Struggling retail chain JCPenny has dropped support for Apple Pay according to a message from the company’s Twitter account.
JCPenny, which rolled out Apple Pay to all its stores two years ago, made the announcement in response to a customer’s query and complaints about removing “a very secure form of payment.”
The company apologized for “any inconvenience,” but offered no explanation on why it would no longer take Apple Pay. JCPenny did tell customers the decision was intentional and not because of technical issues.
Update: The retail chain has released the following statement:
“A third-party credit card brand made the requirement for all merchants to actively support EMV contactless functionality effective April 13, retiring the legacy MSD contactless technology in place. Given the resources and lead time associated with meeting the new mandate, JCPenney chose to suspend all contactless payment options until a later date. Customers still have the ability to complete their transactions manually by inserting or swiping their physical credit cards at our point-of-sale terminals in stores, an option employed by the vast majority of JCPenney shoppers.”
JCPenny customers: Flame on
The news drew a number of critical responses on Twitter.
“That’s very unfortunate you would retreat from the Securest form of payment,” wrote Jeff Meredith. “I just removed the JCP app from my phone.”
“Because you removed Apple Pay from your stores, I’ve removed myself as a JCPenny customer,” wrote Jesse Larson. “I’d rather give my money to companies that care about my data security and my conveniences. This is an extremely bad decision on your part.”
JCPenny’s decision to drop Apple Pay comes at a time when more and more stores, from Target to concession stands at baseball stadiums, and banks across Europe are adding support for the contactless point-of-sale terminal.
Source: MacRumors
