Ask HN: Anyone from Apple here? It's impossible to enroll the dev program

97 points by aalex123 5 years ago | 36 comments

I tried multiple times and it's the same problem: "we have been unable to obtain payment for your recent Apple Developer purchase."

I used the same card that I use to to buy apps from the app store - and I tried with other cards too but with no success.

And I'm not the only one... https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/126314?page=25

The bank says that they didn't get any payment requests, so the problem seems to be at Apple.

GordonS 5 years ago |

A bit if a tangent, but a company I worked with recently had an issue enrolling in the Enterprise dev program.

It's a large company with thousands of employees, so definitely enterprise scale. They heard nothing for months after applying, and weren't able to find any way to chase the application. Eventually Apple got back to them to say the company didn't meet the Enterprise program requirements. The company asked which requirement they didn't meet, because it was plain that they did in fact meet all the requirements - Apple wouldn't say! They said their decision was final, and they wouldn't say why.

Absolutely crazy.

closeparen 5 years ago | |

I used to think the Microsoft/Cisco/HP system of certified partner networks was obtuse. Now I see the wisdom. Managing relationships at scale is not the core competency for these companies; it's better that they delegate it to organizations that can. And it's a competitive marketplace. If you don't like your Microsoft partner, there are thousands more to choose from.

Incidentally, when you work at one of these partners, you get access to private tech support phone numbers that are the real-life version of XKCD's Shibboleth [0].

[0] https://xkcd.com/806/

emidln 5 years ago | |

It took me around 6 months to find out that while we meet the enterprise criteria, our use case wasn't what they envisioned for the enterprise program. As such, they suggested we reapply for a normal dev account and overlook their public instructions that told us to go to their enterprise program.

GordonS 5 years ago | | |

In this case, the company wanted to develop their own apps and distribute them internally through tools like App Center and InTune, rather than using the public app store. AFAIK, to do that you need an in-house distribution certificate, and AFAIK you can only get that through the Apple Enterprise Developer program.

londons_explore 5 years ago | |

That's when you register a new company to act as an in-between...

bob1029 5 years ago | | |

I know this is probably meant in jest, but in my experience dealing with Apple enterprise dev program for the last 3 years, its probably easier to just incorporate a new LLC and use that if you get stuck somewhere in the process. Probably cheaper too if you value your time.

GordonS 5 years ago | | |

Having to register a new company to try to enroll seems a tad excessive, and certainly shouldn't be necessary.

osy 5 years ago |

Yes!!! I thought I was going crazy. My registration got stuck at the payment screen even though I can buy other content from iTunes. I’ve contacted Apple support more than a dozen times in a span of two weeks. I was given conflicting information by different representatives. For example one told me to create a new Apple ID and register again. Then when that failed I was told it was because I had two accounts that tried to register with the same drivers’ license. At some point I think I triggered some anti-fraud mechanism because I can’t even get past the license agreement screen anymore and they told me basically that they’ll “review” the case and get back to me. Haven’t heard back in 3 weeks since.

joemclarke 5 years ago |

You are not the only one, it tooks me weeks to get an account setup, I kept getting the same error message as you even after trying multiple good credit cards.

After contacting support several times, we were finally able to get me signed up by enrolling via the iOS developer app.

It was a very painful, time wasting process!

njsubedi 5 years ago |

I'd be surprised if anyone from Apple would reply here. The problem seems to be with the payment processing, so a quick call to their support would yield faster resolution. Sometimes they have asked my card details over the phone to renew my membership, so you could request a callback.

heavymark 5 years ago |

What did Apple say when you contacted them? The dev phone support with real people has always been quite good for me, or the general Apple online support system or their Twitter support system? As those methods would probably be the most helpful since they would be able to see what’s going on with your particular account.

redsky17 5 years ago |

This ended up happening to me recently (about a month ago), too. I ended up having to enroll via the app on iOS versus through the website on desktop. I was in contact w/ the support folks and they were fairly helpful. Could be worth reaching out.

lalo2302 5 years ago |

Are you from Europe? Maybe they want to get away from Wirecard after their meltdown [1] and their new provider is not that good.

Just speculating, not that I know anything.

[1] https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/25/house-of-wirecard-insolven...

nottorp 5 years ago | |

Can't read the article, but if they recently switched payment processors for Europe for the dev program maybe they switched to Digital River?

They're famous for having extremely paranoid anti fraud checks to the point that I don't even attempt to pay for something through them any more. (e.g.: the card that i use for the app store, amazon, steam etc wasn't good enough for guild wars 2).

aalex123 5 years ago | |

I'm from Europe. I don't know what provider they use but my cards work with iTunes/app store. I pay monthly for icloud and I bought dozens of apps and games.

JimDabell 5 years ago | |

This is something I’ve heard people complaining about for months, so it’s unlikely to be related to the recent issues with Wirecard.

hpen 5 years ago |

Have you tried contacting Apple customer service?

emerongi 5 years ago | |

In the linked thread multiple people have tried contacting customer support. Apparently this is one of the responses:

> Hello *,

> This is Paul from Apple Developer Program Support. It was nice to speak with you today. I have researched the issue for you.

> For one or more reasons, your enrollment in the Apple Developer Program could not be completed. We are unable to continue with your enrollment at this time.

> Best regards,

> Paul

> Apple Inc.

minxomat 5 years ago | | |

That's so insanely devoid of any information it should be framed and exhibited somewhere.

wittyreference 5 years ago | | |

> For one or more reasons,

That's not a response, that's an insult.

Yetanfou 5 years ago | | |

Paul from Apple seems to be a bot, not a human.

   Hello [user], the is [serial_number] from [company] [division].
   It was nice to speak with you today.
   I have researched the [subject] for you.

   [{select summary from issues where issue like '%subject%';}]

   Best regards,
   [serial_number]
   [company] Inc.

aalex123 5 years ago | |

yes, I sent them a message, here is what they said:

" If you cannot resolve the issue through your financial institution and have received confirmation from Apple that your order could not be completed, you may place a new order using a different payment method. To prevent further issues, please follow these steps: • Use the latest version of Safari and clear cache and cookies before accessing the payment page. • Before placing the new order, notify your financial institution that you are expecting a charge from Apple and confirm that your billing information is accurate. • Be sure to use a payment method that is accepted for developer purchases in your region, as presented during the purchase process. • Confirm that all payment details match the information on file with your financial institution when submitting the new order."

----

I followed all the steps, carefully. Today is the seventh time I tried and it's the same. I've never had any problems with the cards or the bank and they tried to help me but it seems Apple is special.

Anyway, if I call Apple support and they solve the problem, I don't want to have to do this every year... I don't want to beg apple to approve my payment every year. This is not how it should work.

hpen 5 years ago | | |

Sounds like bad customer service to me

x13 5 years ago |

Yep, it's a pain; took me weeks to jump through the hoops to enroll.

I really recommend calling them.

https://developer.apple.com/contact/#!/topic/select

Membership and Account --> Program Purchase and Renewal

Choose the phone option.

niqmk 5 years ago |

Yes, I had similar experience. It's because apple system, the manager told me. They suggested to transfer (wire) the money so they could do manually. I refused, so it took me like 2-3 weeks to wait the system resolved.

After that, I applied again with other company, It's fast enough only took 3 days

anthonybullard 5 years ago |

I just dealt with a similar issue. It took about a week with multiple back and forths, and then they just said "Try again, it should work". And it did. I bet after WWDC they get a much larger volume of registrations that they really inspect carefully.

Rhobur 5 years ago |

I've been there and here is what worked for me. I've created a new test account on my machine using an alias for my gmail address. From that account with that email alias I was able to register into the dev program.

SwiftyBug 5 years ago |

Back in my day all you had to do was to send Apple a fax. Good ol' days.

rajacombinator 5 years ago |

I had a recent similar problem. Multiple levels of support were clueless. Ended up being due to an iCloud outage that resolved itself.

Horrific developer experience over there at Apple.

shaabanban 5 years ago |

I've been wondering about this! I tried multiple cards and even a privacy.com card and they all appeared to go through but never charged my card.

jamil7 5 years ago |

I've seen the same issue in the last 2 weeks pop up multiple times in the iOS dev slack channel and a few relevant subreddits.

swiley 5 years ago |

Why would you want to jailbreak? Asking apple for a dev account and side loading every few days is so easy!

vulcan01 5 years ago |

You've got to use an Apple Card. Don't you understand?

</sarcasm>

Hello [user], the is [serial_number] from [company] [division]. It was nice to speak with you today. I have researched the [subject] for you. [{select summary from issues where issue like '%subject%';}] Best regards, [serial_number] [company] Inc.