Penalized By Google? How Can I Find Out?

Started a MNS a month or so back with an EMD that has above average searches with low competition. Now I know I am not gonna reach the top but still expected in top 50 pages or so.

Heres what I done. Created site. Drove traffic to it from 7search as I had a balance left over from CPA campaigns. Got a link package from a respected Warrior. Didnt see any increase after 2 weeks. I know they say to leave it a while longer but a week after the work was done, nothing was showing up in my Webmaster Tools. Anyways, he took a look at the site and said it looks like I had been penalized and I had way too much tags and META or keyword tags and to take them out as they hinder rather than help. Also there was no Privacy Policy and this is where I think G might have had a problem as my site is monetized by Adnsese. Have added one now and hope that G will reindex my site.

Is there any way of contacting them and getting an answer quick as opposed to the reconsideration request where they say a reply could take several weeks?

I really need to know before I go the expenses of starting my other sites only to find I get hit with the same problem.

As far as I can see the problems G could have had were:-

too many keyword and META tags
no privacy policy
traffic from 7search - although its paid traffic just like adwords
using a linking service

Any help appreciated.