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Commuter-rail ticket app fails on the first Monday of the month
By adamg on Mon, 10/02/2017 - 8:42am
UPDATE: MBTA says the problem is fixed.
Commuter-rail riders who normally use the mTicket system can't this morning.
Kevin Essington reports:
People are buying tickets for other passengers w cash.
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Suck it up, MBTA
Why not give the riders a pass and let them ride for free? You can't blame people for depending on an app they are specifically encouraged to use.
Or people could learn to always have some cash
on them for just such a situation.
Would you expect a restaurant to give you a free meal just because their credit card reader is down? Then why should the T give you a free ride because only one way they accept payment doesn't work ?
Poor analogy.
Poor analogy.
Unless the restaurant is a hotel restaurant in the wilderness, nobody has to eat there.
Or how about a hotel that loses power and the electronic door locks don't let you back into your room to get your stuff? You *could* have planned ahead and brought a crowbar with you.
Well...
If the restaurant made me wait 15-30 minutes before seating me and only then did they tell me their credit card machine wasn't working and I'd have to pay cash that I didn't have on me...well, I'd be pissed, leave to eat somewhere else, and I'd probably never go back there again.
So, are you suggesting that I need to check my mTicket app in the morning every day to see if the app is working? And if it's not, I have to go get cash and *still* have to eat at that restaurant because there is no other MBTA for me to use in protest of the one that forced me to use cash when I didn't have it? OR if their app is broken, maybe they should eat the cost of my ride since I'm locked into *their* mode of mass transit and, really, that cost is just going to come of their general budget which means if YOU don't want to pay a fraction of the cost for all my broken rides along with me, then YOU should be mad that the MBTA can't keep its fare system functional for weekdays.
And just what is the problem with carrying
some cash with you in the event that your fare paying app, or the credit card app in the taxi, etc. doesn't work.
It's called good planning, which today's texting generation seems to be woefully lacking in.
Before or after the meal?
If the restaurant normally accepts cards but waits until after they present the bill to inform you that the machine is busted, they definitely are going to have to accept losses.
Not usre how widespread ths issue is......
......I was able to use the app early this morning.....
This morning
I was getting on my express bus and the woman ahead of me had an issue with not having renewed her monthly in time (Monday beginnings of the month are the worst for this). I had a panic attack as I realized I had no money in my pocket or on my card, I'm out in the relative boonies of Brighton for MBTA pass purchasing, and I'm going to have the same problem (she at least had cash for 1 fare to use)...
Turns out Past Me saw this coming and purchased my monthly downtown last week as I was headed to the Sox game on Wednesday from work. But man for about 2 minutes waiting to get on the bus, I did not remember that this morning and was trying to get my "please please please" plea to the driver ready.
Similar issues on the 326
Driver was just waving people on. Lots of folks did not get their company-renewed passes in time.
The MBTA will not be left behind
with old ideas.They are pioneering new fields, developing disruptive techologies like cyber-delays and e-breakdowns.