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Metrolinx: Presto Fare Card

Johnny Au said:
It would be great if Presto cards for those eligible for the Fair Pass discount program (not just CNIB customers) have a different design. The Fair Pass design would be the same, regardless if applied through ODSP or Ontario Works. Why the same? It's to make things easier instead of having CNIB cards for the blind, Bob Rumball cards for the deaf, Geneva Centre cards for those under the autism spectrum, Ontario Works cards for those with low income, and so on and so forth.
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Hopefully, if someone loses (or steals) their "discount card", that when they get a replacement card, the old one gets deactivated so that it cannot be used at the gates or machines. Also hope that fare inspectors can check for stolen or lost cards when they scan them, and gets confiscated.
 
So what exactly CAN Presto customer service do? My bank randomly declined the auto load transaction yesterday, which resulted in my autoload being cancelled without warning. The email says to call customer service if the cancellation is in error, suffice to say customer service told me to just use the website... As I explained several times to the rather clueless guy on the phone I don't WANT a NEW autoload, just my existing one restored, which he flat out refused to do. Then when I try the site autoload is greyed out, while the app tells me that the autoload cancellation I never asked for is still pending and that I need to tap the card and wait 24 hours before being allowed to set up a new autoload.

The end result is that it seems there's absolutely no way to actually fix this.

The bank, for the record, denies all knowledge of why the transaction was refused, and kept telling me that it just happens sometimes.

The 24 hour waits have been discussed to death, but this is getting stupid. What am I supposed to do to have an actually usable card?!? For that matter, why are they sending emails that outright misinform? Apparently a cancelled autoload is cancelled no matter what and calling them is useless for anything but receiving directions to use the website. Even if they insist on a broken system, who authorized outright lies in the public facing material?
 
Bureaucromancer said:
So what exactly CAN Presto customer service do? My bank randomly declined the auto load transaction yesterday, which resulted in my autoload being cancelled without warning. The email says to call customer service if the cancellation is in error, suffice to say customer service told me to just use the website... As I explained several times to the rather clueless guy on the phone I don't WANT a NEW autoload, just my existing one restored, which he flat out refused to do. Then when I try the site autoload is greyed out, while the app tells me that the autoload cancellation I never asked for is still pending and that I need to tap the card and wait 24 hours before being allowed to set up a new autoload.

The end result is that it seems there's absolutely no way to actually fix this.

The bank, for the record, denies all knowledge of why the transaction was refused, and kept telling me that it just happens sometimes.

The 24 hour waits have been discussed to death, but this is getting stupid. What am I supposed to do to have an actually usable card?!? For that matter, why are they sending emails that outright misinform? Apparently a cancelled autoload is cancelled no matter what and calling them is useless for anything but receiving directions to use the website. Even if they insist on a broken system, who authorized outright lies in the public facing material?
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Go somewhere you can load money to it in person or if you have an android phone you can lad it using the app as you can tap your card to the phone after the payment has been made on it to write to the card.
 
EastYorkTTCFan said:
Go somewhere you can load money to it in person or if you have an android phone you can lad it using the app as you can tap your card to the phone after the payment has been made on it to write to the card.
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I tried adding funds through the app. It worked to add funds to the CARD, as in the funds appear if I do a balance check, but the ACCOUNT balance hasn't changed, and autoload is still blocked.

It's not so much that the system is flawed that makes me angry as the fact none of it even works as advertised.
 
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Bureaucromancer said:
I tried adding funds through the app. It worked to add funds to the CARD, as in the funds appear if I do a balance check, but the ACCOUNT balance hasn't changed, and autoload is still blocked.

It's not so much that the system is flawed that makes me angry as the fact none of it even works as advertised.
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If autoload is blocked due to an error message from your bank it probably isn't something that can be sorted out easily. Since you were able to add money to the card then it should allow you in 24 hours to be able to set up autoload again.I've added money to my presto cards a few times with my phone and the balance often takes time to u[pdate online, it's because not all of the Presto readers update all the time and some only update when the buss in the depot for the night.
 
EastYorkTTCFan said:
If autoload is blocked due to an error message from your bank it probably isn't something that can be sorted out easily. Since you were able to add money to the card then it should allow you in 24 hours to be able to set up autoload again.I've added money to my presto cards a few times with my phone and the balance often takes time to u[pdate online, it's because not all of the Presto readers update all the time and some only update when the buss in the depot for the night.
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To be clear, there was a one card decline from the bank. This removed autoload, and there now appears to be no way to reactivate the autoload. Following the directions in the email after the failed transactions got me a customer service agent who essentially said that he knows the email says that, but there's nothing he can ACTUALLY do. Trying to just make a new autoload "contract" through the website as he directed led to finding that cancelling an autoload for some assinine reason blocks setting up a new autoload. Neither the cancellation nor the agent mentioned that it COULD be blocked.

Direct quote "You cancellation of an existing Autoload contract is still in progress. Please tap you card on any PRESTO device to complete this process before creating a new contract". Mind you this only appears in the app, on the website the option is just greyed out.

I DIDN'T CANCEL, THEY DID. Their email said to contact them in such a case, I did and they refused to correct it. I DID tap my card on a Presto device, my phone through the app, in fact adding funds to the card, and the message is not cleared. For that matter, in what world does it make sense to block setting up a feature because you have used it at some point in the past? How on earth is it so hard to get them to just process a credit card?

This nonsense is really a very minor inconvenience, but it's so transparently stupid that there's really no question as to why Presto's repuation is as bad as it is.
 
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Bureaucromancer said:
To be clear, there was a one card decline from the bank. This removed autoload, and there now appears to be no way to reactivate the autoload. Following the directions in the email after the failed transactions got me a customer service agent who essentially said that he knows the email says that, but there's nothing he can ACTUALLY do. Trying to just make a new autoload "contract" through the website as he directed led to finding that cancelling an autoload for some assinine reason blocks setting up a new autoload. Neither the cancellation nor the agent mentioned that it COULD be blocked.

Direct quote "You cancellation of an existing Autoload contract is still in progress. Please tap you card on any PRESTO device to complete this process before creating a new contract". Mind you this only appears in the app, on the website the option is just greyed out.

I DIDN'T CANCEL, THEY DID. Their email said to contact them in such a case, I did and they refused to correct it. I DID tap my card on a Presto device, my phone through the app, in fact adding funds to the card, and the message is not cleared. For that matter, in what world does it make sense to block setting up a feature because you have used it at some point in the past? How on earth is it so hard to get them to just process a credit card?

This nonsense is really a very minor inconvenience, but it's so transparently stupid that there's really no question as to why Presto's repuation is as bad as it is.
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It atake 24 hours after the tap for the error too be poceseedd and then it will take another 24 hours before you are able to redo the auto laod at leat thats from my undesatnd from when I've relpalced cards due to them being damagaed. It took 24 hours for the new card to register in the sytem and then another 24 hours for my metreopass to be loaded onto it after I adeedd the new card to my acount. A lot of the sytem is expretm;y peroblomatic and raelly neeeds to be looked at by someonethat knows waht they are doing.
 
EastYorkTTCFan said:
It atake 24 hours after the tap for the error too be poceseedd and then it will take another 24 hours before you are able to redo the auto laod at leat thats from my undesatnd from when I've relpalced cards due to them being damagaed. It took 24 hours for the new card to register in the sytem and then another 24 hours for my metreopass to be loaded onto it after I adeedd the new card to my acount. A lot of the sytem is expretm;y peroblomatic and raelly neeeds to be looked at by someonethat knows waht they are doing.
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Ya I have tested it from damaged cards too and found that the card block process is hard coded at exactly 24 hours. Literally 1440 minutes. It has nothing to do with contacting all the various PRESTO devices or anything like that. When you request a card to be blocked it starts a countdown that is always the same amount of time. You can only link your PRESTO account to a new card after that 1440 minute countdown ends. It opens up online exactly one second later. I suspect other, possibly all, processes in PRESTO were originally hardcoded this way, but some of code has been replaced and reorganised such that some processes now are faster to push out to devices, like loading funds.
 
So apparently it's NOT just a 24 hour timer. I got myself to a station yesterday, and still can't reactivate autoload. Service agent said she saw both, didn't know why it hadn't updated and wouldn't give a timeline. Supervisor kept repeating "I'm sorry it didn't update immediately after 24 hours" and nothing else sensible.
 
Bureaucromancer said:
So apparently it's NOT just a 24 hour timer. I got myself to a station yesterday, and still can't reactivate autoload. Service agent said she saw both, didn't know why it hadn't updated and wouldn't give a timeline. Supervisor kept repeating "I'm sorry it didn't update immediately after 24 hours" and nothing else sensible.
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It's the "24 hours" for just about anything with PRESTO that irritants me. Adding funds, activating, getting autoload, etc., needs a much, much, much less time than currently.
 
W. K. Lis said:
It's the "24 hours" for just about anything with PRESTO that irritants me. Adding funds, activating, getting autoload, etc., needs a much, much, much less time than currently.
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Through what practical means? Passengers don't want their fares or taxes raised, but that's the only way to pay for always-on cellular connections for non-TTC buses (GO buses, YRT/Viva, MiWay, Brampton, Oakville, Burlington, HSR, and Durham) which currently sync Presto data using Wi-Fi in their depots once each night.
 
Megaton327 said:
Through what practical means? Passengers don't want their fares or taxes raised, but that's the only way to pay for always-on cellular connections for non-TTC buses (GO buses, YRT/Viva, MiWay, Brampton, Oakville, Burlington, HSR, and Durham) which currently sync Presto data using Wi-Fi in their depots once each night.
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At least getting to the point where the phone app can handle all functions and pulls pending updates immediately rather than waiting for a 24 hour update cycle would give customers a way around the wait time without changing how most devices operate.
 
People can make a cheque deposit by taking a smartphone photo of it, and see it immediately on their account. (There is a hold on it, but if you have overdraft protection on the account, you still have access to it.) Yet it takes 24 hours for PRESTO to do any update. What's wrong with this "photo"?
 
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