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The Paneras by me all have MX925s. I've used AP at the Panera by work dozens of times with no issues.

Panera has worked like a charm for me too. No issues and been there dozens of times since Apple Pay was released. Walgreens has also been flawless.
 
95% of issues are at the Retail End. Improper Employee training is the largest component by far, along with outdated readers. I use Apple Pay daily. There are retailers you know have it down, and it's smooth each time. Then there are the ones with the employees that are not quite sure what day of the week it is.

Those tend to be an issue. Apple Pay is really designed to be used with a Credit Card. You can run into the Pin situation frequently with a Debit card. Seems Apple Pay does not give you an option to run your VISA Debit/MasterCard Debit as a Credit Transaction.

Manually swiping a VISA Debit Card gives you the option to run without the Pin.

After using it for a while, IMO, one becomes familiar as to what to avoid. I personally like not having to carry my cards in my wallet. Much easier to deactivate a lost/stolen iPhone than a stolen wallet and it's contents. Provided you activate all your security options on your phone. :apple:
 
I think the Apple Watch will accelerate the acceptance rate of Apple Pay by vendors as it will be too easy to use considering you dont even have to take a phone out of your pocket or hold your finger to it and pick your card from passbook etc. It will become so much quicker and easier then traditional credit cards that vendors will start looking really bad if they don't get on the band wagon with it.
 
I have used Apple Pay probably 15-20 times. All between 4 retailers; Petco, Panera, McDonalds and Subway. Most of my use has been at Petco, and I think I've only had 1 failed attempt there. Panera works well, but half the time I go there I end up at the one register that doesn't support NFC. I've only tried a couple times at McDonalds. Subway has been a disaster. I frequent 3 or 4 different Subway stores and I've only gotten it to work 1 time in 10 or so visits. I've quit trying. I can't wait for it to grow. I'm surprised 6 months in I'm still frequently the first Apple Pay user the cashier has served.

From another point of view, it's not totally intuitive to someone who isn't tech savvy. My wife can't grasp the concept. For whatever reason when it shows the finger print circle on the screen she thinks she needs to touch the screen there, not the home button. Then again, she never remembers to just use her thumb to unlock the phone and always types in her code...
 
Looks like Im vindicated. Subway in NYC stopped accepting ApplePay even though it is a launch partner.

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Apple Pay implementation is so random. Using it at McDonald's is just as Apple has demonstrated, but using it at Wegman's is far less seamless: you have to select debit or credit, use Apple Pay via iPhone, then you have to sign your name on the terminal. Apple needs to push for a uniform process across all retailers.

At places like that there is no difference between CC and ApplePay.
 
Main problem for me is that in some places the process is not as streamlined as it should be. What I mean is that it just eliminates the step of sliding the credit card, but I still have to go through the steps of saying it is a credit card transaction and accept the amount. I thought the advantage was that after authenticating with fingerprint you just got the receipt and that was it. Considering the time it takes for the terminal to wake the phone and the fingerprint authentication to go through I think I am quicker to get my credit card out of the wallet and slide it.

Don't get me wrong. I like Apple Pay and the privacy and protection it gives, but it has to work more uniformly across businesses, and really simplify the steps.
 
Tips/Insights to help others below:

1. The cashier doesn't have to know what Apple Pay is
2. The establishment doesn't have to officially "support" Apple Pay to accept Apple Pay. See #3
3. You can use Apple Pay any where (almost) contactless card payment is accepted
4. You or the cashier have to select credit card as a form of payment
5. Apple Pay doesn't exclude you from entering a pin for your debit or signing for a credit card. The terminal has no idea you just used Apple pay so there's no reason these two requirements would be bypassed.

I've used Apply pay many times at my local grocery store and for taxi rides. Both of which don't advertise Apple Pay nor do the employees know what Apple Pay is.

Main problem for me is that in some places the process is not as streamlined as it should be. What I mean is that it just eliminates the step of sliding the credit card, but I still have to go through the steps of saying it is a credit card transaction and accept the amount. I thought the advantage was that after authenticating with fingerprint you just got the receipt and that was it. Considering the time it takes for the terminal to wake the phone and the fingerprint authentication to go through I think I am quicker to get my credit card out of the wallet and slide it.

Don't get me wrong. I like Apple Pay and the privacy and protection it gives, but it has to work more uniformly across businesses, and really simplify the steps.

The terminal doesn't know that you're using Apple Pay so you still have to declare form of payment, sign, and receive a receipt.
 
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Okay, do you have the CVM list? Not the Cardpeek interpretation but the actual list?

According to the EMV contactless books:

  • AmEx: "plaintext PIN verified by ICC" is what's used to indicate on device CVM support (haven't gotten this to appear yet).
  • Visa: Card Transaction Qualifiers (tag 9F6C) has "on device CVM" enabled (https://www.eftlab.com.au/index.php...-the-use-of-ctqs-and-ttqs-in-nfc-transactions). In order to get this to show up in cardpeek I had to set Terminal Transaction Qualifiers so that CVM is required and on device CVM is supported.
  • MasterCard: "On device cardholder verification is supported" is set in the Application Interchange Profile (byte 1, bit 2). Was able to get this to appear with my US Airways card without changing anything in the scripts.
 
Most places I visit don't have it, or if they do, not all registers do so I'm stuck paying with my credit card.

Apple needs to side step and hire a staff to visit retail stores like Panera, Starbucks, McDonalds, etc and make sure Apple Pay is available at every register, and even place Apple Pay logos around so its visible to the customer.
 
Most places I visit don't have it, or if they do, not all registers do so I'm stuck paying with my credit card.

Apple needs to side step and hire a staff to visit retail stores like Panera, Starbucks, McDonalds, etc and make sure Apple Pay is available at every register, and even place Apple Pay logos around so its visible to the customer.

That would be hard at Starbucks given they don't have contactless in the US thus no Apple Pay. They support it in app to reload Starbucks cards but not in store yet
 
For me this thread has highlighted how far the US is behind Europe in terms of payments systems. I knew you were behind still using swipe and sign but I didn't realise the technology gap was so large! No wonder Apple Pay is struggling.
 
Its tech...... Maybe they should go back go doing stuff by hand ....


Where in the world, did Apple say they don't track you ? They know how how uses linked a credit card......

Not personal info ok,,,, but its not that they have no knowledge of that either...


Two third of users running into problems ? That's not unheard off..... When u hear anything Apple, two third of anyone will run into a brick wall too. As usual,this stuff will be sorted. but that's what u get..
 
I used it maybe 2 dozen times, at Walgreens and McDonalds drive through and have had 0 issues.
 
These are all the growing pains of introducing a new way of doing things to the world. That much is pretty obvious. When I first started using ApplePay, some cashiers even looked at me like I was from another planet. Now it's pretty commonplace, at least at the retailers who've accepted it for a while.
 
I’ve read 2 pages of comments and so far it’s a mixed bag. Even if it’s accepted it still does not work flawlessly. And people still have this deranged thought of leaving their wallets at home? That’s time and money wasted right there if Apple pay does not work when venturing out; it’s not realistic.
While rare there are still places that don’t take credit/debit. I was doing a diners, dives and drive-through run last week and the dive I went to took cash only. I’m not going to limit what I eat because Apple pay/NFC/credit is not accepted there. And I’m not going to tell a joint that has good food and good prices how to operate their business. That little shack has been around since 1983 so they must be doing something right. I personally don’t blame them for keeping it simple. Sad part is that their only open from 11am to 5pm.
 
Works Great!

Apple Pay is fast, convenient and works beautifully. I would bet that 90% of the problems people face is at a location that isn't set up yet. I agree with other posters, why would a cashier need to "help you" with this??? Hold your phone out, it will either work or not. So easy. There is no need for a cashier to say, "by the way, Apple Pay works." Do you expect them to stop you at checkout and give you a list of every accepted method of payment? I have surprised many cashiers by showing them that it works.
 
I knew this was going to happen, sure there are a few shops where my Google Wallet has been working flawlessly since 2012. The second I read about CurrentC and MCX I knew NFC payment solutions were going to start fighting an uphill battle. MCX can offer better discounting on transaction fees in exchange for the disabling of NFC readers on new POS terminals. Seems like more vendors are jumping the MCX bandwagon at this point.
 
My experience has been mostly positive with ApplePay. McDonalds and Walgreens have been the smoothest with no issues at either, and out of ~10 attempts to make purchases from a vending machine at work only 1 has failed.

The biggest problem for me has been going places that have an NFC reader but fail for no apparent reason or works on one visit then never works again. Hardee's, for example, worked the first time I went there but has never worked since.

One thing people need to remember is the most important feature of ApplePay is not speed but privacy. The payment process eliminates your credit card info from ever being handled by the cashier and from being logged by the retailers servers. In the last 2 years I have had to have credit cards replaced 4 times due to security breaches (Target & Home Depot) and from cashiers making note of security codes to later sell/use (twice at Burger King).
 
My issue is my primary bank hasn't added support yet

My primary bank, Coastal Federal Credit Union still has not added support. They said the week it came out that they were bringing it "soon". I keep checking in but still no support. I have another bank account that does support it as of just a few weeks ago, but I don't use that account frequently.

I did use it one time at McDonalds just to try it out and it worked perfectly. I can't wait to use it with my primary account but until they set it up I am truly unable to really buy in.
 
Wegman's grocery stores want you to select credit or debit at the terminal. If credit is selected, the terminal wants a signature. If debit is selected, it wants a PIN. This is the only place that I've run into this.

I very frequently run into absolutely clueless cashiers at McDonald's the drive-thru at many different locations. They don't know anything about the system at all. Then, they have to wander away looking for someone who knows how to do it. I even had one person tell me the terminal was 'bolted to the wall' and I replied, "No, it isn't. I used it two days ago." The irony of this all is that every single McDonald's has a blue window cling ON the cashier's window stating that they welcome Apple Pay and Google Wallet.
 
One thing people need to remember is the most important feature of ApplePay is not speed but privacy. The payment process eliminates your credit card info from ever being handled by the cashier and from being logged by the retailers servers. In the last 2 years I have had to have credit cards replaced 4 times due to security breaches (Target & Home Depot) and from cashiers making note of security codes to later sell/use (twice at Burger King).

I would say that chip cards would provide some of the same benefits but since we're doing chip and signature and not chip and PIN businesses have no motivation to not continue to take cards from people to insert/swipe/copy down the card details.
 
Hi how are you? Fine. I see this store has Apple pay. What's that? Apple pay. You know a way to use your iPhone to pay wirelessly in the store. I don't know anything about that. Thanks. Have a great day!

My recent experience was slightly different...

Cashier: Your total is $14.23.
Me: Okay. *taps phone to pad*
Phone: Beep.
Cashier: Woah... I didn't know we did that.
Me: Yep. Have a nice day.
 
It's okay

Apple Pay has already served its strategic purpose, which is to hype people up so they buy 6's and 6 Plus's

Just like iWork, Airplay, iCloud, SIRI, etc, they're now free to ignore it
 
The biggest issue I run into is using it before the cashier has pressed the payment key and then having to do it again. I run into that same issue with plastic cards but for some reason it's much more annoying when using Apple Pay. Bad training on the store level.
 
Got an oil change the other day. When it was time to pay, I actually had to hand my card over to the Counter Clerk, where they manually entered the CC info into their computer. This is a big, high volume auto tire and repair business, they don't even have a mag-strip slider, I really felt vulnerable. I haven't had to present my card over to a clerk like that in a long time. So, yeah...I hope more and more businesses start to adapt ApplePay. But like a lot of other post have mentioned, it's the cashiers/clerks, ect who need to be educated at locations where ApplePay is accepted.

My wife and I use Discover for almost all of our restaurant bills, and not for much of anything else. That card has been stolen 6 times. SIX TIMES! It has gotten so bad that every time it happens we call the police and open a report, hoping that somehow they'll see a pattern and nail the restaurant employees who are writing down the numbers from the card.

I feel a heck of a lot safer with :apple: Pay.

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Subway has been a disaster. I frequent 3 or 4 different Subway stores and I've only gotten it to work 1 time in 10 or so visits. I've quit trying.

That echoes my experience as well. Of all the retailers that support it, Subway is the worst. My family and I eat at several area stores routinely and despite trying dozens of times I think I've only gotten it to work a few times (I think I said 50/50 in another post, but I think that was way too generous).

I, too, have stopped trying to use it at Subway. As one of the few restaurants someone is likely to visit multiple times per week, you'd think they would work harder at reducing payment friction.
 
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