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Rite Aid Disables Apple Pay Support After Initially Accepting Payments

Thursday October 23, 2014 9:37 am PDT by Kelly Hodgkins
A growing number of Apple Pay users are angry with retailer Rite Aid following the reported disabling of the mobile payment service within the past 24 hours. Apple Pay should technically be compatible with any point-of-sale systems supporting NFC technology, but customers who made successful Apple Pay payments earlier this week have found their payments were being denied yesterday and today.

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Among the disgruntled users was Josh Hudnall, who shared his experiences and his conclusions that Rite Aid is deliberately crippling its payment systems to prevent Apple Pay transactions.
Today, Allison asked me to pick up a few things on my way home from the office, and I’m a major nerd, so naturally I was all too happy to oblige. I was equally disappointed, then, when my transaction was declined with a message on the terminal informing me that Apple Pay was not supported. The terminal mentioned Apple Pay by name. So the system is smart enough to know about Apple Pay and to decide not to take it.
Hudnall spoke to an associate who claims Rite Aid recently sent an email informing stores that the retailer is not accepting Apple Pay payments, and Hudnall speculates it is because Rite Aid is a supporter of the upcoming CurrentC payments system from Merchant Customer Exchange. Competitor Walgreens is also one of Apple's biggest launch partners for Apple Pay.

According to Twitter reports, the retailer also unexpectedly turned off support for Google Wallet at the same time. Rite Aid has not confirmed the shut down of these services, nor commented publicly on these reports.


Apple Pay launched earlier this week in a debut that was relatively smooth for most customers. As demoed in a McDonald's transaction, payments are processed almost instantly at supported terminals with the press of the Touch ID sensor on the phone.

The most publicized hiccup occurred with Bank of America customers, who were accidentally charged twice for their purchases. Bank of America confirmed that the issue only affected a small number of users who will receive refunds.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay
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gaximus
52 months ago

Man Apple is messing up once again. Reminds me of Microsoft in their prime. yay yah I know it's the pay providers not Apple :rolleyes:


How is this Apples problem?
Rating: 110 Votes
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Sonmi451
52 months ago

it just works.


it just trolls.
Rating: 106 Votes
Avatar
iLoveiTunes
52 months ago

Man Apple is messing up once again. Reminds me of Microsoft in their prime. yay yah I know it's the pay providers not Apple :rolleyes:


For F sake do read the articles once in a while before jumping the gun :rolleyes:
Rating: 94 Votes
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tigres
52 months ago
Easy, no shopping at Rite Aid.

No big deal, see ya Rite Aid.
Rating: 80 Votes
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JackieInCo
52 months ago

Man Apple is messing up once again. Reminds me of Microsoft in their prime. yay yah I know it's the pay providers not Apple :rolleyes:


How did Apple mess up this one?
Rating: 63 Votes
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KPOM
52 months ago
Dear Rite Aid,

Thank you for not accepting Apple Pay. You're the best!

Sincerely,

Walgreens
Rating: 63 Votes
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Miabifilms
52 months ago


A growing number of Apple Pay users are angry with retailer Rite Aid following the reported disabling of the mobile payment service within the past 24 hours.


"How quickly the world owes us something that didn't exist 5 minutes ago. Can Ya give it a second!" - Louis CK
Rating: 46 Votes
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dneesley
52 months ago
So here's what we do...

Load up a cart at the offending (non-ApplePay) merchant and go to checkout.

When they say,

"Oh, we don't support ApplePay."

You say,

"Cancel the sale. I'll shop somewhere else."

If everyone does this, merchants will quickly get the picture and throng to get on-board.
Rating: 45 Votes
Avatar
FlyersPh9
52 months ago
By law it is illegal to turn down US currency at any US business. I think the US ought to pass a new law stating that if the business has an NFC terminal that they must accept all forms of NFC payment (Google Wallet, Apple Pay, etc.).
Rating: 39 Votes
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Dreamer2go
52 months ago

These are all things that should have been worked out ahead of time. What good is a system that you never know will work. You need to build confidence in a system to get people on board. Right now I've tried to use my Apple Pay 3 times and it worked 1 time.


What the..... did you not read the article? It worked yesterday, but Rite Aid blocked it....

please read carefully!
Rating: 38 Votes

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