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I feel like unless you are one of the bigger players, you never get a reply. I work for a company that develop apps, and we got into a situation where we had a

I feel like unless you are one of the bigger players, you never get a reply. I work for a company that develop apps, and we got into a situation where we had a need to be able to disable NFC temporarily, because Apple Pay was triggering when it shouldn't (on a ticket scanning gate). Hidden deep in an obscure doc, I found a notice about a special entitlement you could request by emailing the Apple Pay support team. Emailed them two times over the last two years, never even got a reply

afandian 6y ago
Apple customers surrender their phones, and experiences, to Apple's custody. That walled garden is discussed every day here. But I wonder how much 'normal' Apple consumers realize how shoddy some of that custody really is. I bet your customers blamed you for that bug, not Apple?
- pyr0hu 6y ago
  Of course they gonna blame the creator of the app, not Apple. The customer has no idea about the development and what entitlements are available or not. Why should they blame Apple, I don't understand your point. As the creator, notify your users about it and there you can blame Apple as long as you want. But if the users are not notified, they don't really know that the creators are waiting for Apple.
alfanick 6y ago
As an user I literally run into this usecase: Germany, local bus company, I've run out of cash, so I just bought online ticket via Deutsche Bahn app (it's a QR code). When you enter the bus, you need to scan this QR code, but for some stupid/smart reason Apple Pay triggers and hides this screen, and of course when you try to debug Apple Pay screen is gone, QR code is back. Trying to explain to the bus driver that this was some stupid Apple Pay interaction was quite an experience. Lesson learned: make sure to always have some spare coins with you.
- tuxone 6y ago
  Maybe the QR code scanner and the NFC POS have been installed in a poor way that make the two options collide. Since QR code could be provided from general purpose apps (browser, photo gallery) there is no software solution to this.
- aeontech 6y ago
  Hey, I may know some people who’d be very interested in these failure modes on the team. Which bus company? Any chance you know what terminal they use? Would you mind getting in touch off HN to discuss further?
  - lucasverra 6y ago
    Same problem in France, public train company SNCF. All year long I had to ask the (human) controllers to open the glass barrier supposed to be opened with a QR scanner in the gates. Same flawed workflow. Show QR to scanner => not work => check phone on apple pay mode with credit cards => repeat => ask the (human) controllers. You can ping me @ lucas@concpt.io
  - xmodem 6y ago
    I have encountered the same problem with the tunnelbana in Stockholm. Normally I use a card, but on a few occasions I have left it at home or forgotten to top it up, and bought a ticket with the app. When it wasn't scanning and I took my phone off the scanner, I briefly glimpsed the Apple Pay screen before it animated away, so I realised I was "holding it wrong", and was able to get it to scan by holding it at a different angle to keep the NFC sensor at the top of the phone away from reader, but I can imagine a less technically minded user than myself might have serious problems. I don't know anything about the scanner or NFC standards used by this system, sorry.
    - saagarjha 6y ago
      > I have encountered the same problem with the tunnelbana in Stockholm. It took me a second to realize you weren't talking about the NFC chip, which is codenamed Stockholm ;)
aeontech 6y ago
@djxfade: I might know some people on the team who’d be very interested to hear about it. what’s the best way to get in touch?
- saagarjha 6y ago
  Unrelated question as an outside observer: how is it possible to get interactions like these as opposed to "file a feedback"?
- djxfade 6y ago
  Hi, you can contact me on thomas(at)apility(dot).no
tomduncalf 6y ago
I recently learned about the "technical support incident" help you can get from Apple, you get two such incidents included with your annual developer program - maybe worth a go, I believe they respond to you quite quickly from what I've heard: https://developer.apple.com/support/technical/ https://developer.apple.com/support/technical/

afandian 6y ago

Apple customers surrender their phones, and experiences, to Apple's custody. That walled garden is discussed every day here. But I wonder how much 'normal' Apple consumers realize how shoddy some of that custody really is. I bet your customers blamed you for that bug, not Apple?

pyr0hu 6y ago
Of course they gonna blame the creator of the app, not Apple. The customer has no idea about the development and what entitlements are available or not. Why should they blame Apple, I don't understand your point. As the creator, notify your users about it and there you can blame Apple as long as you want. But if the users are not notified, they don't really know that the creators are waiting for Apple.

alfanick 6y ago

As an user I literally run into this usecase: Germany, local bus company, I've run out of cash, so I just bought online ticket via Deutsche Bahn app (it's a QR code). When you enter the bus, you need to scan this QR code, but for some stupid/smart reason Apple Pay triggers and hides this screen, and of course when you try to debug Apple Pay screen is gone, QR code is back. Trying to explain to the bus driver that this was some stupid Apple Pay interaction was quite an experience. Lesson learned: make sure to always have some spare coins with you.

tuxone 6y ago
Maybe the QR code scanner and the NFC POS have been installed in a poor way that make the two options collide. Since QR code could be provided from general purpose apps (browser, photo gallery) there is no software solution to this.
aeontech 6y ago
Hey, I may know some people who’d be very interested in these failure modes on the team. Which bus company? Any chance you know what terminal they use? Would you mind getting in touch off HN to discuss further?
- lucasverra 6y ago
  Same problem in France, public train company SNCF. All year long I had to ask the (human) controllers to open the glass barrier supposed to be opened with a QR scanner in the gates. Same flawed workflow. Show QR to scanner => not work => check phone on apple pay mode with credit cards => repeat => ask the (human) controllers. You can ping me @ lucas@concpt.io
- xmodem 6y ago
  I have encountered the same problem with the tunnelbana in Stockholm. Normally I use a card, but on a few occasions I have left it at home or forgotten to top it up, and bought a ticket with the app. When it wasn't scanning and I took my phone off the scanner, I briefly glimpsed the Apple Pay screen before it animated away, so I realised I was "holding it wrong", and was able to get it to scan by holding it at a different angle to keep the NFC sensor at the top of the phone away from reader, but I can imagine a less technically minded user than myself might have serious problems. I don't know anything about the scanner or NFC standards used by this system, sorry.
  - saagarjha 6y ago
    > I have encountered the same problem with the tunnelbana in Stockholm. It took me a second to realize you weren't talking about the NFC chip, which is codenamed Stockholm ;)

aeontech 6y ago

@djxfade: I might know some people on the team who’d be very interested to hear about it. what’s the best way to get in touch?

saagarjha 6y ago
Unrelated question as an outside observer: how is it possible to get interactions like these as opposed to "file a feedback"?
djxfade 6y ago
Hi, you can contact me on thomas(at)apility(dot).no

tomduncalf 6y ago

I recently learned about the "technical support incident" help you can get from Apple, you get two such incidents included with your annual developer program - maybe worth a go, I believe they respond to you quite quickly from what I've heard: https://developer.apple.com/support/technical/ https://developer.apple.com/support/technical/