Yep. I've had them do this multiple times, although my app was made to control specific hardware that they didn't have. I did put a "demo" backdoor into the app for them to use without the hardware, but they demanded a video. I thought that was pretty reasonable and sort of enjoyed doing it.
But... there is so much wrong with the App Store, and Apple purposefully keeps it that way. For example, the so-called search is an absolute sham. Apple claims that publisher name is one of the top three criteria for app search, but searching for our app by exact publisher name didn't bring it up AT ALL. At least not in the first 300 listings, which is where I stopped.
What WAS in those first 300 listings? 300 that didn't contain the search string ANYWHERE. The first few contained a similarly-spelled name that Apple replaced the search term with, without asking... essentially undermining our trademark. After that there was nothing but completely irrelevant results, including numerous FART APPS, which Apple decries as undesirable in its own documentation.
When challenged on this repeatedly, Apple (after initially blowing off my complaint with boilerplate) claimed to have reviewed the situation and found everything working fine. I would have had to escalate it to a legal issue asserting some kind of hijacking of our trademark (no idea if there's any legal ground to stand on there) to take it further.
Apple knows the search is bullshit and lies about it. You can test it yourself as a developer.
But... there is so much wrong with the App Store, and Apple purposefully keeps it that way. For example, the so-called search is an absolute sham. Apple claims that publisher name is one of the top three criteria for app search, but searching for our app by exact publisher name didn't bring it up AT ALL. At least not in the first 300 listings, which is where I stopped.
What WAS in those first 300 listings? 300 that didn't contain the search string ANYWHERE. The first few contained a similarly-spelled name that Apple replaced the search term with, without asking... essentially undermining our trademark. After that there was nothing but completely irrelevant results, including numerous FART APPS, which Apple decries as undesirable in its own documentation.
When challenged on this repeatedly, Apple (after initially blowing off my complaint with boilerplate) claimed to have reviewed the situation and found everything working fine. I would have had to escalate it to a legal issue asserting some kind of hijacking of our trademark (no idea if there's any legal ground to stand on there) to take it further.
Apple knows the search is bullshit and lies about it. You can test it yourself as a developer.