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Some Isis Mobile Payment Retailers Have Never Heard of Isis
Carriers' Payment Ambitions Launch With a Whimper

Stores taking part in wireless carriers new Isis payment system apparently didn't get the memo. As we noted yesterday, T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon Wireless this week launched their use-your-phone-as-debit-card effort (dubbed "Isis") in two test markets: Salt Lake City, Utah and Austin, Texas. Users on select phones need to get a new SIM card that has their banking information on it, then simply walk into supported retailers to use the system. However, Stacey Higginbotham at GigaOM notes that it has been somewhat hard to find anyone in Austin who has heard of the trial.

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Even some companies that are listed as supported vendors in the area say they've never heard of the effort:
quote:
In the first few pages of results I encountered a bakery I know and love, so I called Sugar Mama’s Bake Shop hoping to see if anyone had used Isis yet to buy something. The owner, Olivia O’Neal, was confused. She wasn’t part of the Isis launch and said that for months other small business owners had been emailing her about Isis, despite the fact that she never filled out her paperwork and didn’t want to participate. Other businesses listed on the site were out of business (Sole Freco) or were listed in the wrong location (Pueblo Viejo Mexican).

And managers at Chevron and CVS, which were both listed, said they hadn’t heard of the program, and that they didn’t support it when I asked if anyone had tried to pay with their phone using Isis, or if I could use Isis.
The company argues that Isis will work with any contactless payment display, and many vendors may not be aware that they now support Isis. Isis was already delayed several times, and now a trial with extremely limited phone support and vendors who've never heard of the program doesn't exactly scream comprehensive launch.
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Thaler
Premium Member
join:2004-02-02
Los Angeles, CA

1 edit

Thaler

Premium Member

Wait, I had something for that.



Damn. Do I qualify as one of their vendors now?
SunnyD
join:2009-03-20
Madison, AL

SunnyD

Member

Isis... another reason to steal cell phones.

This should become interesting real fast. Especially since vendors themselves don't even know about it.

bobjohnson
Premium Member
join:2007-02-03
Spartanburg, SC

bobjohnson

Premium Member

They don't seem to want this to work...

I personally used Google Wallet on my nexus s 4g but just for the cool factor mostly... I liked it for a couple dollar purchase at the gas station and such, but all paypass locations accept google wallet. They are making this isis system completely different and not announcing it to retailers or customers. Doesn't seem like the carriers want this to be successful for whatever reasons.

MSauk
MSauk
Premium Member
join:2002-01-17
Sandy, UT

MSauk

Premium Member

Re: They don't seem to want this to work...

hahah what a massive fail. I have GW on my Verizon Galaxy S3, but how the hell do you not have your best selling phone next to the iPhone included in the initial launch of this great program?

Whoever is running this should be fired.
meowmeow
join:2003-07-26
Helena, MT

meowmeow to bobjohnson

Member

to bobjohnson
I don't believe it is completely different. I believe that it's also contactless EMV. If Sugar Mama's Bake Shop accepts PayPass/payWave I BELIEVE they also accept ISIS. Whether she wants to or not (and it sounds like she doesn't want to). If she refuses to accept ISIS, then she could get penalized for violating the terms of her merchant agreement.

bobjohnson
Premium Member
join:2007-02-03
Spartanburg, SC

bobjohnson

Premium Member

Re: They don't seem to want this to work...

It's the same thing as far as the tech goes. It's NFC just the same but I thought that using a generic system like MasterCard paypass that alot of merchants already have would make the adoption rate for this better than a proprietary system. But if the cc processors are forcing it I suppose it won't be like I thought...
meowmeow
join:2003-07-26
Helena, MT

meowmeow

Member

Re: They don't seem to want this to work...

As I said in the other thread I don't believe it's in any way proprietary. Just standard contactless EMV. And the processors aren't forcing it, the networks are. There are incentives for merchants to have the terminals starting THIS MONTH and the processors are REQUIRED by April 2013 to support EMV (contact and contactless)
hottboiinnc4
ME
join:2003-10-15
Cleveland, OH

hottboiinnc4 to meowmeow

Member

to meowmeow
Not true. I have several merchant accounts and i do NOT accept PayPass/NFC transactions, the service was slowly phased out and getting one of those cards is not very easy any more.

I use the old school slide the card on the machine and sign that is connected to my PCs and one portable machine that uses 3g.
meowmeow
join:2003-07-26
Helena, MT

meowmeow

Member

Re: They don't seem to want this to work...

Reading comprehension is useful. I said IF you accept contactless EMV you have to accept all cards including Google Wallet etc. I never said you have to accept any contactless EMV. There will be incentives coming to do so mostly in the form of easier PCI compliance.
tcope
Premium Member
join:2003-05-07
Sandy, UT

tcope

Premium Member

Fail... so far

I mentioned this same thing in a prior thread... IMHO ISIS may be their own worst enemy. If _consumers_ don't know/us the system it WILL fail. One look at their website will show you that they have not targeted consumers at all. Next to no info for consumers and not even any way for consumers to contact the company (all email addresses are for merchants and the media). The person handling their twitter account is also clueless. The thing that ISIS has is that it's payment system has "offers" tied into it. I think this is a great draw. However, you'd think with their _big_ release that they'd have an offer from some vendor. Nope! Nothing. Nothing says, "We are now open" like hiding in the shadows. Yes, they give out $10 (and another $15 for adding any amount to the account) but unless you offer some info to end users and even instruct your merchants that they have the system, how do you expect it to catch on?

The map of merchants on ISIS's website is terrible! It lists 10 merchants from the center of the city and ever new page you load, it branches out. But this is in all directions. So it can easily take you 20 pages to get 15 miles away from the center fo town. You also can't perform any search... not even for certain merchants.

ISIS has had an extra 18 months to ramp up their game. I'd expect that they would have set up even a basis support system. Instead it's like it was thrown together in a week.
meowmeow
join:2003-07-26
Helena, MT

meowmeow

Member

Re: Fail... so far

ISIS is piggybacking on the fact that Visa and others are creating some nice incentives for retailers to accept EMV. I don't know about MasterCard (I forgot and am too lazy to Google it this second), but I know that Visa's EMV incentive program ONLY applies if you accept both contact and contactless EMV.

EMV is the future, the US maybe the last developed country in the world to go to EMV - but the benefit of that is that card issuers and networks are insisting that both contact and contactless EMV are supported here. In other countries, only contact EMV (almost unheard of in the US but expect that to change, big time, over the next year) is widely supported. Here, it's nothing - but it will be both.

ISIS and Google Wallet will work anywhere contactless EMV is supported and MasterCard works (for Google Wallet which presents itself as a virtual MasterCard, I don't know how that works with ISIS - since ISIS only allows specific cards it's possible it passes through the card as-is?). It doesn't need merchants to know they accept it *IT'S JUST ANOTHER CONTACTLESS EMV CARD* - what it does need is a whole heck of a lot more support for contactless EMV. And that's coming.
GraysonPeddi
Grayson Peddie
join:2010-06-28
Tallahassee, FL
Ubiquiti EdgeRouter PoE
Ubiquiti UniFi AP-AC

GraysonPeddi

Member

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Sorry, I could not resist.