Apple Pay not working over half the time at Subway & Walgreens after adding TCF card

I think the usage is highly variable, even with chains that claim to accept Apple Pay. I have used mine for several months at my local Walgreens then recently, I was in another Walgreens store and it would not work. The same for Subway. I suspect it is the age and/or health of the terminal that determines the success rate.

George

I've used my Visa linked Apple Pay card successfully several times at Walgreens. Yesterday, it did not work. The clerk said, "They're still trying to get the bugs worked out."

For what it's worth, Walgreens was working fine for me then suddenly stopped. I discovered that I need to open the Passbook app on the phone and then it works. It doesn't wake up the phone like all other ApplePay terminals. It's weird because when ApplePay first came out at Walgreens it didn't require Passbook app to be open.

Subway is the only place I frequent a lot that takes Apple Pay, and the first few times it worked flawlessly. Now, at the same store/same register, I have to try over and over and over again and hold up the line, sometimes never getting it to work. So I have stopped using it.

The sensor and fingerprint are working fine, but the amount shown on the iPhone screen is two dashes "--" and the terminal doesn't acknowledge payment (which means I can keep trying, but it's unreliable, so I usually end up swiping a card).

I can't compare to other iPhones or other stores (several worked fine but I haven't been to any others in months). I can only compare to how it worked before: just great on the first try! But not anymore.