Unsuck DC Metro: SmarTrip Pilot Invite Confuses, Angers

Monday, September 12, 2011

SmarTrip Pilot Invite Confuses, Angers

Photo: mr_t_in_dc; shop: Andrew

Several people have written about the following email that was sent out to some Metro customers:

Begin forwarded message:

From: noreply@wmata.com
Date: August 31, 2011 1:46:47 AM EDT
To: xxxx@hotmail.com
Subject: Pilot Invitation

To SmarTrip® Account Holder

You have been randomly selected to participate in a pilot of several new system functions.

We sincerely regret to inform our MTA customers that the MTA system does not yet support these new functions.
We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause our MTA customers.

These functions will enable you to use your credit card to purchase stored value and passes for your SmarTrip® card.
You will also be able to save your credit card information to use for future purchases, and to print detailed receipts.

The next time you log in to your SmarTrip® account, you will see several new links on your account pages. For example, on the page with the header "View Card Summary", you will see the following changes:

- A shopping cart icon on the left side of the screen
- A new group of links under the heading "Online Purchases" on the upper right section of the screen; and
- Within the text in the middle of the screen, there are links to "Add value" and "Add Pass".

Please take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the new functions, and the steps that you will need to follow to load your purchases onto your SmarTrip® card.

These new features are intended to make it more convenient for you to manage the balances on your cards and avoid the lines at ticket vending machines.

We encourage you to take advantage of these new features. If you have questions, or experience any problems when using these new features, please contact the Regional Customer Service Center at 1-888-762-7874.

Your SmarTrip® Account Team

From Rachel:

Great email from Metro last night.

Paragraph 1: I'm invited to join a pilot to test new functions.

Paragraph 2: Those functions are not yet available and they are sorry. Wait, what? Then why are you sending me this? Is this a joke?

Paragraph 3: Oh wait! Yes they are available! And finally, I learn what the aforementioned (twice) functions are.

What PR person wrote this? It's terribly written, confusing, and doesn't even contain a link to the website they are trying to get me to use.

Metro should not be surprised if this pilot fails.

Awesome as always!

From Scott:

Metro has selected me to participate in a pilot program dealing with (I think) Metro card purchases on line. The explanation is enough for me never to attempt to use the service, as the WMATA email does a very poor job of explaining what the new features are. Also, wouldn't it been more appropriate for Metro to ask me if I wanted to participate?

Also this line, "We sincerely regret to inform our MTA customers that the MTA system does not yet support these new functions. We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause our MTA customers." is so f'ing out of place - as they are offering me these services.

A good gesture, but lousy execution.

From James:

Wait, is this a Metro program or an MTA program? Are the new features available or not? Where do I go? Is this a cut and paste job? Did anyone give this a second read? Why are we paying hundreds of thousands dollars to the staff of Metro's communications team when they can't even put together a basic email?

We apologize for our fail.

Other items:
Metro workers receive pay raise this week (Examiner)

Comments (31)

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+7 Vote up Vote down

Daily Rider · 706 weeks ago

Sounds like poor structure of the message, but not too hard to figure out. It probably should have read:

You are selected for a test of some new features. Here is whats new. Unfortunately, these features won't yet work on the MTA (Maryland Transit Authority) system.

I am available as a PR consultant at reasonable rates. :-)

+16 Vote up Vote down

Kara · 706 weeks ago

So I can have them save my CC information? I do not even let places I trust save that so why in the world would I do it for that bunch?

-1 Vote up Vote down

Soylent Green Line · 706 weeks ago

I got the email. I haven't tried it yet, but if it works as advertised, I will be pleasantly surprised. Granted, this seems like the kind of system that should have been implemented years ago, but with Metro late is not only better than never - it's standard.

I will reserve my judgment of the system itself until I use it, but if anyone remembers how well Metro implemented its fare increases (which still have yet to cause any visible improvement to the system to my mind) one can only expect there to be... issues. We'll see.

+9 Vote up Vote down

Orange line rider · 706 weeks ago

I also received the email invitation. Like others, I had to read it a couple of times to understand what I was being invited to test. On the third reading, I concluded that SmarTrip must also be used by MTA riders, not jsut Metro riders, and thus the apology up front. You'd think SmarTrip would be able to segregate its users in order to better target its users. I'm not comfortable storing my credit card info on SmarTrip's website whether part of or separate from WMATA so I will decline the invitation to participate.

-32 Vote up Vote down

Crash · 706 weeks ago

I received an invite as well. I wasn't confused. I logged in, saw the new choices were available and logged out. I may try them, I may not... but I certainly didn't have an issue with the e-mail. Stick to Twitter if more than 140 characters is too many to read.

1 reply · active 706 weeks ago

+11 Vote up Vote down

DCRider · 706 weeks ago

Ah...it would seem some WMATA employees got the invites as well....

+16 Vote up Vote down

F'n JD · 706 weeks ago

Dan Stessel, did you write this? Your tweets are so much more eloquent. Please keep all future emails to under 140 characters. It will make things much eas

-26 Vote up Vote down

Jack · 706 weeks ago

Okay, wait people are complaining because THEY don't know the difference between MTA and WMATA? How is your inability to read and differentiate between WMATA and MTA (hint: the letters are different) Metro's fault?

+9 Vote up Vote down

dcn8v · 706 weeks ago

I'm Dan Stessel, and I endorse this message.

+24 Vote up Vote down

@VeggieTart · 706 weeks ago

It might have been clearer if the bit about MTA were at the end of the email. Invite users, tell them what the new functions are, and then say this doesn't apply to X, Y, and Z.

So if it were written by someone with a brain, it would go something like this:

You've been invited to participate in a test of new functions, blah, blah, blah.

Here are the new functions and how they work, blah, blah, blah.

Please familiarize yourself, blah, blah, blah.

If you have any questions, call 1-800-WHATEVA.

These new functions are only available on SmarTrip and not yet available on other area transit systems, blah, blah, blah.'

Your SmarTrip Account Team

But then that would make sense.

+15 Vote up Vote down

Kathryn · 706 weeks ago

I got this email last week, and my main reaction was no way am I going to hand over my credit card information to Metro. If they handle their computer systems with the same level of competence as the infrastructure, look for a major hacking incident in the future.

6 replies · active 706 weeks ago

+3 Vote up Vote down

F'n JD · 706 weeks ago

We could make a request of Anonymous. Could shed some serious light on an entity that operates in relative secrecy.

+3 Vote up Vote down

dcn8v · 706 weeks ago

Why waste Anonymous's time? This is Metro- can't we just find a high school senior and slip them $50 to do it?

-9 Vote up Vote down

Soylent Green Line · 706 weeks ago

With respect, what is the difference between doing this and swiping your credit card in the Metro-owned-and-operated machines we currently use to recharge our Smartrip cards?

+9 Vote up Vote down

Kara · 706 weeks ago

That this wants to store your CC information?

-7 Vote up Vote down

Soylent Green Line · 706 weeks ago

And the machines don't?

+6 Vote up Vote down

Kara · 706 weeks ago

Unless they are not operating as advertised, no.

+1 Vote up Vote down

UnSuck Fan · 706 weeks ago

Wait, what?!? This was an actual e-mail? I thought it was spam because it wasn't one of those form letters (or is it only a form letter when we file a complaint?). LOL! Just kidding!! I never really received this e-mail. ;-).

Good luck to those who've received it (and to those confused WMATA people who sent the darn thing out)!

+2 Vote up Vote down

Jobasaur · 706 weeks ago

MARTA in Atlanta just implemented this type of system a few months ago, and it's great. No more need to use the fare machines. I just reload my Breeze card online at my convenience.

Of course, MARTA didn't send out any confusing e-mails or run it as a pilot, they just implemented it system-wide... oh, and no "MTA" confusion because it's integrated with neighboring transit systems, like Cobb County Transit.

+6 Vote up Vote down

anon · 706 weeks ago

This has to be the most poorly written email in the history of email.'

Yeah, right--i'm giving you my credit card information....

+30 Vote up Vote down

MadAsHeck · 706 weeks ago

Good day sir,
My name is Dan Stessel. I have recently been appointed chief PR representative for Nigeria. My father was the former chief PR representative here, and had deposited the sum of $50,000,000 in an account. I am unable for political reasons to withdraw this sum, and therefore requires a partner in a foreign country.

Please enter your Credit Card information into the afformentioned website, and I will deposit this amount in your account. I will then coordinate with yourself kind sir to redeliver the amount to me.

Many thanks and humility to you sir.

+6 Vote up Vote down

@Hell_on_wheelz · 706 weeks ago

Hope it's better than MetroAccess' "E-Z Pay" system - which runs off the rails every so often: neglecting to post $$ (although it gets charged against my CC), swiping $$ (a week in advance) for scheduled trips without rebating the fees for properly cancelled trips, and being charged in cash by the driver for a trip listed as paid for.

We (MetroAccess riders) have no recourse: the blind wall that Metro throws up for bus and rail raiders is further obscured by a layer of contractors. Call about a problem, send email - you either get the "boiler plate customer service email" ( and the response is to someone's question, somewhere - but NOT the one you asked) or SILENCE.

So welcome to (yet another) sometimes-functioning piece of WMATA which will part you from your money in a manner guaranteed to minimize your personal safety in exchange for a generally inefficient service - one that will rarely perform to even the most modest expectations....

As an IT guy, I would NOT hand them the ability to store any financial info, but that's just me.

-15 Vote up Vote down

Mat · 706 weeks ago

Sometimes you've got to feel sorry for Metro. They've got some dumb customers.....

+4 Vote up Vote down

The Dude · 706 weeks ago

I was invited to the pilot program back in June and I've used it successfully quite a few times. It's very convenient. I can refill my SMARTRIP card online at anytime. You don't have to store your credit card information. If you don't store your CC info, you just have to fill that info in every time you refill your SMARTRIP card online, which is what I do.

+3 Vote up Vote down

LMKCRB · 706 weeks ago

PS Nice photoshop work done on the card. I'm relatively impressed!

+4 Vote up Vote down

guest · 706 weeks ago

In a year when people grumble for increased smartrip functionality, the response will be: "We tried that in a pilot program and people didn't respond to it, so we'ver abandoned those ideas."

+2 Vote up Vote down

anon · 706 weeks ago

"You will also be able to save your credit card information to use for future purchases, and to print detailed receipts"

But you don't have to. So bear that in mind. This is true of most online shopping, too; they offer you the choice of saving the info to make it easier next time. If you don't trust Metro - and why should you? - then don't save your info.

+2 Vote up Vote down

wesindc · 706 weeks ago

I received this invite several months ago. I was shocked at the level of customer service with the smartrip group. I loaded my card online but then became ill and then went out of town and did not collect the amount before it expired (I think it's 15-30 days). I called them when I got back into town and asked if the money could be reinstated to my account....3 minutes later I had the 30 bucks available! I figured Metro would eat it and put into their rainy day fund! One caveat is that it takes up to 3 days for it to be available via bus scans as opposed to 1 day at metro kiosks. I take circulator so I have to keep in mind to keep at least a few dollars on the card before placing the online order.

-3 Vote up Vote down

GDopplerXT · 706 weeks ago

Wow, more proof that there is nothing that Metro can do without someone complaining. I got the same email a few weeks ago, and while it clearly wasn't written by Shakespeare, it gets the message across (unless you think that "MTA" and "WMATA" are the same thing, of course.)

The letter writers are clearly intent on finding any possible fault with Metro and ignoring any possible improvement (well, maybe except for the one who said it was "nice gesture"). I'd love to know if any of them got over their composition-anger enough to actually log in and check out their account features online.

+3 Vote up Vote down

Kes · 706 weeks ago

I got this email and was momentarily confused by the MTA bit (also mentioned on the website when you login to your Smartrip account), but I figured it out. This is hugely convenient for me, as an almost bus-only rider. The only downside I've found is the bus card-readers don't get updated for about two days after you load your card online, so if you're close to negative, you may have to add cash on a moving bus anyhow. But overall, I have been pleased with the system and will use it regularly.

+1 Vote up Vote down

inDCentWMATA.com · 706 weeks ago

I've been in the pilot since July. Surprisingly, it has worked out awesome for me. I also choose not to let them store my CC info. Trusting them with my life is hard enough.

Terrible email, but don't let it deter you from using the online functionality. It might be the only pleasant wmata experience you have.