Apple Pay showing incorrect merchant on bank statement

I am a retail customer frequently using Apple Pay to purchase merchandise from a local merchant. For this merchant, I always (without exception) encounter the same behavior you’re reporting - it appears on my statement as associated with a nearby store selling an entirely different category of merchandise. Each purchase shown in the Wallet app has a corresponding “Report Incorrect Merchant Info” line. I have taken the time and trouble to report this issue on dozens of these transactions. There has been no change, and I have given up hope.

UPDATE: Having just seen Jeff Donald’s post, I should add that I have used both Apple Card and a Chase card, reported the issue in both circumstances, and seen no change. I do agree the statement from the issuer does show the correct vendor - it’s only the Wallet reference that’s incorrect.

The issuing bank controls the information shared to iPhones (Apple Pay devices). Apple (Apple Pay) can display only what banks share. In some cases the bank only shares GPS data. Other issuing banks may share more information.

I was the director of a nonprofit and we processed credit cards using PayPal and Block (Square) and many of the sales showed a dermatologist next door as the business. He sometimes had the same issue. The statement from the issuer will show correctly as will the receipt you issue.

I have additional information that might be educational for you and your business. The >Porchlight Book Company< does not offer Apple Pay on their website. I was going to buy a book (non-returnable price) to try to resolve the issue. But your website doesn’t offer Apple Pay as a checkout option. Are you sure this is an Apple Pay issue?

If it even is an issue, you should check first with your credit card processor and verify your merchant account information. You might also ask about adding Apple Pay to your website.

I might be able to ask the charge back customer I'm helping now for a screenshot but I'm going to focus on trying to ship their order before I impinge on their time.

In the meantime, I have a screenshot of one of the first times this showed up after we rebranded. While this screenshot is from a support case that is almost 5 years old, the problem is the same today despite the time elapsed and that our current case is for a different payment processor.

Our company is "Porchlight Book Company". We're located in Milwaukee, WI. This is what a customer sent us from their Wallet app (in 2019). They never sent us additional screenshots of what the detail looked like so I can't get that for you for this transaction.

This is a totally different merchant name, obviously. I don't know what the pizza companies actual merchant name shows on transaction lines. For our company the payment processor used in the screenshot above has our merchant name as "Porchlight Books". There is no space between Porch and Light. The most recent active case is for a payment processor that has our merchant name as "SP Porchlight Promos".

I should point out that our sites are not setup to let people use the accelerated Apple Pay system, so the transactions are for run of the mill card-not-present eCommerce transactions. They're certainly not using the physical device for a touch-to-pay checkout. I can't say whether they placed their orders from an iOS device and used a credit card auto-fill feature or not. Regardless, the transactions are still listed in Apple Wallet with a totally different merchant name, including a logo that is not ours.

So exactly what is the path where customers are seeing the confusing information?

When I use Apple Pay and want to see a recent transaction on my American Express card I follow this path,

iPhone > Wallet app > tap AmEx card > Latest Transactions > tap merchant name > transaction information.

I see the information below.

The merchant name and location is clearly displayed at the top of the screen and location.

You’re saying that your customers are seeing something similar? Can you please post what you and your customers are seeing? If you need to, just do a 1¢ transaction and void it later. I understand what you’re saying, but it’d be helpful to see it and it’ll confirm the issue.

Apple Wallet app does use GPS and WiFi to obtain a location. Apple Pay can only display the information the bank shares with it. Apple receives anonymous information that’s encrypted. Your bank provides most details. I suspect location information is first obtained from GPS. However, GPS signals indoors are weak at best and the system falls back to WiFi. If you locations/businesses don’t have a strong WiFi signal, the Wallet app uses information from nearby sources. Unfortunately, if a VPN is in use, the location could be misidentified.

You can verify this with a screenshot of a transaction.

Our company has had this problem since we rebranded in 2019. The interesting thing as a merchant is that it happens with multiple payment processors. We process credit cards through Authorize.net and recently also started to use Shopify Payments. While both processors report part of our merchant name as "Porchlight", each processor has a different business use, so there is a slight difference between the exact name we specify.

Customers using Apple Wallet will occasionally see transactions from either processor as "Porchlight Pizza" which is all the way in Washington State, while we're located in the Midwest. Seeing as we're issuing card-not-present transactions, one would hope GPS data would not play a role considering our location is over 1,700 miles away from the pizza place in question.

At best this is confusing and at worst has generated unnecessary chargebacks that inconvenience the very customers we're trying to serve. A payment app should not guess about this kind of thing. If an exact merchant cannot be located with the supplied name from the payment gateway, just display the name as plain text instead of applying fuzzy logic to try to approximate it to something in the existing database.

The chargeback side effect is particularly unnerving because it is an unnecessary waste of our customers' time and generally involves them having to cancel credit cards erroneously due to concerns of fraud that is not happening. This has been happening for almost 5 years and we just had another chargeback because of this problem not only a week ago.

I don’t know what app that’s a screenshot of, but it’s not Apple Wallet app.

It could be Cash App, Venmo, PayPal or maybe even Google Wallet/Google Pay. But it’s not Apple Pay or even an Apple product/app.

I know we do not offer Apple Pay on our web site, but I appreciate you taking the time to check. While the original poster was talking about Apple Pay, I've only been replying regarding Apple Wallet. I know Apple Wallet/Apple Pay are technically different, but the original post mentioned an underlying symptom that matches the issue we're seeing, even though we are not using Apple Pay. Given the similarity there, I found it probable that Apple Wallet might have the same issue as the OP was seeing with Apple Pay with the merchant lookup functionality.

I'll have to take your word for it that the screenshot I got from a customer 5 years ago is not from Apple Wallet. That is what they told us it was, but I haven't used an iOS device since 2015 so I can't say for sure. What I can say is that is not what Google Wallet looks like at present. Really, I wouldn't expect any actively maintained app to look identical over that period of time.

As to your question about whether I'm sure this is specifically an Apple Wallet issue or not, I'd say "kind of". For the sake of my answer, let's pretend for a moment that the really old screenshot was from Apple Wallet in 2019. If it was showing the "user friendly" merchant representations on transactions, I don't think Apple is curating that information specifically for their app. I find it more likely that Apple uses a third-party system that provides way to query that data with the information that comes through on the transaction. So, while it isn't specifically an issue with Apple Wallet, it would be an issue with a system Apple Wallet makes use of.

If that old screenshot wasn't from Apple Wallet, I suppose none of my feedback is super relevant aside from establishing that some system out there is messing up merchant names when trying to show a user-friendly representation based on transaction details. Apple has to be getting Merchant details from somewhere if it is showing anything other than what came through on the transaction line.

While I don’t have a screenshot of Apple Wallet from 5 years ago, Apple has never used that font in your screenshot. Wallet app has never been customizable because of security concerns, so the user can’t change the font. Apple also never used that torn receipt style either. If I had to guess, it looks similar to PayPal Wallet from an earlier era. It also has a resemblance to Square app.

I understand the frustration. I reply to a lot of the posts here now that I’m mostly retired. It is fairly common for people to complain about Apple Wallet and Apple Pay (many consumers don’t understand or recognize the difference) but in reality when they post a screenshot it’s Cash App, PayPal or Venmo. Consumers just don’t understand the difference and what the details and differences are for the different products.

I’m happy to help if you can provide current information that involves an Apple product or service. 😀😀