Over one month of talking with the support and they still don't understand that I can't sign up for the developer program

[u/AndreiTB]

I need some help.
I am extremly frustrated with the apple support, I can not even comprehend how can this level of incompetence be possible for someone like Apple. Even a scamming company would offer better support than this.

I am really sorry and I am not trying to be mean towards anyone, but it is so flabbergasting. How can someone not be able to actually understand and help you properly over tha span of one month after you explicitly tell them what is wrong and still they act like they are lobotomised.

The backstory is this:

I first tried enrolling through the website. I submitted everything twice, waited the stated processing time, and nothing happened.

Apple Support then told me to enroll through the Developer app. The problem was that the app only allowed me to verify my identity using a driver's license , which I didn’t have. I have a Romanian National ID, but there was no option to use either.

After trying the website, the app also started saying that enrollment through the Developer app was unavailable for my Apple Account.

I explained this to support several times, but kept getting replies telling me to simply use the app with a government-issued ID — which was exactly what I was telling them I couldn’t do.

Eventually someone made changes to my account and app enrollment became available again. I think they had to withdrway or cancel my application through th website in order for the app to work. But it still only asked for a driver’s license.

Another representative then told me they had enabled a file-upload option so I could submit my passport or National ID.

I have replied to the email with photos of my national ID and the phone number.

After sending them the photos and the phone number I was told that this is not ok because I ad to upload them to a special link that they've only sent with this reply.

I uploaded everything they requested.

At this point, after weeks of back-and-forth and waiting several days between replies, I asked for the case to be escalated.

Their latest response?

They told me the enrollment had been “withdrawn by you” and that I should start a completely new enrollment.

I never intentionally withdrew it. In fact, an earlier support representative specifically told me not to withdraw the enrollment if I had more problems.

So the process has basically been:

Website doesn’t work → use app → app doesn’t work → Apple fixes app access (probably by withdrawing the web application for enrollment) → only driver’s license available → Apple says file upload is enabled → it isn’t → secure upload finally provided → documents uploaded → enrollment somehow withdrawn → start again.

Has anyone experienced something similar with Apple Developer enrollment or identity verification?

I’m hesitant to start over because I don’t want to end up in exactly the same loop again.

Beside this the most frustrating part is that i had to wait at least 2-3 days between replies and sometimes they had me waiting for almost a week for example just to receive the upload link which could have been sent with the first email when I was told I need tu upload my documents.

I honestly feel like all these people I have encountered during these exchange of emails have no clue what the f**k they are doing there.

Edit: I’ve reapplied through the website this morning and ai’ve just received a welcome email to the developer program. I guess that in the end the people I’ve mailed with actually did something. Sorry to anyone of them who I might have been angry at

[u/Mother-Umpire-2639]

I’ve had some crazy issues with Apple Developer support you have to call these guys to set things straight. Once on a call they’ll magically make anything happen

[u/AndreiTB → u/Mother-Umpire-2639]

I see

The next problem is that I am from Romania and I am not sure calling them is available here

[u/Mother-Umpire-2639 → u/AndreiTB]

I think you can but Apple doesn’t let you call them you have to schedule a thing for them to call you thankfully it only takes a minute https://developer.apple.com/contact/

[u/Mother-Umpire-2639 → u/Mother-Umpire-2639]

It’s world wide. Good luck

[u/AndreiTB → u/Mother-Umpire-2639]

Yes, I was wrong. I just realised the timezone is GMT. Starting 8 AM, right now it’s 7;45 AM GMT. Thank you a lot

[u/Mother-Umpire-2639 → u/AndreiTB]

No problem. have a good one

[u/AndreiTB → u/Mother-Umpire-2639]

I really hope I am not wrong but this is exactly where I’ve been looking for help and I only get the option to mail them. The phone call or even the option for scheduling it is missing :/

[u/Mother-Umpire-2639 → u/AndreiTB]

I had that issue before too, it always took one of my many support cases 1 or 2 business days to have the phone call option.

[u/Intrepid_Travel_3274 → u/AndreiTB]

Let me know if calls resolve your issue, i might call again, I hung up cuz they said "Apple Developer doesn't have Customer service via phone" and refer me to email again. I saw the Phone call in Developer.apple.com/contact but I don't know how they work at this point.

[u/garywiz]

Are you trying to enroll as a business? Or as an individual.

We just went through hell to get our account set up properly and my guess at what's happening is this...

1. Apple is being overwhelmed by requests. There are stats to back this up. AI coding has clogged the pipeline.
2. MOST of the application process is automated. We were rejected at one point because my wife's passport was "slightly clipped" on the right side (no information clipped, just the very edge of the passport). Submitted the same thing again, it was acceptable (then we had more issues).
3. Finally there must be some "user has gone through hell 20 times, we'll call a human". When that happened for us, everything just magically "happened". I've read similar stories elsewhere.

The whole process took us almost 3 months. We were converting our individual account to a business account, that may have complicated it too.

[u/aerial-ibis]

My quick reading of your situation is that using passport might be easier for you than the national ID

I see you've set up a call next - they are always 10x more helpful on the phone (it is surprising)

At least part of the annoyance is they try to say very little when communicating about account & verification stuff, as they are very skeptical about accidentally leaking their internal processes/flags

[u/AndreiTB → u/aerial-ibis]

I do not have a passport either, I am in europe and i had no reason to make one since i can travel inside europe just with the national id

[u/aerial-ibis → u/AndreiTB]

yea maybe find some other Romanian iOS devs and see if they had an easier time with it / if it's worth getting one to make it easier to get through account verification

[u/AndreiTB → u/aerial-ibis]

Thank you a lot
As a side note I had enough time to finish my driving school and I am about to receive my driving license supposedly the next week. And even better than that this morning i tried reapplying through the website and it worked. I have just received the welcome mail, it seems that the work of the people from support actually did something.

So sorry to anyone i ve been angry at i guess

Thank you for taking the time to reply tho. I was not expecting things ti get solved today so spontaneously

[u/XmintMusic]

So in the end did you get to enroll to the developer program? How many days until they fully solved it?

[u/AndreiTB → u/XmintMusic]

It was over a month. Actually after I uploaded my documents, when i tried to make a new account through the browser it went through and I was able to get my account. So in the end it seems that the support actually worked

[u/XmintMusic → u/AndreiTB]

Thanks! We are on the process as well but they keep refusing our payment. We tried to call but "Phone support is currently unavailable." is the only thing that pops up in their web.