Opinionated

I have been waiting since August 8th for enrollment in the Apple Developer Program. It is now the latter half of September. I am completely stunned.

Timeline:

August 8 — Initial application through online form. I also faxed in documentation of my LLC the same day as I knew this would be required. I received thank you emails in response to both actions, the first surely automated, the second must be in response to someone processing the fax and tying it to my application record.

August 18 — Ten days later I received an email requesting a letter providing a physical mailing address (my LLC in this case using a PO box address) and affirmation that I have legal authority to enter into agreements. Fax sent back within the hour.

September 1 — Thinking a reasonable amount of time has passed I send an email asking for status. I get back an email “We are currently reviewing your inquiry and will get back to you as soon as more information become available.”

September 1 — Later that day I received an automated follow up email asking how my support experience was. I respond with appropriate displeasure at the slow and opaque experience I’ve had so far.

September 18 — No further movement to date. I lose my shit.

I can understand if they are completely buried in applications, really I do. If that is the case I hope they are hiring quickly to add capacity. In the meantime how much trouble is it really to give some indication of how long the queue is? Am I waiting another week, another month?

Two questions:

1) Is this typical? Are other people who have applied in this timeframe experiencing similar delays? This should be pretty straightforward to figure out that the LLC is real and approve or ask for more information. Which leads me to believe nobody has really looked at my information yet.

2) Is Apple so buried in applications of questionable origin (i.e. app scammers looking to make a quick buck with shovel ware or stolen apps) that it has effectively become a DOS attack on the application system itself?

For most of the last 20 years I have primarily developed for and with Microsoft products. It is well known that Microsofts main strength is that they know how to support developers. This experience so far really highlights the contrast.