Lennyj17 Posted August 21, 2012 Share #1 Posted August 21, 2012 Last night was Hell for me coming home from work.....I knew in the Morning I needed to refill my MC since I had less than 2.25 once I got my balance on the Q25. I didn't bother refilling at the because I was rushing, I said I'll do when I come home. OK FFWD to 5:30pm......@ TSQ entrance on 41st around the corner from Red Lobster....Refilling my card with my Debit taking eons to even Process the card, then it comes back "Cannot Process Your card please try again" did it a 2nd time, same thing....3rd time this time I use the ATM card function instead of credit...enter my PIN still comes back "Cannot Process" but it did return the error a lot faster. ( this was on one of the small C&D Card only MVM's)...So then I try one of the Cash MVMs...Same results as the Smaller MVM's...and no sign above the MVMs stating "Cash Only".... So I walk over to the Main TSQ entrance with the Token Booth Clerk, and boy it was a long line mess at the MVM with the Tourist confused as hell...All of the Cash MVMs were Reading "CASH ONLY" on their displays and with the lines I knew it was the same thing happening here. Token booth Clerk was overwhelmed so I didn't even bother to ask what the hell was going on. After spending 30 mins trying to refill my MC with my Debit....I finally broke down and ran to Citibank and got cash.. Which brings me to my question, What ever causes the MVMs to not or stop accepting Debit and Credit cards for refilling? It's not like Cash where the machine needs emptied out before it can accept anymore bills or the bill reader is malfunctioning. BTW the Card reader were not malfunctioning as it always asked for either my zip or my PIN. We live in Cashless society, I haven't used cash to refill my MC in gosh its had to have been at least 5 years now if not longer...and when you run into the Cash Only situations like last night boy that is Hell. Another thing is I couldn't tell if this was just TSQ machines or if it was systemwide...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quill Depot Posted August 21, 2012 Share #2 Posted August 21, 2012 Well, they have to process them, the MTA has to get in track with banks, all stuff they don't want to do. I'm not sure. That's probably why. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Via Garibaldi 8 Posted August 21, 2012 Share #3 Posted August 21, 2012 If I were you, I would've done two things... I would've went to another station entirely and tried there and I would've checked with my bank to make sure that they hadn't put a block on your card. Bank of America and CitiBank are infamous for doing this... I have been in that situation where one station (in my case Union Square), didn't take credit or debit cards at the time I needed a card. The problem for me was that I was trying to catch the last express bus back to Staten Island and my Express Bus Plus card was set to expire at 00:00 (though they give you a small grace period before the card actually expires after 00:00), so I had to swipe my Unlimited Express Bus Plus card and hop back on the subway and go down to a station far enough so that I had time to get my card and still get over to the bus to catch it. As for why they have this issue, it happens on occasion and there is no real rhyme or reason for it but it is sometimes just limited to specific stations or sometimes it hits the entire system. The thing is though, you should note that after a certain amount of tries, the blocks your card to prevent fraud, which would explain why the error messages came back faster after a while. At one time I was told that you were only allowed to make two transactions at one time and then they would block the card automatically for something like five days. However, that may have changed, because I've been able to use my Amex card on multiple occasions for MetroNorth tickets and Express Bus Metrocards as well. I'm going to try to experiment at some point trying to get several Express Bus Plus Metrocards because to be honest it would be nice to get several at a time this way I don't have to keep going to refill and such after two weeks. In other words getting two on one day and then trying to get a few more the next day using the same card and see what happens. In the worst case scenario though, if there is one card that you really want to use and you find out that the put a temporary block on it, you can call them and have them remove it for you so that you can get more MetroCards or whatever. I've done it myself. Or better yet, being able to put several refills on one card to avoid having to buy multiple ones. I wonder if they're going to change the amount of times that you can put refills on one MetroCard at one because as it currently stands, you can only put one refill one each card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoSpectacular Posted August 21, 2012 Share #4 Posted August 21, 2012 Sometimes their systems go down and EVERY machine will say "CASH ONLY". I've seen this a number of times, could be cause their systems are down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youngblaze Posted August 21, 2012 Share #5 Posted August 21, 2012 I remember before I became a B/O I had this issue purchasing an unlimited card I swiped 3 times with the same "can not process" crap. It eventually went through. When I got home I checked my checking account info online and it showed I was charged for 4 monthly metrocards ($416...no bueno lol) I called the bank and they reversed the charges. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Via Garibaldi 8 Posted August 21, 2012 Share #6 Posted August 21, 2012 I remember before I became a B/O I had this issue purchasing an unlimited card I swiped 3 times with the same "can not process" crap. It eventually went through and when I got home checked my checking account info online and it showed I was charged for 4 monthly metrocards ($416...no bueno lol) I called the bank and they reversed the charges. Yeah that's another issue and why I no longer use any debit cards for Metrocards... I once swiped my bank card at the Bowling Green station to get two Express Bus Plus cards and both times I got no Metrocard. After three tries I gave up, only to check my account and they had held the monies for the transactions, but I still had no card. I had to wait several days for the pending charges to drop off. Really annoying. Now what I do is use my Amex because I don't have to worry about monies being held up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azspeedbullet Posted August 21, 2012 Share #7 Posted August 21, 2012 Check your bank statement carefully. Last time this happen to me, i had like 5 pending metrocard charges on my statement. It took about a week and half before chase finally dropped those pending charges on my debit card Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennyj17 Posted August 21, 2012 Author Share #8 Posted August 21, 2012 I did check my balance on the as soon as we came above ground from Hunters Point....and it didn't charge me any extra. Trust me I heard of the Double and Triple transactions horror stories. If the D&C only MVMs cannot process Cards at the time, they should shut themselves down since they're not good for anything at that point. And the Cash MVM should display "Cash Only" signs....The TSQ Cash MVM were displaying Cash Only properly... only the Cash MVM had no such notice on its Display it was displaying a general message in Green as if nothing was wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Via Garibaldi 8 Posted August 21, 2012 Share #9 Posted August 21, 2012 I did check my balance on the as soon as we came above ground from Hunters Point....and it didn't charge me any extra. Trust me I heard of the Double and Triple transactions horror stories. If the D&C only MVMs cannot process Cards at the time, they should shut themselves down since they're not good for anything at that point. And the Cash MVM should display "Cash Only" signs....The TSQ Cash MVM were displaying Cash Only properly... only the Cash MVM had no such notice on its Display it was displaying a general message in Green as if nothing was wrong. The problem is that sometimes the isn't aware of the glitch until maybe the following day. A few months ago, one of the ticket machines at the Spuyten Duyvil MetroNorth station kept was screwed up. You'd put in your zip code after swiping the card and it wouldn't process the transaction, so you had to swipe again and put in the zip code and then it would process it. I was only charged once as I should've been and the following day I noticed that the machine was fine. Quite frankly what will be great is the day in which we can refill our cards ONLINE. I live for that day because it can be a royal pain to have to go and get cash out for a MetroCard, not to mention that if you lose the card you're basically **** out of luck if you pay with cash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennyj17 Posted August 21, 2012 Author Share #10 Posted August 21, 2012 Quite frankly what will be great is the day in which we can refill our cards ONLINE. I live for that day because it can be a royal pain to have to go and get cash out for a MetroCard, not to mention that if you lose the card you're basically **** out of luck if you pay with cash. AMEN! That's what we really need ....Online and via an app for Smartphones....Something tells me we won't see this until we have Tap-N-Go Metrocards....the Magnetic Stripe need to be physically written with new fare data, hence why we need to use the MVM... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fresh Pond Posted August 21, 2012 Share #11 Posted August 21, 2012 Sometimes their systems go down and EVERY machine will say "CASH ONLY". I've seen this a number of times, could be cause their systems are down. Either that or the system is out for maintenance. Happens like once every month or so Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Sith Posted August 21, 2012 Share #12 Posted August 21, 2012 Also depends on the stations, the readers can be either dirty or broken. I've ran into a number of broken readers (Especially at WTC PATH), and some extremely dirty ones (Jamaica Center, Lefferts Blvd, Delancey Street and a few others) that were some of the causes that my card didnt read at times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lennyj17 Posted August 22, 2012 Author Share #13 Posted August 22, 2012 Also depends on the stations, the readers can be either dirty or broken. I've ran into a number of broken readers (Especially at WTC PATH), and some extremely dirty ones (Jamaica Center, Lefferts Blvd, Delancey Street and a few others) that were some of the causes that my card didnt read at times. I understand that, this wasn't the problem here...If it was dirty readers then I never would've gotten to the point of entering my Zip or PIN it wouldve just kept telling me that it "couldn't read my card please try again"...again this was effecting all the machines in TSQ the ones at the main entrance with the booth and all the tourist on 42nd, and the entrance on 41st... Come to think of it when I got off the in Flushing it looked as if there was no problem with people refilling there, every MVM (Cash and C&D only) had someone at them. So this was just a problem with TSQ or Manhattan MVMs. EDIT: I also found this story from 2008 seems it was system wide then....don't know where I was at, at the time but man when MVM cannot process plastic it is a b*tch. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/nyregion/29subway.html?fta=y Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Via Garibaldi 8 Posted August 22, 2012 Share #14 Posted August 22, 2012 I understand that, this wasn't the problem here...If it was dirty readers then I never would've gotten to the point of entering my Zip or PIN it wouldve just kept telling me that it "couldn't read my card please try again"...again this was effecting all the machines in TSQ the ones at the main entrance with the booth and all the tourist on 42nd, and the entrance on 41st... Come to think of it when I got off the in Flushing it looked as if there was no problem with people refilling there, every MVM (Cash and C&D only) had someone at them. So this was just a problem with TSQ or Manhattan MVMs. EDIT: I also found this story from 2008 seems it was system wide then....don't know where I was at, at the time but man when MVM cannot process plastic it is a b*tch. http://www.nytimes.c...bway.html?fta=y Yeah I remember that time and yes it was a glitch system wide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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