Ventra - Bugs, Feedback, and Questions

[jajuan]

I don't even assume that. As my first post indicated, I assumed that a certain number would try to use cash if they hadn't preloaded their Ventra cards.

Again, it seems like you have gone on some sort of racial stereotype tangent when I was only trying to make an economic point. Maybe they all have internet access and load their cards that way, but then there wouldn't be a need for 3 nonworking machines.

What racial stereotype tangent? I didn't even bring up or mention race so I don't know where you got that one from. My response to you stayed strictly on the economic, and my point to you was your observation that most wouldn't have debit cards unless it was one of those prepaid ones was based on a financial and economic stereotype.

[garmon757]

I've seen plenty of people on the south side with a Ventra card whether it's school, regular, u-pass, ride-free, etc. I rarely see anybody use cash on buses out there. As far as the debit card scenario, I can't speak for everybody if they have one or not regardless of which banks they're affiliated with. Come on guys, let's not get out of hand with this.

[owine]

Ventra TVMs have chronic problems with accepting bills and giving change. It seems like at least 1 or 2 machines at every rail station I go to is not performing one of those tasks. I wonder if Cubic's pickup/dropoff schedule is less frequent than when CTA was in charge of the money collection.

[artthouwill]

Damn, talk about a triple play on the Ventra machines because none of them aren't taking any bills. Courtesy of 69th Red Line.

It would seem that if the machines aren't taking bills, the number one reason would be that they are full of cash. I don't remember if these machines are capable of taking coin dollars. Assuming that it does, that could be a viable option, but most people don't carry coined dollars on them. The question becomes how often are these machines "emptied" ? Who is responsible for collecting the cash from these machines, CTA , a bank, or some other outside vendor?

Among other possible reasons are vandalism, which would make the machines unable to accept cash and possibly set up those machines as a place to steal debit/dredit card informatiion. Certainly the cameras around the station should be able to capture anyone tampering with the equipment. Also there should be a CA posted nearby that should be keeping an eye out for that kind of thing.

[MarioM]

Ventra TVMs have chronic problems with accepting bills and giving change. It seems like at least 1 or 2 machines at every rail station I go to is not performing one of those tasks. I wonder if Cubic's pickup/dropoff schedule is less frequent than when CTA was in charge of the money collection.

I don't believe Ventra machines are supposed to give change.

[artthouwill]

I don't even assume that. As my first post indicated, I assumed that a certain number would try to use cash if they hadn't preloaded their Ventra cards.

Again, it seems like you have gone on some sort of racial stereotype tangent when I was only trying to make an economic point. Maybe they all have internet access and load their cards that way, but then there wouldn't be a need for 3 nonworking machines.

What racial stereotype tangent? I didn't even bring up or mention race so I don't know where you got that one from. My response to you stayed strictly on the economic, and my point to you was your observation that most wouldn't have debit cards unless it was one of those prepaid ones was based on a financial and economic stereotype.

Well there's no getting around the racial aspect of this given the location, so whether race was brought up or not, there is automatically a racial implication to it. In today's world it would seem rather foolish NOT to have some sort of plastic, whether it is a bank debitg/credit card or some other prepaid card. If someone steals your cards, that value can be replenished. If someone steals cash from you, that money is not retrievable. Because of these cards, carrying a lot of cash becomes unnecessary. Rare is the person nowadays that carries no plastic whatsoever.

I suppose the best tip is to load Ventra cards online, in the safety of your home or wherever you are not exposing your plastic. It is a good idea to carry a small amount of cash (I would say $20 or less).

I noticed three machines at the 69th ST station, whereas a lot of stations only have two. We know then that 69th is a very busy station and those machines get a lot of usage.

[jajuan]

I've seen plenty of people on the south side with a Ventra card whether it's school, regular, u-pass, ride-free, etc. I rarely see anybody use cash on buses out there. As far as the debit card scenario, I can't speak for everybody if they have one or not regardless of which banks they're affiliated with. Come on guys, let's not get out of hand with this.

No one's getting out of hand. He made a point, and I disagreed and made my own to which the matter is now closed. We're not always going to agree on everything and sing Kumbaya.

[jajuan]

Well there's no getting around the racial aspect of this given the location, so whether race was brought up or not, there is automatically a racial implication to it. In today's world it would seem rather foolish NOT to have some sort of plastic, whether it is a bank debitg/credit card or some other prepaid card. If someone steals your cards, that value can be replenished. If someone steals cash from you, that money is not retrievable. Because of these cards, carrying a lot of cash becomes unnecessary. Rare is the person nowadays that carries no plastic whatsoever.

I suppose the best tip is to load Ventra cards online, in the safety of your home or wherever you are not exposing your plastic. It is a good idea to carry a small amount of cash (I would say $20 or less).

I noticed three machines at the 69th ST station, whereas a lot of stations only have two. We know then that 69th is a very busy station and those machines get a lot of usage.

It's definitely getting more Ventra purchases and reloads done there at the station than a lot of the north side Red Line stations I've seen. I've mainly seen three machines at stations that are transfer stations like Howard, Fullerton or Belmont.

[Busjack]

It's definitely getting more Ventra purchases and reloads done there at the station than a lot of the north side Red Line stations I've seen. I've mainly seen three machines at stations that are transfer stations like Howard, Fullerton or Belmont.

At least at one time 69th was considered a major transfer station, in that it is the only one other than 95th on the Dan Ryan that has a bus terminal.

[artthouwill]

At least at one time 69th was considered a major transfer station, in that it is the only one other than 95th on the Dan Ryan that has a bus terminal.

Makes sense in that a negative Ventra balance (of a limited amount) may be carried on a bus but not on the train, and with 4 bus routes (29, 30, 67, and 71 (6 routes if you count the N5 and 169)) serving the station, I suppose an extra machine helps out. I think Sox-35th also has at least three machines.

[garmon757]

It would seem that if the machines aren't taking bills, the number one reason would be that they are full of cash. I don't remember if these machines are capable of taking coin dollars. Assuming that it does, that could be a viable option, but most people don't carry coined dollars on them. The question becomes how often are these machines "emptied" ? Who is responsible for collecting the cash from these machines, CTA , a bank, or some other outside vendor?

Among other possible reasons are vandalism, which would make the machines unable to accept cash and possibly set up those machines as a place to steal debit/dredit card informatiion. Certainly the cameras around the station should be able to capture anyone tampering with the equipment. Also there should be a CA posted nearby that should be keeping an eye out for that kind of thing.

Cubic is responsible for the cash handling of all machines. Damn, some told me to take a pic of a Cubic guy opening the machine.

[garmon757]

No one's getting out of hand. He made a point, and I disagreed and made my own to which the matter is now closed. We're not always going to agree on everything and sing Kumbaya.

That's understandable but I only said it because I didn't want to see anybody on here get offended based off perception of nationality (I don't like saying "race") towards anything.

[jajuan]

At least at one time 69th was considered a major transfer station, in that it is the only one other than 95th on the Dan Ryan that has a bus terminal.

True. It's the only other one with a bus bridge over the expressway to facilitate buses turning around on their respective routes. I was actually referring to stations that are major transfer points between rail lines. But 69th having three machines, in light of the six bus routes that pass through and/or turn around there, still makes a lot of sense. Speaking of rail transfer stations, I'm not sure if the elevated HW Library-State/Van Buren station has three now in that it hasn't always been a free connect point to the Jackson Red and Blue Line subway stations.

[garmon757]

I don't believe Ventra machines are supposed to give change.

Speaking of change, I was at Chicago Red Line and I was putting money on my card with change but I forgot that I had another one with $4 on it. All of a sudden after I pressed the black button by the coin slot to get my change back, I've received 4 $1 coins (3 gold and a rare silver one dated back from 1979)!!! Like wow!!!!

[sw4400]

Speaking of change, I was at Chicago Red Line and I was putting money on my card with change but I forgot that I had another one with $4 on it. All of a sudden after I pressed the black button by the coin slot to get my change back, I've received 4 $1 coins (3 gold and a rare silver one dated back from 1979)!!! Like wow!!!!

From someone who handles currency for a living, the silver $1 coin isn't worth much more than the face value. I see a lot of these in our dump bank where we ship this off through an Armored Car service. We typically get 3-4 of these in a week's time. The gold ones are probably 2006-present day, and aren't worth more than the face value of them. We get a lot more of the gold than the silver (5-9 in a week's time).

[kamilkuta]

I just wanted to know if any one knows what happents to yhe lefy over mone from my bus ticket. I own plastic ventra and i also buy the paper Ventra tickets. What i dont underatand is why am i not able to put the 25¢ left over from my bus ride thowords my next purhes or transfer to my pladtic Ventra like i was able to do with magnetic strip cards. I dont take rail just bus so corect me if i am wrong byt according to CTA it is $2 for the first ride 25¢ fir secend and free for the third if used within 2 h. So if i am paing $2.25 for bus rides and 50¢ service charge wht happens to the left over 25¢ from the $3 ticket price? Who geta it? I have asked CTA if thay have get it but thay told me to call Ventra that thay are bot givi g CTA any mone that is not used by riders and Ventra said that thay only keep 50¢ service fee so who gets that mone? It adds up to lots of mone quickly. Doea any one know what happens to it or has an explanation pleas e-mail me at kamilkuta36@gmail.com i am also trying get some people together to help ke protect my felow CTA costumers if CTA does not act

[Busjack]

I just wanted to know if any one knows what happents to yhe lefy over mone from my bus ticket. I own plastic ventra and i also buy the paper Ventra tickets. What i dont underatand is why am i not able to put the 25¢ left over from my bus ride thowords my next purhes or transfer to my pladtic Ventra like i was able to do with magnetic strip cards. I dont take rail just bus so corect me if i am wrong byt according to CTA it is $2 for the first ride 25¢ fir secend and free for the third if used within 2 h. So if i am paing $2.25 for bus rides and 50¢ service charge wht happens to the left over 25¢ from the $3 ticket price? Who geta it? I have asked CTA if thay have get it but thay told me to call Ventra that thay are bot givi g CTA any mone that is not used by riders and Ventra said that thay only keep 50¢ service fee so who gets that mone? It adds up to lots of mone quickly. Doea any one know what happens to it or has an explanation pleas e-mail me at kamilkuta36@gmail.com i am also trying get some people together to help ke protect my felow CTA costumers if CTA does not act

I don't know what language this is in (or why you posted it twice), but the paper Ventra ticket is only (1) because the turnstiles do not accept cash, and (2) for CTA to get $3.00 out of a $2.25 fare, a denied fare increase that the CTA admitted by holding a hearing mandated by federal law when there is a fare increase.

You don't "own" a paper ticket except as a souvenir. The only way to have an account is to register a plastic card.

CTA keeps everything, and pays Cubic a $450 million fee over 12 years to operate the system. There is no business entity known as Ventra; it is a brand name similar to Nabisco.

[kamilkuta]

So does any one know what happens to he left over mone if i take just 2 bus rides and use tge paper Ventra ticket. Bua rises will add up to $2.25. Costumera used to have an option with the old magnetic strip system to buy either a bus ticket with tranafera or for 25¢ more a rail ticket with two traafers witch thay do not have now unles thay have the plastic Ventra cars. Social service foundations and departments like free helth clinics and Department of human recorces give thair costumers paper Ventra tickets b/c it is not pasible to give them plastic ones. Kids also are given the paper tickets for bus while on break from shool do to the fact thay loose everythink so its safer and much cheeper to buy paper Ventea tickets for them. I tend to loose stuff all the time or leave without my plastic Ventra thats why i also buy the paper bus passes on top of the plastic one but being forget full and kids not paying attention to thair bus tickets doea not give CTA, Ventra or any one else to harge people extra mone just because thay dont want to uae thair plastic ventra at all times. I do understand that 25¢ is not much but it adds up. Since i dint take rail and just take busi calculated that every day I get harged 50¢ extra my kids $1.25 so that adds up to $1.75 a day that CTA or Ventra takes from me that thay should not be taking. I quickly adds up to about $8 a week just from me and my two kids. It is mone that is not being used by me and i hink that should be reverted to me, CTA or Ventra should let thair costumers keep he mone thay didnt use frompaper Ventra tickets or give their costumers an option to buy a bus ticket not just rail like thay did with the old magnetic strip system. $8 a week quickly adds up and it ia about $38 a mounth and if you combine all the people that buy paper Ventra tickets for what ever reason like not wanting to have information stolen of thair cards or maby thay are aick of loosing the plastic one and keep buing and re-regiatering a new one, peoples security concerns also dont give any agency an opurtunity to mis lead and make extra mone on people. My e-mail is kamilkuta36@gmail.com if any one is willing to help me get CTA and Ventra to owen up to thair respansibilitis and stop taking peopls mone that thair are not enyiteld to or have any explenations or sugestions pleas feel free to e-mail me. Also my twiter is #kutakamil I juts wonder what would happen if i went and took mone from that did nkt belong to me like Vntra and CTA are duing, i pribebly would have to not only explain my self but also go to jail, and all i want is for CTA and Ventra to explain them selfs and change thair practices and stop taking mone that dont belong to them.

[kamilkuta]

Sorry for miss spelings in this and my previos posts. I just want an explenation to why am i all of a sudden peing 25¢ mor for bus ticket with two transfera without CTA anoucing a fare hike. I dont mind paying 50¢ service fee, i do own a plastic ventra card but it is more conviniant for me and my family to use the paper ticketa b/c i tend to lost them all the time. If i take just bus rides i should be paying $2.25 but yet i am being charged $2.50 if i use the paper Ventra ticket. Since i am not able to use the left over 25¢ what happens to it? Who gets it? I dont ride the rail just bus and just becouse i am willing to pay 50¢ service fee to use the paper Ventra so my information is more secure this way b/c it simply is not thare that alone does not give any obe the right to take any amount from me that doea not belong to them. CTA should at least inform thair costumers that if thay use the paper Ventra ticket just on bus the ticket cost wil me 25¢ more then wiyh plastic Ventra card since thay will not be able to use the mone thowords thair next bus ticket like riders used to be able to do with the magnetic strip.

[Busjack]

I guess you didn't read my response. CTA keeps it.

Some of the social services agencies complained about the fare hike, but that's how it goes.

But why do you continue to post if you won't read the responses? Or don't use a browser with spell check?

[garmon757]

From someone who handles currency for a living, the silver $1 coin isn't worth much more than the face value. I see a lot of these in our dump bank where we ship this off through an Armored Car service. We typically get 3-4 of these in a week's time. The gold ones are probably 2006-present day, and aren't worth more than the face value of them. We get a lot more of the gold than the silver (5-9 in a week's time).

The gold ones, you're right about the less value despite me having one of the three dated back from 2000. I figured that the silver dollar isn't worth much. Let's say I've kept if for at least 25 years in good condition, would it be some kind of value?

[Busjack]

The gold ones, you're right about the less value despite me having one of the three dated back from 2000. I figured that the silver dollar isn't worth much. Let's say I've kept if for at least 25 years in good condition, would it be some kind of value?

The real issue is that the dollar coins the government is trying to get into circulation (the ones the size of a quarter) are not real silver dollars, which were much bigger and had silver. Those have value based on their silver content, but the ones dispensed by vending machines do not.

This goes back to the Susan B. Anthony dollar, which the government minted but nobody accepted. The design has changed and some vending machines give them as change, but it is still reported that the government is stuck with them.

The inherent problem was demonstrated when some snack machine didn't drop the snack, but spit out a coin. I went to the desk and complained, and said all I got back was a quarter. The desk gave me the difference, but it turned out it was one of those dollar coins, which I put back into the machine a couple of days later.

[garmon757]

The real issue is that the dollar coins the government is trying to get into circulation (the ones the size of a quarter) are not real silver dollars, which were much bigger and had silver. Those have value based on their silver content, but the ones dispensed by vending machines do not.

This goes back to the Susan B. Anthony dollar, which the government minted but nobody accepted. The design has changed and some vending machines give them as change, but it is still reported that the government is stuck with them.

The inherent problem was demonstrated when some snack machine didn't drop the snack, but spit out a coin. I went to the desk and complained, and said all I got back was a quarter. The desk gave me the difference, but it turned out it was one of those dollar coins, which I put back into the machine a couple of days later.

What was the point of them making these coins if they were barely used? That's a lot of damn coins just to be put to waste. I use to get some dollar coins from the vending machine and from a coin star machine (very weird) but I did the same thing you did; putting them right back in the machine. The question is, what are they going to do with all those coins?

[Busjack]

What was the point of them making these coins if they were barely used? That's a lot of damn coins just to be put to waste. I use to get some dollar coins from the vending machine and from a coin star machine (very weird) but I did the same thing you did; putting them right back in the machine. The question is, what are they going to do with all those coins?

Someone thought in the early 1980s that they could get rid of dollar bills, and while those thoughts still exist, it didn't happen.

As the linked article states, Congress mandates that the coins be minted, without any real reason.

The only real reason seems to be the one your originally noted--that vending machine operators, including whoever operates the Ventra vending machines, prefer to give change in dollar coins than 4 times as many quarters.

For that matter, have you seen a half dollar coin, lately?

This discussion may induce me to try to find my collection box some time this weekend.

[Busjack]

,,,

This discussion may induce me to try to find my collection box some time this weekend.

I turned around, and there was the box on the top of the office cabinet behind me.

Here are pictures of two real silver dollars. I don't know what the differences in scanning and screen resolutions does, but each is 1-1/2 inches in diameter.