Zach6668
Active Member
Also the interest you forego for having $20 sitting on your card is literally nothing.
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crs1026
Superstar
According to the most recent annual reports - at fiscal year end, the TTC held 89.770M in liability reflecting tokens and passes sold but not used. For passes, presumably that's only one month's worth of sales for the start of the next fiscal year.
Metrolinx reported holding 29M at year end in unused e-purse amounts.
So if anyone is earning interest, it's TTC, not ML. Assuming those token sales become Presto sales in the next year or two, the TTC liability will shrink and the Presto purse will grow.
- Paul
Metrolinx reported holding 29M at year end in unused e-purse amounts.
So if anyone is earning interest, it's TTC, not ML. Assuming those token sales become Presto sales in the next year or two, the TTC liability will shrink and the Presto purse will grow.
- Paul
DonValleyRainbow
Senior Member
This. And you get the benefit of not having to think about it. I set up autoload 3 years ago and I have never ever thought about it since.
Although I have been meaning to log in and take a look, make sure I haven't been double-charged on the TTC...
rbt
Senior Member
There are a few quirks with it, first is the obvious credit card expiration. Second, less obvious, is if you forget to tap-out and have a $5 minimum, the event "Auto-tapout adjust" can cause the card balance to go negative and the autoload will fail. It's a PITA because I always have to convince the bus driver to load cash onto the card to make it work; also means I still need to carry cash for GO transit.
A $10 minimum is fine because there is no auto-tapout adjust rate higher than $10.
Finally, had a Barrie express fare (Newmarket bus-split, I got from Barrie to Union) that applied a $54 fare (so 3 autoloads of $20 each); once I got to Union it refunded roughly $40 of it leaving a card balance of $50. That would have really put a kink in things when I didn't have that much to spare.
TOareaFan
Superstar
I could have posted this exact post....it completely describes me....keep meaning to check.
steveintoronto
Superstar
You know, you look at your card balance sometimes, and wonder 'WTF?'.
So you check on-line, and sure enough, the very glitch they keep promising to fix isn't. I got dinged for a penalty fare of 17.50 thereabouts for a $2.79 trip just a few weeks back. I still have a running dispute on-line with them not yet clarified (it's been handed off to some other nebulous identity) so last time I called them up, it was a "twenty minute holding time" to speak with someone.
I'm at the point of just avoiding them if possible. I now buy a paper ticket with my Presto card as I've got vastly more important things to think about and can't be bothered playing their incredibly glitchy games.
I'll wait until I'm in the mood next week to do it. I've just walked hungry past the local stupidmarket right now as I don't want to have to argue with an automatic check-out machine. Stupid pieces of *&$%...I'll go back when there's a human checkout clerk.
And btw, I design and develop electronic devices and circuitry. But I'd never put a customer through the distress various agencies do.
Jonny5
Senior Member
Yep. I have no idea what is happening here. I loaded the card at Exhibition, tapped on, boarded the train, tapped off at Union, then boarded the subway. Somehow... I think the end fare is correct, but the numbers and the process through which it arrived is bizarre, like the system was delayed processing and corrected the "missed tap off" on it's own after a few minutes.
Attachments
steveintoronto
Superstar
I've stared at it for about three minutes, still can't figure out what happened at Onion (sic) Station. Onion is where all of my glitches happen too, *almost all* on the Presto GO machine top of the ramp entering the UPX platform.
I'm still dreading phoning GO up to get it straightened out. It's like having to justify yourself to a faceless, meaningless robotic entity. And that's on a good day...
I just wish to fug they'd fix their bugs.
Edit to Add:
Can you imagine the outrage, the mass desertion of bank and credit card clients if their invoicing was displayed like this?
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AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
Parody
AoD
AoD
LNahid2000
Senior Member
Related to this, another thing that bothers me with Presto is that if I'm transferring from a GO Train to a GO Bus, I need to have at least two base fares ($10.60) on my card, even if my total fare will be way lower than that. I once took a GO Train to Bramalea GO and then transferred to a GO Bus to get to Trinity Common. The fare was around $7 and I had $10 on my card, but when I tapped on the GO bus, it said I didn't have enough money for my trip. Not intuitive at all.
I had to beg the bus driver to let me on since I didn't have any cash on me. I stopped taking the GO Bus after that, and just use local transit instead if I need to travel somewhere not near the GO station.
I had to beg the bus driver to let me on since I didn't have any cash on me. I stopped taking the GO Bus after that, and just use local transit instead if I need to travel somewhere not near the GO station.
Jonny5
Senior Member
Yes I have experienced that too. Transferring from the train to bus at Aldershot to continue to Hamilton. Even though that final leg of the trip on the bus ultimately costs $0.00 (which I believe is an error, but they have never fixed it), to tap on to the bus you require $5.30 on the card. If you don't have it I have had varied reactions from the driver. Sometimes they tell you to go back in the station to load your card, and they do not wait for you to come back; some will grudgingly let you add cash to the card (if you have it - and don't expect change back); others will simply waive you on without tapping.
smuncky
Senior Member
Wouldn't an autoload amount solve that problem?
cplchanb
Senior Member
I believe yrt has it so that you can still continue on the current trip and give u a negative balance, but provide you dont have $0 to begin with
edit: its presto wide but you need to have an account first. moral of the story is to register
steveintoronto
Superstar
[PRESTO card users who have created a My PRESTO Account have the benefit of taking one trip when the cost of the trip exceeds the balance on the card. If you hit a negative balance, you will be charged a $0.25 fee the next time you load your card.
GO Transit customers can only go into a negative balance if you start your trip with at least $5.20 on your card. Visit the GO Transit site for more information.]
https://www.prestocard.ca/en/about/FAQ/load-card-and-check-balance
Johnny's case is doubly so if you have a concession fare, as I do (senior), as any glitch of anything to do with fare, your concession isn't granted. (They calculate all transactions on the presumption of charging you maximum fare, and giving back what you've been over-charged as a refund at the end of the trip. Anything glitches, you don't get your concession, let alone being charged that maximum assumed fare).
And I'm not rich, but I am comfortable, but it's the *principle* of being held hostage to someone demanding money from you that you don't owe them. All well and good to say: "Well if you did this, or did that, then when they demand money that isn't theirs, it's not a problem".
Except it is! Even though you are completely in the right, you are put on the defensive, having to justify yourself, account for actions that you shouldn't have to.
I'm getting just a little tired of dancing to their tune when the service is supposed to be rendered to the passenger, not the system. Of course, principle is old-fashioned for some...
What happened to "innocent until proven otherwise"? In all fairness, as Johnny pointed out, some drivers realize the absurdity of it, know you're not trying to pull a fast one, and let you on.
But I have run across some drivers who'd be a hell of a lot nicer out of their uniforms in an alleyway. Don't get me started, I did get a written and phoned apology from the manager of the bus division over a chronic incident (one time cops drew their guns on me after an altercation with a driver ) of my using a velcro strip to secure the back wheel of my very expensive and rare distance road bike to the bike rack, actually stipulated in the Highway Traffic Act Securing a Load provisions. Gosh, do you think the National Post phoning them about doing a story about it might have jarred the sudden change in attitude?
I got fifty bucks worth of free travel on my Presto Card as well as written and spoken apologies. They're still not compliant with the HTA, btw, and they have lost bikes off the racks. Some SW US jurisdictions actually attach Velcro strips to the racks and you are required to fasten *both wheels* securely. Well duh! But unlike GO, they admit to the problem of losing bikes off the racks. GO admits to nothing unless caught red-handed.
One inspector: "You won't be getting on any buses back to Guelph tonight, I've made sure of it"...after my being cleared and apologized to by head of PR and the manager of the bus division....Supervisor told me: "We'd rather the bike fly off the front rack on the highway than it get caught under the bus....". He knew nothing about where the brake lines are on the bus, he was talking to someone who designs electro-mechanical systems, but I digress...he was an idiot. Btw: Some of the drivers that I know from back then now say "You were completely right, I just wish more cyclists would completely secure their bikes to the racks".
They don't hire some of these folks for their brains....oh yeah, supervisor also stated: "I don't care what the division manager or the Hwy Traffic Act states, we make up the rules". Hey...that was in front of witnesses lined up to get on the bus, btw, mostly Uni students.
GO has more than a few things to learn. The biggest joke is their asking for you to fill out a customer survey after every time you contact them, because "your opinion counts". Yeah, once you put the fear of court action or the newspapers into them.
I'll say it yet again: (and I'm a Centrist) "If this was a business, many of the staff, especially the mid and upper management, would be out of jobs".
Making excuses for the shortcomings of their software and rules doesn't help.
GO Transit customers can only go into a negative balance if you start your trip with at least $5.20 on your card. Visit the GO Transit site for more information.]
https://www.prestocard.ca/en/about/FAQ/load-card-and-check-balance
Johnny's case is doubly so if you have a concession fare, as I do (senior), as any glitch of anything to do with fare, your concession isn't granted. (They calculate all transactions on the presumption of charging you maximum fare, and giving back what you've been over-charged as a refund at the end of the trip. Anything glitches, you don't get your concession, let alone being charged that maximum assumed fare).
And I'm not rich, but I am comfortable, but it's the *principle* of being held hostage to someone demanding money from you that you don't owe them. All well and good to say: "Well if you did this, or did that, then when they demand money that isn't theirs, it's not a problem".
Except it is! Even though you are completely in the right, you are put on the defensive, having to justify yourself, account for actions that you shouldn't have to.
I'm getting just a little tired of dancing to their tune when the service is supposed to be rendered to the passenger, not the system. Of course, principle is old-fashioned for some...
What happened to "innocent until proven otherwise"? In all fairness, as Johnny pointed out, some drivers realize the absurdity of it, know you're not trying to pull a fast one, and let you on.
But I have run across some drivers who'd be a hell of a lot nicer out of their uniforms in an alleyway. Don't get me started, I did get a written and phoned apology from the manager of the bus division over a chronic incident (one time cops drew their guns on me after an altercation with a driver ) of my using a velcro strip to secure the back wheel of my very expensive and rare distance road bike to the bike rack, actually stipulated in the Highway Traffic Act Securing a Load provisions. Gosh, do you think the National Post phoning them about doing a story about it might have jarred the sudden change in attitude?
I got fifty bucks worth of free travel on my Presto Card as well as written and spoken apologies. They're still not compliant with the HTA, btw, and they have lost bikes off the racks. Some SW US jurisdictions actually attach Velcro strips to the racks and you are required to fasten *both wheels* securely. Well duh! But unlike GO, they admit to the problem of losing bikes off the racks. GO admits to nothing unless caught red-handed.
One inspector: "You won't be getting on any buses back to Guelph tonight, I've made sure of it"...after my being cleared and apologized to by head of PR and the manager of the bus division....Supervisor told me: "We'd rather the bike fly off the front rack on the highway than it get caught under the bus....". He knew nothing about where the brake lines are on the bus, he was talking to someone who designs electro-mechanical systems, but I digress...he was an idiot. Btw: Some of the drivers that I know from back then now say "You were completely right, I just wish more cyclists would completely secure their bikes to the racks".
They don't hire some of these folks for their brains....oh yeah, supervisor also stated: "I don't care what the division manager or the Hwy Traffic Act states, we make up the rules". Hey...that was in front of witnesses lined up to get on the bus, btw, mostly Uni students.
GO has more than a few things to learn. The biggest joke is their asking for you to fill out a customer survey after every time you contact them, because "your opinion counts". Yeah, once you put the fear of court action or the newspapers into them.
I'll say it yet again: (and I'm a Centrist) "If this was a business, many of the staff, especially the mid and upper management, would be out of jobs".
Making excuses for the shortcomings of their software and rules doesn't help.
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