Charlie Cards: Write to the Bottom
Dear MBTA: Are you trying to get people not to ride the T?
A quick mathematical analysis tells me this: my total T charges for parking and train after fair increase is $159/month. Cost for me to drive and park at work: $180. $21/month not to deal with any of the following crap (and I’m not even getting started on the poor train service and I ride the Red Line). I am a big believer in public transportation, but you are severely testing my patience.
This Charlie Card/Ticket/Pass (whatever it’s called) is absurd. People don’t understand how to use them, including your own employees. The “tickets” and the plastic cards that drain down the value…. I do understand those – because I went to the website and studied how they worked for awhile. But you’ve done an exceptionally piss poor job of explaining this to the general public. No where is this more true than for those of us who used to have the “all can ride” T pass.
First of all, why can’t it just continue to be called a T pass? It’s not even clear if it’s now called a Charlie Pass because (if you’re a subway or a bus rider), it’s now called a “Link Pass”, which seems to be the pass formerly known as the Combo Pass. What the fuck? No Subway only or Bus only passes anymore? This isn’t an issue for me as I use a Combo pass anyway, but for people who bought only a Subway or Bus pass, the “Link Pass”, now their only option, is significantly more expensive than their previous pass. However, again the education on this was non-existent. People do not understand what is changing about the passes, as I learned last week.
After being informed by my employer that the T will no longer be working with the provider which previously had allowed me to receive my T PASS in the mail and pay via payroll deduction. They would now be sending me a credit card which I could use to purchase my own Charlie Card/Ticket/Pass in the dreaded Charlie Card/Ticket/Pass machines each month. Never mind that this totally sucks - receiving the pass in the mail was a significantly more convenient. Never mind that half the time these machines have long lines, are down or not accepting credits (which would put me in the extremely unpleasant position of having already paid for the pass via payroll deduction, but now unable to use the ‘credit card’ to purchase the actual pass). I may get over all that (though not soon), but what I really can’t stand is that it’s nearly impossible to figure out how to use these machines without help, extra T personnel to help. I tried to buy my pass at the machine, I really did. I thought it would give me one of the plastic cards, but it won’t. You have to already have a plastic card, then you can “add value” to it. But I don’t want to add value, I just want my T pass! In the end, it gave me a paper ticket. There is no way this paper ticket is going to last for a whole month. It will undoubtedly disintegrate or get wet. So I went to the “Charlie Card Customer Service” booth in the station. I asked if I could change it for a plastic one and was told I could only do that at the Downtown Crossing station. So there was no service at the customer service booth.
The next day I happened through Downtown Crossing and went to “Customer Service” booth. It was quite a site. The line stretched the length of the station hallway and wasn’t moving. I was about to leave when the woman in front of me turned and said: I’ve been here every day this week and this is the shortest line yet. People were already antsy and complaining about how long they had been there. A T employee wandered up and down the line trying to get people to use the machines, but most people in the line were there because they had some problem using them. Finally an elderly woman yelled back: don’t tell me to use that damn machine, it’s impossible to figure out, it’s down half the time and I need my pass. Others in the line began yelling out as well: Why is there only 1 person in the booth? Why are the Charlie Tickets/Passes/Cards not good on the commuter rail – what about people who use both the train and the commuter rail (good question.. it’s not uncommon, stupid MBTA). Another woman got so fed up she just started yelling that the customer service sucks! Finally, I got close to the front of the line where a man was complaining that he had waited in line yesterday, explained that he used both the subway and commuter rail and had been given the wrong pass. The T employee, who had finger nails approximately 3 inches long (we’re talking like photo in the Guinness Book of the man with the longest nails in the world long), started yelling back at him that this was the only station handling problems, there were only 2 employees and they were being worked to the bone. OH this did not sit well with the line, which had only been growing. Good thing she was behind bullet proof glass. She went on to compound the issue when the next person asked for Subway Pass and was told: there is no more Subway Pass. Could she have explained that the name changed to Link Pass and it is now the only gig in town? Would it have been so hard? Apparently so because that is what she did and the guy seemed stumped. I’m sure her defense is she gets tired of answering the same questions all day, and perhaps that isn’t her fault, but if you get the same damn questions all day, perhaps the T could consider doing a better job of explaining their changes.
Can't wait to tomorrow - the first business day of the new, incomprehensible system. I'm expecting torches and pitch forks.
