A Marks and Spencer (M&S) shopper, who paid through Apple Pay, was charged £1,599 ($2,210) for a £1 ($1.38) bunch of bananas she grabbed in a hurry.
What happened to this Apple pay user?
Telegraph reported on Friday, Mar. 19 that 28-year-old Cymbre Barnes from London dropped by to an M&S in Greenwich on her way home from work to pick up few bananas.
Barnes used her Apple Pay, which does not have a spending limit, to pay for the fruit without recognizing how much she was being charged.
Only when a notification popped up on her screen did she realized that she had spent £1,602 ($2,215) on her shopping.
"I was in a rush before work so when I got to self-checkout I used contactless and it was instant," Barnes told Telegraph.
As soon as she discovered the mistake, she walked back 45 minutes to the nearest M&S store to speak to the staff.
However, Barnes was told that they would not be able to fix the issue for several days because the only till in the shop was broken.
A Marks & Spencer spokesperson apologized to Barnes for the mistake and offered compensation, explaining that the case is an "isolated payment error."
What is Apple Pay?
Apple's mobile payment and digital wallet service Apple Pay, which the tech giant released in October 2014, allows users to make payments without a physical card or cash.
The feature also allows users to make secure purchases in apps, in stores, and on the web.
Apple's support page states that one must have an eligible device with the latest iOS installed, a supported card from a participating card issuer, and an Apple ID.
The Apple Pay must also be available in the user's country, which Apple listed here.
The feature also allows users to set a spending limit to avoid accidental excessive purchases by setting a pin and ask users to sign a receipt or use a different payment method.
Apple's support page states that a user in the U.K. may not be able to use Apple Pay for purchases above 45 GBP ($62).
In Barnes' case, Apple Pay's spending limit feature was turned off.
Apple Pay's Rise in the U.S.
A report from FIS Global shows that the use of mobile payments in the U.S. got traction as the world heads toward a cash-free future.
The use of a digital or mobile wallet such as Apple Pay at points of sale rose to 10 percent in 2020.
To put it in perspective, cash was used for transactions 11.9 percent in the same year.
Since 2019, the use of cash has dropped 42 percent.
"Our new research shows that the world is entering a new phase of adoption of digital payment methods," Jim Johnson, Head of Merchant Solutions at FIS said in the report.
The report confidently declares that people will soon make use of a digital wallet on online purchases 52 percent of the time.
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Lee Mercado
