As an aside, their website uses a serious dark pattern to trick users into paying. Their app is purportedly for helping you reclaim your fees so it seems like adding a bank account makes sense after you input your email address.<p>Off to the right you see the text
> "...you agree to charge a $36 a year subscription to this payment method."<p>There's no mention of a $36 / annual anywhere else. It's on the margin to clearly trick the user when simply adding a payment info.
Update: It was indefensible, and Apple has already reversed course. It's a shame it sometimes takes twitter outcry for the right thing to happen, but at least the right thing happened.<p>This seem indefensible at first blush. The app has been available as-is for years, so if the explanation given him is correct, it's a really bad look for Apple.
After the reversal, Developers are chanting "Awesome", "This is great", "Running to Twitter helped", etc etc. Not a single developer asked <i>why</i> and <i>how</i> did it happen in the first place.<p>The original purpose of the App Store guidelines were to protect the users / customers. And it did!. It worked great. And Apple charge you 30% for Digital Goods. And nothing for physical goods. It was Fair. 30% for the likes of Gaming, Productivity Apps such as Office, Camera, Calendar, Photo Editing etc etc. That was fine. And true to its words, Steve's Apple had all the rationale in nearly all rejection cases.<p>These days App Store policy is much more about rent seeking, their sole purpose is no longer serving its users and customer's best interest. But used in every opportunity to extract more revenues from these Apps <i>and</i> Services. Not to mention how many of these letters from Apple suggest Developers of Free ( as in beer ) Apps contributed <i>nothing</i> to the App Store and act as a "Free Rider" on Apple's platform. Compounded by Tim Cook's comment on App Store and being user first.<p>Normally I give some benefits of doubt to CEO as they may not be on top of all the things happening in a company. But judging from the Apple vs IMG and Apple vs Qualcomm cases I think he knows exactly what he is doing.<p>This whole things stinks and reeks of hypocrisy to me.
I'm starting to suspect were hitting peak Apple. It feels like they might be pushing in app purchase through apple pay as their means for continued revenue growth rather than product innovation.
I had an interesting and somewhat similar experience, where a long-standing app feature triggered an unexpected rejection. We gnashed our teeth for a couple weeks and finally submitted an appeal. I expected it to be rejected, since the original reviewer was steadfast in rejecting the app and our arguments.<p>But it was immediately approved on appeal, to our great surprise. I wonder if Apple is aware that they're treading on thin(ner) ice with regard to the App Store.
This demonstrates the amazing power of social media.<p>It only took 2-3 hours for one of the largest, most powerful corporations, to reverse their decision.
I've heard about the app when it started just for parking tickets. I didn't know it expanded to other legal issues including small claims court filings, asylum, visas, green cards, and housing for homeless. Amazing.
Every app needs to have a built-in messaging channel that allows you to display rich-text (including <i>clickable</i> links) "news and updates" to your existing users.<p>That way, when you do get kicked out from an app store, at least you can direct users to your web site (which is probably a violation of app store guidelines, but if it's your only/main revenue generating app, and already kicked out, having this option can be a lifesaver).
I really don't like Apple and would never develop something in their store but I have to admit - at least a human called him and he had some dialog. If this was Google it would have been shut down without any recourse and probably taken the devs entire Google account with it.
<a href="https://twitter.com/jbrowder1/status/1323842195560964098?s=20" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/jbrowder1/status/1323842195560964098?s=2...</a><p>Decision reversed. Link and title should be updated to reflect.
> fortunately, 90%+ of new subscribers now come through web, and this segment is growing rapidly<p>All i need to know. Why even have an app in the EvilStores?
As of now it appears to still be up: <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/donotpay/id1427999657" rel="nofollow">https://apps.apple.com/us/app/donotpay/id1427999657</a>