Ooooh, wanna hear another Presto story? A week ago Friday I got a "success, your auto-topup contract has been cancelled". I wasn't able to do much over the weekend, and visited my local station attendant on Monday.
According to his system, I was in a negative balance of 40-something dollars. Strange, but I deposited $100 onto the card, thinking I'd call Presto when I got to the office.
I called, but apparently I had to wait 24-48 hours for the account to update. That night I tapped for my ride home and got an "insufficient funds" message. This is after I had put $100 on to cover a $40-ish debit situation. GO lady at Union recommended not putting any more money on the card, and I bought a single ride (mind, this on May 26 when the end of month discounts should have been coming through).
Next morning, my home station attendant recognizes me, calls his supervisor at GO, and gives me a day pass (thanks Jeff!). I don't hear back until Thursday, and it appears that Presto was using the wrong expiry date for my credit card (which I remember changing in September), and two payments bounced (one on the 23rd, another on the 26th, the reason I had a negative balance after putting the money on the card on Monday!)
I called Presto on Thursday, arranged to pay the current overdraft on the card to bring it to a zero balance. However, all this time my card balance has shown as $57.11 - the amount is was on Monday when I put the $100 on. I even called today, and was told the balance was $57.11 - until I told her the issue and now the balance is $0.... but is it??
Anyhoodles, I now have a new card that will be manually loaded - no more of this boondoggle!
Just so everyone knows no politician wants to touch Presto and politicians who would are retiring. The Liberals don't care. And the NDP folks? I had to school three of them on what PRESTO was. The conservative candidates who felt like returning my phone calls said they weren't sure what the Libs could do since it's a non-gov agency that actually built the platform.
I want you all to know that I exhausted my bandwidth on getting anyone to listen how bad this hunk of junk is, how our money is held hostage. There is no industry that regulates it. It's a policy problem! A POLICY PROBLEM??? How the hell is a fare payment system policy? Really?! It's OHIP for transit passengers?
re: "a non-gov agency that actually built the platform". WTF? It's our tax dollars that paid for this crap. If we buy a consumer product and it's a lemon, do we not apply pressure for satisfaction, i.e. refund or replacement? Why won't our government? Metrolinx falls under the purview of MTO.
For some reason the media in Toronto won't touch a PRESTO story. CTV Vancouver ran this expose of TransLink’s Compass Card: http://bit.ly/1kuFYZD CTV Toronto on PRESTO? Not a peep.
It's time to escalate the matter to the upper echelons of Metrolinx directly: http://bit.ly/1nm7jNz
After the provincial election, it's time to hammer away at your MPP. Local transit users can put their city and regional councillors in their sites.
8 comments:
This picture is confusing.
Because the money never showed up and you feel like you put it in the bowl for Jesus.
Or because the money did show up and you were throwing up your hands to praise the train gods?
Who clicked chainsaw? That cat is adorable!
The money showed up and I felt like you do at church when you're collecting the baskets and you see money in them.
Ooooh, wanna hear another Presto story? A week ago Friday I got a "success, your auto-topup contract has been cancelled". I wasn't able to do much over the weekend, and visited my local station attendant on Monday.
According to his system, I was in a negative balance of 40-something dollars. Strange, but I deposited $100 onto the card, thinking I'd call Presto when I got to the office.
I called, but apparently I had to wait 24-48 hours for the account to update. That night I tapped for my ride home and got an "insufficient funds" message. This is after I had put $100 on to cover a $40-ish debit situation. GO lady at Union recommended not putting any more money on the card, and I bought a single ride (mind, this on May 26 when the end of month discounts should have been coming through).
Next morning, my home station attendant recognizes me, calls his supervisor at GO, and gives me a day pass (thanks Jeff!). I don't hear back until Thursday, and it appears that Presto was using the wrong expiry date for my credit card (which I remember changing in September), and two payments bounced (one on the 23rd, another on the 26th, the reason I had a negative balance after putting the money on the card on Monday!)
I called Presto on Thursday, arranged to pay the current overdraft on the card to bring it to a zero balance. However, all this time my card balance has shown as $57.11 - the amount is was on Monday when I put the $100 on. I even called today, and was told the balance was $57.11 - until I told her the issue and now the balance is $0.... but is it??
Anyhoodles, I now have a new card that will be manually loaded - no more of this boondoggle!
(sorry for the length)
Oh my sweet Jesus - what an absolute shitshow.
Just so everyone knows no politician wants to touch Presto and politicians who would are retiring. The Liberals don't care. And the NDP folks? I had to school three of them on what PRESTO was. The conservative candidates who felt like returning my phone calls said they weren't sure what the Libs could do since it's a non-gov agency that actually built the platform.
I want you all to know that I exhausted my bandwidth on getting anyone to listen how bad this hunk of junk is, how our money is held hostage. There is no industry that regulates it. It's a policy problem! A POLICY PROBLEM??? How the hell is a fare payment system policy? Really?! It's OHIP for transit passengers?
I'm done. I'm out. I. Just. Can't.
re: "a non-gov agency that actually built the platform". WTF? It's our tax dollars that paid for this crap. If we buy a consumer product and it's a lemon, do we not apply pressure for satisfaction, i.e. refund or replacement? Why won't our government? Metrolinx falls under the purview of MTO.
For some reason the media in Toronto won't touch a PRESTO story. CTV Vancouver ran this expose of TransLink’s Compass Card: http://bit.ly/1kuFYZD CTV Toronto on PRESTO? Not a peep.
It's time to escalate the matter to the upper echelons of Metrolinx directly: http://bit.ly/1nm7jNz
After the provincial election, it's time to hammer away at your MPP. Local transit users can put their city and regional councillors in their sites.
How about they take some of that fucking money and turn on the A/C in the cars?
Three cheers for Jeff!!!
^hell yes for the A/C!
I will never use autopay - attendants only!
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