Only a week after its launch, the iPhone 6 Apple Pay Service continues to face roadblocks as it continues to be rejected at major retailers, including giant chain Walmart, Rite Aid and most recently, CVS. Apple Pay allows customers to pay for merchandise by waving their iPhone 6 near retail checkout devices without the use of a card.
CVS, which stopped selling tobacco last month, abruptly stopped accepting Apple’s new mobile-payments service using the iPhone 6. CVS and Rite Aid are among 220,000 U.S. merchants that already have technology in place to read the short-range wireless signals that enable customers of Apple Pay or similar services to make a purchase by waving the smartphones.
Both drug stores are apart of a group called the Merchant Customer Exchange, or MCX, whose other members include Walmart, Best Buy, Target and Dunkin’ Donuts. Best Buy has already bypassed on the service, too, but Target has accepted the form of the payment.
Apple partnered with major banks and credit card companies, including Visa Inc., MasterCard Inc. and American Express Co., allowing the iPhone 6 maker to piggyback on their checkout systems. Apple will also collect fees from the card issuers. The big catch for Apple is that merchants are required to upgrade their credit and debit card systems in order to read the short-wave signals.