jajuan Posted October 18, 2013 Report Share Posted October 18, 2013 Then go to the CTA Tattler and really get an education from the commenters there. And rehash the old news that they botched the mailing and activation aspect which every one agreed that they did? No thanks and no need. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amtrak41 Posted October 18, 2013 Report Share Posted October 18, 2013 One should not have to read Tattler and chicagobus.org to figure out how Ventra should work. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
owine Posted October 18, 2013 Report Share Posted October 18, 2013 From the Tattler himself: I got my Ventra card in the mail today and activated it in less than five minutes! It's really not that hard if you follow the Ventra instructions to the letter. And you have the email they sent weeks ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amtrak41 Posted October 18, 2013 Report Share Posted October 18, 2013 And those of us who had trouble can't read or follow instructions ? I don't think so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MetroShadow Posted October 18, 2013 Report Share Posted October 18, 2013 From the Tattler himself: In fairness, there's a learning curve. Those who have both to start with, those who are highly competent despite the implementation failures, those who want the ordeal to be over despite the ineptitude of the process, those who are lazy, those who can't read or follow directions, those who are technologically stumbling, and those who hate change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Busjack Posted October 18, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2013 In fairness, there's a learning curve. Those who have both to start with, those who are highly competent despite the implementation failures, those who want the ordeal to be over despite the ineptitude of the process, those who are lazy, those who can't read or follow directions, those who are technologically stumbling, and those who hate change. There's that, but similarly there is also the debate whether healthcare.gov is overburdened or improperly designed. But the issue isn't only whether there are problems dealing with activation. The issues I raised were the deceptive manner CTA was assessing charges against the transit account, and how I didn't believe this was truly an open system. Somebody asks me what I consider to be an open system, and I answered. In any event, if the complaints didn't have substance, Claypool wouldn't have said that the cutoff on mag cards has to be delayed until customer service is fixed, and Steele wouldn't have argued that the charges on the class action plaintiff's account were for legitimate transit service, instead of saying that the lawsuit did not state a cause of action.* _____________ *Of course, Steele should have been like any other defendant and say "we don't comment on pending litigation." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jajuan Posted October 18, 2013 Report Share Posted October 18, 2013 One should not have to read Tattler and chicagobus.org to figure out how Ventra should work. I'm sorry but that's a foolish stance given it's a new system. And to that I say that's someone who has no right to complain when there's a mishap. For one thing how do you expect to know what fare media is available if you don't read it from the source? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jajuan Posted October 18, 2013 Report Share Posted October 18, 2013 And those of us who had trouble can't read or follow instructions ? I don't think so. Now that one I'll agree with you because we already established you were one of those who fell victim to the botch up in getting mailed a card to replace a Chicago Card or CCP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
owine Posted October 18, 2013 Report Share Posted October 18, 2013 And those of us who had trouble can't read or follow instructions ? I don't think so. Well, you were an edge case as has been established. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Busjack Posted October 18, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2013 Well, you were an edge case as has been established. What do you mean by that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amtrak41 Posted October 18, 2013 Report Share Posted October 18, 2013 healthcare.gov was designed by CGI, has gone 6 X over budget, and was recently fired by Ontario in not making an on-time deliverable. Ventra should be easy to use and as safe as getting a new credit card in the mail. It is not. The nonsense of e-mailing you an user-id and password, then activation, registration, and obtaining Access Code in the midst of it was ridiculous. Computer applications are supposed to be customer-friendly. This process is confusing and convoluted. It is not in my job description to spend a lot of time to learn it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jajuan Posted October 18, 2013 Report Share Posted October 18, 2013 healthcare.gov was designed by CGI, has gone 6 X over budget, and was recently fired by Ontario in not making an on-time deliverable. Ventra should be easy to use and as safe as getting a new credit card in the mail. It is not. The nonsense of e-mailing you an user-id and password, then activation, registration, and obtaining Access Code in the midst of it was ridiculous. Computer applications are supposed to be customer-friendly. This process is confusing and convoluted. It is not in my job description to spend a lot of time to learn it. And again didn't we already establish you fell victim to the mailing botch up mess, part of which being you got your card delivered so many weeks late that you may have forgotten the aspects of the email that explained about what to do about activation, registration and the access code? So for you and anyone else in your position who fell victim to that screwup, of course things are going to feel convoluted because for one thing you got steps missing on what to do because you didn't receive everything on time. Outside of that whole thing about making no effort to learn how things work makes little sense to do and puts a person in the no right to complain position. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BusHunter Posted October 18, 2013 Report Share Posted October 18, 2013 The guy I was talking about before got double charged by ventra again. I advised him to go back to transit cards. Maybe by Nov-Dec Ventra will actually have a hotline/office where someone answers the phone. LOL!! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Busjack Posted October 18, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2013 The guy I was talking about before got double charged by ventra again. I advised him to go back to transit cards. Maybe by Nov-Dec Ventra will actually have a hotline/office where someone answers the phone. LOL!! I'm sure someone here is going to tell him that he should have known that he was going to be double charged; just part of the learning curve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
owine Posted October 18, 2013 Report Share Posted October 18, 2013 What do you mean by that? An edge case is just a case that doesn't happen often. They are to be expected any time there is a brand new product rolled out as you cannot test every situation and combination imaginable. healthcare.gov was designed by CGI, has gone 6 X over budget, and was recently fired by Ontario in not making an on-time deliverable. Ventra should be easy to use and as safe as getting a new credit card in the mail. It is not. The nonsense of e-mailing you an user-id and password, then activation, registration, and obtaining Access Code in the midst of it was ridiculous. Computer applications are supposed to be customer-friendly. This process is confusing and convoluted. It is not in my job description to spend a lot of time to learn it. I thought your issue was your card being deactivated after you activated it properly? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amtrak41 Posted October 18, 2013 Report Share Posted October 18, 2013 No,, it was the difficulty of activation. Another one of the confusions was the Debit Card portion was active, yet Transit Account was completely invisible, and said simply Account Status : Closed at the top, whatever that meant. How is one supposed to know there is a Transit button when it was even not present ? In a customer-friendly environment, the Transit Account button should have been faded out, and a description in layman's terms of what "Closed" meant. Again, I should not need a user manual to work the system. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
owine Posted October 21, 2013 Report Share Posted October 21, 2013 Noticed green stickers on Ventra readers in rail stations over the weekend, but not on the buses I rode. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JuJuBeans Posted October 21, 2013 Report Share Posted October 21, 2013 I'm new and I have a question. My uncle registered for a Ventra card after my mom bought him one. I helped registered him on the website and register him on the pre paid portion. The problem is we have no idea how to transfer funds from Ventra transit to that account or where the pin number used for ATM/debit card purchases are at. He called but didn't get a clear answer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MetroShadow Posted October 21, 2013 Report Share Posted October 21, 2013 Noticed green stickers on Ventra readers in rail stations over the weekend, but not on the buses I rode. Likely going through the testing and verification process (again). I don't know how the buses are stacked up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amtrak41 Posted October 22, 2013 Report Share Posted October 22, 2013 About 2 weeks after I got Ventra activated (no thanks to Ventra), I got an e-mail during the night "Your Card is Now Active." Wasn't that nice of them ? (It should have come 2 MINUTES after activation). In the first paragraph, it says "Now that you have your new Ventra Card, please securely discard your Chicago Card Plus or your Chicago Card.". 2 paragraphs later, they tell CC users "Check out the schedule to find a balance transfer event near you." So I think they are hoping you will react on impulse, not read further, cut up the cards, and not participate in any redemption events. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jajuan Posted October 22, 2013 Report Share Posted October 22, 2013 About 2 weeks after I got Ventra activated (no thanks to Ventra), I got an e-mail during the night "Your Card is Now Active." Wasn't that nice of them ? (It should have come 2 MINUTES after activation). In the first paragraph, it says "Now that you have your new Ventra Card, please securely discard your Chicago Card Plus or your Chicago Card.". 2 paragraphs later, they tell CC users "Check out the schedule to find a balance transfer event near you." So I think they are hoping you will react on impulse, not read further, cut up the cards, and not participate in any redemption events. So anything new outside of your impressions of tidbits shared pulled out of context like whether or not your card works? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amtrak41 Posted October 22, 2013 Report Share Posted October 22, 2013 I have no idea if the card will work until next summer when I visit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vinny Posted October 22, 2013 Report Share Posted October 22, 2013 I'm new and I have a question. My uncle registered for a Ventra card after my mom bought him one. I helped registered him on the website and register him on the pre paid portion. The problem is we have no idea how to transfer funds from Ventra transit to that account or where the pin number used for ATM/debit card purchases are at. He called but didn't get a clear answer. I don't think it's possible to transfer funds from the transit account to the prepaid account. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BusHunter Posted October 22, 2013 Report Share Posted October 22, 2013 I'm sure someone here is going to tell him that he should have known that he was going to be double charged; just part of the learning curve. I was double charged myself after using the transit card/standard fare version of the card. Two rides cost me $4.50 in the space of 2 hours. After staring at my missing money at the Ventra machine, I decided it's time to go back to transit cards myself. These cards are only good for passes, I wouldn't waste my time/money past that stage. The big drawback in these cards is noone knows at the farebox what the balance of the card is. I'm surprised that in itself doesn't warrant a lawsuit. It's like going to the grocery store and the cashier says well that's $5 and there is no register saying anything. Essentially this is a blind leading the blind transit card. Even operators are at a loss, because they don't know what you purchased either. This really has to change. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Busjack Posted October 22, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 22, 2013 I was double charged myself after using the transit card/standard fare version of the card. Two rides cost me $4.50 in the space of 2 hours..... Since you said you used the card for presumably two $2.25 trips, were both on the L? This may go back to the implication in the 2014 budget (see post) that the three rides in 2 hours applies only if a bus trip was involved, in that the budget says that they are changing the rule that reentry into the rail system isn't allowed: In recognition of the interconnected nature of the rail system, the CTA is amending its transfer policy to allow for re-entry into the rail system for the price of a transfer within one hour of initial, full-fare entry. Bus-to-rail, rail-to-bus, and bus-to-bus transfers will retain a two hour window for transfer use after the initial, full-price fare. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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