GreenwaldPay

In theory I like this. You can pay with your phone and watch it’s status from wherever. However, after a year and a half of using it, here are my observations:1) be prepared to repeatedly punch your credit card information into the most questionably secure looking interface you’ve seen since the AOL era internet. No, it doesn’t take Apple Pay. No, it doesn’t remember your information. No, I’m not sure it’s secure in any way shape or form. I’m actually rather surprised this passed iOS certification.2) you can’t actually control how much money you feed it at once. You can’t type in an amount, and though the menu lets you select in $5 increments, if you attempt to feed it less than some arbitrary amount it won’t accept it, even though the interface offers it up as an option. This means there’s a good chance it’s going to force you to deposit $10 for that final load of laundry before you move.3) The system doesn’t actually reliably work with the machines when you are out of Bluetooth range. Waiting to see when that dryer becomes free? Well, there’s a good chance your app won’t actually update unless you’re in the room… at which point it’s kinda useless.4) there is no way to set up a shared family account, so the above problem of a lack of control over how much you deposit? Multiple that by however many people you have in your home doing laundry.5) the interface overall is clunky, unresponsive, and I’ve seen students who could create a better UX experience. This feels like a money grabbing scheme more than anything else. If you have the option to pay any other way, it’s probably better.

This app gives you the option to only load $5 but a message will come up saying amount not in range. So the next amount you have to do is $10. Not a huge deal but when someone isn’t going to stay long enough to use all of that then you have to get ahold of management and see if they can resolve the issue or have some quarters. But even then the machines might charge you a higher price for using quarters. There’s also an option to see if machines are in use before heading over to the laundry room. This is not accurate. The timer on the app to let you know when a load is done doesn’t match the timer on the machines at any point no matter which setting you do. It always counts down from 30 minutes. So when you see that all machines are saying available and then you get there only to find out that all the machines are still running with other peoples clothes gets frustrating.

Have quarters just in case. There are times you have to close it out completely to get it to work. Last week, it would close out whenever I tried to start the dryer. Imagine...8:30 pm and the cloths are wet from wash and all of a sudden it won’t work with the dryers. Every time you try, it closes out of the app. We didn’t have any quarters on hand an most businesses open that late, won’t give you quarters. Our neighbor had to give us quarters and we were still short one quarter. Went to the local 7-11 and they wouldn’t give me one quarter. Luckily for me a stranger heard me arguing with the clerk and hooked me up. Every time I do laundry, I’m nervous something will go wrong with the app. But when it does work...it’s convenient.