Railroad Forums 

  • SEPTA NPT card will be "SEPTA Key"?

  • Discussion relating to Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (Philadelphia Metro Area). Official web site can be found here: www.septa.com. Also including discussion related to the PATCO Speedline rapid transit operated by Delaware River Port Authority. Official web site can be found here: http://www.ridepatco.org/.
Discussion relating to Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (Philadelphia Metro Area). Official web site can be found here: www.septa.com. Also including discussion related to the PATCO Speedline rapid transit operated by Delaware River Port Authority. Official web site can be found here: http://www.ridepatco.org/.

Moderator: AlexC

 #1510105  by mcgrath618
 
JeffersonLeeEng wrote:
jamesinclair wrote:Interesting conversation on this thread:

https://www.reddit.com/r/philadelphia/c ... h=37dc120d" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Apparently SEPTA keys start expiring in July,

Apparently you need to purchase a new one ($$) and then hike over to HQ ($$) to transfer your old balance?

Surely that's wrong?
Transit cards should *NOT* have an expiration date. But since some high management thought to put a service/"benefit" nobody wanted in the form of an attached Mastercard account, we're saddled with the process of having to purchase a new card for $4.95 and then lugging our way to someplace in person like 1234 Market to ask them to do a simple balance transfer. :/

And Travel Wallet *still* doesn't work for Regional Rail. :(
MetroCards also expire. This isn’t a SEPTA-exclusive thing.
 #1510122  by Patrick Boylan
 
Sent: Thursday, May 30, 2019 12:39 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: SEPTA Key Registered

I went to 1234 Market St yesterday. The clerk at your customer service desk dialed a number on your incredibly inconveniently placed phone, located just at the swinging door for staff to come from behind the counter, so I had to move out of their way several times. After a few minutes waiting someone got on the line to whom I explained, now for the 3rd time
1 in my original email to you
2 to the clerk at the customer service desk
3 to the phone clerk
that I wanted to know when you'd put the $4.95 purchase fee into my travel wallet.

The phone clerk asked for my name, address and phone number. That's information I could easily have emailed you if I knew that you wanted it. It's also information you already have since it's on my profile to which this card's registered.

The clerk continually complained when I said you emailed me, claiming that she didn't personally email me. That's incredibly insulting to imply that I was trying to say that she was personally involved, but again I should not have needed to speak with anyone, email should have been enough.
After another 15 minutes on hold the phone clerk said that SEPTA, implying to me that she doesn't work for SEPTA, has 30 days to approve or DENY my request.
Not counting the travel time I worked for more than 20 minutes so far for $4.95, which is a paltry hourly wage TO GET A REIMBURSEMENT THAT SHOULD BE AUTOMATIC. I sincerely suspect that your making this far more difficult than it should be is your should be illegal scheme to get extra revenue except, in my case at least since I'm actually pursuing what you owe me, you spent more than $4.95 paying that phone clerk's wages and fringe benefits.

Why is there any question about my claim's legitimacy that should allow even the slightest hint that you might deny it? And why must I wait 30 days?
 #1510148  by jamesinclair
 
mcgrath618 wrote:
JeffersonLeeEng wrote:
jamesinclair wrote:Interesting conversation on this thread:

https://www.reddit.com/r/philadelphia/c ... h=37dc120d" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Apparently SEPTA keys start expiring in July,

Apparently you need to purchase a new one ($$) and then hike over to HQ ($$) to transfer your old balance?

Surely that's wrong?
Transit cards should *NOT* have an expiration date. But since some high management thought to put a service/"benefit" nobody wanted in the form of an attached Mastercard account, we're saddled with the process of having to purchase a new card for $4.95 and then lugging our way to someplace in person like 1234 Market to ask them to do a simple balance transfer. :/

And Travel Wallet *still* doesn't work for Regional Rail. :(
MetroCards also expire. This isn’t a SEPTA-exclusive thing.
When a Metrocard is close to expiring, the machine will ask if you want a new one, combine your value, and spit out the new one at no additional cost.This can be done at every station in the system.

MBTA Charlie Cards expire but they last 5 years. They are also free.
 #1510192  by redarrow5591
 
I posted this on that Reddit thread, and I'm going to post it here...... and I do have experience with this process as I had a dead card about six months ago and the process is absurdly easy!!!

As long as you have any/all Key Cards REGISTERED (that is the key here as they will ask to verify who you are), all you have to do is take it to a Non-RRD Sales Office (went to 1234 Market), verify who you are and they reissue FREE OF CHARGE.

Do not pick up a new key card and try to merge them, especially if you already have two key cards registered as you will not get back the 4.95 fee.

Long story short, REGISTER YOUR CARDS!!!!! Expirating and dead cards they'll replace free of charge.
 #1510215  by Patrick Boylan
 
redarrow5591 wrote: Do not pick up a new key card and try to merge them, especially if you already have two key cards registered as you will not get back the 4.95 fee.
Are you saying that they will not reimburse the fee, which they advertise with no restrictions other than register card within 30 days if one has more than 2 cards registered? Why should that matter and where do they document it? One expects that families would have more than 1 card, and probably more than 2 cards: 2 parents and each child.
I don't remember the full registration, but doesn't it just require a card number, email address and phone number? If indeed they limit each account to 2 cards for fee reimbursements, why would they bother since anyone burned once could just register each pair of cards to separate email addresses? Unless that's another of their illegal gotchas where they expect to make money on each naive person who registers multiple cards.

By the way, this whole "you must pay 2 fares to get to one of our 9 sales offices to transfer expired card balance to new card" is at the least bad dumb marketing. Why didn't they just say "use up your balance before expiration and just get a new card anywhere we sell cards, whether it's one of the 9 offices or any vending machine"?
 #1510230  by jamesinclair
 
JeffersonLeeEng wrote:https://www.philly.com/transportation/s ... 90531.html

Our lovely local transit journalist, Mr. Laughlin, writes this article as a helpful guide...
"“We know that’s something customers want, and we’re discussing it,” said Andrew Busch, SEPTA’s spokesperson, somewhat apologetically. “We do understand that is going to be not even just a matter of convenience for customers, but it’s really what people expect to be able to do.”

Perhaps this discussion should have happened 3 years ago?
 #1510238  by rcthompson04
 
jamesinclair wrote:
JeffersonLeeEng wrote:https://www.philly.com/transportation/s ... 90531.html

Our lovely local transit journalist, Mr. Laughlin, writes this article as a helpful guide...
"“We know that’s something customers want, and we’re discussing it,” said Andrew Busch, SEPTA’s spokesperson, somewhat apologetically. “We do understand that is going to be not even just a matter of convenience for customers, but it’s really what people expect to be able to do.”

Perhaps this discussion should have happened 3 years ago?
Wouldn't be an easy solution to just mail new cards to the addresses associated with them if the cards have been active within the last 6 months?
 #1510344  by andrewjw
 
rcthompson04 wrote:Wouldn't be an easy solution to just mail new cards to the addresses associated with them if the cards have been active within the last 6 months?
That's exactly what Chicago does. They also removed the MasterCard feature so they expire in 5-10 years because nobody uses it.
 #1511092  by Patrick Boylan
 
From: SEPTA Key Support <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, June 5, 2019 2:29 PM
To: Patrick Boylan
Subject: RE: SEPTA Key Registered

Good afternoon
If you register your SEPTA key card within 30 days of receiving your SEPTA key card the $4.95 that you spent should be returned to you in your travel wallet. Please call us at 855-56-SEPTA
Patrick Boylan
Thu 6/6/2019 4:18 PM
NO I WILL NOT CALL YOU IDIOTS. You already told me to phone you, and I already told you to tell me what information do you want me to give you so you can fix the missing $4.95? I also already told you that I DID PHONE YOU and I already told you that THE PERSON WHO'S AT LEAST AS STUPID AS YOU told me that you need 30 days to decide if you're going to give me the $4.95.
Obviously you're trying to make this as difficult as possible to try to get at least a few people to think it's not worth the effort. And as I ALREADY TOLD YOU, you're essentially making me work for less than minimum wage since it's so far taken more than 45 minutes of my time to collect it.
From: Patrick Boylan
Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2019 10:48 AM
To: SEPTA Key Support
Subject: Re: SEPTA Key Registered

I've looked again today. What is taking you so long to return the $4.95?
 #1511104  by JimBoylan
 
The Airport may be a place to buy Unlimited Ride S.E.P.T.A. passes that aren't Limited Ride Key Cards.

www.septa.org/key/updates/2019-airport-transpass.html

> Riders who buy their Monthly SEPTA Pass through a Corporate Benefits program or at Travelex Currency Services at Philadelphia International Airport will continue to receive a legacy Pass when they purchase a Zone 1 TrailPass. <
 #1511205  by JeffK
 
Patrick - now MY saga begins ...

I used the Airport line last week. My Key card wasn’t registering properly so the gate attendant took the card to give it a try herself. "Sometimes you just have to press harder on the reader" —- followed by SNAP!!!

When I got home a few days later I took the broken card over to 1234, reported the incident, and asked for a replacement. Simple, right? NO GO, unless I apply for - and pay for - a brand new card. I said that wasn’t acceptable, that there was clearly some sort of defect if the card split under use that's far less than credit cards typically get hundreds of times, that it was in the hands of a well-meaning SEPTA employee, etc. etc. etc.

While there I escalated the problem a couple of levels but got nowhere. Since then I’ve kicked a formal complaint up a few more levels in the faint hope of getting something better than a polite version of g.f.y. It’s no longer about the money, it’s the fact that - like your registration fee - they feel entitled to skim/scam 5 bucks here and 5 bucks there by acting like a 1960s-era Soviet bureaucracy. More to come.
 #1511615  by Patrick Boylan
 
They sent me 2 new emails within a half hour of each other, each one telling me to phone them, one of which claims they tried to reach out to me. No explanation of how they tried to reach out to me, and no explanation of why they want me to phone them, and of course no explanation of where my $4.95 key card fee is.
I did phone them, and as before the menu offers no option about getting the fee or speaking with anyone. I once again email replied this and asked what info they need from me.
 #1511658  by MichaelBug
 
When phoning the SEPTA Key customer service line (855-567-3782), there is no PROMPT for an option to speak to a live agent. But, if you press "1" for English, then listen to the entire menu, THEN press "0", the system WILL transfer you to an agent. Or, if you don't press ANY buttons at all, the system will cycle through the menu three times (takes about 2 1/2 minutes), then automatically transfer you to an agent. Try it!
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