deany
macrumors 68030
If you buy a £$15.00 itunes voucher in a apple store you get £$20.00.....saving a lot more than 5%
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Apple Stores Promoting Apple Pay With Bonus $5 iTunes Gift Cards
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If you buy a £$15.00 itunes voucher in a apple store you get £$20.00.....saving a lot more than 5%
dannyyankou
macrumors P6
Well yeah, in that case it makes more sense to go to Apple.
But if you're buying an $800 iPad Pro at Target, that's $40 savings.
pnoyblazed
macrumors 6502a
so the customer has a choice for either a $5 credit towards their purchase or $5 iTunes card? I guess I'll take the $5 credit...
deany
macrumors 68030
CarlJ
Contributor
Apple offers $5 of free money to new Apple Pay customers, and the MacRumors forum collective response is, largely, "that's pathetic, they should offer more and offer it to everyone, not just those newly signing up."
Tough crowd.
Tough crowd.
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It does though, considering that usage is still very low for any phone-based payment method.
sw1tcher
macrumors 604
But if you return the product purchased from an Apple Store, you still get to keep the $5 iTunes gift card.
I'm sure there will be someone who will abuse this.
1) Buy item at Apple Store
2) Set up Apple Pay
3) Get bonus $5 iTunes Gift Card
4) Return item and keep bonus $5 iTunes Gift Card
5) Profit
6) Rinse and Repeat
Don't feel bad. I live in the USA and it's a useless feature for me too (by choice).
Not gunna pull my 6+ out of my pocket at a cash register. That's obscene.
I've never seen it fail while making purchases in an Apple Store (US). In fact, I even purchased an iPad Pro at a nearby Apple Store using Apple Pay and didn't even have to provide a signature in spite of the large expenditure.
cambookpro
macrumors 604
I love Apple Pay, popped out this morning to buy a few bits from Waitrose, Boots and Costa and intentionally left my wallet at home. It's just one less thing to worry about and need a pocket for.
I just ask to pay with contactless, removes any confusion as that's been around for quite a while now. Though it still does seem a little magic paying with my wrist.
I just ask to pay with contactless, removes any confusion as that's been around for quite a while now. Though it still does seem a little magic paying with my wrist.
People aren't using Apple Pay for the simple fact that YOU CAN'T use Apple Pay!
Most places DO NOT HAVE APPLE PAY SET UP. They don't have the technology.
Instead of spending money giving $5 to customers as an incentive to set up something they already know how to set up, perhaps Apple should be thinking more about using that money to foot the bill for this technology as they know retailers across the country aren't willing to. THEY CAN'T AFFORD TO.
It's the same thing for EMV chips and NFC. It's one and the same. TARGET doesn't even have Apple Pay and that's a major retailer!
Most places DO NOT HAVE APPLE PAY SET UP. They don't have the technology.
Instead of spending money giving $5 to customers as an incentive to set up something they already know how to set up, perhaps Apple should be thinking more about using that money to foot the bill for this technology as they know retailers across the country aren't willing to. THEY CAN'T AFFORD TO.
It's the same thing for EMV chips and NFC. It's one and the same. TARGET doesn't even have Apple Pay and that's a major retailer!
Barely anyone uses Samsung Pay and it's not for lack of merchant acceptance. The problem is bigger than retailers not accepting NFC (though that doesn't help either).
BTW, it is possible to do EMV without NFC, as people at CVS, Target, etc. have seen. Now that MCX is dead, they're not really bothering because of one of the following:
- Customers outside of MR and the other Apple fan sites really aren't demanding it. And if no one's demanding it, why bother going through the extra development effort? (There is extra development/testing required because of the fully-integrated nature of payment terminals here in the US. It's not enough to just have the hardware.)
- Retailers really don't want to give Visa and Mastercard any more money than absolutely necessary. They could route Apple Pay over the debit networks, but then people will be complaining about how they still have to put in their PIN despite using Touch ID. That's a CS hassle retailers don't want to take on.
- Data collection. Being able to use store only credit/loyalty cards isn't good enough for some.
Rogifan
macrumors Penryn
So you just want free stuff.
RichTF
macrumors regular
If the retailer fully supports Apple Pay, then there is no limit. If they only support regular contactless then the standard UK rules apply, which is currently set to a £30 limit.
M&S (and possibly now Waitrose) support full Apple Pay, which is why you have no problems buying lots of stuff there. Feel free to go crazy and stock up on M&S champagne! 😀
I use my 6+ for Apple pay numerous times per week (and yes I'm in the US). Casey's takes it now, so I use it whenever I fill up the vehicles, or when I just stop in for a drink and a slice of pizza etc. Walgreens, Best Buy and Toys R Us take it, so I end up using it at those places whenever I'm there. My wife uses it at Kohls. The vending machines at work take it, etc. I do wish Kroger, Schnucks, or Hyvee would start supporting it. Whichever one does first will get my business from now on.
Not sure why you think it's "obscene". Better than those guys pulling out wallets 2" thick and all kinds of crap falling out of them when they try to pull out their credit card.
Moccasin
macrumors 65816
While Apple Pay works well & reliably in main M&S stores, I find that in the Simply Food franchises it can be hit and miss with my BA Amex card. It's odd, because the card works contactless in those stores, but not with Apple Pay. Similar behaviour in some Boots stores and some Costa.
In many cases, I already have my wallet out for a loyalty card & it seems pointless to use Apple Pay. I find Costa very annoying as their loyalty card app is hopelessly slow & unreliable - you have to then swap from the barcode scanner to the card machine. I've given up now & reverted to plastic Costa card & contactless payment.
CarlJ
Contributor
I've heard a lot of attempts to define what "obscene" means, but this is entirely different from all the other definitions. Where's the nudity? Where's the prurient interest?
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I've gone out walking a number of times lately carrying only: my iPhone 6, my drivers license (as ID), and a house key. And stopped in the nearby RiteAid on the way home to pick up a few things (they take Apple Pay and I have their loyalty card in Passbook). It's pretty nice.
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Weirdly, I've had a few times that my bank and/or Visa has declined small transactions (for cables, cases/covers, etc.) that I've tried to make with EasyPay in the Apple Store app (which uses ApplePay).
Then I ask the nearest Apple team member (or whatever they're called) to ring it up, they pull out their pocket terminal and scan the item and then I use ApplePay to authorize the payment on their terminal - which goes through just fine. I've never figured out why Visa refuses ApplePay from source A but accepts it from source B, when both transactions are for the same item, at the same time, using the most secure mechanism that Visa has available to it, and they're both necessarily happening physically inside an Apple Store.
I've gotten into the habit of just skipping the EasyPay step and going straight to one of the last three Apple Reps who have stopped by to cheerfully ask if I needed help, to have them ring it up.
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The surefire way of getting Apple Pay working for more people is having the ability to whip out your phone and not having 2nd thoughts if it would work or not.
I still remember theverge saying that if anyone can do mobile payments it would be Apple. Fast forward 2 years later we still have to play the guessing game if it works or not. And it doesn't help that large stores such as Walmart and Target are against it.
I personally wouldn't mind paying a very small percentage to the stores (0.1%) which is 10 cents for every $100 spent just for the convenience.
arkhanjel
macrumors regular
I was about to say something about that too. For me it's looks follow by question after question.
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How is it a pain to use? For me it couldn't be any easier. Especially when you compare it to paying at places that use the chip and pin terminals that are slow and a bunch of steps.
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Like I'm sure it's been said already, most places are already set up to take it just don't realize it. Places like Target and Walmart don't want to take Apple Pay because they don't want to give up all the information they store on their shoppers. Everything from your CC number to what you buy. Then at the end of your transaction they hand you an extra waste of paper with "special offers" according to past purchases.
Robert.Walter
macrumors 68040
So get an Apple Watch and stop whining. You'll be happy you did (both).
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At that rate, you'd be paying 2/3 of apples fee and giving a little profit to the merchant!
Just bought an iPad at an Apple Store 4 hours ago and the Apple Store did not mention this at all. <sigh>
sudo1996
Suspended
I agree. I went to a San Francisco Apple Retail Store with my friend, and she wanted to buy some EarPods for her iPhone 5S since she broke her old ones. Never have I seen an Apple retail employee push something so hard. After a big lecture about how Apple Pay was better, she said no since she didn't care and wasn't tech-savvy. The guy was then expecting credit card, but she pulled out a wad of cash. He looked disappointed then went to their hidden cash register to make the transaction.
The funny thing is, in most Berkeley stores and public transit, it would have been the reverse. I can only use cash in most places. I had to buy a 25-cent stamp with a $20 bill just to get change for the bus.
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Because the fingerprint scanner won't work most of the time, and for some reason, they decided to make it lock after only 10 seconds since iOS 7.
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Chupa Chupa
macrumors G5
For that matter you can buy many Apple products online at even better discounts plus eBates cash back plus no sales tax. If you are looking to truly save $ that is the best route.
But people already buying in the Apple store are not looking for a deal. They likely came in for hand holding because they are not tech savvy. So this promo is a way to teach a feature and reinforce behavior to that class of customer. Personally I think the promo is too limited -- it should be more widespread as one time use isn't enough to form a habit. Perhaps using it x # of times gets you a $5 statement credit. Or random prizes giving out -- something Visa did a few holiday seasons ago to get people to use their Visa card when buying gifts.
I think the best way to promote ApplePay though is AW. I never bothered w/ ApplePay before AW because pulling out my phone is no easier than pulling out my wallet. It's just something different to pull out of a pocket. But AW makes it a true convenience. Looking forward to seeing what it has to new to offer this fall.