Rejected over a form field, then 48+ hours of silence after a non-code fix. Is anyone looking at submission 5fd41009?

App Store Distribution & Marketing App Review
szymon-miks OP
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I have been fighting to get a small app through App Review since October 23 and I am honestly running out of patience. Let me lay out the facts, because at this point the delays have nothing to do with our app.

App: Sensoludek (Apple ID 6823115588), a companion app for a small Polish brand of handmade children's educational books. Submission ID: 5fd41009-f25a-413e-a0ba-03dc693afa3b, version 1.0 (23).

  1. Oct 23: first submission. Rejected under 3.1.1 because our subscription was sold on our website. We tried the reader app route (3.1.3(a)) with no prices and no links in the app. Rejected twice more under 3.1.1.
  2. Fine. We implemented In-App Purchase with StoreKit 2, four auto-renewable subscriptions, restore purchases, terms and privacy links, everything by the book. Submitted on Oct 29. Expedited review requested and granted.
  3. Oct 30: rejected under 2.1(b), "cannot locate the In-App Purchases". The reviewer had signed in with the demo account from Sign-In Information, which already had the subscription content unlocked. The Review Notes clearly described a second demo account without the subscription, with its e-mail and password, and explained exactly where the purchase screen is. That paragraph was not read.
  4. Oct 30, 22:16 UTC, minutes after the rejection: we moved the second account into the Sign-In Information fields, replied with step-by-step instructions and resubmitted. This was not a code change. It was a form field. Our server logs show the purchase screen being opened on that account four minutes later, so the reviewer could see the subscriptions immediately.
  5. Since then: nothing. No message, no status change, "Waiting for Review" for more than 48 hours. An appeal filed with the App Review Board on Oct 28 also has no answer.

The "Reply to App Review" window is locked while the status is "Waiting for Review", so I cannot even ask the reviewer what is going on. Meet with Apple has no appointments available until mid-November. Developer Support cannot touch the review queue. There is no official channel left, which is why I am writing here.

For comparison: the same app has been live on Google Play since October 26 with zero issues. Every day without the iOS version is a day the brand cannot sell to its customers, and most of them are on iPhones.

I would understand a delay if we had ignored the guidelines, shipped something broken, or missed a legal requirement. None of that happened. We are stuck on a demo account field, which was fixed within minutes, and the submission has been sitting untouched for two days.

Could someone from App Review please look at submission 5fd41009 and either finish the review or tell us what else is needed? We will answer within minutes.

Szymon Miks

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Tomato OP

Could someone from App Review please look at submission 5fd41009 and either finish the review or tell us what else is needed? We will answer within minutes.

They don't come here. People who come here are mostly from DTS.

For comparison: the same app has been live on Google Play since October 26 with zero issues. Every day without the iOS version is a day the brand cannot sell to its customers, and most of them are on iPhones.

That statement alone is completely irrelevant since Google has nothing to do with Apple, Inc.'s digitial store. If you think it should matter, you may want to contact Google and file a complaint there.

They have reviewed your app twice or three times, which doesn't happen these days. They don't promise you when you get your app reviewed although their ancient statement says that it could be reviewed within 48 hours or something like that.