“Long before Apple Pay, big brick-and-mortar retail chains were conspiring to sidestep the typical 2% to 3% fees they’re charged by credit card companies when consumers pay with credit. A company called MCX (Merchant Customer Exchange), spearheaded by Walmart, was started to build a mobile payment solution that would become an app called CurrentC that’s preparing to launch, but is already in the app stores,” Josh Constine reports for TechCrunch. “Rather than NFC, CurrentC uses QR codes displayed on a cashier’s screen and scanned by the consumer’s phone or vice versa to initiate and verify the transaction. The system is also designed to automatically apply discounts, use loyalty programs, and charge purchases to a variety of payment methods without passing sensitive financial data to the merchant.”
“Retailers including CVS and Rite-Aid were planned partners for CurrentC. Now those businesses have pulled unofficial support for Apple Pay through their existing NFC readers,” Constine reports. “This implies they’ve established exclusive deals with MCX to use CurrentC as their mobile payment option.”
“When you sign up for CurrentC, you’re supposed to add your bank account,” Constine reports. “When it’s time for a user to check out, they request to pay with CurrentC. The consumer then unlocks their phone, opens the CurrentC app, opens the code scanner, and scans the QR code shown on the cashier’s screen. In some case, the reverse may happen where the consumer’s CurrentC app displays a payment code and the cashier scans it. If a QR code can’t be generated, a manually entered numeric code may be offered.”
“CurrentC notes it may share info with your device maker, app store, or developer tool makers. Oddly, it will collect health data. Precise location information is used to verify you’re at the retailer where you’re making a transaction, and if you opt in it can be used for marketing or advertising. CurrentC notes that you can opt in to be able to capture and store photos in the app for a hypothetical visual shopping list or other features down the road,” Constine reports. “Users have to open their phone, open CurrentC, open the scanner, scan the code from the cashier, and wait for the transaction to be confirmed. That may present more friction than simply paying with a credit card, and it’s certainly harder than a quick Touch ID verification and tap of Apple Pay.”
Read more in the full article here.
“Consumers are responding by threatening to boycott stores which disable Apple Pay, with more than 2,000 comments across several Reddit threads on the topic. Android users are joining in, as disabling NFC also blocks alternative mobile payment services offered by higher-end Android handsets,” Ben Lovejoy reports for 9to5Mac. “As with CVS, Apple Pay initially worked in Rite Aid stores, indicating that the company has made a deliberate decision to switch off support.”
“MCX members like the CurrentC system as it links direct to debit accounts, bypassing card companies and the transaction fees they levy. It also allows them to issue coupons and track purchasing behaviour,” Lovejoy reports. “For consumers, however, CurrentC is ridiculously clunky. It relies on either exchanging QR codes – the payment terminal displaying one which is scanned by the phone, and the phone generating a second one that is scanned by the terminal – or manually entering 4-digit codes. It is also far less secure, without the protection Apple Pay offers with single-use codes and Touch ID.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Boycott CVS and Rite Aid and any other company that willfully turns off NFC in a effort to block the vastly more secure, much more private, and far easier-to-use Apple Pay service.
Related articles:
Bad business: CVS and Rite Aid antagonize their most well-heeled customers by blocking Apple Pay – October 27, 2014
CVS stores reportedly disabling NFC to shut down Apple Pay – October 25, 2014
iPhone users earn significantly more than those who settle for Android phones – October 8, 2014
Yet more proof that Android is for poor people – June 27, 2014
More proof that Android is for poor people – May 13, 2014
Apple’s iOS dominates in richer countries, Android in poorer regions – March 25, 2014
Twitter heat map shows iPhone use by the affluent, Android by the poor – June 20, 2013
iPhone users smarter, richer than Android phone users – August 16, 2011
Yankee Group: Apple iPhone owners shop more, buy more, remain more loyal vs. other device users – July 20, 2010
Don’t just boycott.
Go shopping there. Load up the cart. AFTER the cashier rings everything up, and tells you that you can’t use Apple Pay…. JUST WALK OUT.
This way they will notice even more when they have to call a manager to void a sale and restock the items.
Haha! I was just thinking this. Get ready to pay and when you don’t have any more physical cards and they tell you that NFC has been turned off, walk out.
Of course, also ask them loudly if CurrentC is that pay system that requires sensitive info, such as social security numbers, and “just how secure is that, since you retail stores keep getting hacked?”
lol
I’ve been using rite aid for over 20yrs back when it was still Echerd. I plan to switch to Walgreens and possibly switching credit unions too for same reason! I will let them both know why. No 🍎Pay. No me!
Hey. The upside to this is the pharmacy lines will probably be shorter at CVS. So the drones behind the counter will probably than you for that.
… Until they lose their jobs because of lack of customers.
Of course, the problem here isn’t clunky CurrentC as an alternative to Apple Pay. It’s the fact that these loony biznizziz can be accepting Apple Pay right this minute, but turned it off.
However, here’s an interesting side view of the CurrentC rubbish:
CurrentC: An imaginary crisis
What these mobile payment crusaders fail to realize is that they don’t need a hashtag. They don’t need fanboy ceasefire. In fact, their actions are counterproductive to their goal. The reality is that CurrentC just kind of sucks. It lacks the security of Google and Apple’s systems, and requires much more sensitive personal information. . . .
The final nail in the coffin for CurrentC is the barrier to entry. A user can theoretically set up Apple Pay or Google Wallet while in a particularly long line at the register. Users sign up out of curiosity, and they continue to use the system because it is easier than pulling out their wallets. CurrentC is simply lacking this ease of use.
IOW: This, not surprisingly, is NOT about what’s good for the customer. (‘Abuse Thy Customer’ is the mantra of our current age of biznizz). It’s all about forcing customers to use technology that doesn’t benefit them, but benefits THE COMPANY.
SOS: Same Old Story.
And of course the ‘AHA!’ moment:
Apple Pay Competitor CurrentC Detailed as Convoluted System With Minimal Consumer Benefit
In 2012, MCX reportedly ramped up its efforts to entice retailers to join its mobile payments system., asking participating merchants for an upfront fee of up to $500,000 and requiring them to sign three-year exclusivity deals. These deals appear to be the reason Rite Aid and CVS disabled unofficial access to Apple Pay in their stores, although it is unclear why they waited until after the service went live and customers were using it before disabling their systems.
WELL Well well.
Boycott them? Isn’t this a free country anymore?
Ultimate irony. Bring up Walmart dot com and what appears first — a huge splash ad for iPhone 6. The only thing missing is a headline — “You can buy it here, but you can’t use it here.”
http://www.walmart.com
Maybe we should report them for cartel like activity and start an inquiry for anti-trust violations.
From the DoJ Website:
REPORTING ANTITRUST CONCERNS
Information from the public is vital to the work of the Antitrust Division. Your e-mails, letters, and phone calls could be our first alert to a possible violation of antitrust laws and may provide the initial evidence needed to begin an investigation.
To report antitrust concerns to the Antitrust Division:
Step 1: Fully Describe Your Concern
Step 2: Submit the Concern to the Citizen Complaint Center
If you do not think your concerns involve the antitrust laws, you may want to visit the Department of Justice site for more information or send an e-mail to AskDOJ@usdoj.gov.
BUSINESS REVIEWS
Persons concerned about the legality under the antitrust laws of proposed business conduct may ask the Department of Justice for a statement of its current enforcement intentions with respect to that conduct pursuant to the Department’s Business Review Procedure. See 28 C.F.R. Section 50.6.
email address
antitrust.atr@usdoj.gov
Walmart feedback can be entered here:
https://corporate.walmart.com/contact-us/store-corporate-feedback
Dear CVS/Rite Aid,
You don’t have to worry losing me as a customer. I’m far too lazy to boycott anything. However, this also means that I’m far too lazy to sign up for and use any convoluted payment system.
Signed, Booger.
You can send an email to CVS of your intention to cease patronizing them at the following:
Go to the homepage: http://www.cvs.com, at the bottom find “Help” click Contact Us, brings up, “How To Reach Us”; The top paragraph is “CVS Customer Service”; click “For FAQs and email support, brings up “Help with CVS.” In the right column, find “Still Need Help?” under which is the “Email Us” link. Use this to register your complaint! I just did; felt good.
Rather then just boycott, go in and buy a bunch of stuff. Go to pay with your iPhone and when they say it doesn’t work tell them you don’t want any of it. Explain that until they accept Apple Pay you won’t buy anything! THAT will get their attention. If you just boycott they’ll never even know who is boycotting.
IBagwan has ir right. That way the see how much the are losing. And they have to re shelve the items – more loss.