PRESTO – My Bank Account is Drained

With Vancouver soon adopting an automatic fare card system, it is interesting to note, that not all is well in the land of transit fare-cards.

TransLink doesn’t want its new fare card just for transit, oh no, TransLink’s mandarins want the new fare card as a currency, valid for purchases in convenience stores and some major retailers, which mayAi??pose some problems in the future.

TransLink’s Modus Operandi is simple, a bureaucrats reads (or looks at a picture) of some transit development or other elsewhere and deems it would be neat to have in Vancouver. Then to persuade the politico’s of the need of this development, TransLink uses its well oiled public relations machine to manufacture a demand, yet from the beginning not knowing the real reason why this particular development is used transit wise. BRT, U-Pass, fare-gates/fare-cards, transit police, all fall into this category, as TransLink has spent hundreds of millions of dollars implementing them, without really knowing the reason why they are used, except that they look or sound neat.

In Toronto, those holding a Presto Transit card, allows Presto to dip into their bank accounts to top up the card when needed and for some, with rather nasty and expensive results.

The same will happen in Vancouver, but I have great expectations that TransLink will treat the fare-cardAi??customer with the same disdain as it does with all transit customers; “too bad, so sad”.

I can’t wait until the $127 million (and more)Ai??fare-gate/fare card folly begins.

Back to Presto problem taps riders and dips into their bank accounts

Presto problem taps riders and dips into their bank accounts

December 20, 2011

Tess Kalinowski

Adam Field works in customer service for a software company so he knows that computer-based systems can hit the odd glitch. But when the auto-reload function of his Presto card malfunctioned recently it cost him about $150 in bank charges.VINCE TALOTTA/TORONTO STAR

The last thing anybody needs at the holidays is a surprise hole in their budget. So when Adam Field read in a GO riderai??i??s blog that the automatic re-load feature was malfunctioning on some Presto transit fare cards, he decided to check his statement.

Sure enough, there were 11 instances in which the Presto system loaded $40 on Fieldai??i??s transit card before it reached the $20 balance thatai??i??s supposed to trigger a cash injection.

The auto-load feature allows Presto users to trigger a transfer from a bank account or credit card onto their transit smartcard when Presto reaches a minimum balance determined by the user.

Field had his account programmed to take $40 from a bank account if his Presto balance went below $20. Although he doesnai??i??t think his balance ever went under $50 in the affected period, his Presto account received 11 $40 credits.

But the funds werenai??i??t being withdrawn from his bank, so last week, when he discovered the problem, Field found himself overdrawn and on the hook for about $150 in bank fees.

Itai??i??s not the money that irks the Hamilton-Toronto commuter, although he said he had to complain vigorously to get Metrolinx to up its original offer of a $10 voucher to $150 to cover the bank costs. Itai??i??s the fact that he wasnai??i??t notified that annoys the 27-year-old systems administrator.

ai???You have a system where you can just take money out of peopleai??i??s accounts. If thereai??i??s an issue with the system, why was I not told? Why wasnai??i??t I notified?ai??? he said. ai???I work for a service-based company. If something goes wrong, the first thing weai??i??re going to do is tell our customers.ai???

A spokeswoman for the Toronto region transportation agency told the Star on Tuesday that Metrolinx only discovered the issue last week, at which point it emailed or phoned 320 affected customers. The auto-load problem was in effect between Nov. 7 and Dec. 4. The money was deducted from customer bank accounts until Dec. 8, 9 and 10.

ai???About 90 percent of those contacted did not realize that there had been delayed, combined charges. For customers who felt that they were severely impacted by the software issue, we issued them vouchers to reimburse them for any overdraft bank charges,ai??? said Thomas in an email.

ai???In any complex system such as a banking or card payment system, there will be rare glitches. This software error was a rare occurrence,ai??? she said.

But itai??i??s not the first time the Presto system has malfunctioned. On Oct. 27 about 200 electronic Presto readers at six GO stations were out of commission for about five hours. Presto officials told a Metrolinx board meeting in November that problem has been resolved.

The two issues are not related, said Thomas.

The Ontario government paid Accenture $250 million to design, build and operate the Presto system, which has been adopted across GO Transit and all the regional bus services, except the TTC.

The TTC, which has Presto readers in some stations, has agreed to work with Metrolinx to finance its installation. But until itai??i??s widely available on the TTC, one of the main features of the card ai??i?? its transferability across municipal boundaries ai??i?? is of limited use because about 85 per cent of transit riders in the Toronto region use the TTC for some part of their trip.

There are110,000 Presto cards in circulation.