Jeez, this is like a sketchy Kickstarter project, except the backers getting jerked around are corporations.
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Several Retailers to Begin Testing Apple Pay Rival CurrentC
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Might as well be called Current F for Failed , plus that's the grade they'd get in school.
And, a teacher would say: Sit down!
Best Buy, a founding member of MCX, also began accepting Apple Pay for in-app purchases in April and announced that full Apple Pay support is coming to Best Buy stores in the U.S. later in 2015. The electronics retailer will be monitoring CurrentC's limited trial run but has not confirmed that it will be implementing the platform in stores.
Update 7:10 AM: MCX CEO Brian Mooney tells Re/code that CurrentC may not see a broad launch until 2016, depending on how the early testing in Ohio proceeds.
Article Link: Several Retailers to Begin Testing Apple Pay Rival CurrentC
Best Buy wants to be seen as a retailer of high-tech goods, but their own systems and software are the equivalent to string and tin cans when compared to smartphones. For 3 years I've had one of their rewards cards but I have it in CardStar on my iPhone (who carry's all those physical cards, anyway?). Every time I go into Best Buy, which isn't often, I try to use the CardStar version of their rewards card--which ironically is a bar code that probably looks not unlike this CurrentC thingy--and their registers can't read it. The cashier has to hand type in all the numbers.
If it's a barcode it might be the reader they have. Having worked at a library, you need special readers for tiny barcodes you find on computer equipment or other ones that can read them off of LCD displays. It's not one size fits all.
I remember AGES ago when it was faster to pay by cash rather than credit card. I remember everyone in line huffing when the the person at the front of the checkout would hand over a card to the cashier. Now I can't remember the last time I carried cash.
The point being, I'm sure that person at the front of the checkout felt like a prat, too, back then.
One would hope so, but they seem desperately to want it to live! Hopefully they'll learn their lesson when it truly fails in market. Though, I suppose that if every Walmart shopper uses it, that would be significant. I just can't imagine why anyone would want to offer private banking details to these companies.
Walmart shoppers appear to be super thrifty people. They may see data for savings as a good trade-off.
http://www.businessinsider.com/meet-the-average-wal-mart-shopper-2014-9
Yeah, with a credit card, I can dispute transactions, have a grace period to pay, and I can get cash back, airline, travel, hotel, et cetera rewards. The loyalty program benefit of CurrentC would have to be WAAAAY significant to override those benefits.
Presumably you still had to sign. That's called Chip & Signature (or Chip & Sign). You skip the signing and the PIN steps with Apple Pay or Contactless.
Wow. This has got to be a joke post. Apple wasn't first and isn't buggy or insecure or unfriendly.
Something akin to CurrentC makes sense at a place like Starbucks because there's time between when you place your order and when you pick up what you ordered. That gives you time to kill as you launch your app, have the barcode scanned, etc. Once you're done with all that you typically still wait a few minutes for your order to be completed.
Such a system will only slow down the checkout process at retail outlets like Target. Currently at a retailer you get your items scanned at the register, hand over your cash or credit card, get change or sign for the card. With something like CurrentC you'll now need to launch the app, scan a QR code provided by the cashier, give the phone (or at least a code from the phone) back to the cashier, then wait for them to complete the transaction. It will likely double the time required to check out a customer when they use it. That will slow down the checkout process, piss off customers who have to wait in longer checkout lines, etc.
I'll go with that. But Lowes, who sells stuff like nails and cement (decidedly low-tech goods, from an electronics standpoint) can read the bar code, but high-tech Best Buy can't. Just pointing out that it seems odd that after 3+ years, Best Buy hasn't upgraded to keep up with modern tech. And it's not the size of the bar code...I've got a 6 Plus and in landscape mode that makes the bar code like 4 inches wide.
If there were message board haters back then, they would say credit cards were doomed vs cash.
The first steps of credit cards were slow, clumsy, and very error prone. It tools YEARS to solve all the problems.
What kills CurrentC is how it operates. Everyone knows that. Right now I grab my phone, hold it to an NFC reader, use Touch ID and it works. Maybe input a PIN at Walgreens for some reason (at least for me in Houston). I assume Google Wallet works the same way, as will Samsung Pay.
CurrentC? Pull out my phone, locate the app, open the app, wait for the vendor to generate a QR code, use my phone to scan their code (assuming it scans quickly and on the first time with no errors), then process the transaction. That's just too many steps for the technically inclined and straight out daunting for those who aren't technically inclined. Plus you have to give up your direct bank info? Nope. Competition is always great, but implementation is key and this falls flat on its face.
CurrentC? Pull out my phone, locate the app, open the app, wait for the vendor to generate a QR code, use my phone to scan their code (assuming it scans quickly and on the first time with no errors), then process the transaction. That's just too many steps for the technically inclined and straight out daunting for those who aren't technically inclined. Plus you have to give up your direct bank info? Nope. Competition is always great, but implementation is key and this falls flat on its face.
I am still awaiting my Sound Band, funded via Kickstarter; it was supposed to have shipped in October 2013, then was pushed to "Q2 2014"...it's now August of 2015 and I have no idea when/if we will see the item delivered at all.
I did some digging and it seems to confirm my experiences.
http://www.barcode2mobile.com/FieldTest.html
If they have the older laser scanners, they just cannot read off of LCD displays. The newer LED models can though. In person at LCD display compatible barcode scanners I have seen a different, wider LED beam vs. the old thin laser scanner beam.
There's almost never a good argument for saying that there should be more government regulation.
Well if this works as well as my Starbucks app then I could see myself using it. Of course I'd rather use Apple Pay. But pulling up something on Passbook and then getting it scanned by a reader is pretty darn easy. But my first option will be Apple Pay. That said, if I can consistently remove a 3% credit card fee from my transactions with almost no added effort, then this is something that I'm going to be inclined to do. I suspect the stores will be able to put some of that 3% back in my pocket through store rewards, so I might get paid for using Current C as well.
Quintessential example of clownfunding. It's just like crowdfunding, except that instead of getting what you bargain for, you get a poke in the eye.
Lower income and recently bankrupted individual that can't get credit cards might still be able to use this instead of Apple/Google play.