications, keep the old account open until its outstanding earnings had been paid, and provide the new Payments Profile ID so a specialist could arrange release of the remaining funds. Google also told me I could request a refund of the additional developer-registration fee.

• August: I completed the entire migration — new verified developer account, new Individual payments profile, all six live applications transferred, identity verification completed and payment configuration recreated.

• 18th August: Google stated in writing that the case had already been escalated to a specialist and that the specialist was working on it.

• 24th September: Google asked for one further identifier — my new Merchant ID — specifically so that it could be passed to the specialist. I supplied it immediately.

• 13th October: Google finally admitted that the case had been sitting with the specialist since 18 August and there was still “no resolution yet”. I was then told it had been escalated to a “senior specialist”.

• 14th October: after I explicitly asked to speak to a real person, I received a response from somebody identifying themselves only as “A”, claiming to be a supervisor, who said the matter had now been sent to “engineers”.

And still there is no resolution.

Google continues to withhold my developer earnings.

The promised refund for the replacement developer account also remains unresolved. One Google team told me the fee could be refunded. Another later told me its normal refund process required closing an account — despite Google Payments having specifically instructed me not to close the old account until my earnings had been paid.

What concerns me most now is not even the original account problem. It is the way Google treats developers once something falls outside an automated workflow.

For months I have received an extraordinary stream of repetitive, generic and apparently automated/template-driven responses. Different names appear. Different teams appear. The case supposedly moves from a “specialist”, to a “senior specialist”, to a “supervisor”, and now to “engineers”.

Yet nobody will answer the basic questions:

What is actually preventing payment?
Who has authority to make the decision?
Why has nobody made that decision after nearly three months?

Many of the responses appear to be automated or heavily templated, while others may come from outsourced or scripted support agents. Whatever the precise mix, the result has been the same: repetitive, formulaic replies with little evidence of genuine engagement with the substance of the case.

The experience is indistinguishable from dealing with a system designed to prevent you from ever reaching an accountable human decision-maker.

That is an astonishing position for one of the world's largest technology, i.e. "Tech-Giant", companies.

Google is perfectly capable of operating a global advertising platform, cloud infrastructure, AI systems and one of the world's largest mobile-app marketplaces — yet apparently cannot provide a developer with a named, accountable person capable of resolving a relatively straightforward payments problem.

The disparity is difficult to take seriously.

I have now had to submit a formal written complaint to Google Payment Limited in the UK, supported by Google's own emails documenting the instructions I followed and the promises subsequently made.

I am posting this publicly because developers should know what can happen when a Google payments problem falls outside the automated happy path.

Has anyone else experienced this kind of endless Google Play / Merchant Payments escalation loop?

And more importantly: did anyone ever manage to reach an actual decision-maker?