This is the third time I've posted about our app, so apologies to anyone who's seen the other two threads (links at the bottom). I honestly don't know where else to ask.
Our app is NotBetting (app ID 6737483983). Since August, every review has taken about eight days: August 14 to 22, September 4 to 12, and September 12 to 20. We've got used to that. What's getting to me is what happened after the last one.
On September 20 we were rejected for two things. One was 3.1.1, because they thought a "Promo code" field at sign-up unlocked subscriptions. It doesn't. It's an affiliate referral code, it's only used for attribution, and it never unlocks or discounts anything. The label was confusing, I'll give them that. The other was 5.1.1(v): they said we make people register before buying In-App Purchases that "are not account based".
We explained both in detail. We also asked one simple question: which of our products do you consider not account based? The account isn't a formality for us. People post content, report and block each other, and there's a public ranking, all tied to a member's identity.
Apple got back to us within a day, which I really appreciated. They said, word for word, "The 3.1.1 rejection has currently been resolved", but that they "continued to find that the app requires users to register before purchasing In-App Purchases that are not account based." They didn't say which product. We asked again.
The next reply, on September 22, was just: "We appreciate your efforts to comply with the App Review Guidelines. Please resubmit the app for review in App Store Connect once any necessary adjustments have been made."
That was it. No guideline repeated, no answer to our question, nothing specific to fix.
So we changed what we could guess at (full name is now optional on iOS, for example) and submitted a new version, 3.3.7, on September 23. Resubmitting closes the previous thread, and everything we'd explained goes with it. It's now been waiting for four days. If it follows the usual pattern, nobody will open it for another four.
A couple of things that happened in the meantime make it harder to take:
The TestFlight build of the same binary was rejected under 3.1.1 on the same day, with the generic text and no feature named. We asked which feature they meant. The next day it was approved, with no explanation either way.
The same version was approved and live on Google Play within hours of us submitting it to Apple.
And the version our iOS users can download from the App Store is still the one from late June.
I'm not complaining about being rejected. If something's wrong, tell us and we'll fix it, usually the same day. What wears you down is the loop: one issue confirmed as resolved, another with no details, a "please resubmit" that doesn't say what to change, and the only way forward is another week in the queue.
If anyone from Apple sees this, I'd really like to know three things. When a thread ends with "resubmit once any necessary adjustments have been made" and no issue is named, does that mean there's no remaining objection? How are we supposed to find out which product is "not account based" if asking in the Resolution Center doesn't get an answer? And is there any way to talk to someone before resubmitting, instead of after another week of waiting? Our request for an App Review appointment back in August was declined.
If anyone else has been through this and found something that actually helped, I'd love to hear it.
NotBetting, app ID 6737483983, version 3.3.7 (195), submitted September 23.
Earlier threads:
https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/843019
https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/845024