Anyone else had trouble with Apple Pay at Safeway stores? Past two weeks, Apple Pay (with Amex cards) returns a Not Authorized error on my watch. The cashier gets an error saying “chip required”.
I've had this happen too. The credit card selected in Apple Pay works when used directly in the Jewel payment machine, but not the Apple Pay instance of the same card. Also, Apple Cash gets the same error even though there is plenty of money on it.
What's most frustrating is not knowing who to call. Clearly its not the credit card company or a debit vs credit issue. According to this thread it sounds like a Jewel issue, but when I was in the store I asked for a number to call and they said there isn't anyone they can think of to call and he believed it was a card issue.
It doesn't seem like an Apple Pay issue either because it works fine at other stores.
I've had this happen too. The credit card selected in Apple Pay works when used directly in the Jewel payment machine, but not the Apple Pay instance of the same card. Also, Apple Cash gets the same error even though there is plenty of money on it.
What's most frustrating is not knowing who to call. Clearly its not the credit card company or a debit vs credit issue. According to this thread it sounds like a Jewel issue, but when I was in the store I asked for a number to call and they said there isn't anyone they can think of to call and he believed it was a card issue.
It doesn't seem like an Apple Pay issue either because it works fine at other stores.
Here is what I know so far.
I had originally thought that it may be due to a Device Account Number problem, but I noticed that my Watch and iPhone have different Device Account Numbers, so that may not be it.
When I have time this week, I'll test it again at Jewel and see if I can get more clues. Besides my usual Citibank card (which doesn't work), I have another Citibank card which I'm going to try. I want to see if it's a Citibank issue. But my hunch is that it is not because the original poster of this thread was using an AMEX card.
Here’s the rub. Apple Pay DOES work at Jewel. It just doesn’t seem to work for some people with specific cards. And for each person, the type of card that fails is different.
For you and I, our Citibank cards stopped working. For others, their AMEX cards stopped working. However, I can still use my Chase cards at Jewel through Apple Pay.
It’s almost as if some file of Card ID’s got corrupted and now all those cards are failing.
For some of my coworkers, their debit cards only run as credit now instead of debit, so they can’t get cash back anymore.
It’s a very strange problem.
For anyone willing to try: add a completely new credit card to Apple Pay, preferably one you haven’t used at Jewel before and try using it at Jewel. Just curious to see if it works or not.
I have this same problem with Albertsons (parent company is Safeway). Citi Double Cash Card won't work through Apple Pay, Apple Pay works everywhere else just not the grocery store. Very annoying.
Wondering if it was a Citi problem (its a Mastercard) or an Albertsons issue. Following the post to see if there is a resolution. I too appreciate your hard work.
As noted several days ago, I wrote Vons. They (Albertsons) replied today:
Hello:
Thank you for writing to us about Apple Pay not currently working.
It is unavailable for use in any of our stores at this time. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
Thank you for shopping with us.
Janeen
Customer Support Center
Contact ID: 38360705
--Original Message--
Comments:
Apple Pay (near field reader) has stopped working at ALL Vons, Safeway,
etc, (New Albertsons) stores for all Amex and MasterCard cards. These
cards work on Apple Pay at competitors' stores.
Here is the thread on the Apple support forums:
It may not be just limited to Safeway stores or AMEX. I have not been able to use Apple Pay at Jewel-Osco supermarkets (at least 3 of them) for a 1-2 weeks now also. I get the same "Not Authorized" error. FYI, Safeway and Jewel-Osco are now part of the same company. I have been using a Citibank card on Apple Pay. Some of my friends are complaining that Apple Pay now requires them to use a PIN for their linked debit cards. Previously, the debit cards would be run as credit, so no PIN was required.
Update - I've had a chance to test this a bit further and it seems, for me at least, that it's only my Citibank card that doesn't work at Jewel via Apple Pay. I was able to Apple Pay using a Chase credit card and that worked fine.
FYI - I work for Jewel, so I was able to test various credit cards thru Apple Pay. And, honestly, I don't know who to call on the Jewel end either for a problem like this. The original poster says he had trouble with an AMEX card at a Safeway. Jewel and Safeway are both owned by the same company, but I don't know if that had anything to do with anything.
I don't have an exhaustive set of examples, but I have tried both Apple Cash (not tied to any card, just trying to pay from the balance in Apple Cash) and Citibank MasterCard and neither has worked at multiple cashier lanes in two different Jewel-Osco stores. The same Citibank MasterCard worked in each case when I used the physical card after the Apple Pay attempts failed with "Not Authorized".
Then later this afternoon I used Apple Pay with my "Apple Cash" again at a Starbucks and had no issues.
One thing I have not tried is re-registering my MasterCard in Apple Pay (delete and then add again). Even if that worked, I don't have a similar approach to try with Apple Cash.
Very frustrating.
No, it's not a card issue because as I mentioned earlier Apple Pay using "Apple Cash" without any credit card also fails. I believe the Apple Cash is based on a Discover debit account, but I don't know that for certain.
Thank you for taking the charge on this. I shop at Jewel almost exclusively. My Citi card worked for a long time with Apple Pay but now has stopped working over at least the last few months.
Since you work for Jewel maybe you'll be able to update this with a definite answer of what works, what doesn't, and most importantly why! It doesn't make sense that only the Citi card is failing, and maybe this is something corporate IT can get fixed.
Same here. Been using Apple Pay successfully with an Amex card and a Capital One credit card. A new Vons (Safeway) store opened in our home town. Apple Pay worked perfectly. One day it stopped. Same error message as indicated above. POS reads "Chip declined." You can tell from the haptic that the phone is communicating with the POS. Tried both cards. Error. Tried Apple Pay at other stores - it works. Tried removing and re-adding cards. Still working at other stores, still an error message at Vons. Thank you for trying to solve this.
Minor update for everyone following this thread. I've spoken with some of my coworkers and they are also having Apple Pay problems at Jewel. One of my coworkers said her AMEX card also started failing through Apple Pay.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get much further on this issue. The problem is I can't even think of who to call or email at Jewel corporate about this problem. After all these reports, I'm pretty sure it's a Jewel problem. I will ask management at my store who to contact for register issues and go from there.
@Hey_Andres Apple Pay Cash goes through a company called Green Dot Bank. Never heard of them before Apple tapped them to be the backend on Apple Pay Cash.
Yes, store management must surely know who to contact for IT issues.
Jewel should either fix this problem or make an announcement that they no longer accept Apple Pay and get themselves removed from the list of retailers who accept it.
Again thanks for the help with this. Keep us posted on any progress.
Experiment update:
My original post recap - Apple Pay worked at Vons (Safeway) and then stopped working. All of these cards work at other stores.
As of today:
AmEx credit card does NOT work at Vons.
A credit union MasterCard does NOT work at Vons.
Capital One Quicksilver MasterCard does NOT work at Vons.
Capital One Quicksilver Visa DOES WORK at Vons.
Same terminal. Same (really patient) cashier.
Same error message "Chip declined" or "chip error"
Phone and POS ARE communicating, then accepting or declining as listed above.
I have some good new and some bad news on this issue for everyone in this thread.
First the good news - this is a known problem, at least at the managerial level at my store. Apparently, they have been aware of the issue for a short while now. Also, based on reports from this thread, my own testing and talking with management, it seems this issues affects all AMEX and Mastercard credit cards. Visa and Discover cards do not seem to be affected. I don't know how Apple Pay Cash and debit cards fit into the picture yet. The management person I talked to confirmed that they knew about the AMEX problem, but they didn't know about the Mastercard problem.
I was able to test further today and my results match those of lifebyc. AMEX and Mastercard do not work. Visa works fine. My Citibank Double Cash Mastercard does not work. My Citibank Costco Visa card DOES work. I freshly added an AMEX card to Apple Pay that I haven't used in over a year and it did NOT work. A customer today used a Capital One Venture card and that worked (used as TAP, not chip or swipe). Venture cards are Visa cards.
Now the bad news - I still have no idea who in the corporate structure to contact about this issue. Obviously, this problem is happening across different divisions. Dogshoes has a report from Albertsons, lifebyc reports from Vons, RegDC reports from Safeway, and I'm reporting from Jewel-Osco. Technically we are all owned by the same company now (I think it's called New Albertsons, Inc.) But I have no idea if all the divisions are using the same master credit card processing system.
And I don't know how Apple Pay Cash and debit cards figure into all this. I tested my debit card today and it worked as a debit. I had to enter my PIN and everything. However, it did not give me the option for cash back. Using a debit card with chip or swipe, you get the option of getting cash back. But the transaction is run through the card as a debit (as opposed to being run as a credit transaction).
As for Apple Pay Cash, I have no idea how that's being treated at the card terminal. If it doesn't ask for a PIN, then most likely the transaction is being sent as a credit transaction. Apple Pay Cash is backed by a bank called Green Dot. According to https://applepaycash.greendot.com/termsconditions/ the transactions are being run on the Discover network. This means they should work. I had a customer use a Discover card on Apple Pay today with no problems. But there are several reports here of Apple Pay Cash failing. So, again, no idea.
Anwyay, I'm going to see if I can find out who to send all this information to at Jewel-Osco corporate. Maybe from there it can be forwarded on to New Albertsons, Inc. corporate. I'll keep everyone posted.
Apple Pay has stopped working at Safeway stores. Returns “Not Authorized” error
