
Why Paying for Stuff Is So Complicated Now - ttepasse
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/07/when-software-ate-the-point-of-sale/565919/?single_page=true
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jonny_eh
This is a uniquely American problem. In Canada or Europe you just tap your
phone at the terminal that is handed to you. Our use your card's chip and pin.

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Tijdreiziger
Or tap your card, which I find the most convenient way of paying by card.

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sjdbwixb
Sometimes you hand the card to the cashier and sometimes you don't. Thats's
the way it's been for decades.

The chip does add co fusion sometimes, but that's natural when transitioning
to a new tech.

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twiceaday
Here is how transactions go at a local store: I insert my chip and the machine
says "please swipe." I swipe and it says "please use the chip." At which point
using the chip succeeds.

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toasterlovin
As a counterpoint, I have never encountered a workflow anywhere near this bad.

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whitepoplar
All I want is for every establishment to accept Apple/Google/Samsung Pay, with
an auto-emailed receipt to a Gmail folder that never hits my inbox (with an
explicit, normalized, return policy on each receipt), and no paper receipt or
signature ever.

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toomuchtodo
No thanks. I want accountable organizations running the financial networks of
major economies (Visa/MC/Disc/Amex do just fine).

To normalize return policies requires legislation (see Europe for how this is
done).

Yes to emailed receipts for all transactions though. You’ll be happy to hear
all payment networks in the US are deprecating signature requirements.

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whitepoplar
Oh, I still want it running through Visa et al. I just want the added security
of my credit card number never being revealed (Apple Pay uses virtual
numbers). The normalization of return policy I mentioned is a normalization of
design and placement on the receipt, not one of actual policy.

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toomuchtodo
I don’t understand this argument, because you’re never liable for fraudulent
transactions.

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whitepoplar
True, but under the traditional model, I have to spend extra time going over
my statements, and then there's the hassle of having a new card shipped out
and having to update the number everywhere I have it saved. God help you if
your credit card(s) are breached when traveling--many banks will only mail
replacements to the original billing address. Exclusive use of virtual cards
via Apple/Whatever Pay would mitigate this and offer general peace of mind.

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toomuchtodo
Fair enough.

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SippinLean
Complicated even more by shopper loyalty programs.

Following Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods, now checking out involves an
extra step: the cashier asks every patron "Are you a Prime member?"

Then a number of things can happen. Worst case scenario: they _are_ a Prime
member but haven't installed the Whole Foods app on their phone. Then they are
encouraged to find and download the app, install it, open it, find their login
info and enter it, then bring up their unique barcode on their phone for the
cashier to scan. In high-volume stores this adds ages to wait time.

Another retailer near me (Uniqlo) also has an app-based loyalty program and
I've experienced the same delays there.

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slededit
Back when I was a cashier we all passively resisted asking if they had the
store credit card for exactly this reason. Corporate never could get the
compliance rates up.

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ninju
Great article that does a good job of recapping the evolution of how the
interaction between consumer and merchant has evolved

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SOLAR_FIELDS
I disagree with the conclusion though. In US it’s still kind of behind but in
several European countries (Iceland, Norway and Sweden come to mind, Iceland
the most so) its way easier to pay. NFC payment means that I am done paying
for my groceries within 5 seconds of when the cashier swipes the last item. I
can’t think of a single place I went to in Iceland that didn’t have NFC
payment.

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chemmail
They forgot to mention bitcoin...because it bitcoins!

