Any tips for people in your situation? Is there a magical department at apple that will fix these type of issues? If so how do you get in touch with them without getting press?
I'm not in a similar situation, I just feel like this information would be very helpful to a lot of people.
Well, there are two things you can do to be the inside on Apple:
1. Get the number of a reviewer. If you have been publishing apps for a while they will call you and give you their number
2. Get the number and email address of one of the higher ups in iTunesConnect. I have one of those, but I obviously am not going to give it out, I think he would probably not be happy to get everyone bypass the staff filter :)
Most important tip is this:
Apple have many different sections for many different tasks. Email the relevant people directly! If you have a banking issue, email banking. If it is iTunesConnect, email them, if it is developer acccount related, mail the developer relations.
Man, I'm going through the routine right now. I wanted to become an iTunes affiliate for an iPhone app I'm about to submit. Apple a) does not clearly state what iPhone developers need to do since affiliates are typically websites b) sends you a generic rejection email and forces you to wait two weeks to reapply while you are scratching your head guessing what they want. So I've been calling linkshare, who are very helpful and clearly want to make money. Yet I send blind emails to apple crossing my fingers for a response.
I'm not in a similar situation, I just feel like this information would be very helpful to a lot of people.