Credit cards for Charlie Cards

[hahathor.livejournal.com]

I attempted to use my Visa card to purchase a Charlie card at the Davis Square T station on Friday evening. After about 10 minutes of trying to make the machine acknowledge my credit card, a worker informed me that the system wasn't acknowledging cards. I purchased a card using the last of the change in my wallet. Today I checked my credit card on line & see that I have been charged $10 for the Charlie card I didn't receive. I guess the system was working well enough to charge credit cards, just not well enough to provide Charlie cards for the charged amount. I was wondering if anyone has had this problem, and if anyone knows who I'm supposed to contact about this.

Comments

[xjustquietx.livejournal.com]

That sucks. I read this (http://www.bostonist.com/archives/2006/12/02/charlie_doesnt_take_credit.php) the other day. I hope it helps.

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

Definitely call your credit card company - the T has basically defrauded you, and you can deny the charges (which is a big headache for them, but they deserve it at this point).

[spatch]

They definitely deserve a big headache in return for all the ones they've given us this past year.

[sasha-bee.livejournal.com]

me too. big pain in the butt.

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

Hmm ... looking at my bank card statement, it looks like I also have this issue with a $5 charge. Ugh. :(

[rxrfrx.livejournal.com]

Just call your credit card company and have them undo it. It takes like 5 minutes.

[nonnihil.livejournal.com]

I recently had one of the Charlie Ticket machines swipe a fairly well-loaded ticket when I was trying to add a few tokens I had found around the house. Out $12.50. It took me two emails and five phone calls just to get on the refund queue, and that queue is something like eleven weeks long.

Definitely go through the credit card company. You're unlikely to have much luck going to the MBTA.

[capsicumanuum.livejournal.com]

Things like that are a big part of why for most of November I had about a dozen different CharlieTickets in my wallet. Whenever I found tokens, I bought a new card, instead of trying to add money to the old one, because I really didn't trust the machines not to fuck up.

[girlsnqueers.livejournal.com]

Although I haven't experienced any of these horrors (I'm now very grateful one of my jobs purchases my pass for me) I just contacted the Globe with this story as a news tip. We'll see if they actually cover it. If you would like to add your personal story or are also wondering why the hell the Globe has not yet seen fit to print this news please send an email to localnews@globe.com. Feel free to let others know that they can alert this address.

[agharta75.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's been three days now and I'm astonished that the Globe and Herald haven't covered this. It's worthy of local news front page at least, if not the main front page. I guess no one there rides the T.

[agharta75.livejournal.com]

Call the credit card company and dispute the charge. Calling the T is useless.

I expect the CharlieCard activation next month will be a disaster. Pay cash at a ticket window.

hey look you made Universal Hub

[toonhead-npl.livejournal.com]

http://www.universalhub.com/node/6775

Re: hey look you made Universal Hub

[hahathor.livejournal.com]

Ooh! My 15 minutes has begun!

[watchamacallit.livejournal.com]

Whoa. I should check my bank account because I tried to buy a monthly pass at SIX different machines last week.

[mderidder.livejournal.com]

You should check, according to todays Globe, you may have been charged 6 times

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/12/05/riders_billed_as_passes_fail_on_t/