While never an official Apple Pay partner, it was well known in Apple Pay circles that many of the NFC-capable terminals in Home Depot stores would indeed accept Apple Pay. Now Home Deport is quietly turning off that functionality.
Today, however, a user on Reddit received a response from Home Depot customer care that suggests the company may soon begin quietly phasing out support for Apple Pay completely at its brick-and-mortar stores, with PayPal highlighted as an alternative solution for customers.
Following a failed attempt to use Apple Pay at a Home Depot location where the service was previously accepted, the user reached out to Home Depot, who replied with the following:
“We currently do not accept Apple Pay in our local stores or online. We do have the option of using PayPal, in store or online. We may offer this feature in the future, but we currently do not have a time frame for this and if we are going to accept Apple Pay. We truly apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused you Andrew.”
While the company’s response seems to leave the door open for accepting Apple Pay in the future, the chain seems to be on the PayPal bandwagon, who offers a competing electronic payments solution.
A number of responses on the Reddit thread indicate other users haven’t had any trouble using Apple Pay at their local Home Depot stores, so the support, or lack thereof, is still hit or miss.
