[zaroth]

You know what irks me? Besides the fact that the fine for not paying is atrociously high, besides the fact that such a transgression can even show up on a Visa query, besides the fact that this couldn’t be resolved without a court, besides the fact that the reporter missed their court date...

What irks me is that some company spent millions of taxpayer dollars designing this contactless payment system and couldn’t be bothered to provide a real-time readout to the ticket inspector where the passenger could just provide their name to confirm they paid.

But even more than that, I irks me that TFA came away from this experience hating Apple Pay. This singular component in the entire chain which was completely blameless.

[ViViDboarder]

Yea. Very strange perspective in this article.

At the end they are acting like Apple Pay (or ant mobile payment) is a risk of sorts. This type of transit issue is actually quite unique. Their example of someone buying coffee at Starbucks with their phone is completely different. If your phone doesn’t before you pay, boo-hoo, no coffee. If it does after you pay they’re still going to call out your name and you grab your cup.

Almost exactly like you are suggesting (and I agree) the transit system should work. When you pay, they have a record of it.

[htfu]

In my reading that's how it would've worked if she'd registered, am I off? Not sure how it'd be possible so sort out on the spot without that.

But of course ridiculous that it took such hoops to fix after the fact.

[dv_dt]

I find it ridiculous that the payment was accepted if the requirement was that the source of payment needed to be registered and that somehow, if you had the app or phone on you, that is valid without registration of the source, but if later you're trying to avoid a fine that payment isn't valid without registration.

[nabdab]

Think of it this way. If you buy a ticket you can show the ticket and it’s valid even though you never provide proof of identity, and the person checking is just verifying that the human entity in front of them have a piece of cardboard. No problem there. Buying a ticket with Apple pay just puts the “cardboard ticket” in your phone.

Now you could also buy a monthly travel card, and register it to your identity, which is great because now if you forget the card, but can prove your identity then no problem, since they have the records.

The issue here is that she has a non-identified cardboard ticket on her dead phone. Which doesn’t enjoy the benefit of being tied to her Identity.

Apple pay isn’t really any different from the coins4cardboard tech here. If you buy a cardboard ticket with a credit card and throw it away, then you can’t show bank statements to get out of a fine. The expectation of the cardboard ticket is that you keep it on you to prove you have it. If that had been the case and she’s dropped a ticket out the pocket of her coat, would they be blaming the coat brand?

[dv_dt]

Except for the fact it wasn't a paper ticket, it was an electronic ticket which likely has all sorts of records and metadata connected to it as well as being verifiable via a server - which would be needed anyway otherwise they have likely a huge electronically generated counterfeit or an accounting problem.

I'm guessing if the police wanted to check an alibi of an individual claiming to have taken the train at some point that the records of that electronic ticket would be dug up.

[beerandt]

Well, that depends on if the coat brand marketed itself as a way to manage all your tickets, payments, and receipts.

[fortran77]

Why do you have to stick your neck out for Apple Pay?