Inconvenient Hiccup
Errors occurred in Samsung Pay, a simple payment service for Samsung Galaxy users, causing inconvenience to consumers.
“A software error occurred during an app update process,” Samsung Electronics said.
According to industry sources on March 30, complaints that Samsung Pay was not running were posted one after another in online communities on the same day across the country.
“I use Samsung Pay instead of cash or a plastic credit card, but I am very embarrassed that I have not been able to make payments with Samsung Pay since this morning,” a Samsung Galaxy user surnamed Jeong (48) said.
Another user surnamed Kim (38), complained, saying “I tried Samsung Pay as usual, but I couldn’t pay my public transportation fare, so I had some trouble on my way to work.”
The Samsung Pay Team announced in a notice that day, "Intermittent delays in biometric authentication are occurring when trying to pay with Samsung Pay. We will do our best to take action as soon as possible."
According to the Samsung Customer Center, an auto-drag function did not work due to a Samsung Pay error. Card authentication, pin number, and biometric errors also occurred. “A failure to connect to the server. Please try the service again later,” an error message said.
Analysts say that this error could undermine the credibility of Samsung Pay, which is trying to solidify its dominance amid fiercer simple payment competition after Apple Pay recently entered the Korean market. Samsung Pay, which accounts for about 24 percent of the Korean simple payment market, supports both the near field communication (NFC) method including the EMV contactless method and the magnetic secure transmission (MST) method.
Samsung Electronics recently found that some consumer terminals experiencing an error in the process of updating the Samsung Pay app to upgrade Samsung Pay’s functions as the cause of the error. Customers who have encountered any errors can solve the problem by deleting and reinstalling the app, the company said.