Apple Pay Problems Continue to Frustrate Users

Apple Pay has been available for several months now, but the new payment platform is still experiencing problems, as many early adopters aren’t having the best time with it.

According to a survey done by Phoenix Marketing International and obtained by Bloomberg, around 66% of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus users have come across issues with Apple Pay.

Specifically, almost half of the users surveyed visited a store that were listed as an Apple Pay merchant only to discover that the users couldn’t use Apple Pay because the location wasn’t actually accepting the system or wasn’t ready to do so just yet.

Furthermore, other users said that Apple Pay took too long to process a transaction, and others said that the cashier wasn’t familiar with the new payment technology. A few shoppers surveyed also noted that some transactions would be initiated incorrectly or ran twice.

Many of these issues aren’t Apple’s own fault, but merely retailers and banks still being stuck in the dark ages.

Indeed, one big issue that many users have been experiencing is that it seems retailers either are not training their employees enough on Apple Pay, or stores are just downright ignoring it.

For the most part, though, it mostly seems that some stores aren’t even training their employees properly on how to accept Apple Pay. One Reddit user a while ago said he went to Subway and the cashier had no idea how to get an Apple Pay transaction going, saying that the cashier couldn’t figure out how to use it, and “then a QR code appeared on the terminal, but there was no option on my phone to scan it.”

Furthermore, a Facebook friend of mine said he went to McDonald’s and tried to pay using Apple Pay, but the cashier literally responded, “I’m sorry, sir, you can’t pay with apples here. We only accept debit, credit, or cash.”

I’ve personally even tried to use it at a Walgreens and when I put my iPhone 6 up to the pay terminal, nothing happened. Normally, Apple Pay would automatically pop up and prompt me to scan my finger using Touch ID. However, this didn’t happen and instead, I ended up having to fish my debit card out of my wallet to pay for my stuff.

Overall, it still seems that while Apple Pay is a good idea, it’s seeing a shaky start. Some users are saying that they still have to enter in their PIN number on the keypad even after authorizing the payment on their iPhone 6, which doesn’t really make it any quicker to use than a regular debit card.

Perhaps the biggest annoyance to Apple Pay users is that many big retail stores simply refuse to accept Apple Pay as a payment method, including Best Buy, Walmart, and now Rite Aid and CVS, which quit accepting Apple Pay entirely due to a contract it set up with another competing payment platform called CurrentC.

Apple Pay and wireless payment platforms in general are great ideas and are quite revolutionary, but they’re kind of useless if they don’t work, so hopefully Apple and retailers can work together to get any bugs sorted out soon.

Luckily, it seems that banks are stepping up and giving attention to Apple Pay, as security concerns have been a slight issue for Apple Pay, but hopefully banks and retailers alike will improve the functionality of mobile payments in the near future.