"Improved," "Upgraded" Service

[gnomi]

This morning, I took the bus, as usual, from Harvard St. to Harvard Square and then transfered to the Red Line to go to Kendall. Or, at least, that was the plan. I got the bus (after a longish, Very Cold wait) and used my Monthly Link Pass just fine. But when I got to Harvard (Church St. entrance), the automated fare gate wouldn't read my pass properly. It read my Link Pass as a Stored Value Card. Not only that, it told me it didn't have sufficient value on it.

Thank goodness, thought I, there was an attendant there. She opened the gate for me and asked me what was wrong.

"It's reading my pass as a Stored Value Card, even though it's a Monthly Link Pass," I said. "And it worked just fine when I boarded the bus a bit ago."

"Well, that's the problem," she said. "You can't use it so soon after just using it."

"But I do it every morning. And I know that the threshold to reuse is 15 minutes, and it's been much more than that," I said.

"Well, I can't tell you anything until I see the pass."

Just then, another official -- one I've known for a while -- walked past.

"How're you?" she asked.

"Pretty well, except that my Link Pass is registering as a Stored Value card and claims I don't have enough value on it."

"Oh," she said. "That happens sometimes. Don't worry about it." And then she headed into the official's booth, so I headed down the stairs to get my train.

But it bothered me that my pass wasn't working properly, so I called the T's Customer Service line and told the person who answered it the above story (up to the bit about the second official.)

"Oy. I don't know what sorts of idiots they're hiring there," the phone person said. She then transfered me to the Automated Fare Collection office. Where I got someone's voicemail, so I left a message.

I then called the T's complaint line to complain about the disinformation that the (first) official at Harvard was passing on. And the line rang and rang and rang and rang, with no voice mail or human picking up.

Is this sort of treatment what they meant when they said the improvements will bring "enhanced" customer service? If so, I'd like my old, classic, benign neglect back, please.

ETA: A follow-up

Comments

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

Wait a minute... are you telling me that if one boards a bus with a monthly pass, and it's a ten-minute ride to the subway station, the subway fare gate won't let one in for another five minutes?

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

No... that was part of the disinformation.

If you go down to the Red Line at Kendall, for instance, realize you're on the wrong side, and go back up and down on the other side, the fare gate may crank at you because it's too soon -- it's been like this for as long as I can remember with T passes; they're trying to keep people from using their pass and then passing it to a friend to use, thus cheating the system out of a fare. But I've boarded the bus and the Green Line within 5 minutes of each other on the same pass with no problem.

[chaos-wrangler.livejournal.com]

That sounds like the NYC MetroCards: you can transfer using a monthly pass but you can't get on the same bus line or enter the same subway station for about 20 minutes (I forget the exact timing).

[zsero.livejournal.com]

I think it's 18 minutes. Like the time it takes for flour and water to begin fermenting... But, as you say, it will work at a different station, or on a different bus line.

'Neath the streets of Boston

[lisafeld.livejournal.com]

And every day, mabfan threw gnomi a sandwich through the window...