Today I updated my GooglePay app. Unfortunately, the update deleted all
the cards I'd stored (just one credit card and my California Digital
Vaccine Card).

Reloading my California digital vaccination card was easy. Reloading my
main credit card required calling the bank and talking to four different
people.

They sent me a code via SMS. Apparently there was some problem, even
though I received the codes just fine. Between the four
employees I had to verify:

a. Date of Birth
b. Last four digits of SSN
c. Credit card expiration date
d. Credit card CVV
e. What my middle initial stood for
f. The State where my Social Security Number was issued
g. The county I live in
h. My wife's birthday
i. The spelling of my daughter's first name

They kept passing me from person to person. They were running out of
things to ask me. And this was all just to add back a card that until a
few minuted before the call had already been in my Google Pay account. I
guess that I should be glad that my bank is so security conscious!

In comp.mobile.android, sms <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote:
> Today I updated my GooglePay app. Unfortunately, the update deleted all
> the cards I'd stored (just one credit card and my California Digital
> Vaccine Card).
>
> Reloading my California digital vaccination card was easy. Reloading my
> main credit card required calling the bank and talking to four different
> people.
>
> They sent me a code via SMS.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/08/google-pay-team-reportedly-in-major-upheaval-after-botched-app-revamp/

Business Insider spoke with ex-employees and learned that "dozens of
employees and executives have left" the Google Payments team in
recent months, including "at least seven leaders on the team with
roles of director or vice president." The most prominent departure,
of payments chief Caesar Sengupta, kicked off the exodus in April,
and now employees are worried about another reorganization and even
slower progress. Many rank-and-file team members have reportedly
departed, too, with the story saying, "One former employee estimated
that half the people working on the business-development team for
Google Pay--a group of about 40 people--have left the company in
recent months."

In 2018, Sengupta took over the payments division, which oversees
the Google Pay app and the wider Google payments infrastructure, and
the report says that "much of Sengupta's attention was on bringing
the US Google Pay app more in line with the version Google built for
India."

That's a reference to Google Pay's big March revamp, which killed
the existing app and website and essentially replaced it with an
entirely new service. We weren't big fans of the update, which
featured a lot of reduced functionality and a clumsy transition plan
for existing users. It seems like we weren't alone in our
disappointment; the report quotes a former payments employee as
saying, "Caesar [Sengupta] leaving was the capstone on a lot of
frustration felt by employees. The product wasn't growing at the
rate we wanted it to." Sengupta departed Google one month after
killing the old Google Pay and making his new app mandatory for all
users in the US.

[...]

We reviewed the new Google Pay right around this time and found it
to be a pretty poor service compared to what Google had previously.
The new service used SMS instead of a Google account for your
identity, meaning that it didn't support multiple devices, didn't
support multiple accounts, and no longer supported website use. Your
phone was the only way to access a functional Google Pay, and
everything was tied to your carrier's phone number.

Clumisy transition and SMS based identity. Sounds like that's what
you've encountered.

Elijah
------
has never used a cellphone based payment system

On 25/08/2021 21:26, Eli the Bearded wrote:
>
> Clumisy transition and SMS based identity. Sounds like that's what
> you've encountered.

And, as everyone knows, SMS is not very secure anyway.

--

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website:
www.macfh.co.uk

Java Jive wrote:
> Eli the Bearded wrote:
>> Clumisy transition and SMS based identity. Sounds like that's what
>> you've encountered.
>
> And, as everyone knows, SMS is not very secure anyway.

It's considered secure by zillions, and that's what counts in this world.

-p

On 25/08/2021 22:15, Piet wrote:
> Java Jive wrote:
>> Eli the Bearded wrote:
>>> Clumisy transition and SMS based identity. Sounds like that's what
>>> you've encountered.
>>
>> And, as everyone knows, SMS is not very secure anyway.
>
> It's considered secure by zillions, and that's what counts in this world.

So are car security systems, but how many cars get stolen every year?

--

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website:
www.macfh.co.uk

On Wed, 25 Aug 2021 20:26:03 +0000, Eli the Bearded wrote:

> In comp.mobile.android, sms <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote:
>> Today I updated my GooglePay app. Unfortunately, the update deleted all
>> the cards I'd stored (just one credit card and my California Digital
>> Vaccine Card).
>>
>> Reloading my California digital vaccination card was easy. Reloading my
>> main credit card required calling the bank and talking to four different
>> people.
>>
>> They sent me a code via SMS.
>
> https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/08/google-pay-team-reportedly-in-major-upheaval-after-botched-app-revamp/
>
> Business Insider spoke with ex-employees and learned that "dozens of
> employees and executives have left" the Google Payments team in
> recent months, including "at least seven leaders on the team with
> roles of director or vice president." The most prominent departure,
> of payments chief Caesar Sengupta, kicked off the exodus in April,
> and now employees are worried about another reorganization and even
> slower progress. Many rank-and-file team members have reportedly
> departed, too, with the story saying, "One former employee estimated
> that half the people working on the business-development team for
> Google Pay--a group of about 40 people--have left the company in
> recent months."
>
> In 2018, Sengupta took over the payments division, which oversees
> the Google Pay app and the wider Google payments infrastructure, and
> the report says that "much of Sengupta's attention was on bringing
> the US Google Pay app more in line with the version Google built for
> India."
>
> That's a reference to Google Pay's big March revamp, which killed
> the existing app and website and essentially replaced it with an
> entirely new service. We weren't big fans of the update, which
> featured a lot of reduced functionality and a clumsy transition plan
> for existing users. It seems like we weren't alone in our
> disappointment; the report quotes a former payments employee as
> saying, "Caesar [Sengupta] leaving was the capstone on a lot of
> frustration felt by employees. The product wasn't growing at the
> rate we wanted it to." Sengupta departed Google one month after
> killing the old Google Pay and making his new app mandatory for all
> users in the US.
>
> [...]
>
> We reviewed the new Google Pay right around this time and found it
> to be a pretty poor service compared to what Google had previously.
> The new service used SMS instead of a Google account for your
> identity, meaning that it didn't support multiple devices, didn't
> support multiple accounts, and no longer supported website use. Your
> phone was the only way to access a functional Google Pay, and
> everything was tied to your carrier's phone number.
>
> Clumisy transition and SMS based identity. Sounds like that's what
> you've encountered.
>
> Elijah
> ------
> has never used a cellphone based payment system

Ah, that explains things. I wondered why the "new and improved" app's
usability was garbage. But even before the app change, the old app
had started losing useful functions.

As for cellphone based payment in general? I have to fall back to using
the card half the time, so I pretty much stopped using it. It was handy
one time when I forgot my wallet and it actually worked.

On 8/26/2021 8:11 AM, Joe Beanfish wrote:

<snip>

> As for cellphone based payment in general? I have to fall back to using
> the card half the time, so I pretty much stopped using it. It was handy
> one time when I forgot my wallet and it actually worked.

Most of the places I spend money take Apple Pay and Google Pay, some
take only Samsung Pay, and a few take none (Home Depot, Lowe's, and
Walmart).

I like to use it because I have one credit card that gives 3% cash back
for mobile wallet purchases. The most I get back on a physical card is
2%. So that is 50% greater cash back for using mobile wallet.

I also find mobile wallet faster than pulling out my wallet and
searching for the right credit card. Most credit cards are NFC but
seemingly few people realize that they can tap and pay, and they slide
their card into the reader which increases transaction time. One store I
was in has a big sign on the credit card terminal telling people to tap
and pay, but seemingly to no avail.