Retailers: say no to Semble

Wellington hair salon Mane Salon has instructed its bank not to deploy the new Semble contactless payments system to its EFTPOS terminal, following the announcement of the payment option earlier today.

"The new Semble system further Balkenises the already fragmented contactless payment systems in favour of banks and telcos rather than consumers and retailers," says Janine Weatherley, Mane Salon owner.

"Which is why I've instructed our bank not to deploy Semble or any new contactless payment systems to our terminal.

Weatherley says, "Paywave, Paypass, Semble and any new Apple payments platform can only add cost to retail transactions, which will inevitably be passed on to consumers. EFTPOS is the envy of the world because its cheap, universal and simple – any replacement must take cost out, not add it in.

Mane Salon strongly endorses Rod Drury's recent statements that contactless payment systems should be able to act as an EFTPOS card. "We're right behind Rod on this one and we're urging other retailers to hold out for EFTPOS 2.0," Weatherley says.

"We understand new device-based payment systems are appealing, and we urge retailers like ourselves to consider zero-cost alternatives such as Bitcoin until the banks upgrade EFTPOS to support contactless payments," she says.

Mane Salon adopted Bitcoin in April 2014 to reduce creditcard processing fees and dependence on banks, and was one of New Zealand's first retailers to do so.

"After implementing a Bitcoin trial in April last year, today I've decided to permanently adopt Bitcoin as a payment option for customers," Weatherley says. "I hope that our example illustrates to other retailers that there are viable, lower-cost alternatives to expensive and proprietary creditcard-based contactless payment systems.