I have had apps on the App Store since 23 April 2014 - over 12 years.
While Apple quite rightly trumpets their simplicity of use for their products, their operating systems and their software they have, in my experience, always been majorly deficient in the area that they now call App Store Connect.
I think a very large part of the problem is that the people who use the system are afraid to bite the hand that feeds so they just put up with it.
Well, it’s time to take a stand.
I don’t see any point in getting in to the specifics of my issue here because the original issue is no longer the issue. The issue now is “what do Apple do about it”. I spoke to a human at Apple a couple of weeks ago and he was going to move heaven and earth to solve my issue and he was a nice guy. I got an email from him that I could reply to and he was taking ownership of my case. Then I got this;
Dear Francis, Thank you for contacting Developer Support. My name is Bjoern, and I am one of the senior Advisor here in Developer Support. I have taken over your case from my colleague Sebastian as he is currently out of the office.
As I can see, you have issue with your screenshots and the solution provided by Sebastian has not fixed the issue for Australia and Singapore. I am sorry to hear the issue is still ongoing for you. It will be my pleasure to look further into it for you.
To better assist you, we need more information. Please provide the following: …
So I replied; Dear Bjoerm
The issue is no longer with the screenshots. I managed to get a screenshot done by consulting Google and following the instructions of someone on a forum so as to conflict with what Apple’s documentation said. I did provide you with an update about that.
The remaining issue is still that...
What you have asked me to do below doesn’t seem to relate to my issues at all. It has nothing to do with Safari not working on my Mac as expected. It has nothing to do with logging in to Appstore Connect.
Would you please clarify what information you want from me that relates to my issue?
And he said;
Thank you for your email and your information. From your text message it was not clear where the issue was located. My apologies for guessing the wrong direction.
I have reviewed your app “pdf Paginate Pro” and ...
More info can be found in our App Store Connect Help Guide...
I hope that the provided information has helped you further.
My ‘text message’ was an email. I up loaded both of his emails to a bot and the bot said, “That came from a BOT”. - Apple Intelligence?
So I submitted again and included this under Review Information
“I am repeatedly submitting my app binary and IAP together but Apple keeps returning the IAP saying the binary was not submitted. Please advise exactly what steps I need to take in the current App Store Connect to correctly link them.” - All I wanted was for them to tell me what they wanted me to do and I would do it. - Then it got rejected again with no detail as to why or how to solve it. I replied to
By now I have customers all over the world complaining to me that they can’t restore their Previous Purchase. I keep telling them that it should only take a couple of days for approval. I have been telling them that for a month now while not selling one app. What I should do is direct them to Apple to make their complaints and maybe then someone would start to take it seriously. They are my customers but they are Apple’s customers as well. So, today I got rejected again and managed to get another human callback. A very nice lady who wanted to help so I started to explain the problem but when she interrupted and said
“Well, for instance, I am a human and I only have limited ability to remember so much, which is why I kind of intercepted at this point. So, I mean, not being funny, but I mean, I find it very hard to remember every little detail that you have said in the last 6 minutes. It's literally impossible for the human brain. Well, mine anyway. Maybe there is something wrong with mine. But I will find it very hard if I allow you to tell me multiple problems in the space of 10, 15 minutes. My brain is certainly not going to be able to to uncode all of that.” (Taken from the iPhone transcript of my recording of the call).
I do want to stress that I don’t blame her at all but as one of the few humans that it is possible to talk to she clearly had not been trained to ‘deal with issues’ only to pass them on to an online link for me to tell another BOT.
The latest addition to one of the customer email chains this evening;
Has the fix been approved yet? When it does, do I need to re-download the app or should the existing installation work?
XXX
On Jun 8, 2026, at 12:56 PM, XXXXX. XXXX XXX @alumni.nd.edu > wrote:
Thank you. I’m using mac and am on 6.2.1. I will await the fix.
XXX
On Jun 8, 2026, at 12:51 PM, Francis Wildman <pdfpaginate.com> wrote:
Hi David
All I can do at the moment is apologise. An update that I did a few weeks ago had a bug in it and I have been desperately trying to resolve it ever since. I passed a new update to Apple for approval yesterday that should solve the problem...
Apple’s time estimate for approvals at the moment is 2 days and it was put in yesterday so I would hope everything should be working, assuming I get the approval, within the next day or so at the most.
I hate when people say ’thank you for your patience’ even when it was forced upon you so maybe ’thank you for your tolarance’. I can assure you that I am doing all that I can.
Regards
Francis
On 8 Jun 2026, at 17:28, XXXXX. XXXX XXX @alumni.nd.edu > wrote:
I’ve tried everything and my purchase will not restore. I’m using the latest version. Please advise.
What am I supposed to tell these people? It’s not much of an app I know but the people who bought my app, many of them years ago, rely on it and mostly love it.
I simply can’t believe that anyone very senior at Apple can even know how bad App Store Connect is, I could provide a list and Google and YouTube and so many forums are overrun with complaints. Turns out that you can’t complain if you are a developer. You can appeal but you can only appeal the rejection you cannot appeal the lack of information, support and assistance.
Hey APPLE the AI isn’t that good yet. Mind you the help, support and simplicity of use wasn’t much better even before AI.
I have removed the contact details of my customer above and resisted the temptation of pasting in lots of such emails here. So far I have resisted replying to all of the complaining customers and asking them to talk to Apple, but that would not be kind to my customers.
You should be able to find my email address if you want to offload to me by email, please feel free but I can’t promise to reply, I have a big problem to try to sort out at the moment.
Good luck to you all, particularly if you need help from Apple.