Via Garibaldi 8 Posted December 1, 2014 Share #1 Posted December 1, 2014 MetroCard Glitch Snarls Commute for Nearly 10,000 Riders By PATRICK McGEEHAN DEC. 1, 2014 Nearly 10,000 commuters faced a rude welcome to December on Monday morning, when the MetroCards sent to them by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority proved worthless. Commuters rushing to get to work after the extended holiday weekend could not get through the turnstiles or past the fareboxes when they tried to swipe their new MetroCards. The cards, which should have been good for 30 days’ use of the city’s subway and bus systems, turned out to be good for none because of a coding error, said Aaron Donovan, a spokesman for the authority. Mr. Donovan said the “technical glitch” affected only those MetroCards attached to December monthly passes for riders on theLong Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad. He said that 7,100 Long Island customers and 2,800 Metro-North riders purchase MetroCards with their passes through the authority’s Mail & Ride program. Many of those customers transfer from commuter trains to the subway at Pennsylvania Station or Grand Central Terminal. The failure caused confusion and long lines of unhappy commuters at the authority’s booths at those stations. Unable to reach the authority through its overwhelmed website or by phone, many of them resorted to buying MetroCards to get to work with the hopes of sorting out the problem later. By midday, the authority advised the Mail & Ride customers to pay $112 each to buy new MetroCards that allow unlimited use of the transit systems for 30 days. Mr. Donovan said that most of them had not yet been charged for the inoperative ones because the program does not bill credit and debit cards until the third day of the month. Customers who use those forms of payment will have $119 deducted from their December charges, Mr. Donovan said. He said that amount should cover the additional dollar the authority charges for eachMetroCard dispensed by its machines and the cost of using the transit systems on Monday. The authority advised customers not to swipe the replacement MetroCards before Tuesday, so that they would last through Dec. 31. For the rest of the day on Monday, Mr. Donovan said, Mail & Ride customers would be waved into the subway or onto buses if they showed their passes, he said. The authority was not aware of the problem until the cards failed to work on Monday morning. Mr. Donovan said the authority hired a contractor to “do the coding” of the cards but had not determined if the problem was caused by the contractor or by the authority’s instructions to the contractor. “We’re a little unclear on where the error happened and why,” he said. But he said it had not occurred before and “it’s not expected to ever happen again.” As for those skeptical New Yorkers who expressed doubt about receiving a timely refund for their additional outlays, just as the holiday shopping season dawned, Mr. Donovan offered reassurance. “We are saying they absolutely will be credited,” he said. Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/02/nyregion/metrocard-glitch-snarls-commute-for-nearly-10000-riders.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peacemak3r Posted December 2, 2014 Share #2 Posted December 2, 2014 What a blunder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobtehpanda Posted December 2, 2014 Share #3 Posted December 2, 2014 This is what happens when we use a card system that even the vendor said was going to become obsolete when we introduced it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B35 via Church Posted December 2, 2014 Share #4 Posted December 2, 2014 So that's what the announcement on the platform was about...... I've already heard one conspiracist (on the same platform I was waiting on) stating how this was done purposefully because quote-unquote THEY WANT OUR MONEY, THEY WANT OUR f**king MONEY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FamousNYLover Posted December 2, 2014 Share #5 Posted December 2, 2014 After I went to MTA Public Hearing at Baruch College, when I went to LaGuardia Airport's Central Terminal, even small MetroCard Vending Machines were affected. I bet MVM at Hempstead Transit Center was affected as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Via Garibaldi 8 Posted December 2, 2014 Author Share #6 Posted December 2, 2014 So that's what the announcement on the platform was about...... I've already heard one conspiracist (on the same platform I was waiting on) stating how this was done purposefully because quote-unquote THEY WANT OUR MONEY, THEY WANT OUR f**king MONEY Well what I find mind boggling is that they actually outsource this task. This is what you get when you deal with an incompetent agency like the . When you think about it, I have to agree. When it comes to them giving refunds they are very slow with them. These people have bought monthly LIRR or MNRR passes, PLUS a monthly Metrocard, so you're talking about at least $300.00 or more, plus they have to buy another monthly and then wait to be reimbursed. That's a lot of money to put out right away for a service that you haven't even received. One guy said it best when he said that a lot of people are living paycheck to paycheck especially with the high taxes in Westchester and Long Island. The other thing is you can only be credited for the faulty Metrocard if you use a debit or credit card. If you pay in cash you may have a hard time being reimbursed for their mistake. Pretty pathetic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
46Dover Posted December 2, 2014 Share #7 Posted December 2, 2014 This is just horrible. Heads have to roll for this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Via Garibaldi 8 Posted December 2, 2014 Author Share #8 Posted December 2, 2014 This is just horrible. Heads have to roll for this Heh.... Yeah right... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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