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CurrentC blitzed with terrible reviews on Play Store after Apple Pay shut-out

Mobile payment app CurrentC has already been slammed with nearly 400 one-star reviews, despite not even officially launching until next year.

The app, built by Merchant Customer Exchange, and backed by a raft of US retailers including Walmart, 7-eleven, ExxonMobil, and Dunkin’ Donuts, is under-going an all out offensive on the Google Play Store.

It’s a result of an ongoing battle between Apple Pay and CurrentC’s backers that’s seen supporter firms blocking Apple’s payment system in advance of the CurrentC launch.

Walmart, Best Buy, Rite Aid, and CVS have all been confirmed to have either modified or disabled their NFC readers to stop customers using Apple Pay at their stores.

The riled-up corporations are shutting out Apple’s payment system in hopes of wooing customers with CurrentC when it becomes officially available in 2015.

It seems to have backfired however, with the mobile payment app now showing off 358 one-star reviews, compared to a meager 14 five-star reviews.

It’s doubly painful for CurrentC, as Google recently updated the Play Store to only show off apps with a 4-or-above average star score to reduce the catalogue of poor apps.

Jason Dabrowski, who reviewed the app today, wrote: “If retailers want to do NFC payments, they can re-enable Google Wallet and Apple Pay instead of disabling those services to try and force consumers in this direction.

Fellow reviewer Jessica Bligh posted: “You want bank account information? Absolutely not. Also not going to give up credit card rewards. I hate that because of this retailers are disabling NFC.”

A call-to-arms has also been posted on Reddit, inciting fellow users to slam the CurrentC app in hopes of reverting its backers’ decision to blockade Apple Pay.

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