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How many T workers does it take to issue a senior pass?
By adamg on Wed, 08/12/2015 - 3:08pm
Beetlejuice's waiting room in the afterlife, T edition. Photo by Paul Levy.
Fresh off his 65th birthday, Paul Levy descended into the bowels of Downtown Crossing today to get one of the senior T passes to which he's now entitled. Levy, who knows something about complex systems - he oversaw the construction of Deer Island and rescued Beth Israel Hospital from bankruptcy - was amazed, and not in a good way. At 12:11 p.m., he tweeted:
Hey @mbta, Charlie Card Store line is crazy long, and hot down here! @MassGovernor pls note. Worse than RMV by far.
He then posted the above photo a minute after that. We next heard from him at 12:43:
4, count 'em, 4 senior passes issued by 3-man team at desk in one hour @mbta Charlie Card office, @MassGovernor.
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Comments
Commuter Checks
Used to have to buy passes at one of those windows with commuter checks from work and it was always an awful and hot and long wait. I presume people still need to do that as you can't exactly use a commuter check at the fare machines.
Can't you do the same at
Can't you do the same at South Station?
No, it used to be that you
No, it used to be that you could get the passes at Back Bay, but a few years ago they moved it all to one office at Downtown Crossing.
South Station
As of about two years ago you could get them at South Station. That was the last time I had to do it. Thank God.
Still in use?
Not sure if paper commuter checks are still in use or not. The way my company does it is they issue you a debit card which you're only allowed to use for stuff like T passes. Since it acts like a Visa card, you can use it at the regular fare machines to buy your pass.
I bet it's supposed to be a...
4-man team. Someone called in sick.
You mean they might have
You mean they might have actually been able to crank out FIVE passes in an hour if they had been fully staffed?
Difficulties with reduced-fare CharlieCards
What is it specifically about reduced-fare CharlieCards that makes it so difficult for the T to process? Why are they "unable to produce reduced-fare CharlieCards" what seems like every other day for the past 6 months? Seriously, I see this tweet from the T at least a couple times a week.
Nothing Specific.....
....everything the MBTA does is just like this. No discrimination against Seniors here. The MBTA shits on everybody.
The Charliecard store is a joke.
It's a joke in which we're all the punchline...or punching bag.
I once had to go to the
I once had to go to the Charlie Store, and it was a rather unpleasant scene.
That line in the picture is just to get a number. Then you sit until they call you.
They don't want the line blocking the passageway, so you're supposed to wait back by the columns. But some people didn't understand that and lined up directly at the doorway, which led to a dispute. Various people who weren't involved but were waiting or just hanging around joined in the shouting match.
None of this bureaucracy needs to exist. Everything except issuing senior/TAP passes is due to shortcomings in the system. And the reduced fare passes really should be handled by mail. Other big transit systems, including NYC's, provide this option.
The customer is always wrong
Somethings wrong the quota is one pass an hour per employee, I'm sure they have a police detail to protect the hard working employees from the angry mobs
Phone Service
MBTA phone customer service is awesome. I had a damaged Charlie Card with a monthly link pass. At the Charlie Card Store the staff told me I should be more careful with my card and told me to go away because I had purchased the pass online. When I called phone service, they refunded me and apologized.
Worse than the RMV?
I walk by this place every day on my way to work and there is always a line. Morning and afternoon/night... never ceases to amaze me.
I had to deal with both in the same week last summer
T is far better than the RMV.
At least, better than the RMV in Wilmington which is staffed by the laziest and stupidest relatives of local politicians that they could find anywhere.
Contact Office of the CEO 857-368-8892
What if several folks concerned contacted the Office of the CEO 857-368-8892 ?
http://www.massdot.state.ma.us/AboutUs.aspx
Good idea. I'm sure that will
Good idea. I'm sure that will inspire the Secretary to give a measurable fraction of a flying fuck.
No
Tweet at him! Snarky vitriol on Twitter seems to be more effective than following the proper avenues for lodging a formal complaint these days.
The T has several employees
The T has several employees whose sole job is answering tweets, apparently.
What is proper?
The proper way being to call so that the level of public discontent is kept distinctly not public? Unfortunately, using social media is the most effective way because it is so public. It's a damn shame that the only thing that spurs public agencies in to correcting public issues is a good public shaming.
If your Charliecard with a pass inexplicably stops working,
this hellish place is where you have to go. It's a fucking nightmare. I no longer use Charliecards for my pass because the cards constantly stop working. Now I only use Charlie Tickets with a clear date and time stamp. Even these things will suddenly die, but at least you can show the ticket with the date and time stamp.
The MBTA seems to primarily exist for providing jobs for those with connections and/or quota/benchmark folks. Servicing their debts, pension and healthcare costs, for both retired and active employees, must be brutal.
Regular Charlie Cards expire - who knew?
I had the displeasure of visiting the Charlie Card office a few months ago when my perfectly fine/valid fare card stopped working due to the fact it had "expired". The only way to transfer the loaded balance to a new card was to visit this local version of the waiting room from Beetlejuice. Staff was moving at their usual glacial pace. Overall, not really a positive customer service experience (and a wasted 90 minutes for no real reason, the "expired" Charlie Card was working perfectly fine until the MBTA shut it off, stranding me at an Orange Line station one morning)
This happened to my first
This happened to my first Charlie Card. The trick to avoid the horrendous Charlie Store is here:
http://www.mbta.com/fares_and_passes/charlie/defau...
They sent me my remaining value on a Charlie Ticket, and I transferred that to a new Charlie Card, if I recall correctly.
The only way to transfer
The only way to transfer value from a CharlieTicket to a card is to visit the Charlie Store.
The T did make an effort to
The T did make an effort to inform people about the expiration date of cards when the first big batch of cards was expiring, but other than that, I don't hear it mentioned ever.
a lackluster effort - fare machines didn't say anything
I had a card expire last month. I had just put money on it a few days ago. You'd think the fare machine could have given me a warning - "Dear passenger, this card expires in 7 days. Here are instructions on how to get a new one ..."
Not true though
My parents had an original-run Charlie Card die on a visit in April 2013 (literally, they tapped it on the fare box on the way to our destination and it was dead a few hours later on the return trip.)
The first news article I can find of "Heads up, your old Charlie Cards are going to expire!" is February 2014.
uhub scoops the CharlieCard story
I first heard about CharlieCard expiration right here on Universal Hub. http://www.universalhub.com/2011/impending-fifth-anniversary-charliecard...
The first batch of cards expired after 5 years, in the fall of 2011.
Later batches of cards last 10 years. So we're going to have this discussion again in 2021.
Why does a piece of
Why does a piece of reloadable plastic expire?
Because the software says it
Because the software says it does.
Supposedly they were afraid of cards randomly failing without warning after years of use. To prevent this, they made hundreds of thousands of cards artificially fail without warning, all at the same time.
My guess is that the
My guess is that the companies that make the fare cards have improved the technology over time to make them more reliable, faster, sturdier, etc. Other cities have improved their fare cards over time too. T just wanted to phase out the old technology, but then forgot to tell most people.
my perfectly fine/valid fare
Yes, this happened to me this week. Ridiculous. A piece of plastic with an RFID tag has no reason to expire, and there was no warning the last time I added balance to the card or the last time I used it. Now, I have to choose between mailing my card into the void and hoping it doesn't get lost, or taking a day off of work to go to the Charlie Card office. Not a fun choice.
Senior T Cards
The Charlie Store is probably busy around noon with people on their lunch hours.
I've had my Senior card since turning 65 and when you apply you have a photo taken
that is put on the card. I'm thinking that's where the delay is as it takes a few minutes to
complete the process from start to finish. It clearly states on the card that it's valid
for 10 years. It's quite a good deal: 50% off on the T and Commuter Rail also.
Deal with it! Busy office, noon time crowd, downtown Boston. From this point on
only one thing in life will be fatal!!
New process
MBTA web site is now saying they will mail you the new cards but that has been ongoing for a while.
When i renewed my TAP/Senior card a few years back they transferred my remaining cash value to a paper Charlie Ticket. That ticket had an expiration date on it about 3-4 weeks out. They then mailed me my new plastic card with picture in the mail.
If you had anything left on the paper ticket you could either mail it in (see other thread) or try visiting the Charlie store. Uncertain if that still works, to transfer the value. Or just use up what was on it if you were within the Cinderella period.
I found a store near me that does train tickets and will also add passes and value to a Charlie card or TAP/Senior card but they are cash only. If I need to I use it in a pinch.
Does the area down the hall
Does the area down the hall from this place (near the gates where you enter the Red/Orange lines) still smell like diarrhea?
Senior T pass
Had no problems, walked in 10 minutes later walked out, pass in hand. Lucky?