Apple Pay Express Transit users hit with unintended charges at New York City turnstiles
A small number of subway riders in New York City this week complained of a bug in Metro Transit Authority (MTA) tap-and-go turnstiles that inadvertently activates the Apple Pay Express Transit feature on user iPhones, resulting in double billing.
The MTA's One Metro New York, or OMNY, contactless fare readers are scanning rider iPhones even if the device is in a purse or pocket, reports the Gothamist. Those who experienced the error complain of charges on both a swiped MetroCard and through Apple Pay.
Express Transit enables iPhone and Apple Watch owners to conduct touchless terminal transactions without unlocking or waking their device.
Macartney Morris encountered the issue while passing through a reader at Grand Central on Tuesday. He entered the turnstile using a tap-to-pay MetroCard, which worked as advertised, only to find a standard fare also applied to Apple Pay.
"When I got to Queens I saw I had an Apple Pay notification that I was charged $2.75," Morris said. "My phone was in my jacket pocket, where I always keep it. I was really taken aback."
A number of customers shared similar stories on Twitter.
Morris and other notified the MTA of the apparent issue. Chief Revenue Officer Al Putre in a statement to the New York Post said "about 30 customers" had complained about unintended Apple Pay charges, adding that the public benefit corporation is working with Apple to fix the problem.
"The system is a popular success that's working well for the vast majority of people and we're in touch with Apple about addressing the issue of unintended taps," Putre said.
An Apple spokesperson told the publication Apple Pay Express Transit has not encountered issues in other cities. The feature is currently rolling out to select metropolitan areas after a U.S. debut in Portland last May.
"When a customer enters the greater New York transit area, they receive a notification that a payment card in Apple Wallet can be used for Express Transit. NYC residents are also informed about Apple Pay Express Transit when they add a payment card to Apple Wallet for the first time," Apple said in a statement. "Customers can easily turn off the feature in Settings on their iPhone at anytime and use Face ID or Touch ID to ride transit."
The MTA began rolling out Apple Pay Transit Express support to OMNY terminals last year. As of December, OMNY was live at 85 subway stations across NYC, all MTA-operated buses on Staten Island and two Staten Island Railway stations. Wide availability at all subway stations and MTA buses is planned for completion by the end of 2020.
The MTA's One Metro New York, or OMNY, contactless fare readers are scanning rider iPhones even if the device is in a purse or pocket, reports the Gothamist. Those who experienced the error complain of charges on both a swiped MetroCard and through Apple Pay.
Express Transit enables iPhone and Apple Watch owners to conduct touchless terminal transactions without unlocking or waking their device.
Macartney Morris encountered the issue while passing through a reader at Grand Central on Tuesday. He entered the turnstile using a tap-to-pay MetroCard, which worked as advertised, only to find a standard fare also applied to Apple Pay.
"When I got to Queens I saw I had an Apple Pay notification that I was charged $2.75," Morris said. "My phone was in my jacket pocket, where I always keep it. I was really taken aback."
A number of customers shared similar stories on Twitter.
Morris and other notified the MTA of the apparent issue. Chief Revenue Officer Al Putre in a statement to the New York Post said "about 30 customers" had complained about unintended Apple Pay charges, adding that the public benefit corporation is working with Apple to fix the problem.
"The system is a popular success that's working well for the vast majority of people and we're in touch with Apple about addressing the issue of unintended taps," Putre said.
An Apple spokesperson told the publication Apple Pay Express Transit has not encountered issues in other cities. The feature is currently rolling out to select metropolitan areas after a U.S. debut in Portland last May.
"When a customer enters the greater New York transit area, they receive a notification that a payment card in Apple Wallet can be used for Express Transit. NYC residents are also informed about Apple Pay Express Transit when they add a payment card to Apple Wallet for the first time," Apple said in a statement. "Customers can easily turn off the feature in Settings on their iPhone at anytime and use Face ID or Touch ID to ride transit."
The MTA began rolling out Apple Pay Transit Express support to OMNY terminals last year. As of December, OMNY was live at 85 subway stations across NYC, all MTA-operated buses on Staten Island and two Staten Island Railway stations. Wide availability at all subway stations and MTA buses is planned for completion by the end of 2020.
Comments
Given that it works in many places, it sounds like their implementation rather than an Apple issue.
What’s probably happening is people are swiping their MetroCard to pay but the NFC reader is picking up their phone in their pocket or purse. My guess this is because the MTA went the easiest route possible to retrofit the existing turnstiles which put the NFC reader at waist level, instead of on top of the turnstile gate where the MetroCard swipe reader is. If you keep your phone or your purse on your right side it could be easy to get too close and set it off.
The MTA was trying to do this safely by rolling out OMNY slowly over the course of 18 months. This means turnstiles need to be able to read both MetroCards and NFC methods until the MetroCard is phased out completely. Because MetroCard funds are linked to a card and not an account there was no way to introduce a hybrid card that could be used both ways until the OMNY rollout is complete. That lead the MTA to have to retrofit existing turnstiles to read both payment methods.
I’d lay odds the problem is with the handling of “unlimited” monthly MetroCards.
The other issue I am concern about here is the fact the Phone NFC was activated at a distance less than a few inches. Anytime I done a NFC transaction the phone or watch needs to be within a few inches of the reader, if you are further away then a 3 to 4 inches the reader does not see the phone or watch. This is done for a reason it keeps people from getting close to a tap to pay card or phone and activating it for a payment at any distance other than a few inches.
In fact, they've never actually acknowledged that it is delayed. They quietly updated their website last month to say "coming soon" instead of "by the end of 2019", although there are still references to 2019 on other pages. The official Twitter account repeatedly replies with a single, copy-paste statement saying that it's coming soon and will not response to any questions. I contacted my alderman, and her office says that Ventra's official response to her, an elected official, was "no comment". They also refused to provide even that response for well over a month. They had to follow up several times even to get that. Something is seriously wrong with this company and its technology. If you lived through the original Ventra rollout 4-5 years ago, none of this is surprising. The company is incredibly shady and incompetent.
People today carry so many devices and have many credit cards. They have to get this thing working so it doesn't duplicate payments. That indeed might be tricky on NFC (as opposed to "tap to pay") transactions. What if someone is carrying a phone, a tablet and some sort of NFC card on them? And since one person might use their device or card for another person, it can't be something as simple as only permitting one transaction per 15 seconds or something like that.
Personally, I'd probably still stick with a separate card (whether physical or virtual), so I don't see endless line items on my other statements.
Also, FYI, NFC payments and tap to pay payments are the same thing.