Apple CEO Tim Cook Announcing Apple Pay

Since launching to the public on October 20, Apple Pay hasn’t been as smooth a ride as Apple Inc. would have hoped.

Apple Pay seems to be catching on with consumers and retailers; however, it hasn’t been without a few glitches. Most of the issues have been around compatibility and a huge problem of consumers being double charged.

At least 1,000 Bank of America clients had extra charges appearing on their online statements, after using Apple Pay. Bank of America spokesperson Tara Burke, “We apologize for the inconvenience, and are correcting this immediately”. On the other hand, various other banks have reported no Apple Pay issues for their customers. Chase general manager of mobile payments, Tom O’Brien, “We knew there would be demand, but we were really pleased with the number of consumers that went to use [Apple Pay]. “On our first day we put seven times more cards in the Apple wallet than we issued new plastic accounts.”

There have also been some double charging issues for Uber and the Instacart grocery app.

Early adopters of Apple Pay have also experienced system crashes trying to use Apple Pay at Staples, as well as issues adding credit card details to the Apple Pay system.

It isn’t all bad news for Apple Pay with many of the companies participating in the launch, including Whole Foods, Chase and HotelTonight, reporting that the response to the system has been mostly positive. “On the first day of people having the option to use Apple Pay — this is people who had upgraded and were on an [iPhone 6 or 6 Plus] — over 60 percent of those people were booking using Apple Pay. That really surprised us in a positive way,” said HotelTonight CEO Sam Shank.

In an effort to retain customers who could possibly move to a bank that offers Apple Pay, hundreds of financial institutions are signing up to Apple Pay. Visa have announced that Apple Pay will be supporting a long list of smaller regional banks in the coming weeks. MasterCard have also provided a list of banks that will receive the Apple Pay service shortly.