Google and Spam
Google is primarily a mathematical company, and they usually state that they try to handle spam via algorithms.
While the term algorithm can be used loosely, there is human intervention. However, they do not specifically respond to most spam reports. You can report spam to them, but do not expect it to have much immediate effect on search results. Generally, time spent reporting spam to Google would be better spent making a better site. Also, some competitors can get a bit feisty if they are snitched on. I know a guy that got so mad at being turned in, that a month later he ranked 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, and 10. He then e-mailed the snitch thanking him for the motivation to create all those other pages.
If your site is kicked out of the index for an automated spam penalty, it will usually come back after 60 days after the thing that triggered the spam penalty has been removed. If your site was manually reviewed and removed, the penalty period might be much longer.
You can send Google a re-inclusion request via a form inside of Webmaster Central after you have cleaned up your site explaining a sob story of how some SEO company ripped you off. They prefer to receive this feedback from within their webmaster console because it shows that you are related to the site you are requesting a re-inclusion for. The key is to let them know that whatever was wrong will not happen again.
If you are still having problems after e-mailing them a few times, you can call them at 650-330-0100. Google usually will not reply to most bans. If your site is manually banned for industrial strength spam, you stand a slim chance of getting back in the index unless you are a large advertiser, have a well-known brand, or you getting banned was a large public issue.
While they do not openly and publicly advertise it, I have been told by a few big spenders on Google AdWords that they have received low-level, one-on-one ranking consultations.
In addition to banning sites from the index, Google also has numerous filters they apply. For example, sites with excessive duplicate content may end up in the supplemental results. In addition, sites with excessive low-quality inbound or outbound links may be placed on a reduced crawl priority or have a -30 ranking penalty applied.
Google's webmaster guidelines are located at:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
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