test subscription disappeared when testing in-app-purchase

Question

I have implemented Google Play subscriptions in an unpublished version of one of my apps.

I purchased a monthly subscription (against the phony credit card ending in 0999) on December 24th and it showed up in my merchant account. Also when my app did a queryInventoryAsync, the subscription properly showed up as a valid subscription.

I noticed, however, that when I went to Google Play (on the same phone) -> My apps ->Subscriptions that it didn't show up. Anyway it still worked on my test phone.

Now, on January 5th, I implemented a new version of my app with some improvements that have nothing to do with subscriptions. I made a new release version, uploaded it to both Google Play and my test phone. Now when my app does a queryInventoryAsync the subscription is GONE!!

According to all the docs, the subscription should still be there. Same phone, same user account, just a newer version of the app.

So, I went ahead and purchased another subscription to see if that would work. Entered my password and got back an error saying "your credit card ending in 0999 was declined" I tried several more times - same thing. I checked my merchant account and found five failed subscription purchase attempts all saying that my 0999 credit card was no good.

Does anyone know if it is possible to contact anyone at Google Play about this?

What could be wrong?

Answer 1

Turns out that Google does not support testing of subscriptions. You have to use real charges.