Banana price issue causes expensive Apple Pay mistake in UK
A woman was allegedly overcharged when she used Apple Pay to pay for shopping at a UK supermarket, with the store charging her account $2,221 over mis-priced bananas.
![](https://photos5.appleinsider.com/gallery/40929-79147-39437-75459-Apple-Pay-xl-l.jpg)
Cymbre Barnes of London used Apple Pay to pay for her shopping at a small Marks & Spencer branch. The value of the shopping was supposed to be 4 GBP, but an issue caused her to be charged a considerably higher amount.
The items being purchased included a bunch of bananas that were usually priced at 1 GBP ($1.39) but the point of sale terminal instead priced it at 1,599 GBP ($2,217). The discrepancy wasn't noticed until after the Apple Pay transaction took place, according to The Telegraph.
"I was in a rush before work so when I got to self-checkout I used contactless and it was instant," said Barnes. "I did a double-take when I saw the screen but by then my receipt was already being printed. It was too late."
At the time, store staff told the customer a refund wasn't possible as the only till in the store was broken. Barnes added she had to walk 45 minutes to another branch to get the refund.
"There has been huge innovation in contactless payment options, and we've had great feedback from customers," an M&S representative said. "This was an isolated payment error, for which we've apologized to the customer and offered compensation.
Unlike other card-based contactless payments, there is no limit to how much an Apple Pay transaction can be worth. If the transaction was conducted with a bank card, it would have failed to process.
The UK government has announced it will be raising the limit for card contactless payments from 45 GBP ($62) to 100 GBP ($139) later in 2021. However, critics have voiced concerns that the raised limit would make it easier for thieves to steal more from victims by using the more expensive contactless payments.
Stay on top of all Apple news right from your HomePod. Say, "Hey, Siri, play AppleInsider," and you'll get latest AppleInsider Podcast. Or ask your HomePod mini for "AppleInsider Daily" instead and you'll hear a fast update direct from our news team. And, if you're interested in Apple-centric home automation, say "Hey, Siri, play HomeKit Insider," and you'll be listening to our newest specialized podcast in moments.
![](https://photos5.appleinsider.com/gallery/40929-79147-39437-75459-Apple-Pay-xl-l.jpg)
Cymbre Barnes of London used Apple Pay to pay for her shopping at a small Marks & Spencer branch. The value of the shopping was supposed to be 4 GBP, but an issue caused her to be charged a considerably higher amount.
The items being purchased included a bunch of bananas that were usually priced at 1 GBP ($1.39) but the point of sale terminal instead priced it at 1,599 GBP ($2,217). The discrepancy wasn't noticed until after the Apple Pay transaction took place, according to The Telegraph.
"I was in a rush before work so when I got to self-checkout I used contactless and it was instant," said Barnes. "I did a double-take when I saw the screen but by then my receipt was already being printed. It was too late."
At the time, store staff told the customer a refund wasn't possible as the only till in the store was broken. Barnes added she had to walk 45 minutes to another branch to get the refund.
"There has been huge innovation in contactless payment options, and we've had great feedback from customers," an M&S representative said. "This was an isolated payment error, for which we've apologized to the customer and offered compensation.
Unlike other card-based contactless payments, there is no limit to how much an Apple Pay transaction can be worth. If the transaction was conducted with a bank card, it would have failed to process.
The UK government has announced it will be raising the limit for card contactless payments from 45 GBP ($62) to 100 GBP ($139) later in 2021. However, critics have voiced concerns that the raised limit would make it easier for thieves to steal more from victims by using the more expensive contactless payments.
Stay on top of all Apple news right from your HomePod. Say, "Hey, Siri, play AppleInsider," and you'll get latest AppleInsider Podcast. Or ask your HomePod mini for "AppleInsider Daily" instead and you'll hear a fast update direct from our news team. And, if you're interested in Apple-centric home automation, say "Hey, Siri, play HomeKit Insider," and you'll be listening to our newest specialized podcast in moments.
Comments
Obviously this will change with self-serve, but the £ cap is ridiculous and prevents contactless being useful for anything but minuscule shops.
Don't think there's any wrongdoing here, just a mistake by customer made worse by an unfortunate circumstance in the store, but everything has been put right now.
Maybe there should be a limit on Apple Pay though, or some additional security/confirmation required for higher value purchases.
As usual, much ado about nothing. And it's unclear what the connection is between Apple and the error, which appears to have been the result of a problem with the terminal, rather than something on Apple's end.
Some stores don’t train their employees on how to do that. Usually a manager does have a merchant support phone number and could force a reversal IF corporate gave them that power. I doubt he had that power since it could be abused.
Apple Pay, and Google Pay, are not subject to that legal limit as they already have a secondary authorisation: fingerprint, face, etc to approve it (though some stores’ equipment have never been updated to support the distinction between contactless with card and Apple/Google pay.)
To be honest, I’m not sure who is asking for the higher contactless limit. No-one using their phone/watch, for sure, and the Banks don’t seem to be asking for it either.
I think the new increase to £100 is due to COVID and people not wanting to touch hardware “infected” people may have done just before them. This was the reason for the increase to £45.
However, a lot of people’s weekly shops are greater than £45 which means they have to enter their pin. The increase from £45 will ensure most people’s shops can be done contactless but still restricting the ability of very large transactions for fraud.
Also if you make multiple purchases in quick succession, even within the limit, the fraud protections kick in and require pin entry.
It wouldn't be any more acceptable if they made her drive, take the bus or teleport. Like @Xed said, the store should have handled the issue right there. It was their mistake that caused the problem in the first place.
oops - I missed the mention of composition. Hopefully it was more than some bananas!
Yes, but I'll readily admit that I've quickly scanned my watch without checking on small purchases in the past, especially when I'm in a hurry. It sounds like this woman noticed the price right as she was scanning her watch/phone and realized a split second too late.
I'd like to see more detail in the explanation that AI offered. It's mentioned that it's because of the 2FA innate nature of Apple Pay. But is that because it's tied to an Apple account (G-S) or would the no limit not apply to an AP transaction tied to you bank card that's not the G-S Apple Card.
I've never made a POS purchase over $200 and only that much at Costco. They don't take the Apple/G-S Master Card so I'l use my debit card or a Visa card with Apple Pay. I don't know what the POS limit is on any of my credit cards but it's $700 on my debit card. I have bought a lot of pricey kit online with AP with no problem, but that's only with my Apple Card.
I did get a potential fraud alert and an email requesting for me to confirm it was me making the purchase, but that was because it was on one of my computers that I don't use for online purchases.