PinePower Posted April 15, 2014 Share #1 Posted April 15, 2014 Hopefully no one minds if I post this in a seperate thread, but I think NICE Bus fareboxes are scratching up Metrocards, and causing Read Errors. After having my EasyPay Metrocard damaged by NICE in March, it took 3 weeks to get a new card, which I recieved just over a week ago. 2 buses gave me Read Errors today, and I took a photo of the card and noticed a very small scratch on it already. I store my card in a Metrocard holder so the scratch must have come from a NICE Bus farebox. A close up photo of my NEW card. Now look at the old card, it has marks in a similar place! It was only about a year old! I'm going to be sharing these images with NICE as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PinePower Posted April 15, 2014 Author Share #2 Posted April 15, 2014 This has been going on since NICE maintenance started dropping in 2012. This isn't anything new. It's not getting any better, I know, but Setzer lied through his teeth about "fixing the card problems" at the last meeting. NICE Bus seems to be one big spin machine, they seem to be wearing rose-colored classes. When the meeting's minutes are released you'll see his lies about it, and he also claimed to have "no idea" about the increase in breakdowns. But I've had enough, as long as its not storming if there's a train station where I'm going, its LIRR for me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B35 via Church Posted April 15, 2014 Share #3 Posted April 15, 2014 Yeah, a co-worker of mine complains about this very thing..... He says he has to dunk (lol) his metrocard in the machine several times, and then the farebox simply reads "OK"..... I lol'd when he said the "OK" part.... do the fareboxes really show that shit? WTF is OK? LMAO! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PinePower Posted April 15, 2014 Author Share #4 Posted April 15, 2014 Well with me it says "Pass OK" when it works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Meadow Posted April 15, 2014 Share #5 Posted April 15, 2014 I was walking earlier on long beach road in long beach. I seen a nice bus drive heading to the bus station.On the sign it said n22 not n15 also the bus had passengers on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N6 Limited Posted April 15, 2014 Share #6 Posted April 15, 2014 I have a transitchek metrocard and last week or so I got on a bus and it's said "invalid card" or something. I didn't note the bus number but that's annoying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PinePower Posted April 15, 2014 Author Share #7 Posted April 15, 2014 I have a transitchek metrocard and last week or so I got on a bus and it's said "invalid card" or something. I didn't note the bus number but that's annoying. I had that happened to me once back in the LIB days. Not sure how that happened, but everyone else's cards did the same thing. I'm wondering if there's some programming issue (beyond dirty readers) that cause these errors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbo19 Posted April 15, 2014 Share #8 Posted April 15, 2014 I had that happened to me once back in the LIB days. Not sure how that happened, but everyone else's cards did the same thing. I'm wondering if there's some programming issue (beyond dirty readers) that cause these errors. Would it be farfetched to assume that NICE is purposely not attending to the issue to possibly sucker some extra cash fares, on top of whatever portion of the Metrocard fares? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amtrak7 Posted April 15, 2014 Share #9 Posted April 15, 2014 With EasyPayXpress, even the pay per ride version, the system thinks it's an unlimited. The beep is that of an unlimited card, the screen says "PASS OK" on the bus, or just "GO" on the subway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PinePower Posted April 15, 2014 Author Share #10 Posted April 15, 2014 Would it be farfetched to assume that NICE is purposely not attending to the issue to possibly sucker some extra cash fares, on top of whatever portion of the Metrocard fares? Sometimes that's what I think. They actually did call me in response to my complaint, said next time to note each bus # it happens on & send them a message about it. They agreed the driver shouldn't be giving me a hard time about it, since it isn't my fault. We'll see where it goes from here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burrstone Posted April 16, 2014 Share #11 Posted April 16, 2014 I had subway turnstyle mess up my card a while back.... I went up to the booth and the guy told me that there was now an error code in the magnetic strip and all I could was mail away for a refund... I continued to use the card because this was shortly after the news story about NICE fairboxes, I was intent on using it until it would equal out the money I had left on my card. The first time I got an error, towards the end of my trip I noticed that everyone's card was not working. The same thing happened the next time, I was curious the third time, someone got on the bus and paid just fine using a metrocard my card got an error, everyone after me got the same error. That was the last time I used that card.... There appears to be an error or virus in the system that either messes up the farebox, wipes the meterocard,or puts the same error on each magnet strip there after. I am 100% positive it was a subway turnsyle that messed up my card, I wouldn't be surprised at all if the MTA put a virus or glitch into the system to screw with NICE... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobtehpanda Posted April 17, 2014 Share #12 Posted April 17, 2014 I had subway turnstyle mess up my card a while back.... I went up to the booth and the guy told me that there was now an error code in the magnetic strip and all I could was mail away for a refund... I continued to use the card because this was shortly after the news story about NICE fairboxes, I was intent on using it until it would equal out the money I had left on my card. The first time I got an error, towards the end of my trip I noticed that everyone's card was not working. The same thing happened the next time, I was curious the third time, someone got on the bus and paid just fine using a metrocard my card got an error, everyone after me got the same error. That was the last time I used that card.... There appears to be an error or virus in the system that either messes up the farebox, wipes the meterocard,or puts the same error on each magnet strip there after. I am 100% positive it was a subway turnsyle that messed up my card, I wouldn't be surprised at all if the MTA put a virus or glitch into the system to screw with NICE... I mean, the Metrocard is not supposed to be viable past 2019; in fact, the vendor who gave us the Metrocard actually recommended against it, because by that time smartcards were becoming a mature technology. As the '90s era technology ages into its second decade of operation, we should expect to see more failures, particularly on bus fareboxes (which have always been more problematic than turnstiles with the cards). It's way past its useful lifetime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burrstone Posted April 18, 2014 Share #13 Posted April 18, 2014 I mean, the Metrocard is not supposed to be viable past 2019; in fact, the vendor who gave us the Metrocard actually recommended against it, because by that time smartcards were becoming a mature technology. As the '90s era technology ages into its second decade of operation, we should expect to see more failures, particularly on bus fareboxes (which have always been more problematic than turnstiles with the cards). It's way past its useful lifetime. I know this, I have posted about this in the past... What does it have to do with my post (as you did quote my post I just don't know what this random fact has to do with my post)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobtehpanda Posted April 19, 2014 Share #14 Posted April 19, 2014 I know this, I have posted about this in the past... What does it have to do with my post (as you did quote my post I just don't know what this random fact has to do with my post)? The system is crapping out more and more everywhere, whether you're a NICE rider or a MTA rider or what have you. It's certainly not some sort of evil conspiracy (because that would assume the MTA management is competent and organized enough to have such a conspiracy in the first place) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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