Railroad Forums 

Discussion relating to the past and present operations of the NYC Subway, PATH, and Staten Island Railway (SIRT).

Moderator: GirlOnTheTrain

 #1171229  by Aces
 
My unlimited ride metrocard has a little crease in it and I figured I could simply request a replacement from a token booth attendent, but no:

Unlimited Ride MetroCard must be mailed to NYC Transit for replacement. To receive a full credit for time remaining on your card, the envelope must be postmarked no later than one day after the problem occurs. Sundays and Federal holidays are not counted.

So, I'm supposed to spend another $112.00 while I mail in the defective card? Ah well, here's hoping the crowd behind me doesn't get too angry as I swipe, swipe, and swipe again to get the darn thing to work. Does anyone have any idea why the replacement can't be done at a booth?
 #1171545  by BobLI
 
I had a similiar problem with a $20.00 card. I think if the booth reader cant read the card then it cannot be transferred to another card. Thats what they tried with my card. I'm guessing they look up the numbers on the back of the card at HQ and then issue a new card from there. BTW, it took them 10 weeks to get me my new card. I'm thinking its some kind of MTA policy nt to issue a replacement card from the booth if it cant be read.
 #1238051  by Rbts Stn
 
We go to NYC 10 or so times/year for theater, dining, seeing friends, shopping etc. and take the subway much of the time.

Last time down (Labor Day), our old metrocard got a "can not read" message. It was nearly empty -- we were trying to refill it to avoid the $1 fee. Line at the booth was very long so said screw it and bought a new card.

Went to refill it on Saturday (knew it was under a buck in value) and got "expired" from the machine. Line at the booth again very long, so bought a new card too quickly (train was coming) with the $9 option (plus bonus) and the two of us used it to head to dinner. Coming back my wife used it and I saw we had under $2 left on it, so I went to add money. Put another $10 (plus bonus) on it, machine told me "no receipts available" (fine, I rarely print them anyway), went to the turnstile, and got "insufficient value" message (still had under $2 on it). Went to the booth (no line!) told the attendent who saw the whole thing (ok, didn't see me actually add money, but we were the only patrons at the time), who offered me an envelope to send the card in for a refund and nothing else. I turned down the envelope and will try to dispute the charge with Amex. Attendent did buzz me through the door so I didn't have to pay, but man, are these cards and me bad luck together.

Or is this common?
 #1241142  by keyboardkat
 
I think the idea is to make it so much of a hassle that people won't bother, just to transfer a couple of bucks to a new card.
What I can't figure out is, why do the cards have to have expiration dates? If there's money in the card, there's money in the card. If there isn't, there isn't. Why should the card simply shut down for no reason just because there's a certain date passed?
 #1241712  by Rbts Stn
 
So I looked at my Amex statement last week and saw that two days after they charged me, they refunded the full amount. Must have had a bad machine and/or batch of transactions.

That having happened, I still walked/cabbed it on our trip to NYC this past weekend.
 #1241733  by MACTRAXX
 
Everyone: Let me add this Metrocard information:

If you have a Pay-Per-Ride Metrocard with money remaining on it you have ONE YEAR PAST THE EXPIRATION DATE to transfer a remaining balance to a new card...
Example: If the card expires on 12/31/13 you have until 12/31/14 to make that transfer - and you will not be charged $1 for a new card...
On a MVM just use the "Refill" option and the machine will show the balance and ask "Transfer to a new card?" Just press "Yes" and it should go through...
If you get a receipt it will show both the new and old card numbers and the transferred balance and you can keep the old card if you wish...

With a defective Unlimited Metrocard you need to submit it to NYCT as soon as you can so you can get credit for the days that it was not used - and the MTA can
easily verify which days and how much the card in question was used...

MACTRAXX