Apple charges $100 a year for an Apple Developer account. That is annoying, but understandable. That friction probably keeps some low quality accounts and apps out of the app store. What is EVEN MORE frustrating though is not even being able to give Apple that $100 dollars.
A Broad Issue
We have several clients that are trying to launch iOS apps that we built. We have been helping them create (at least trying to help) Apple Developer accounts for their organizations.
They don't want to create accounts with their personal iClouds for obvious reasons. These are businesses with business emails and they want to keep things separate. One client even tried to use their personal iCloud but they were not able to create an organization developer account.
First, we tried to set them up new Apple accounts with their business emails. After going through the signing flow, verifying their email, and then trying to verify their phone number, they land on a cryptic message: "Your account cannot be created at this time". No explanation, no way to move forward, no next action.
Apple Business WTF?
After some googling, we found one suggestion was to create an Apple Business account so that employees can have dedicated users under the business. We set one up for one of the clients and have been waiting for 11 business days to get it approved. The dashboard helpfully says it will be approved in 5 days. Lies.
Apple Support Circus
For both clients, we have parallel support threads going. We keep getting transferred to other departments, which means scheduling calls for the next day. Often, the calls get scheduled in the wrong timezone, which is delightful. There is no clear path to get this dealt with through their support pages or channels.
Not Just Us
When you Google for this problem, there are many Apple threads and Reddit posts detailing people with the same issues. Some workarounds include using their mom's phone number instead, going to a cafe and using their internet to fill out the form from a different IP, and trying to contact support. This seems to be a broad issue and it is insane that it seems to be unaddressed by Apple for at least the last year.
Please Let Us Give You $100, Apple
At the time of publishing this article, we are 2 weeks into trying to get accounts for 2 clients and still can't get in. This is frustrating us and this is frustrating our clients. It's baffling that a company that used to be so user-centric has created a early-2000's-Microsoft-like monstrosity of impenetrable bureaucracy. If anyone has any other ideas or works at Apple and can throw us a bone, please let me know: matt AT dioko.ai