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”.
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:
Here in Virginia my debit/credit Visa card stopped working at my Safeway as a credit card but it will work as a debit, but will not allow for any cash back. I tried it with both my card and my Apple Watch. When I asked the manager about it she just shrugged her shoulders.
Failed today at Vons, where the checker announced with assurance
that I need to "do the required update." I dint contest this, proceeded
to CVS where Pay worked fine.
IT WORKS!!!!!
Just used Apple Pay with a MasterCard at a Jewel supermarket and it worked!
Can't say if it's been fixed for all divisions (Vons, Safeway, etc.) But it seems to work at Jewel now.
It just worked at Tom Thumb in Dallas. Using MasterCard and Apple Watch. Hasn’t worked in about a month previously. To note all my iOS devices have been updated to the latest releases.
April 7, same chip failure - customer behind me with Mastercard too, failed. Checker
said it's b/c we're using credit, not debit cards. Will add same, test and report. Tom
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.
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.
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.
Yes. Today I confirmed that my Amazon Chase card (a Visa card) works with Apple Pay at one of the Naperville Jewels. My Citi MasterCard has not worked at any Jewel I've tried in at least the last several months. I'm fairly convinced my Citi MasterCard would not have worked today, though I did not try it.
So you are definitely onto something.
It's hard to imagine corporate would not already know about this, OTOH you would think they would let stores know if they did. We'll await your updates; thanks again.
Thank you so much for your advocacy. I emailed Vons through their website with a description of the problem and a link to this thread. I got an automated response from albertsons.com and have heard nothing else since. Thanks again. Let's get this fixed!
@RegDC, mine still works outside of Jewel-Osco and still doesn't work inside Jewel-Osco. If you are having problems everywhere, it's likely your phone or your set up.
Meanwhile, I spoke to two different cashiers over the weekend and got two different un-helpful responses:
1) Cashier 1 said she's known the problem has been there for a while and she just assumed it was a problem everywhere. Note that she does not use Apple Pay herself and she did not have an actual example from outside her store. So I can see why more employees in Jewel might not jump on this issue, if they think it's not Jewel. Trust me, it's just Jewel.
2) Cashier 2 smugly told me that his Samsung Pay watch is working, so it must not be an issue. Well, okay then!
Also, "New Albertsons" was the Albertsons stores that were owned (for about 7 years) by SUPERVALU. Prior to 2006 the company was known as "Albertson's Inc". With the sale of Albertson's Inc. to SUPERVALU and Cerberus in 2006, the stores that went to SUPERVALU were "New Albertsons" and the stores that went to Cerberus were "Albertsons LLC".
The current company is Albertsons LLC. "New Albertsons" is gone.
Mark
Worked 4 days ago at 2 separate Albertsons with Citi Double Cash Mastercard (first time in months). Yesterday got "chip error" at previously working Albertsons with same Mastercard. Will try again this weekend.
Apple Pay with my AmEx card started working again at my local Albertsons about 2 weeks ago. I've used it there 4 or 5 times since (including yesterday) and it worked fine each time.
Not sure on the exact date it started working again. This is in east San Diego County.
Mark
My phone or watch don’t work anywhere
Apple Pay has stopped working at Safeway stores. Returns “Not Authorized” error
