Ventra - Bugs, Feedback, and Questions

[Amtrak41]

Oh I got off of that. Don't worry.

Back east here, SEPTA will do similar pretty soon, not just with all of its train and bus transit, and regional rail as well.

[Busjack]

For the record, our Kevin posted on the CTA Tattler a picture of the Ventra machine, which at least takes care of the issue of fare deception if one reads the "contactless bankcard" column before tapping it.

He pointed out that one doesn't have to register the transit account, but I believe trigger pointed out that if your bank card is stolen, you have to register it to cancel that account.

[Vinny]

Curious how long it takes for your balance/pass to transfer. Took 20 hours for me.

Did mine yesterday (no pass, just value). The balance showed in Ventra within an hour and it worked this morning when I rode the bus. However, I used the CCP yesterday before activating the Ventra card and that activity didn't clear until today. I imagine they will adjust the transfer amount.

[Busjack]

The CTA Tattler had reported someone getting 271 Ventra cards; the Tribune has a picture of his mailbox.

[BusHunter]

Looks like all the procrastinators out there will soon be on ventra whether they like it or not. All the currency exchanges/stores say CTA is no longer suppling them with passes.BTW, i'm now hearing people are having negative balances while being on a pass. You can get your money back from ventra but who wants to police this. It's just more headaches. I'm seeing people swipe there cards up to four times to ride. That's faster? Drivers do seem vigilant on not letting people ride with a stop indication. There's going to be lots og arguments when these cards fail.

[Busjack]

Looks like all the procrastinators out there will soon be on ventra whether they like it or not. All the currency exchanges/stores say CTA is no longer suppling them with passes.BTW, i'm now hearing people are having negative balances while being on a pass. You can get your money back from ventra but who wants to police this. It's just more headaches. I'm seeing people swipe there cards up to four times to ride. That's faster? Drivers do seem vigilant on not letting people ride with a stop indication. There's going to be lots og arguments when these cards fail.

Both of your points seem related to the ones about people being charged twice for a ride in that it appears that the reader isn't accepting the cards, but maybe they are, and treating it as a "passback." Sort of similar to an ATM charging me but not dispensing cash, but at least I have a "private banker" to straighten it out.

[Amtrak41]

Any rumors yet about postponing the timetable in getting off cards, CC, CCP ?

[Busjack]

Any rumors yet about postponing the timetable in getting off cards, CC, CCP ?

Nope. Only report was that Tammy Chase was going to look into the guy who got 271 cards.

BusHunter's post indicates to the contrary.

[owine]

It definitely takes a little getting used to for the reaction time of the Ventra reader especially because there is no processing feedback. Just the Go/Stop graphic. It takes longer than the CC/CCP, some feedback that it read your card and "is thinking" would be a nice addition.

[Busjack]

It definitely takes a little getting used to for the reaction time of the Ventra reader especially because there is no processing feedback. Just the Go/Stop graphic. It takes longer than the CC/CCP, some feedback that it read your card and "is thinking" would be a nice addition.

Grocery store credit card readers at least say "Processing............"

Obviously, a long processing time doesn't help bus boarding.

[jajuan]

Looks like all the procrastinators out there will soon be on ventra whether they like it or not. All the currency exchanges/stores say CTA is no longer suppling them with passes.BTW, i'm now hearing people are having negative balances while being on a pass. You can get your money back from ventra but who wants to police this. It's just more headaches. I'm seeing people swipe there cards up to four times to ride. That's faster? Drivers do seem vigilant on not letting people ride with a stop indication. There's going to be lots og arguments when these cards fail.

Yes Monday is supposed to be the official date that CTA stops selling the old cards directly or supplying them to the stores or currency exchanges. A couple of friends of mine who work at a Jewel service desk told me at that point they'll just be selling through what they have left and once they run out that's it. They won't be able to order anymore of those cards. According to the CTA transition timetable pdf, that only applies to the unlimited ride passes. Stored value transit cards will be no more and won't be sold at all anywhere according to that CTA calendar. The Transit Card Vending Machines will also drop come Monday with any remaining machines only able to reload transit cards already in circulation. So basically come Monday if it already hasn't started, the hoarding of bus passes will start to happen in full force as retail locations will only be able to sell what passes they already have on hand; no new transit cards will be sold anywhere; those with a transit card already will have to really start spending down those balances because there will be fewer locations available to reload for that remaining month reloads are possible. November 15 is D-Day for not being able to buy any new magnetic stripe card of any kind, transit card reloads end and the remaining transit card vending machines shut down and removed. And December 15 is the date that NO magnetic stripe card will work or be accepted on CTA and Pace.

On the point of getting that red 'Stop' signal, I'm glad that so far I've only had it happen a couple of times and it was usually because I was tapping my card too fast or not holding my card at a proper angle against the reader to get a proper read. For the most part it's been smooth sailing getting on a bus or entering a rail station with the read times pretty much instantaneous.

UPDATE: I forgot to look at what the transition is supposed to be like for Chicago Card and Chicago Card Plus customers. Come Monday those customers will no longer to be able to reload any new value on those cards unless it's a Chicago Card Plus customer using transit benefits. Spending down of balances need to be in full gear. On November 15, Chicago Card and CCP customers won't be able to use their cards. They need to be using Ventra at that point. So Chicago Card and CCP users have one less month than everyone else to procrastinate on spending down or transferring any balances they have and start using Ventra.

Edited October 3, 2013 by jajuan

[busfan2847]

Curious how long it takes for your balance/pass to transfer. Took 20 hours for me.

It took 10 minutes for mine to transfer last Saturday afternoon.

[Juniorz]

I put it like this, Ventra has benefits that the current fare media never could been able to do. To hear some of the unfortunate events that has happened within the launch is expected with anything being introduced. Just look @ Apple & the shortage of the S5. The Ventra transition isn't even complete & there are more complaints from customers that hasn't used the card. Give it a chance, you might understand that Ventra isn't the complicated & is actually a bargain that gives you security. CTA & Pace isn't here to sell you Debt services, it's an option that is available to customers as a result of new technical advances that are available to increase the customers experience.

[Amtrak41]

I fail to see what it does for you that CC and CCP didn't. They should have been capable of loading passes and per-per-rides because similar cards on WMATA and PATH can do so. It need not be run by a bank, and a rather sleezy one at that.

[busfan2847]

I fail to see what it does for you that CC and CCP didn't. They should have been capable of loading passes and per-per-rides because similar cards on WMATA and PATH can do so. It need not be run by a bank, and a rather sleezy one at that.

A sleezy one with an A+ rating at the Better Business Bureau.

[Amtrak41]

The BBB is basically someone to write to let off steam. That reminds me of AIG getting a AAA rating 4 days before they collapsed. Who does Ventra customer service work for, CTA or Metabank ?

The whole thing sounds like a huge political patronage scheme, and outsource a portion of CTA's revenue department and their future pension obligations, not simply an attempt to go 100% RFID, which they could have had with CC/CCP, and left well-enough alone. You are still decades ahead of NY-MTA with that.

Was I-Pass this much of a mess ?

[Kevin]

The whole thing sounds like a huge political patronage scheme, and outsource a portion of CTA's revenue department and their future pension obligations, not simply an attempt to go 100% RFID, which they could have had with CC/CCP, and left well-enough alone.

Cubic plays a roll in this. They discontinued the chip technology in CC/CCP, essentially pushing CTA to modernize the fare system (and, in turn, award Cubic a nice big new contract).

[Busjack]

The BBB is basically someone to write to let off steam. That reminds me of AIG getting a AAA rating 4 days before they collapsed. Who does Ventra customer service work for, CTA or Metabank ?

The whole thing sounds like a huge political patronage scheme, and outsource a portion of CTA's revenue department and their future pension obligations, not simply an attempt to go 100% RFID, which they could have had with CC/CCP, and left well-enough alone. You are still decades ahead of NY-MTA with that.

Was I-Pass this much of a mess ?

I-Pass wasn't, except for the Tollway always complaining about violators going through the I-Pass lane without having an I-Pass.* There was some stuff that people claimed that their light didn't go off, but nothing like that reported recently.

The Tollway was also fairly clear about what tolls would be with and without I-Pass for passenger vehicles and trucks.

The I-Pass technology was essentially EZ-Pass technology, and while the Tollway didn't immediately accept EZ-Pass, it soon did. There was a dispute with the consortium that now runs the Indiana Toll Road about whether I-Pass customers would get certain discounts Indiana drivers did, or people driving in both states would need both types of transponders, but that was also worked out.

The difference may have been that the Tollway was then run by corrupt DuPage county politicians, while CTA is run by incompetent Chicago ones.

On your outsourcing point, CTA clearly said that it was paying $450 million to get out of the "transit currency" business, and when the stink came up about the debit card fees, that it was getting a commission out of them. The recent announcement of "layoffs because of the budget deficit of people not needed because of Ventra" would lead to your conclusion that some of it was downsizing. However, since the big cost appears to be processing cash fares deposited into bus fareboxes, and Ventra doesn't affect that (except to the extent someone might use an RFID bank card instead of cash), it isn't going to save CTA what it thought.

And, as you note, obviously First Data and its captive bank MetaBank are running the back office. It is not clear who is running "Customer Service," except that only CTA spokespersons come out to deflect the heat, not anybody on behalf of Cubic.

__________

*Update: Maybe closer to the Ventra stuff is that the Tribune had a story about the Tollway scofflaw list, where the response of several on the list was that they had a credit card linked to the I-Pass account. However, given the supposed number of violation notices and that these were all big commercial operations, I tend to doubt that excuse--they should have known if their credit cards were or were not charged.

[jajuan]

Nope. Only report was that Tammy Chase was going to look into the guy who got 271 cards.

BusHunter's post indicates to the contrary.

Apparently there's a glitch where some folks have received multiple emails from Ventra to verify their address to get their Chicago card or CCP replaced with a Ventra Card and each time they responded to an email that generated a separate Ventra card request.

[Busjack]

Apparently there's a glitch where some folks have received multiple emails from Ventra to verify their address to get their Chicago card or CCP replaced with a Ventra Card and each time they responded to an email that generated a separate Ventra card request.

Tracy Swartz was on the noon news, describing someone in Cleveland who got about 200 cards, as well as the previous guy on the West Side, Apparently, WGN doesn't post its news videos, though.

As usual, she says that some CTA spokersperson told her that this was a small percentage of something.

[BusHunter]

This is a pain in the butt. First I had trouble registering the card then the registering process is so aggravating ive now forgot my password. Ventra did not allow me to use my password I wanted to use and I had to put uppercase letters and lowercase letters and whathaveyou. I got to see everyone doing this. So far I'm out 6 bucks and I didn't even board a bus. I'm using about six emails and don't even have the password for that. So I guess I have to start over.

[Amtrak41]

Tracy Swartz was on the noon news, describing someone in Cleveland who got about 200 cards, as well as the previous guy on the West Side, Apparently, WGN doesn't post its news videos, though.

As usual, she says that some CTA spokersperson told her that this was a small percentage of something.

Who gets to pay the postage to send 'em back ?

[Busjack]

This is a pain in the butt. First I had trouble registering the card then the registering process is so aggravating ive now forgot my password. Ventra did not allow me to use my password I wanted to use and I had to put uppercase letters and lowercase letters and whathaveyou. I got to see everyone doing this. So far I'm out 6 bucks and I didn't even board a bus. I'm using about six emails and don't even have the password for that. So I guess I have to start over.

I guess everyone is going with the strong passwords. After this became too complicated (i.e. T. Rowe Price's website accepted an 11 character password, but its Quicken link, it turned out, only 10), I make sure to write down the passwords on paper before putting them in a computer. Some are so bad as to ask for a pet's name when you don't have one, but one such site accepted "nonexistent."

Who gets to pay the postage to send 'em back ?

I assume Tammy Chase will go to Cleveland and pick them up herself. Otherwise, it is unordered merchandise, and the recipient has no obligation to return it.

Probably the real question is who paid the postage to send it. Hopefully it came out of MetaBank/First Data's hide.

[jajuan]

And the one rider Dan Lasky, who was reported to have been sent more than 100 cards, told the Tracy Swartz that he got about 271 emails from Ventra's system and that he actually had to activate a filter on his email address because from what he told Swartz, he was getting an email message from Ventra about every 15 minutes until they finally stopped Sunday morning. He said that he opened his mailbox Thursday morning to find the more than 100 envelopes from Ventra and a note from the mailman saying that he had a tray full of additional mail waiting for him at the post office apparently from Ventra. And the crazy part is the poor guy rides the CTA only a few times a week.

[artthouwill]

_{So far so good. Purchased a new Ventra card at vending machine today and loaded a 7 day CTA/Pace Pass. Then I went online and registered. Then I checked the account to see if everything was OK I have a $5 transit value and a 7-day pass "in queue" I think it took all of five minutes to do online. Since I used a noncontactless card to pay for the card, I doublt I have to worry about money coming up missing from my bank account. We will see what happens when I actually use my card.}