I use Apple Pay several times a week at Walgreens, Panera, Whole Foods. I've never had a failure. I do find Walgreens the most irritating as I have to enter last four numbers in my phone no. and sometimes have to sign my name on the screen after my payment has been accepted. Panera and Whole Foods are simple, no extra inputs required. A smaller high-end grocer also accepts Apple Pay I discovered.
So I have 'problems' with Walgreens but none with Apple Pay. I use it because of the convenience and the security.
Never trust survey results when you don't see the questions. The vast majority of market surveys ask poorly worded questions that steer the respondent to the desired answer. For example... "Have you ever had a problem using Apple Pay at a retailer?" Of course, this will skew negative results because there were and are some hiccups at many merchants combined with the use of the word "ever". I could ask the same question and substitute "credit card" for "Apple Pay" and probably get 100% of the respondents to say they have had a problem. Doesn't mean anything.
hmm..no problem used 100's of times at about six or seven different merchants, other than some terminals' NFC not working at all - but that's a terminal issue not Apple Pay.
I use it all the time and have no issues at the places I frequently visit. For me (at least the locations I visit) Walgreens is just as fast as Whole Foods. No extra tapping or prompts at Walgreens.
The only place I have had issues at is Home Depot. A friend in NJ says it works fine for him, yet for me in IL, I have had zero luck... and I've been trying for several months now. POS terminal even has the "tap to pay" icon. Yet it doesn't work.... it gets stuck at "processing".
In due time, it will be more accepted, especially come October, when new terminals will be required (if merchant doesn't want to deal with fraudulent charges). I appreciate the places that already accept Apple Pay, and look forward to more and more places getting with the times.
Maybe you're holding it wrong. I've used it at the Home Depot 3 times now, and haven't had a problem.
Never trust survey results when you don't see the questions. The vast majority of market surveys ask poorly worded questions that steer the respondent to the desired answer. For example... "Have you ever had a problem using Apple Pay at a retailer?" Of course, this will skew negative results because there were and are some hiccups at many merchants combined with the use of the word "ever". I could ask the same question and substitute "credit card" for "Apple Pay" and probably get 100% of the respondents to say they have had a problem. Doesn't mean anything.
I don't see any issue with the questions. Here they are:
"To what extent is Apple Pay accepted in the stores you visit?
"When you're out shopping and are ready to pay have you ever specifically asked if the store accepts Apple Pay?"
"Have you gone to any merchants that were supposed to accept Apple Pay only to find out that Apple Pay was not accepted in the store you visited?"
and the one I'll assume you were curious about:
"When using Apple Pay did you encounter any problems at the point-of-sale?"
The problems that were mentioned by at least 1/3 of those in the affirmative were:
-Merchant took too long to record the transaction (48%)
-The cashier or sales agent was unfamiliar with Apple Pay and unable to help (42%)
-Transactions were posted incorrectly or double-counted (36%)
If you want to see the survey for yourself just visit the link in the AI article. That's what I did and it's a free download. It's unfortunate that so many take the time to comment but seemingly spend no time at all finding out the facts on it before doing so.
With me, the "solution" for most of my problems was making sure I picked "credit" rather than "debit".
I've been under the impression that ApplePay was designed to run debit cards under debit-as-credit. I suspect many people don't realize this is possible, so when they run debit cards they always select debit.
I haven't been able to test this theory, though, because my local bank doesn't support ApplePay.
Most times I use Apple Pay, the cashier then asks me to sign my name with a pen to the screen on their NFC terminal. Why is the signature necessary? Feels like it kills the whole point as it would have been just as fast swiping credit card.
The signature is still requires by the bank for charges over a certain threshold. ApplePay is a big keep forward, but unfortunately it hasn't totally forced the banks out of the Stone Age.
We've had two keynotes on the Apple Watch already. If Apple haven't made it clear that the Apple Watch is easier by now, they're not going to.
Says who? you are just as uninformed as the rest of us.
That's my point.
For such an important thing as making payments, Apple should have nailed the functionality in the keynotes. The fact that they didn't suggests that the public are not likely to take it up in large numbers, as has already been born out in practice.
The cashier not understanding the technology only happened for me in the first week or so. Twice I got my checkmark and confirmation on my iPhone 6 Plus, but it did not go through for some reason and I had to do it again. Never resulting in a double charge. My guess is the store's system connectivity or again, cashier error.
I've used Apple Pay about 60 times or so, and those issues only affected 5 or 6 instances.
So technically you could say I am one of those 'two-thirds running into problems,' but maybe 10% of those times, and dropping.
A number of other posts have mentioned this already, but a lot of the "problems" people experience result from poor training on the part of the merchant. I recently made a purchase with ApplePay at Macy's, and while the transaction went smoothly, the experience was a little lacking.
When I got to the register, I handed my item to the clerk, and she began ringing it up. When she was ready to accept payment, she asked how I would be paying, to which I replied, "ApplePay." Her response was one of confusion, and she actually told me that they didn't accept it. I persisted, asking her is she was sure because Macy's had been an ApplePay partner from day one. At this point, another clerk next to her, having overheard what was going on, showed her the right buttons to press. I then proceeded to pay with ApplePay, and everything went smoothly. Unfortunately, they still required me to sign on the screen.
Otherwise, Walgreens, Whole Foods, The Home Depot, Panera, and even my local ShopRite all work smoothly.
Yet another fluff piece by a marketing firm, sampling only 6000 customers out of how many millions of customers who now own an iPhone 6?
You have to keep in mind, there could be many factors in failure rates or delays in processing... The issue with staff not knowing anything about it boils down to strictly being a training issue by their employer, or lack thereof, and usually indicates the quality of the overall establishment, and the service level one should expect. As sog35 mentioned, if you go into a quality establishment, there are NO issues with ?PAY.
As for transaction delays and / or failures, this could be related to poor network connectivity at the shop, a slow or buggy terminal, or a terminal whose NFC chip is malfunctioning. None of these issues are related to ?PAY, as Apple doesn't provide any of this gear to the merchants.
These problems ALSO occur with standard credit card transactions, in fact, on a much more frequent basis, which this marketing firm fails to mention, how convenient.
Now with the massive success of ?PAY, and the launch of that copycat crap from Scamsung, everyone is trying to twist real facts into anything that might showcase ?PAY in a negative light, pathetic.
I tried once to use it at the McDs drive-thru... NEVER AGAIN. They had to swing the whole CC-reader terminal and hang it out the window for me to reach my phone out to complete the transaction. Then it took three tries for it to work. It's so much faster to give them my card, have them swipe, and be on my way.
I've had no issues, however, using it places like Walgreens, Staples, and Home Depot.
Same experience at McD. Dumbest setup I've ever seen. I expect it to get better though as the company figures out how to do better.
Walgreens had issues IMHO as well. You have to pull out your id, enter your phone number, hit a couple of accepts and assorted other annoyances to check out at the drug counter.
My biggest annoyance while using this system though are retailers that show the NFC/ApplePay symbol but actually don't accept it. Jack in the Box is an example. Trying ApplePay in those locations actually increases my checkout time significantly as I try ApplePay, possibly try again, have the clerk tell me it doesn't work... and then put my phone away and pull out my wallet/cc anyways. Ugh..
Same experience at McD. Dumbest setup I've ever seen. I expect it to get better though as the company figures out how to do better.
Walgreens had issues IMHO as well. You have to pull out your id, enter your phone number, hit a couple of accepts and assorted other annoyances to check out at the drug counter.
Issues experienced with ApplePay partners should absolutely be reported to Apple (if you haven't done so already) using the link found on the ApplePay page on Apple.com. (or in my previous post).
Yet another fluff piece by a marketing firm, sampling only 6000 customers out of how many millions of customers who now own an iPhone 6?... These problems ALSO occur with standard credit card transactions, in fact, on a much more frequent basis, which this marketing firm fails to mention, how convenient
Pretty sure they mention a couple of other payment providers and how they stack up. The free excerpt doesn't include it but look at the table of contents. There's a heck of a lot of details available for those that need to know as a matter of business.
Same here. McDonald's has the stickers in the windows saying they're proud to take ApplePay...but when you go to use it in drive-thru, the cashier either doesn't understand, doesn't want to do it, or has to move the entire card reader stand out the window. It's an awful experience. Everywhere else, it works great.
Is Panrea considered a "quality" establishment? Because they don't have NFC at every register. The last two times I was there I ended up at a register where I couldn't use ?Pay.
Comments
However, I am certain these extraneous requirements are imposed by everyone in the payment processing chain, except Apple.
I use Apple Pay several times a week at Walgreens, Panera, Whole Foods. I've never had a failure. I do find Walgreens the most irritating as I have to enter last four numbers in my phone no. and sometimes have to sign my name on the screen after my payment has been accepted. Panera and Whole Foods are simple, no extra inputs required. A smaller high-end grocer also accepts Apple Pay I discovered.
So I have 'problems' with Walgreens but none with Apple Pay. I use it because of the convenience and the security.
Never trust survey results when you don't see the questions. The vast majority of market surveys ask poorly worded questions that steer the respondent to the desired answer. For example... "Have you ever had a problem using Apple Pay at a retailer?" Of course, this will skew negative results because there were and are some hiccups at many merchants combined with the use of the word "ever". I could ask the same question and substitute "credit card" for "Apple Pay" and probably get 100% of the respondents to say they have had a problem. Doesn't mean anything.
My only problem: CVS doesn't accept ApplePay.
The solution: I shop at Walgreens instead now.
I use it all the time and have no issues at the places I frequently visit. For me (at least the locations I visit) Walgreens is just as fast as Whole Foods. No extra tapping or prompts at Walgreens.
The only place I have had issues at is Home Depot. A friend in NJ says it works fine for him, yet for me in IL, I have had zero luck... and I've been trying for several months now. POS terminal even has the "tap to pay" icon. Yet it doesn't work.... it gets stuck at "processing".
In due time, it will be more accepted, especially come October, when new terminals will be required (if merchant doesn't want to deal with fraudulent charges). I appreciate the places that already accept Apple Pay, and look forward to more and more places getting with the times.
Maybe you're holding it wrong.
I've used it at the Home Depot 3 times now, and haven't had a problem.
I don't see any issue with the questions. Here they are:
"To what extent is Apple Pay accepted in the stores you visit?
"When you're out shopping and are ready to pay have you ever specifically asked if the store accepts Apple Pay?"
"Have you gone to any merchants that were supposed to accept Apple Pay only to find out that Apple Pay was not accepted in the store you visited?"
and the one I'll assume you were curious about:
"When using Apple Pay did you encounter any problems at the point-of-sale?"
The problems that were mentioned by at least 1/3 of those in the affirmative were:
-Merchant took too long to record the transaction (48%)
-The cashier or sales agent was unfamiliar with Apple Pay and unable to help (42%)
-Transactions were posted incorrectly or double-counted (36%)
If you want to see the survey for yourself just visit the link in the AI article. That's what I did and it's a free download. It's unfortunate that so many take the time to comment but seemingly spend no time at all finding out the facts on it before doing so.
I've been under the impression that ApplePay was designed to run debit cards under debit-as-credit. I suspect many people don't realize this is possible, so when they run debit cards they always select debit.
I haven't been able to test this theory, though, because my local bank doesn't support ApplePay.
The signature is still requires by the bank for charges over a certain threshold. ApplePay is a big keep forward, but unfortunately it hasn't totally forced the banks out of the Stone Age.
We've had two keynotes on the Apple Watch already. If Apple haven't made it clear that the Apple Watch is easier by now, they're not going to.
Says who? you are just as uninformed as the rest of us.
That's my point.
For such an important thing as making payments, Apple should have nailed the functionality in the keynotes. The fact that they didn't suggests that the public are not likely to take it up in large numbers, as has already been born out in practice.
The cashier not understanding the technology only happened for me in the first week or so. Twice I got my checkmark and confirmation on my iPhone 6 Plus, but it did not go through for some reason and I had to do it again. Never resulting in a double charge. My guess is the store's system connectivity or again, cashier error.
I've used Apple Pay about 60 times or so, and those issues only affected 5 or 6 instances.
So technically you could say I am one of those 'two-thirds running into problems,' but maybe 10% of those times, and dropping.
A number of other posts have mentioned this already, but a lot of the "problems" people experience result from poor training on the part of the merchant. I recently made a purchase with ApplePay at Macy's, and while the transaction went smoothly, the experience was a little lacking.
When I got to the register, I handed my item to the clerk, and she began ringing it up. When she was ready to accept payment, she asked how I would be paying, to which I replied, "ApplePay." Her response was one of confusion, and she actually told me that they didn't accept it. I persisted, asking her is she was sure because Macy's had been an ApplePay partner from day one. At this point, another clerk next to her, having overheard what was going on, showed her the right buttons to press. I then proceeded to pay with ApplePay, and everything went smoothly. Unfortunately, they still required me to sign on the screen.
Otherwise, Walgreens, Whole Foods, The Home Depot, Panera, and even my local ShopRite all work smoothly.
Yet another fluff piece by a marketing firm, sampling only 6000 customers out of how many millions of customers who now own an iPhone 6?
You have to keep in mind, there could be many factors in failure rates or delays in processing... The issue with staff not knowing anything about it boils down to strictly being a training issue by their employer, or lack thereof, and usually indicates the quality of the overall establishment, and the service level one should expect. As sog35 mentioned, if you go into a quality establishment, there are NO issues with ?PAY.
As for transaction delays and / or failures, this could be related to poor network connectivity at the shop, a slow or buggy terminal, or a terminal whose NFC chip is malfunctioning. None of these issues are related to ?PAY, as Apple doesn't provide any of this gear to the merchants.
These problems ALSO occur with standard credit card transactions, in fact, on a much more frequent basis, which this marketing firm fails to mention, how convenient.
Now with the massive success of ?PAY, and the launch of that copycat crap from Scamsung, everyone is trying to twist real facts into anything that might showcase ?PAY in a negative light, pathetic.
I tried once to use it at the McDs drive-thru... NEVER AGAIN. They had to swing the whole CC-reader terminal and hang it out the window for me to reach my phone out to complete the transaction. Then it took three tries for it to work. It's so much faster to give them my card, have them swipe, and be on my way.
I've had no issues, however, using it places like Walgreens, Staples, and Home Depot.
Same experience at McD. Dumbest setup I've ever seen. I expect it to get better though as the company figures out how to do better.
Walgreens had issues IMHO as well. You have to pull out your id, enter your phone number, hit a couple of accepts and assorted other annoyances to check out at the drug counter.
My biggest annoyance while using this system though are retailers that show the NFC/ApplePay symbol but actually don't accept it. Jack in the Box is an example. Trying ApplePay in those locations actually increases my checkout time significantly as I try ApplePay, possibly try again, have the clerk tell me it doesn't work... and then put my phone away and pull out my wallet/cc anyways. Ugh..
Originally Posted by MagMan1979
...As sog35 mentioned, if you go into a quality establishment, there are NO issues with ?PAY.
And if by some chance someone does have trouble at one of those establishments, Apple has a feedback link:
https://www.apple.com/feedback/apple-pay.html
And also has a merchant FAQ: http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT6561
Same experience at McD. Dumbest setup I've ever seen. I expect it to get better though as the company figures out how to do better.
Walgreens had issues IMHO as well. You have to pull out your id, enter your phone number, hit a couple of accepts and assorted other annoyances to check out at the drug counter.
Issues experienced with ApplePay partners should absolutely be reported to Apple (if you haven't done so already) using the link found on the ApplePay page on Apple.com. (or in my previous post).
Same here. McDonald's has the stickers in the windows saying they're proud to take ApplePay...but when you go to use it in drive-thru, the cashier either doesn't understand, doesn't want to do it, or has to move the entire card reader stand out the window. It's an awful experience. Everywhere else, it works great.