retail trade
Malfunctions at payment terminals continue
Payment by giro or credit card is disrupted in many places. Photo: Christoph Dernbach/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
The problems with card payments are not over yet. In many retail outlets, customers are currently unable to pay by card. But not all stores have the problem.
Customers in the German retail sector are still sometimes confronted with problems when making payments by giro or credit card. “The disruptions continue,” said a spokesman for the financial service provider Concardis on Thursday afternoon. “We continue to wait for signals from Verifone.”
A spokeswoman for the payment service provider Payone made a similar statement. Since Tuesday evening, there have been significant nationwide restrictions on the processing of transactions at H5000 card payment terminals from the manufacturer Verifone. The US company has not yet responded to inquiries.
“We try to support the affected retailers as much as possible, for example by exchanging terminals where possible,” said the Concardis spokesman. According to Payone, the cause of the disruption is a certificate error within certain versions of the software provided by Verifone.
Card payment is currently often not possible
As a result, card payment is currently not an option in some retail outlets. The discounter Aldi Nord, for example, announced on Wednesday that card payments were not possible in some branches or elsewhere in retail due to the disruption. “Our provider is still working at full speed on a solution,” said the current status on Thursday.
The drugstore chain Rossmann and Edeka also reported problems on Wednesday. According to their own statement, Aldi Süd, Lidl and the Rewe Group, i.e. the markets of Rewe, Penny and the Toom Baumarkt, are not affected. The German Retail Association (HDE) had emphasized that companies depend on the smooth running of the payment processes.
The Federal Association of Electronic Cash Network Operators (BECN) pointed out that the cause of the disruption was not one of the network operators or the cards used, but only affected the specific terminal type. «The cause of the malfunction has now been identified by the manufacturer. The terminal manufacturer is currently working on being able to take measures to rectify the error,” said the association’s website.
The Federal Association of German Banks, representing the German banking industry, made it clear that the terminals in question are completely unavailable for all payment types, but that the corresponding type only accounts for a small proportion of all devices used in Germany. “Network operators and technical service providers are working intensively on troubleshooting,” it said.
Providers of alternative payment methods – such as QR code – see themselves strengthened by the incident. As the consulting company ZIIB announced, QR systems work without any terminal hardware. Therefore, you can avoid loss of sales in this way.