Transperth SmartRider ripoff
Today I took my SmartRider card in to be replaced because it was no longer letting me swipe onto/off the bus. So I headed into the CBD (conveniently all the InfoChoice booths where you can get your card replaced are in the city).
I handed over my card and was told that it was cracked down the middle, and it would be $10 to replace. I’d previously looked at the card and couldn’t see any crack, but that was what they claimed.
I suggested that as claimed on the Transperth website the $10 fee is only to replace cards that are (and I quote) “misused”. So I’m not sure how I misused it if I only used it to swipe on and off public transport. The woman behind the counter claimed that they didn’t absorb the cost of replacement cards. I pointed out that other access cards I’ve had for longer still seem to be working quite fine. She suggested that some people bend the card against the reader. I wish I’d said it’s probably because the readers are so crappy at recognising the card from any distance.
She also said I needed to ring up and transfer the autopay to the new card. When I rang up they said the autopay had already been transferred to the new card!
I suggested that as part of the control group mine is one of the older cards out there, I suspect that they’re going to be replacing quite a few of them in the not too distant future. But if they’re going to charge everyone $10 to replace the cards there’s probably not much incentive to get more robust cards, they could probably spin a profit.
So, if you’ve had your card replaced for free after it failed during normal use, please let me know in the comments. They may just be charging everyone $10 on the grounds they “misused” the card.
Tags: public_transport, smartrider, smartrider_cards, transperth
September 5th, 2007 at 11:22 pm
Mine has a crack though still works so far. It’s about 18 months old, shall see how long it keeps going.
September 6th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
I’m completely paranoid mine’s going to crack after bending while being swiped now! If I paused to make sure I treat the accursed thing gently I’d miss every train I’m trying to catch.
Good call on the crappy readers. The one at City West inbound platform will only respond if you swipe on the right-hand side — the left side always just gives you an angry red flash. They’re utterly hopeless.
April 18th, 2008 at 9:07 am
I’m a student (yr 10), they replace ours free. They crack so often it’s not funny.
I want the multirider back, you could bend or misplace it and it wasnt a big loss.
Waiting a week for a new card every few months is rather irritating.
May 11th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
I’ve had 4 smartriders in a space of two months, one cos it was old, school one (lasted me bout more than 2 years), next one the bus driver snapped it when he tried “fixing it”, third one i lost and my fourth now! they must really hate me now haha. though it takes them an eternity to sort out problems or to get balance transferred.
July 10th, 2008 at 12:02 am
Fellow Public Transport Users:
A. You’re keeping them in your wallet which is kept in your back pocket. When you sit your cards bend. SmartRiders have a microchip and aerial in them therefore keep them in a part of your wallet that bends the least. It will last much longer.
B. You don’t “SWIPE” them. You “PRESENT” them. If you swipe them there isn’t enough time for the info to be exchanged from the reader to the card. Just hold it 1 or 2cm above the reader and wait a quarter of a second for it to register.
Dear Perth Pedestrienne, Maybe you should leave a half second earlier in the morning then you wouldn’t have to rush, my dear. And if you know that that particular reader at City West only reads one side of your card, why are you still having problems with it when you know exactly how that one works??
But if anyone cares I’ve had mine since March 2007 and haven’t had a problem yet. It can’t always be the machines. That only leaves one other thing doesn’t it?
Happy travels.
July 16th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Chris, perhaps i’m being childish but i’d like to point out that… you have no life, if you have to put petty comments like this ^ on an article, perhaps their complaints are biased and have no factual base. i must say however that upon reading your comment i immediately wanted to complain about you, just like you complained about them, next time you want to try to find fault in others and tell the world about it simply because they are voicing their problem with something… think about what your doing.
July 17th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
Dear Joshua,
You are a big gay babby.
July 21st, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Joshua. I have given great amounts of thought into what I am about to do and have decided to let you know that your grammar stinks.
Sorry if I offended you and belittled some other poor sod who couldn’t get their act together. I was not trying to find fault in others but was trying to use sarcasm (yes, the lowest form of wit (but God it’s good)) to put a very simple solution across.
However, (and notice that there is a comma after the word ‘however’) like I said, most times it’s the user and not the machine. They ain’t perfect but they’re pretty good. By the way I happen to work the PTA so I should know.
Thanks for the backup bawls.
July 27th, 2008 at 1:24 am
Thank you for sinking to that level, you have simply proven my point. Your inexplicable desire to portray me as someone who is inferior to yourself, so you can allow yourself to believe that my comment is invalid, is something that most people would do. The fact that people don’t know how to accept criticism and moreover must find ways to debase the giver of said criticism is something that I find wholly disturbing. You are given the chance to improve yourself, as so many are, yet you can’t accept that another person finds fault in you. $100 says that you enjoy being able to give that as your job title, PTA, Perth transit authority, obsessed with power. I’m guessing you’ve been called bossy on many an occasion, that your family tolerates your company, that you spend far too much time browsing and that you always over achieved but never had anything to aspire to. You came back and attacked my grammar?? Why is it that people like you can’t afford to lose on any level you consider important? You’re not perfect, you have your faults. You’re cynical and judgmental and by the sounds of it a middle aged women (they don’t teach grammar like they used too, nor spelling, nor constructing coherent rebuttals) you have a partner, you live in a middle to well off area, somewhere that suits you.
Somewhere near the river, near your work. Sometimes people in there pretentious desire to belittle there biggest fear, give away dangerous information. I leave you with that. Btw I am a high school student, I read Carl Jung, Freud and Nietzsche, I think they (especially Nietzsche) might help you to remove that proverbial stick from your disgustingly full of itself proverbial ass. Chew. Swallow.
P.S How pretentious is that graffidiot thing? It’s such an “out of touch adult” way to deal with things. “Hmmm these kids won’t listen to us because they think we don’t understand them, that we’re dorks. Let’s created the most crude, childlike, idiotic, almost insultingly simple, ’slogan’ we can, post it everywhere and hope it catches on”
Hope you found that refreshing, if you reply, I’ll try and find the time in my busy schedule, to come and make an ass of myself once again.
July 28th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Hi Joshua.
Mate, if you’re studying, what are you doing surfing the net and posting comments to dickheads like me at 1.28am on a Monday morning? Anyway, thanks for the feedback. I shall attempt to answer all your questions in order: No, because it’s actually the Public Transport Authority and not the Perth Transit Authority. No. Maybe. No. No. Yes. Yes. I can, but choose not to with you. No. No, I’m under 40 and male (At this point you began to ramble on a bit making heaps of statements which are not actually questions so I shall ignore them). “Graffidiot” ain’t my call and you’re probably right about it.
“Refreshing” is not what I’d say your comments were but you did give me and some work colleagues a bit of a dry chuckle. If you do happen to find the time to respond to this, one might summise that you are too young to accept criticism on levels that are beyond your comprehension. Who was it that said, “We mock what we don’t understand”.
You sound intelligent. I hope you can back up comments that you make when they really need backing up - like face to face rather than a internet forum.
You can keep your $100 to pay your next ticketing infringement. Cheers and I genuinely wish you good luck with your studies.
July 29th, 2008 at 10:45 am
i came off as a total knob, sorry if i pissed you off, i just reacted badly, school is a drag, boring as hell, and i don’t sleep much… you sound like an alright guy. also, by word of google, it was austin millbarge in spies like us who said “we mock what we don’t understand” lol ^^
July 30th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
just trying to read about transperth and BAM FULL ON GANG WAR, i like it!
July 30th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
I had recently just broken my card. I had also just put $100 on it. so i lost the money and had to pay $10 for a card.
Transperth is a rip off. their transport is crappy and over priced.
July 31st, 2008 at 3:22 am
Dear Chris,
A. You’re keeping them in your wallet which is kept in your back pocket. When you sit your cards bend. SmartRiders have a microchip and aerial in them therefore keep them in a part of your wallet that bends the least. It will last much longer.
No, this is not correct in my case. My wallet has never been kept in my back pocket - it lives in my bag. I treat my bag gently. As it turned out, my Smartrider did crack.
B. You don’t “SWIPE” them. You “PRESENT” them. If you swipe them there isn’t enough time for the info to be exchanged from the reader to the card. Just hold it 1 or 2cm above the reader and wait a quarter of a second for it to register.
Funny, I don’t recall receiving this information in any kind of “Caring for Your Delicate, Precious Smartrider” pamphlet. Perhaps I was simply inattentive. I would like to argue, however, that “swipe” to my mind also meant passing the card over the machine in a swiping motion, hoping to make contact with the sensor. I swipe slowly, darling, I promise you.
Maybe you should leave a half second earlier in the morning then you wouldn’t have to rush, my dear. And if you know that that particular reader at City West only reads one side of your card, why are you still having problems with it when you know exactly how that one works??
When I said, “If I paused to make sure I treat the accursed thing gently I’d miss every train I’m trying to catch.” I didn’t just mean to work and from work trains. I meant every one I’m ever running to catch. Do you never run to catch public transport? I find in Perth it’s a necessity, given the irregular service and gigantic gaps in timetabling (whether deliberate or just a fun little quirk of how Transperth is running that day). Now, my love, I never said I was “still having problems with it” — in fact, I identified this was a problem after it occurred a number of times. I suppose it was my failing not to also elaboate that I had made all required behavioural adjustments to my morning routine and my swiping/presenting motions to cope with that little multi-million dollar unit’s failure to work properly. I worry for those of us, however, who don’t know every minute quirk of every Smartrider reading machine.
Of course, poppet, it’s not always the machines. We can grasp this. However, cannot a machine be more readily fixed than a man? I suppose then that it leads me to suspect humans are at fault for the failures of the Transperth system — perhaps humans, such as yourself, who are employed by the PTA and yet fail to constructively deal with criticism and lash out at the public, taking everything oh-so personally and failing to remember that it really, really ought to be professional instead.
July 31st, 2008 at 9:22 pm
… sickburn…. lolmao
August 1st, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Hi PP.
If you want constructive criticism then maybe do it in writing to the PTA and not on an internet forum where insensitive knobs like me can respond and have a few gags at your expense.
Hi to Joshua.
Yes indeed it was Austin Millbarge. A hillariously funny movie but its a bit dated nowadays.
August 2nd, 2008 at 2:57 am
Hi Chris,
Wow, you love your assumptions, don’t you? To set you straight: I have made numerous complaints to the relevant contact numbers at Transperth since I began encountering any difficulties with the system — the number of complaints I found I needed to make greatly increased along with the advent of the Smartrider. I don’t keep my complaints solely to internet blog posts that are also complaining about the same things I have complained about and have problems with.
Your having “gags” at “[my] expense” was definitely not what I felt was necessary to argue with you over, more it was your rampant false assumptions that I was motivated to counter. What you choose to laugh at is your own business. Enjoy the next Judd Apatow movie.
Fondest regards,
Now Left Perth Pedestrienne
August 2nd, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Who is Judd Apatow?
PP. Sorry I upset you and if I went over the top I apologise.
August 9th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Wow, Chris, you are a real dick, seriously. And I saw a few grammatical errors in your posts so get off your fucking high horse.
August 9th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
Thanks to ‘chris is a cunt’ (where are your capital letters???) for stooping so low with that sorrowful display of the english language. Well done.
If you’d read on, like most intellectuals might, you may notice that I had toned down and actually apologised to someone you silly git. So to retort to your drivel I say that I actually got off my high horse before you even bothered coming here.
Cunts are useful. Grow some balls and post your real name.
Good to see people posting constructive criticism.
SmartRider RRRRRRRRocks! WooHoo! And Graffidiot is the best thing since paint came in a can!
September 17th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
wow, i thought that perhaps i needed to get out more when finding myself reading this, but you guys should never go home! lol but ta for the laugh
September 17th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Wow! So I’m doing an assignment on RFID cards and I find this. Very entertaining. Thanks guys for providing some light entertainment between writing! haha.
September 17th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
Wow i’d forgotten about this, it was funny though, its amazing that after all that back and forth bullshit i think i actually enjoy the banter chris provides, yeah the movie is old and not prollific anymore but it was engaging none the less. I have to agree with PP ^^ this smartrider idea is part of a serious problem involving the deteriation of our society. When it becomes the case that your too lazy to throw down some coinage and say “60 cents thanks” then you have a problem. The cards break and cost money which could be spent on fare, the machines cost ridiculous amounts of taxpayers money to build and install and they break aswell. The overall idea is based on aesthetics and whilst it apeals to our consumer driven society i believe it is symptomatic of a flaw in our western culture.
Cunts are useful. lmfao amen to that, so are assholes like you and dicks like me.
Night ^^
October 7th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Wow, i’d like to thank Chris and Joshua for those entertaining comments lol. Chris your one funny guy i liked all your rebuttals to Joshuas comments, they were really funny. Joshua i like how you’ve got such a good vocabulary and you used pretty good words in the argument. You guys are awesome. The best part was when you guys stopped arguing and acknowledged each other for the smart,funny people you really are. Oh and about this smart rider stuff, i’ve never had a smart rider so i wouldn’t no if they break easily and stuff like that but i have a friend whos got one and she complains non stop. But anyways i say bravo to Chris and Joshua and i hope you both keep posting comments.
bored and tired
lauren is here,never fear
October 13th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
… *Cough Cough* .. sorry… i meant penis!
hahaha..
yea thats abt it..
& I agree.. the smart rider Sux BALLLLLZ.
biggest piece of crap ever..
They should give commuters the option of a protective hard plastic sleeve with every purchase of the rider - but thats if they give a shit - which they most probably DONT!
October 14th, 2008 at 9:09 am
be our guest and have a rest.
October 17th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy, Lol smartriders i have mine and i chew on it and its lasted like…agess and stuff. never cracked wtff.. ahaha
October 25th, 2008 at 3:24 am
hahahaha, you guys have no idea, spend as much time as a driver does in just 1 shift, and you will see that smartriders not tagging on sucessfully is NOT a life and death matter, but just a minor occurance. hahahahah get a fucking life!!!!!
October 28th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Chris, there is a web page here dedicated to complaints about smart-riders. For every person I’ve heard complain about them, there are at least ten more. I’m happy for you and congratulate you on the success of your smart-rider, but it doesn’t make you more intelligent than the people who have had problems (as there are many).
This is a blog…get over the spelling and the opinions which differ from your own, or don’t bother with blogs. It is clearly stressful and unhealthy for you.
Joshua, I am not a “middle aged woman”, but I don’t see how this alone can be an insult…or a category which could determine such specific characteristics.
October 28th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
My god! I just read the rest of this, and I am glad I’m not Chris. What a dick!
Anyone care to count the criticisms of other people by Chris? Did anyone actually take any on-board? Do you think anyone ever pays attention anymore?
I suppose after a few days, the criticisms lose all meaning and no longer register. I can imagine colleagues explaining to new staff, “just ignore anything Chris says”.
I meant to say:
mY gOd reAd Rest OF this things.cHris dummy.Agnor ennything Cris ses.hes to criticol. cant give peple a brake wen thay arnt grate at things hes grate at.mabee he reeds books in the bus and trane so hes mush gooder then us on Inglisch langwage
October 30th, 2008 at 9:57 am
your on a blog about smartriders… your name is janelle, you butt into other peoples business, your a total hypocrit. You just got annoyed at someone complaining… and complained about them. your worse than chris, he acknowledges he’s a dick regularly, he states that he’s overly critical. You are just… well just plain bitchy. And i find it hard to believe your not a middle aged woman. No it’s not an insult, it’s simply pointing out that you display characteristics common to a specific group of people who are stereotypically overbearing, annoying, unnatractive losers who can’t seem to understand that by belittling the opinion of others and resorting to methods used by your asshole enemy, you are NOT being a good person. You are NOT setting an example for the youth and you sure as hell aren’t making the world a better place. YOU ARE ONLY POISONING OTHERS WITH YOUR BULLSHIT. Criticism is useful, people need it. Bitching about others isn’t.
Middle aged women are not all like this, not even a large part of the demmographic are. I was only refering to the stereotype.
November 4th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
God this is funny.
I’ve just joined the public transport hoardes and came across this through google.
Can never get overr how people waste their time on commenting in such meaningless ways; but it is bloody funny to read all the posts. Seems very easy to wind people up.
Hang on!! I’m now getting roped into commenting. AAAARRRRRHHHHH.
November 7th, 2008 at 9:25 am
Haha, Brilliant.
I’ve had my smartrider since just after they came out and no problems. Aside from the plastic overlay starting to peel a bit, as do all cards.
The only thing I find irritating is that when you bpay money onto it it takes a massively long time to load. And only certain stations have reloading facilities.