I am new to the app review process and so far I would equate it to an author sending their 500 page book to an editor and having the editor find a spelling error on page 12, reject the whole book and not read any further until the error on page 12 is resolved. Then they find an error on page 27 and reject the whole thing again.
My app has been in the review process for over a month now. In that time I have written, tested, reviewed, and approved a second app.
Not only has it been rejected for an issue that was not an issue with the app, it was a communication issue with the reviewer's device, but each other rejection is a one off issue that did not block the reviewer from testing further to find any other areas that could be resolved at the same time.
This requires me to then make a fix for that issue, then resubmit, and wait another 2-3 days minimum before I hear back on whatever the next issue might be. When I submitted to support to ask about the delays, I was told that there is a large backlog of apps to review. By doing a more thorough review the first time, you will reduce your backlog of apps that need to be reviewed.
These delays are exacerbated by reviewers not providing specifics about the area of the app that actually caused the failure. For example, my most recent failure was for "User Generated Content" which as far as I can tell is referring to the user's display name that they choose. I only know that because it is literally the only thing a user can do that other users might see. It had not occurred to me that this would fall under User Generated Content but it does make sense. It would be nice however if the reviewer said "Your display name functionality is considered User Generated Content and therefore needs to conform to the guidelines".
I do understand that this is not always possible to find all of the issues, as some issues may block the visibility of others. However that is certainly not the case with the issues that have caused rejection so far with my app.
I also feel that the "Expedite App Review" has not seemed to make any difference in the speed with which my app has been processed. My other app, which I did not expedite, still seemed to have the same average response time. Your review process claims "Up to 48 hours", but it should say "At least 48 hours". You're setting false expectations here which is increasing your ticket volume as well.
Lastly, developer support "Call, Confirm your number and we'll give you a call" -
I tried this option for help with my first rejection. I received an immediate call back just to sit on hold for 3 hours. Why not have your system only call me when the support person is ready to chat like many other support services now do? Instead by the time I speak to someone, I am already frustrated by the amount of time I had to wait on hold. Then once I did get a person, that support person told me "There is no phone support for Developer accounts." I tried to explain to him that HE called ME from your Call function on developer.apple.com, but he just kept repeating there is no phone support for developers. When I asked to escalate to a manger so I could explain how I reached them, he said "I can't escalate because we don't support developers". I asked for his name (because I missed it when he told me at the beginning of the call, and he hung up on me.
I honestly used to be a big supporter and early adopter of Apple, Mac, and iPhone but you need to do better. This experience sucks. My goal here is not to disparage Apple, only to make you aware of these problems for developers so that you can improve. I am guessing... that I am not alone in these experiences (no I am not guessing because I have seen many similar posts related to one or all of these issues I have faced).
