Cheap Therapy

Was on the bus on Tuesday and the bus driver missed a stop outside Churchlands High School. One of the students said “You missed the stop”, so the bus driver pulled over. Of course the bus was now out of the GPS zone around the bus stop, so the students with Smartriders couldn’t tag off. “Don’t worry about that” says the driver, so the students trying to tag off get off the bus.
Of course the driver doesn’t need to worry about that, the students will get charged for a trip all the way to Fremantle on the circle route because they couldn’t tag off!

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.

In case you’re not already on the way to work, remember the turnstiles at the train stations are being closed as of today, so you’ll need to have a SmartRider (or presumably a ticket) to get onto (or off?) the platform.

So, according to Transperth the correct fare is $2.46 for the bus to/from UWA and the drivers are charging me the wrong amount ($2).

So, to get to work I’m being charged $2.64 on my SmartRider. If I pay cash I only pay $2. Except for when it decides to charge me $1.70. Sometimes I apparently catch the bus from Fremantle (which is a bit odd as I don’t live anywhere near there). Sigh.

Anyone know the address of the public SmartRider control group discussion list someone apparently set up? I think it was on Yahoogroups but last time I looked I couldn’t find it.