r/applebusinessmanager

ABM sucks. I am the company owner and admin and my SMS verification stopped working to sign into ABM. My other admin tried adding another user but SMS account set up still won’t work. I called ABM support and sat on hold for 30 minutes. They pushed me around then told me I need to go through a time consuming set of steps - screen recordings etc. And there’s no guarantee how long it’ll take before they’ll look into my issue.

Every interaction I’ve had with ABM has been horrible. Google Workspace/Chrome Enterprise has been wildly different. Everything works properly, device setup etc.

So I am starting an ABM account for a local non-profit and my options for adding a new iPad are using a "Customer Number", which I have no idea how to find, or using the Apple Configurator app which isn't possible because I run Linux PCs and Android phone/tablets. I had assumed I would just login the new device using my ABM admin login, which obviously was wrong, but now I am stumped on how to add this. Do I really need to track down another Apple device to start adding the one iPad I want added ABM, or is there some method I am unaware of to add this to the account?

**Update**

I managed to link the guest purchase to my ABM admin account and then when you view the invoice it magically contains a customer number. No customer number on the invoice/receipt in my email from the original purchase. I originally had to purchase this as a "Guest" because the Apple Store would not let me create an account using my Spectrum mobile number (technically they are VOIP). The email used in the "Guest" purchase was my other email on the same domain. Submitted it and now they denied it because:

We received your request to add Apple Customer Number ******* to your Apple Business organization. Menominee Animal Shelter. We are unable to confirm that the Apple Customer Number you submitted belongs to your organization, or it is already associated with another organization

Of course the email says "contact us" which is linked to, of all things, the ABM guide. No contact form, phone number, chat link, etc. Contact us by reading a guide that is of no help........ WTF APPLE! Probably the worst idea I ever had was trying to use ABM for our organization.

I have done all the necessary configurations. The logo does show up if I use iCloud web email client but it does not show up in Apple Mail on Mac or iOS or anywhere else.

Apple Support for this is not helpful. I contacted them and after a long delay, they just ghosted.

Im trying to rollout some iPhones. I added the devices via Apple Configurator to ABM.
They are synced with Intune and have a configuration profile assigned. At the point where the iPhone wants to download the configuration profile, the following error occurs.

"Unable to Download Profile Configuration. An internet connection is required to download the configuration for this profile. To continue, you can try again or choose a Wi-Fi network."

I tried different Wi-Fi Networks but the error stays.

Thanks for the help.

I'm pretty tech savvy, but I'm not an IT or MDM guy.

We have a fleet of 10 iPads for our sales team. Before I knew anything about MDM, I figured I'd just set each one up individually with its own iCloud account using our business domains.

Big mistake.

Apple flagged it as fraud because multiple "personal" Apple IDs were being created from the same IP with similar domains/phone numbers. They locked 7 of our iPads.

The only way to get them back was multiple escalations, waiting 2-3 business days between responses, and sending Verizon receipts over and over to prove we actually owned the devices. I eventually gave up because I didn't have time to keep fighting support. Those iPads are literally sitting on a shelf and I just bought new ones instead.

So I learned my lesson.
I enrolled in Apple Business Manager.
That was another adventure.

• Business verification took 1-2 weeks because we have multiple domains.
• Then Business Connect needed separate approval.
• Tons of documentation.
• Hours on the phone with support because I entered our second business number and not the one on DUNS Broadsheet.

Once that was finally setup, I tried Apple Configurator on my MacBook. Could never get it to work consistently. After two escalations and several more hours on the phone, someone at Apple finally told me the iPhone Configurator app is much more reliable for enrolling iPads than the Mac version.

Finally...

I got 3 new iPads enrolled correctly with ABM, blueprints configured, everything working perfectly.

A few months later (yesterday) one of my reps tells me he can't access our shared company folder anymore.

I log into Apple Business Manager.

"Your account has been locked. Contact Support."

Call support.

First rep has no idea.

Second-level support tells me: "When Apple Business Manager and Business Connect merged, your account was one of the ones that didn't make it through."

Me: "For what reason?"

Apple: "No reason. Sorry."

That's it.

Now the only solution is to factory reset every enrolled iPad and re-enroll them from scratch. No remote fix. No recovery. Nothing.

I have sales reps in multiple states, so now I either have to fly around with a MacBook or ship devices back and forth just because Apple's backend broke.

No apology beyond "sorry." No credit. No gift card. No acknowledgement that this cost our business -- and me -- time and money.

TL;DR: Apple Business Manager has probably been one of the most frustrating business tools I've ever dealt with. If you're a small business owner who isn't an MDM expert, seriously consider paying someone who does this for a living. It would've been cheaper than the hours I've lost.

Has anyone else had an experience like this? Is this just unbelievably bad luck, or is ABM really this painful for small to mid-sized businesses?