I’ve followed the Dash vs. Apple kerfuffle for the past few days and have a slightly different take on the subject than anyone else I’ve seen — think ‘lost in translation’ with a dash of pride¹, and a pinch of exasperation. Anyway, while writing about the whole thing I made a transcript of the phone call published by Bogdan, which you can listen to on his blog.

Transcript

Apple: Are you familiar with Phil?

Bogdan Popescu: Yeah. Phil Schiller?

Apple: Exactly. So… basically, this is coming from Phil, right? And I’m working with Phil to come up with… you know… a way that we can make it right for you by reinstating your account, and it also needs to feel fair to Apple. I think the thing that we’re concerned about is… we don’t believe there was a mistake here, right? We don’t think that we made a mistake. We believe that the two accounts were linked and one of the accounts definitely had fraudulent activity. And so, we want to make sure that’s clear… and so… you know… if, um… essentially there’s a couple of things that we want you to try to communicate in the post. And so… something to the effect of… you understand the account was linked to fraudulent activity and you’re working with Apple to unlink the accounts and get back into the program.

Bogdan Popescu: I guess even (?) my account was closed because it was linked to a different account that had fraudulent activities, but that account wasn’t mine.

Apple: That’s correct, right? But the accounts were linked, so… your account and the account with the fraudulent activity were linked, right? They used the same bank account, they used the same test devices. We’re you’re OK with you mentioning that the accounts were linked, right? You understand that your account was linked to an account with fraudulent activity and you’re working with Apple to unlink the accounts and get back into the program.

Bogdan Popescu: OK, I’ll… I’ll think about in the… I’ll get back then.

Apple: OK. Do you want… If you want to draft something and send it, I’ll be happy to share it with Phil and we’ll go from there. Essentially he… he’s upset about this, and he wants to make it right, both for you, and for Apple. He wants to make it clear that, you know… we didn’t make a mistake here. There was no, umm… We are confident in the investigations that we did that the accounts are linked. You know, there was fraud, and it wasn’t on your direct account, but it was on a linked account. We did provide warnings to that account and you know… we… we… turned them off, and our goal now is to make it right for both you and for Apple.

Bogdan Popescu: I… I… I don’t want to overstep my bounds, umm… my, umm… my thought process is that, umm… I had no control over that account, but even though you keep me responsible for the actions of a different account, and in my opinion I’m not at fault at all with this thing.

Apple: But imagine from the program… we run a… we run a program… the Apple Developer program, and we found that the accounts are linked. They use the same devices. They were enrolled with the same credit card number. These accounts are linked based on these facts, right? These are linked accounts. They share the same details.

Bogdan Popescu: Yeah, umm… why didn’t you notify me beforehand already. Let me know that an account that’s linked to mine is doing fraudulent activity, that I could do something about it. ‘Cos you said you notified the other account…

Apple: We did, yes.

Bogdan Popescu: Yeah. But you never notified my account at all and just terminated it.

Apple: Because they were linked. That is correct.

Bogdan Popescu: Yeah, but… (small laugh)… I understand that you think that you… they were linked, but, umm… I don’t see why I should be responsible for the other account, even if it’s linked.

Apple: Because they’re… they’re… we seem them as the same entity, right? If we have accounts that are enrolled in the program using the same credit card, they are the same legal entity. They are the same.

Bogdan Popescu: And you’re sure you want that… that statement to become public?

Apple: We’re fine with it. We have no problem… because it’s accurate, right?

Bogdan Popescu: Yeah…

Apple: The accounts were linked, and your account was linked to an account with fraudulent activity, right? And we’re… And honestly, that’s correct, right? Clearly, you understand that your account was linked to account with fraudulent activity.

Bogdan Popescu: Yeah… yeah…

Apple: That statement is accurate.

Bogdan Popescu: I helped someone start to become an Apple developer as well, and…

Apple: Yeah?

Bogdan Popescu: I’m taking the fall for it. And that’s pretty much what’s happening.

Apple: And… and…

Bogdan Popescu: But… I don’t know…

Apple: In order… but we need this… we need it to be accurate, right? And so… accurately stated, we believe that account was linked to an account with fraudulent activity, and… and… accurately, you are working with Apple to unlink the accounts and to bring your account back into the program.

Bogdan Popescu: OK. I’ll, umm… I’ll draft a post and I’ll send you to… and we’ll work on that.

Apple: OK. Perfect. (inaudible)… great. I mean, uh… I think… we want to work with you, but we want to make it clear that we didn’t make a mistake. We were correct when we did our investigation and we uncovered that your account was linked to an account with fraudulent activity. And when we say ‘linked’, we mean test devices, credit card, that… you know… was used to enroll the account. So yes, from our perspective that means our accounts are linked.

Bogdan Popescu: Yeah, I understand but… (laughs)… umm…

Apple: Yeah… No, I understand your position too. Umm… but this is the way forward, and if you do want to bring your account back, we want to make sure that it’s clear, umm… you know… these… these… (points?)… are actually… it… its… you know… Three points. One, fraudulent activity. You’re working with Apple to unlink the accounts (call breaking up)…

Bogdan Popescu: Sorry…

Apple: … back into the program.

Bogdan Popescu: Can you repeat? You were breaking off.

Apple: Yes, so… there’s essentially three parts to it. One is that you understand the account was linked to an account with fraudulent activity.

Bogdan Popescu: Yep…

Apple: You’re working with Apple to unlink the accounts. You’re working with Apple to get back into the program. And all those three things are accurate. And so we want that… to make sure that’s reflected in the post.

Bogdan Popescu: OK, but I can’t admit any wrongdoing on my part.

Apple: I don’t think this dubs that. This says that you understand…

Bogdan Popescu: Alright… OK… because…

Apple: … that your account was linked to an account with fraudulent activity. It’s not saying that you had fraudulent activity on your account, it’s saying that your account was linked to one with fraudulent activity.

Bogdan Popescu: OK, I see… because yesterday I thought you wanted me to write that… umm… I admit to wrongdoing and I’m working with Apple to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Apple: No, we want to make sure… of course, that goes without saying. Of course, we don’t allow fraud on the platform and we do remove developers who behave fraudulently, right? And there’s many ways that this happens, but in this particular case I think it’s accurate to say, that your account was linked to an account with fraudulent activity. It’s not saying that you were behaving fraudulently. It’s saying that your account was linked to one. You’re working with Apple to unlink the accounts, so as we said before, we want you to unlink the accounts…

Bogdan Popescu: OK, so… OK, great…

Apple: … and get back in the program.

Bogdan Popescu: So I’ll just say exactly what happened, the truth and we’ll be alright.

Apple: Yeah… I think… Send it to me and I’m happy to have Phil take a look at it.

Bogdan Popescu: Alright. OK.

Apple: OK? Hope you’re having a good time. Thank you for your time, I really appreciate it.

Bogdan Popescu: Thank you, bye-bye.

Apple: Bye.