Apple Pay has stopped working at Safeway stores. Returns “Not Authorized” error

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:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250178389?page=1

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.

Albertsons is aware of this issue. I spoke with an employee in their payment services department and they've been working on a fix. He tried to suggest it was an issue between American Express and Apple but I was quick to point out that my American Express works with Apple Pay just fine at EVERY other retailer I try (that accepts Apple Pay). It's only the Albertsons owned companies that have an issue with the "Not Authorized" error.

Also, for the record, Safeway is NOT the parent company of Albertsons. I retired from Albertsons 10 years ago and I'm VERY familiar with the mergers and buyouts in the supermarket and drug industries over the last 50 years.

Albertsons is privately held by Cerberus Capital Management. Cerberus acquired its first Albertsons stores in 2006. Other Albertsons stores were acquired by SUPERVALU that same year. Seven years later the SUPERVALU Albertsons were struggling and SUPERVALU sold them to Cerberus. Cerberus subsequently purchased additional chains, including Safeway/Vons.

Cerberus operates a great number of supermarkets under their respective names but all part of the Albertsons family umbrella. See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albertsons

https://www.albertsonscompanies.com/about-us/history.html

Look at the list of supermarket and drug companies at the bottom of that second link. If those chains are all on the same payment system software as Albertsons, Vons, Safeway, etc. then you will experience the same "Not Authorized" error message when attempting to use American Express (and certain MasterCards, apparently) with Apple Pay in those stores.

I have friends that still work for Albertsons and Vons. They explained that the major issues (with Apple Pay) started when Albertsons companies switched to using the point of sale software that was used by Safeway/Vons (prior to Cerberus acquiring Safeway/Vons). The very day that switchover happened in each store, Apple Pay stopped working entirely. It took weeks to get it working again. Later, the point of sales terminals became finicky and some would work and other wouldn't. Managers had to reboot the POS terminals in order to get Apple Pay working again.

This latest "Not Authorized" issue is the worst of all. It seems NOBODY knows why it is happening. And, to some degree, nobody seems to care.

Got this reply from Safeway today, "There is a known issue and our website team is working on it. Please try again later, currently there is no ETA."

So, they are aware it is their issue.

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.

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.

Update for everyone. I have submitted what Jewel-Osco calls an Incident Ticket to our IT help desk. The person I spoke to said he would forward my report to the POS (point-of-sale) programming team. He mentioned that he thought he had heard of these errors before. He recommended that the next time I try to use Apple Pay and get a failure, I should report the store number, time, date and transaction amount. If I have time in the next few days, I will test a transaction with my Mastercard and see if I can get another error and report the data.

Unfortunately, I cannot give out the phone number I called as it's for internal use only for Jewel IT help desk. I did mention that there were other people from other divisions (Vons, Safeway, etc.) reporting the same problem. I will wait a few days to see if IT says anything. Usually they will email us back to report on the status of each Incident Ticket fairly quickly. Let's see what they say.

Checked again today, the cashier was kind enough to let me run my tests (Albertsons). Doesn't work with apple watch or phone with M/C, but will work with Visa. Again, same Apple pay works everywhere else with my M/C. Cashier said she has noticed an issue. Returns "chip not read." Will resubmit issue to Albertsons tech support today.

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 think it is specific to just Safeway or other stores mentioned in the thread. It seems to have stopped working for me for all of my credit cards (2 AMEX and 1 Visa) at least 2 months ago. I removed the credit cards and reauthorized them again in my Apple wallet. It appears to go thru: I do face ID, recognizes my face, pings with a DONE check mark in the circle and then the cashier tells me that it didn't go thru. This has happened at CVS, airport stores. So frustrating as I loved the convenience but now I am back to pulling out my credit card. I think it is an Apple issue and not store specific.

I tried my American Express through Apple Pay at an Albertsons today (in Southern Calif) and it STILL gave me the "not authorized".

Those of you having success (or not) should be stating WHICH credit card your using for the Apple Pay payment.

Mark

My AMEX apple pay stopped working at the local Ingles Grocery in Waynesville NC store back in February. So this seems to be a widespread problem at grocery stores. Apple pay with this AMEX card works fine at Trader Joe’s, CVS, and it also worked fine in all stores on a recent trip to Singapore and Australia. Management at the local store did not have any suggestions. It previously worked fine. Now I get the error, use “insert chip” .

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.

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.

Today Mar 11 Pay generated "Chip Error" at Vons/Albertsons Pacific Palisades, CA.

Checker very patient as I had the same error a couple days ago - he kept suggesting

a PIN but I was entering the passcode onscreen. Somewhere I remember the words

"not authorized." Standing by for now . . Tom