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Woman gets world's most expensive subway ride
By adamg on Fri, 08/20/2010 - 12:07pm
File this under customer disservice. Stephanie Chelf reports her mother, who doesn't normally take the T (she usually takes a bus in from Andover), found herself at Wellington station on the Orange Line this morning, credit card and CharlieCard in hand, in front of a CharlieCard machine that didn't seem to want to let her add enough money for a ride into town.
"A frazzled T employee took her card and ran it without asking what she wanted," Chelf writes. Unfortunately for mom, the guy put a $60 monthly pass on her CharlieCard, instead of, oh, $1.70 for a single ride. Fine, mistakes happen, but when she complained, the guy said there was nothing he could do and she'd have to go to Downtown Crossing. Which she did, and where "they said 'write a letter' and she'd hear something in 3 months."
Chelf concludes: "WTF!"
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Comments
Was the T employee wearing...
One of those "Driven by Customer Service" vests?
"Most expensive subway ride?!?"
Not by a long shot. Now, if the tap reader at the faregate had deducted $60 for a $1.70 ride, THAT would have been expensive.
And IMO the woman might be able to dispute the charge with her credit card company as being unauthorized.
Just one more reason why people should carry at least a small amount of cash with them.
Assuming it takes the cash
I visited three T stations, and on average four machines at each attempting to add a variety of bills at each to my Charlie Card. Each and every bill was refused at each transaction attempt.
My impression is that the machines have an unacceptable false positive failure rate.
I complained to the T online, I was completely ignored, as far as I could tell.
Hadn't thought of that problem.
Since last April, I use an employer-issued debit card to get my commuter rail pass once a month. Prior to the change to the debit card system, I would get my pass issued to me directly from our payroll office. As such, I've never needed to conduct a cash transaction at a Charlie machine.
Link missing
Could you add in a link to whatever blog or news article you found this on?
Mostly e-mail
Well, technically Twitter DMs. Her initial tweet:
http://twitter.com/stephchelf/statuses/21672195472
Write Consumerist
This a story very worthy of Consumerist.com from Consumer Reports. Though I suspect the MBTA is immune to public pressure, the site has helped others in publicizing rotten customer service like this.
Of course, we know MBTA employees read UHub, but its just an outrageous story that it merits a wider audience.
And the Consumerist Suggestion Would Be...
To dispute just like the comments below. That's the best tool you have against mistakes on your credit card by big companies.
The customer should dispute this through her credit-card company
It is an unauthorized charge. No different than if Target had charged her $60 for what was supposed to be a $6 purchase.
This. When ATT charged me
This. When ATT charged me twice for my phone and told me it would be two weeks before I heard anything, Bank of America's reaction was to immediately remove the charge from my account. Odds are, her credit card company will do the same.
I'm also curious: Was it a pass for August or September? Because it would be really unfortunate if it was for August, since it's so late in the month!
Pass month changes on the 15th
If you buy a pass on or after the 15th of the month, you're buying next month's pass. (Which won't work this month! The T employee probably let her in through the gate after her purchase.)
I thought you had the option
I thought you had the option to buy either the current month or the next month? Given, I've been buying weeklies for the last 8 or 9 months for some reason, so I might be wrong.
Absolutely right
Forget messing around with MBTA customer services. Just refuse to pay the $60 to the credit card company.
(I'm not sure what other credit card companies do, but with mine it's pretty easy to dispute a charge. Log in online to your account, view recent charges, click on the charge in question, then click "Dispute this charge.")
The sad sadistic world of certain bus drivers
In related horrific service news: I stood at a stop along the 88 bus route yesterday, along with a woman with a baby and stroller. I saw the bus approaching ahead and was glad that it was on time. But then it...just. kept. going. Driver looked over and sped right past us. It was not out of service. There were passengers on the bus. It stopped at the next stop a block or so ahead. People at that corner saw me sprinting after it and tried to stop the bus, but he took off again.
I needed that bus to make a commuter rail train yesterday. Don't know what the woman and baby's plans were.
It is maddening that there is no way really to get through to the MBTA about these things.
Write to the top.
I've been on busses with drivers who refuse to pull over to a bus stop. At least I did get responses when I wrote to the manager of busses. They will need the bus number, direction and time.
Some managers seem to blow off complaints. Others respond. Give a try.
Give it a try, but don't
Give it a try, but don't expect anything at all. My complaint regarding an 89 driver who actually threatened a passenger and tried to start a fight has fallen on completely deaf ears.
At most you'll get a "We will take your comments into consideration" autoresponse. Man, I hate the lack of accountability at the MBTA!
Conference in a State Rep or Senator
We had problems with buses passing up the boys waiting at the stop with their "Out of Service" on, but picking up their friends and a parent two stops down.
When I got bullshit, I conferenced in a certain pol who had been holding the MBTA to the fire about shitty service on the 94 and 96, including "magically vanishing buses" that didn't run and making up time by skipping stops. Worked like a charm!
re: sadistic bus drivers
A few years ago, I remember waiting on a rainy day for a 43 bus near the Boylston T stop. The bus came, and ran right past me, even though I flagged him when he got near me. I caught up with it at the light at the corner, but the bus driver wouldn't let me on, claiming (yelling at me through the closed door, if I recall) that I had been waiting at the wrong stop - that is, I was waiting by the Silver Line sign a few feet away, and not the 43 sign. Of course, the fact that it was raining, and that from the pedestrian's side *behind* the signs, I didn't even realize that there was a difference between them fell on deaf ears - he just yelled at me to get out of the road so i wouldn't get run over, and took off.
And I had to hail a cab to get to work on time.
Thanks, MBTA, for the reasonable service. You'd think most bus drivers would have recognized the pitfall of the sineage problem, saw that I wanted to get on, and let me on, especially with the bad weather. No such luck.
Just waiting to be told to go to Downtown Crossing
My Charlie card developed a little crack at the bottom and it doesn't scan unless I put the entire thing on the card reader, and it usually takes a few times. I have to put up with it until the end of the month because the monthly pass is on there. A few bus drivers have looked at me quizzically when I show them the crack but none have mentioned Downtown yet.
Create a Mycharlie account
Create a Mycharlie account and report it lost
Site
http://www.mbta.com/fares_and_passes/charlie/?id=5...?
Hello, Hank?
If the local media pick up the story, she may get a faster resolution.
twitter gets results
she should complain to @mbtagm