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Apple egregiously dropping the ball on iPhone developer payments, customer service

By: , IntoMobile
Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 at 2:11 PM

iphone-3g-dimensionsBy now it’s clear that Apple has its hands full trying to deal with the deluge of iPhone developers straining its iPhone AppStore infrastructure. Apple was apparently unprepared for the flood of iPhone application submissions, leading to the iPhone-maker’s continued backlog in approving iPhone apps for the App Store. Now, we’re hearing of even more egregious payment and customer service delays from disgruntled iPhone developers. It seems Apple is repeatedly delaying their payments to devs and, in some cases, shorting their payments by thousands of dollars.

Apple typically sends out month-end iPhone application financial reports to iPhone developers. The email breaks down a particular iPhone app’s performance and details how much money the developer will get. But, in February, Apple send out an email to developers warning them to expect a delay in their February financial report.

There are numerous reports of Apple lagging on payments and sending out wrong payments to iPhone developers. One developer has yet to receive his payment for January. Another has yet to receive his February financial report. Yet another developer was shorted some $10,000. But, it doesn’t end there.

Apple has also been reportedly ignoring iPhone developers’ communications. iPhone devs are complaining of Apple completely ignoring their emails, phone hold times as long as an hour and customer service reps simply hanging up on waiting callers. The iPhone maker is known for its consumer customer service excellence, but it seems that same commitment to service failed to carry over to the developer side of Apple’s iPhone business.

Apple likely has its hands full at the moment, what with the iPhone 3.0 OS due out in a few months alongside some new iPhone hardware. But, that doesn’t excuse the company’s egregious lack of coordination and communication with its iPhone developer community. Let’s hope Apple gets their act together before the iphone 3.0 OS goes live.

[Via: TechCrunch]

About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...