Rite Aid wasn’t an official Apple Pay launch partner, but when the mobile payments service went live this week it seemed to work just fine at the drugstore chain. Now we’re hearing reports that Rite Aid has pulled support for both Apple Pay and Google Wallet without offering an official explanation.
A growing number of Apple Pay users are angry with retailer Rite Aid following the reported disabling of the mobile payment service within the past 24 hours. Apple Pay should technically be compatible with any point-of-sale systems supporting NFC technology, but customers who made successful Apple Pay payments earlier this week have found their payments were being denied yesterday and today. Among the disgruntled users was Josh Hudnall, who shared his experiences and his conclusions that Rite Aid is deliberately crippling its payment systems to prevent Apple Pay transactions.