CVS Stores Reportedly Disabling NFC to Shut Down Apple Pay and Google Wallet

[oddnendz]

You're wrong. I've seen people at stores take a long time to check out while fumbling with their new checkout method



Oh stop already. Keep moving the goalpost - I'm not playing the game.



No one is forcing you to use MCX. Problem solved.

I said I wasn't. I also said if I had a choice I will go to the place that uses NFC. Remember, where I live, a Walgreens on one corner and a CVS on the other..... one guess where i will choose to go.... I will admit my mother is one those that fumbled with debit cards when they came out. Now she won't use anything else....

 

[Huracan]

I cant wait until the federal Government gets involved because Apple is trying to create a monopoly with Apple Pay. Might not look like it for the people who don't question Apple's operations but a lot of us see it. Thats why you see companies not accepting Apple pay. We shalll see!

It can' t be a monopoly, Apple doesn't have 100% of the smartphone market, and there are other ways of paying for things. However, I think it is of benefit for everyone if this reduces the chances for identity theft or credit card theft as we've seen in the last few years. Please explain how you see that this could become a monopoly.

 

[RockSpider]

Boy, when Apple devotees get upset, they really get upset. It's a good thing Apple never uses these sorts of tactics.

 

[BC2009]

Let me get this straight.... These competing companies are colluding in order to try to shut down Apple Pay? I think this is where the DOJ steps in and enforces some of those anti-trust laws. How is this different than a hypothetical situation where say Amazon, Apple, and Barnes and Noble colluded to refuse to carry books that were not self-published in order to break the backs of publishers?

 

[Moto G]

Let's leave religion out of this...and I think the prevailing opinion is it involves Barcodes on your wrist or microchips in your arms or something..

And Apple isn't a religion? Ok.

 

[mabhatter]

...and the rest of the world carries on happily using cash and credit cards, with no issues.

Talk about making a simple bartering system overly complicated.

#1 Swipe card

#2 Enter PIN

#3 Walk away

Why is that complicated?

Because the information on a debit card is almost "plaintext" when it goes through the merchant's system... Now they have the card info AND your pin ready to hack. It's all based on trusting nobody to peek.. And EVERYBODY peeks at that data for rewardvplans, etc.. It's amazing we function at all.

 

[oddnendz]

First cigarettes, now this. CVS just doesn't want people shopping there.

I still say they need to stop selling beer/liquor too, if they are so concerned about peoples' "health".

Actually, they need to stop selling anything with HFCS if they want to be "healthy", but then again I can cook so avoiding HFCS is easy....

 

[diazj3]

It's very funny indeed to see all those who worship at the Chuch of Apple. The behavior in this forum is seriously cult-like. I'm a LONG time Apple user (30+ years) and I find no reason to express (or feel) indignation whenever some non-Apple company does something that can be construed as anti-Apple. At the end of the day, there are better things we should devote our attention to.

Couldn't agree with you more. Sometimes it feels like the same hacks that Apple hires to yell fake excitement during their keynotes are clocking some overtime...

The Chuch of Apple?

We have a report here of two companies who actively go out of their way to inconvenience some customers....

... people are complaining about two companies who already paid for these terminals and now _intentionally_ prevent customers from using them. And they do that because they have plans to introduce at some time in the next year their own, less convenient, less secure system....

I really wonder what is going on in your brain that makes you call a very natural response to an absolute dick move of two companies "cult like behaviour" and claim that people are "worshipping at the Chuch of Apple".

a) Thats a bit hyperbolic: I don't think their intention was to inconvenience customers just for the hell of it.

b) source?

c) As an Apple customer for years, I've been thoroughly introduced to the concept of "absolute dick moves"... I'm sure Apple invented them and holds the patent. As for the outcry responses in the forum, I wonder what's going on in some brains to get so pissed at this small thing.

Chill.

 

[gnasher729]

Perhaps, but it probably will send a better message to management than a call to an 800 line or email to the CEO.

The unfortunate thing is that this doesn't send _any_ message to management. They don't give a **** about some employee having to cope with angry customers.

What _might_ work is to go to competitors and ask them to advertise their support for Apple Pay and other payment methods as an advantage. That's because _positive_ things tend to make their way upwards (negative things like "our customers are pissed off because we don't support Apple Pay get filtered out and the messenger of bad news gets punished), and then shareholders etc. might ask "why don't we support this thing that the competitors advertise".

 

[Tubamajuba]

Boy, when Apple devotees get upset, they really get upset. It's a good thing Apple never uses these sorts of tactics.

Never mind the potential implications for anybody that provides or uses NFC technology... let's just take this opportunity to bash Apple fans.

 

[nickbedford]

America seems very silly when it comes to credit cards. Here in Australia, you whip out your card, touch it on the NFC scanner and 15 seconds later you're out the door. For the last several years.

I'm hoping nothing like this happens in Australia, though it's hardly much more of a pain to just use our NFC Visa cards anyway.

 

[gnasher729]

Chill.

You can't give it up, can you?

 

[Narg]

These payment systems can co-exist. It's pure B.S. that they only accept one.

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You can't give it up, can you?

Can you?

 

[ethanwa79]

I'll never shop at either of these stores again. Period.

 

[Gasu E.]

I live halfway between a Walgreens and a CVS. I tended to use each about equally... until now.

 

[Mukist]

This is all about the percentage Apple wants on every transaction v. MCX.

Except that once again the retailer (CVS) does not pay this, the payment processing company (Visa, MasterCard, AMEX) pay this and the retailer does not have to pay anything extra to the payment processing company.

So what you are saying is the retailer cares that the payment processing companies have to pay something to apple for you using apple pay?

 

[senseless]

Wow. You're going to take your business elsewhere if you can't use a method of payment that didn't exist in the past anyway? It's no longer possible to pull a debit card from your wallet? What has happened to people?

My guess is some of these posters are involved with NFC development or are shareholders or both.

 

[Tubamajuba]

America seems very silly when it comes to credit cards. Here in Australia, you whip out your card, touch it on the NFC scanner and 15 seconds later you're out the door. For the last several years.

I'm hoping nothing like this happens in Australia, though it's hardly much more of a pain to just use our NFC Visa cards anyway.

Exactly... it's ridiculous. Just look at all the people in this thread that are opposed to NFC.

 

[JoeTomasone]

Don't just complain in the forum, complain to CVS and Rite Aid!

http://www.cvs.com/help/email-customer-relations.jsp?callType=store&topicid=200018

and

https://www.riteaid.com/customer-support/contact-us

Done:

"I am exceptionally disappointed by your decision to intentionally disable NFC transactions from Apple Pay and Google Wallet in your stores, which was apparently done in favor of CurrentC, which is a far less secure payment technology.

As soon as my prescriptions have been successfully transferred to Walgreens, I will be cancelling my ExtraCare card and will no longer patronize any CVS. I should note that I will happily drive past the local CVS in order to patronize a store who cares more about my financial security than CVS and the rest of the MCX member merchants do."

 

[FriednTested]

For everybody whining already, perhaps it would be nice to think about why they might do this? It's not like this is a service Apple is providing for free. Just because you don't have to pay for it doesn't mean somebody isn't. I don't know what Apple takes from these transactions and it is certainly not unheard of to have higher rates for those that are not affiliated with a certain program, so it could very well be that paying through Apple Pay costs them all or most of their margin.

Now I don't know about you guys, but if I had a company and customer convenience like Apple Pay cost me my margins I'd cut it off faster than you can say Apple Pay. None of you guys work for free, and neither should shops.

You should prolly educate yourself a bit before posting uninformed stupidity... Merchants don't pay a dime to Apple... They pay the same to card companies as they used to... Apple takes its monies from the card companies...

In fact other forms of nfc payments where the card is not physically present usually attracts a higher rate than a normal swipe transaction as the card companies fraud risk increases... But, with Apple pay merchants pay for a nfc transaction the same they pay for a swipe transaction as tu. are companies have decreed that Touch ID is top notch security...

 

[oddnendz]

I understand exactly why they are doing this.

With MerchantC or whatever it's called the places are allowed to collect your credit card numbers,market you with advertising ( VERY important ) and keep you in a cloud-based database.

NFC doesn't do that.

Actually, it doesn't work with credit cards. They gather your CHECKING ACCOUNT information and draft from your checking account. Think electronic checks....

 

[Dekema2]

It's almost like being on the wrong side of history. These idiots at the top have to be pretty short sighted to not realize apple pay is going to be the de facto STANDARD in a very short period of time.

More specifically, any form of payment that involves an NFC reader.

 

[me2000]

I agree with you there. Walgreens is the best. Walgreens HQ is in Deerfield, a northern 'burb of Chicago; best to support local business

Funny thing is, in Chicago, RiteAid advertises (at least) on the radio. The closest RiteAid is in Michigan, about 75 miles away--the radio signals probably get there, but who would that area care to even tune in?

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But what about the Big Bang Theory?? NCIS?? Criminal Minds??

Yep. I live about 10-15 minutes from the HQ. And my local Walgreens is 1 minute away.

 

[BruiserB]

http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/25/drug-stores-drop-nfc-payments/?ncid=rss_truncated

 

[dazed]

Crazy stuff. I bet they will have a change of heart once their sales figures come in.