American Express payments at Northern ticket vending machines

[KT550]

Following on from my thread about contactless payments at TVMs in general (thread closed), I thought I'd share my recent experience with the new Northern TVMs in Manchester.

I used a couple of these newish large screen TVMs on a visit this week.
I found the touch screen functionality to be near to useless; perhaps my fingers are made of different stuff.

At Manchester Oxford Road, the machine processed a CONTACTLESS purchase with an Amex card,

while at Manchester Piccadilly, the Northern machines had labels affixed saying that they didn't accept Amex at all!

 

[paul1609]

It's not just Northern, For many years there's been issues with American Express at Southeastern TVMs, its obviously to do with online authorisation. Sometimes it will work fine but others it will just hang in the middle of the transaction. it doesn't even timeout,. The only way to get your card back is to cancel the whole transaction.

 

[AlbertBeale]

It's not just Northern, For many years there's been issues with American Express at Southeastern TVMs, its obviously to do with online authorisation. Sometimes it will work fine but others it will just hang in the middle of the transaction. it doesn't even timeout,. The only way to get your card back is to cancel the whole transaction.

Using AmEx in machines at stations can be dodgy; both at some mainlines (eg Waterloo), and at some underground stations, I've found certain sets of machines won't accept AmEx payments but ones in another bank of machines will. I've had Underground staff tell me, "if you want to use Amex, go to those machines over there", so it seems to be a not uncommon glitch. (This is using the chip, not contactless.) Though no ticket office has ever failed to take a payment from my AmEx card.

 

[357]

I've known ticket offices have issues with AmEx contactless but chip and pin work fine.

 

[Ken H]

As someone who maintains a computer system for online credit card processing, I have way more issues with Amex than any other card.
If you guys are using a work provided card it is probably a purchase card. When you use it the merchant has to send invoice data with the claim to Amex - addendum data. That frequently goes wrong so could be the cause.

 

[skyhigh]

while at Piccadilly, the Northern machines had labels affixed saying that they didn't accept Amex at all

There was an issue where some machines didn't accept Amex, however that has been fixed and the sign is erroneous.

 

[Bungle965]

The machines are still only down as accepting Visa & Mastercard regardless if they can now take them, perhaps it requires a update from Northern.

 

[CHESHIRECAT]

slightly o/t but the Avanti TVM at Wilmslow has been out of order since August!
I tweeted them and got the standard "we are aware and our engineers will fix it as soon as possible " !

 

[Bungle965]

slightly o/t but the Avanti TVM at Wilmslow has been out of order since August!
I tweeted them and got the standard "we are aware and our engineers will fix it as soon as possible " !

That’ll be removed soon & won’t be replaced.

 

[northernman]

Hi, we have done an upgrade, all Northern TVMs should now accept Amex

 

[robbeech]

Hi, we have done an upgrade, all Northern TVMs should now accept Amex

Excellent. Can you confirm whether this is chip and pin or with contactless too?

 

[KT550]

Hi, we have done an upgrade, all Northern TVMs should now accept Amex

Thanks for the update

 

[robbeech]

Hi, we have done an upgrade, all Northern TVMs should now accept Amex

I’m afraid to say that this is not the case.

Tried all machines at Worksop today (20/1)

Contactless beeps, confirms it has been scanned and then says there has been an error.

Chip and pin says declined. Actually the left hand machine on the up platform has a broken slot so you can’t get a card in but the others decline.

Obviously there is nothing wrong with the card etc.

Maybe this needs some more work.

 

[northernman]

OK noted, apologies, I will take a look

I’m afraid to say that this is not the case.

Tried all machines at Worksop today (20/1)

Contactless beeps, confirms it has been scanned and then says there has been an error.

Chip and pin says declined. Actually the left hand machine on the up platform has a broken slot so you can’t get a card in but the others decline.

Obviously there is nothing wrong with the card etc.

Maybe this needs some more work.

 

[KeithMcC]

Hi, we have done an upgrade, all Northern TVMs should now accept Amex

Well my Amex contactless wouldn't work at Hyde North on Tuesday. Mind you as the ticket machine glass had been shattered with a hammer it wasn't very easy to do anything!

 

[GaryMcEwan]

ScotRail TVMs has been hit and miss over the few couple of weeks with my Amex as well. One TVM will authorise the payment then reverse it for no reason whatsoever yet another will take the payment with no issues at all.

 

[Aaron1]

I was on an LNER service in November and I went to the restaurant carriage to buy a beer, tried paying by my AMEX contactless, the worker behind the counter ironically was named "red' anyway he told me that it had to be chip and pin because AMEX don't like contactless payments, I mean in supermarkets and pubs I have always used contactless and and never had an issue but he told me AMEX for security reasons don't like contactless payments