UPDATED 01:37 EDT / JULY 16 2015

NEWS

Report: Apple Pay U.K. off to bumpy start, banks delay support, consumers vent on social media

Following Apple’s early June announcement that the company would launch its mobile payments service, Apple Pay, in the U.K. in July, the service went live across that country on July 14. At launch around 250,000 retail locations were expected to accept Apple Pay and eight of the U.K.’s biggest banks were touted as launch partners supporting the service from day one.

An analysis of online mentions of Apple Pay in the U.K., supported by reports from British media outlets, show that Apple Pay got off to a bumpy start on Tuesday.

Social media monitoring firm, Brandwatch, scrutinized 26,000 online mentions of the Apple Pay U.K. launch and their data show where consumers are using Apple Pay most frequently, how often the service failed to work, and highlights frustrations over delayed support from U.K. banks.

HSBC drops off, NatWest steals the show

HSBC and its internet-only subsidiary, First Direct, one of the U.K.’s largest retail banks with around 16 million U.K. customers was listed as a launch partner on Apple’s U.K. Apple Pay website. However, the bank’s customers found they could not activate Apple pay on for their accounts.

Brandwatch’s data shows negative social media mentions for HSBC in relation to Apple Pay outweighed positive mentions 5:1.

Following a flood of negative tweets, HSBC has said its customers will be able to use Apple Pay by July 28 only.

According to the data, banks that supported Apple Day from day one received mostly positive responses. Four of the five – Santander was the exception – saw more than 50 percent positive social media mentions.

NatWest, with 583 customer tweets, turned out to be consumer’s favorite bank for Apple Pay, followed in distant second place by RBS with 226 mentions.

Apple Pay a hit with commuters

According to Brandwatch, Apple Pay has so far been most popular with commuters on Transport for London’s (TfL) bus, Tube and rail network. TfL received twice as many mentions than fast food chain, Pret a Manger.

The top five brands mentioned most often were TfL, Pret, Waitrose, Tesco, and Boots. By comparison, Nando’s, Co-op, Subway, McDonalds, and Starbucks were mentioned the least.

Of the tweets analyzed by Brandwatch, 10 percent was complaints from consumers who could not get the service to work.

Retailers also attracted negative social media feedback with negative mentions nearly outnumbering positive mentions.

Customer complaints included being charged twice and disappointment at retailers that don’t accept Apple Pay.

Screenshot: SiliconANGLE via apple.com/uk

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