Suspended by Google Merchant Centre

-- HikaShop version -- : 5.1.0
-- Joomla version -- : 3.10.12
-- PHP version -- : 7.4.33
-- Browser(s) name and version -- : Opera One(version: 112.0.5197.30)
-- Error-message(debug-mod must be tuned on) -- : Suspended by google merchant

Hi,
we got the message (below) regarding a suspension of our products by the Google Merchant Centre but can't figure out exactly what the problem is. It seems to be for a few broken landing pages but all of our products have been suspended. An example has been included privately for you to review and we can provide backend access if required.
We had trouble removing some of the 404 error pages for products that were not longer available (i.e. 0 items in stock). So we customised the 404 error page to indicate that the products were out of stock with a link to contact us to discuss options. Maybe if you can provide a way to delete these pages it would solve the problem but we're not sure (and google isn't clear either).

Thanks. The message from google follows. - Ian and Stu

Hi,
can you please take a look at our plugin config. I recall that you kindly help set up the cron job for this but something might have changed that we're not able to see.
We also use the 'google structured data addon' from tassos.gr and I don't know if this causes a conflict.

Kind regards,
Ian and stu
p.s. Username and Pwd will be PM'd.

Hi,
it looks like products that are out of stock are showing up as 404 errors in large numbers. We think it relates to the google products plugin as you mentioned (e.g. 'include in stock products only' is set to 'No') but could be our sitemap.
We have unblocked Japan and France for access and an example of an affected product is;

- BODY TOOLS BLENDING SPONGE

Thanks again,
Ian and Stu

p.s. We've included an image of the violation list. Aside from the first two lines that just list everything. All of the other smaller numbered items link to 404 error pages relating to out of stock items.

Thanks for taking a look.
For shipping we've included the minimum;
AU::Standard:9.00 AUD,AU::Express:12.00 AUD
...but let me know if this isn't enough info. We only charge a flat fee and large items are only available for pick-up.

Regarding the 'skip field'. Can you give me a quick example of how to use it? The only products they mention for Australia is for pills that facilitate abortions. We do advertise these but don't actually sell them online. So, if you can let us know how to exclude them using the skip field (because they are available 'over the counter and only from a pharmacist' only) that would solve the problem. If it helps, the rule would be: if our 'product_access' field contains 's3' then it should be skipped.

We thought that the phone number was verified but Australia recently got rid of PSTN phones so we need to redo that one.

For the GTiN. Our products all have barcodes and related numbers which are held in the 'product_code' field. Is it sufficient to list the 'product_code' field in the GTiN field of the 'google products plugin' to map this across?

Thanks again for looking into this,
Ian and Stu

Thanks,
We've done all of that and checked that the generated xml file no longer contains restricted products. Are you able to host the cron job to upload the xml file to google via ftp?

Regards,
Ian and Stu

Hi,
I've manually uploaded the file with fixes and will let you know how it goes.
Yes, I was asking about automating the upload using ftp. Google Feeds also have a fetch option but it wasn't well documented.

More soon. Many thanks,
Ian and Stu

Hi,
the manual version is working with some products legitimately disallowed due to various issues (e.g. 404, no product image etc.). The google products plugin doesn't seem to be able to map existing fields like 'product_code' across to it's preset fields. Rather, it wants a dedicated new custom field to be created. Is this correct? We created one for the 'skip' field and can do this for other values but its seems strange to have to duplicate existing fields.
We're not confident about automating the upload of the xml file. Can you take a look and just check if the following fields have been set up and will work properly;
- FTP User Name
- FTP Password
- File Name
- Local xml file path
- Frequency

We're getting there and your feedback is greatly appreciate as usual,
Ian and Stu

Hi,
I was able to log in using the credentials I sent to you and Japan is enabled. I'll pm them to you again. Apologies for that and I will double check the RSFirewall settings.
When I checked the information in the google merchant center, 'product_code' showed up instead of the mapped value.
Although this is in Joomla3. I will copy the working configuration over to the new Joomla5 replacement site that we are almost finished building.

Thanks again,
Ian and Stu

Hi,
I checked the logs and you're not entering the correct password. It may be a keyboard issue (not sure) so I'll pm you a picture of the credentials instead. Sorry about that.

Regards,
Ian and Stu

pm sent

Thanks Nicolas,
that's clarified a lot of issues. The link to the google info about MPN and GiTN values has helped as well. I couldn't locate this info myself. Our supplier is pretty bad with inventory data and we spend most of our time writing regex to fix abbreviations and misspellings in product names. Luckily, we include brand names as part of this.
We really appreciate your looking into this during your trip away. You've gone above and beyond as usual!

Regards,
Ian and Stu

One more quick question. What internal hikashop field would you recommend using if we already use 'product_code' to upload the 'mpn' information. We can swap them round if necessary;

product_code = GTIN
??????????? = MPN

We have manufacturer code and haven't used them for uploading before because our supplier doesn't include one for every product. However, we can create a placeholder or insert other meaningful data.

Thanks,
Ian and Stu