Samsung Pay Didn't Work At Walmart!

[lordhamster1977]

I wonder if some combination of machine geometry + the size of the samsung device in question could be the issue. There are some configurations where it would be near impossible to get the MST to work without accidentally triggering NFC... thus the declines? Just a guess.

 

[Kilrahi]

I work for a large financial institution in my area and so I was really excited to try out Samsung Pay. At first my experience was pretty rocky (I had about a 35% success rate). As crazy as it may seem, there is a slight learning curve. Unfortunately, the learning curve can feel like a mountain if there is a line of people behind you and a cashier that seems miffed (we hate to be "that person" slower than a check writer).

However, in the last month alone I've got more than 50 SP transactions to go through. It's been the majority of the way I pay. What I've learned is that SOMETIMES it's user error, SOMETIMES it's cashier error, and then at times it's actually the MST technology. Here is where I have a lot of questions but few answers as I can't speak to the massive groups behind it. Below is some of my theories/observations:

1. If you use SP at NFC readers it seems to work every single time. I almost never feel nervous now with an NFC reader. The only time it's failed for me is my local gas station while at the pump, but I was able to test it and verify that it didn't matter what phone I used, their NFC reader seems to be only functional half the time. Because of this I pretty much never have the "will it/won't it" feeling when there is an NFC reader.

1. MST technology seems to pick up my phone every time now. I have quite frankly, unless it's the push pull that it's not designed to work at, had it not respond to my phone.

2. Nevertheless, even if it responds it sometimes errors out. However, if you continue to slowly move your phone along the strip reader (for me, I almost treat it like a card if it starts to error out) then it succeeds and picks up the card.

3. Different financial institutions respond differently. I have two different institutions in my phone. The primary is the one I work at. The secondary is a Chase card. Now, I wish my primary acted like the Chase. I have a credit and debit for my local institution and regardless of card it asks for a PIN. This is frustrating because the credit card does not have a PIN. Samsung suggested supplying the last four of the digital card number and I tried it and it never went through. I even assigned a PIN to it to test that and it still failed. Meanwhile, Chase never asks for a PIN and seems to have a much higher success rate.

4. For the credit cards that ask for a PIN, I have to bypass it as a credit (even if I chose credit to start). For some registers, this means hitting the "enter button." For others it means asking the cashier to hit the credit button. For Wal-Mart, it means hitting the "change payment" button and then choosing credit (again - you'd think it would already be on credit since often at self checkout that's what I first hit). Then it usually works.

5. Even if I do EVERYTHING right it will sometimes crap out. The other day I used my primary credit card at the local Wal-Mart gas station. It succeeded, then I went into the store to buy a few items. At self checkout, I whipped my SP out for primary and did everything correctly . . . message said that it was authorizing . . . AND FAIL! The reason given? "Invalid security code." What the freak?! I never entered a code.

My guess from the above is that there is a problem between my financial institution and Wal-Mart when it goes to verify my token. For some reason, Wal-Mart submits it and my institution declines it. Now, I have no idea why it worked mere moments before, or worked again a day later (do the tokens change constantly?). I quickly switched to my Chase card and it went through without a hitch.

Other errors I've gotten are, "card not allowed" (and I've gotten it for Chase as well at the same place), and "Invalid PIN." Keep in mind the PIN error has come for cards without a PIN.

Every time this happens I submit a payment failure to Samsung. My hope is they really do dig into these to find out if there are issues and try to fix them, but it's hard to know. I've also submitted them on my end through my local institution's Visa network. The minimalist in me REALLY loves the idea of keeping the vast majority of what I need on my phone, but SP is not strong enough yet to ditch your physical cards (besides some places, like to a waiter, it's really stupid to hand them your phone).

It's been asked, "Why not just use a plastic card then?" For now that's a good point and honestly for a lot of people there is no reason. I'm a financial industry nerd so I feel like I got to be on top of this. Plus, when SP works it's WAY fun (shocked looks make your day and you feel like you're in a commercial), and when it works, it's WAY fast and WAY safe.

Unfortunately when it doesn't work . . . and those times DO come . . . you feel like you're head is two feet up your butt.

 

[Kilrahi]

And as if to mock me, I ran over to Wal-Mart after post and had the transaction declined at the authorization point.

Whipped out the Chase card and it worked.