Unsuck DC Metro: New Alert System already has Glitch

Friday, March 9, 2012

New Alert System already has Glitch

@sunnike08 discovered a glitch with a group of accounts not remaining confirmed. DM us your email if you wish us to keep an eye out. ^BA
— @wmata (@wmata) March 9, 2012

A lot of people have emailed me or tweeted me saying they're not getting any of Metro's new alerts.

Ironically, Metro was touting the new service during yesterday's board meeting when the alerts faced their first major test.

From Scott:

Since the new WMATA email alerts system was implemented, I have not received a single alert. For example, today during the major incident at Foggy Bottom I did not receive a single alert although I am properly subscribed to receive alerts at all time periods.

Is the new email alert system working properly?

Comments (21)

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+6 Vote up Vote down

Disillusioned · 684 weeks ago

Either Dr. Gridlock wasn't available to write their news for them or Dan Stessel was too busy taking a spinning class.

+8 Vote up Vote down

Anon5 · 684 weeks ago

anything metro related + "working properly" = oxymoron.

+2 Vote up Vote down

@starzskymoon · 684 weeks ago

I get the alerts for the Red Line. I think I get a DOZEN a day. That's totally unncessary (as in, totally unnecessary for there to be that many issues in one day!).

+1 Vote up Vote down

sheajohnp · 684 weeks ago

Gmail spam filter is sending mine right to trash. I tweeted @wmata about this the other day - no response.

1 reply · active 684 weeks ago

+3 Vote up Vote down

MLD · 684 weeks ago

You can open any message in your spam folder and click "not spam" and gmail will eventually learn that you want those e-mails.

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DMCinDC · 684 weeks ago

The glitch may have hit your smartbenefits on your card as well. I had $81 and change on my card last month, and went to load $85 for March recently, and instead of my total being $166, it shows online as $161... $5 is missing. Isn't that nice how that happened? I have contacted smartrip via email (smartrip@wmata.com), but have not heard back anything yet.

Has anyone else noticed money missing from their smartbenefits upload?

8 replies · active 684 weeks ago

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UnSuck Fan · 684 weeks ago

Yeah, WMATA’s failing is contagious throughout the ENTIRE system!! I had more than my fair share of SmartBenefits on my card as I was a worker in the private industry so I could deduct more pre-tax monies thanks to the company that we used to help with the transactions.

When recently I tried to use my card, ALL of the money had disappeared. The card reader actually put my card in the negative so I had to put more money on my card. After I added $20.00 at the fare machines, it removed the negative amount, but it didn’t show where the rest of that $20.00 went. When I went up to the fare gates, all of my missing SmartBenefits was there. Again, the rest of the $20.00 was gone. Not sure if it went to that elusive “third purse” or not.

+1 Vote up Vote down

DMCinDC · 684 weeks ago

Did you get a receipt for what you added on? I always ask for a receipt. Definitely contact them about it. Though I am not sure what to do if nobody responds. I mean they basically steal your money now and do nothing to fix it.

I printed out an online report of my smarttrip showing that their math is clearly in error based on balances at the last several dates.

Now that you had this issue too... I wonder how many more people. Maybe Unsuck can put up a new post asking people if their smarttrip/smartbenefit amounts are being shorted. I would think that since this is all electronic that it can be traced somehow. Will anyone with any power over metro check their systems? Nah... better to violate riders rights and search bags randomly.

+1 Vote up Vote down

UnSuck Fan · 684 weeks ago

No, unfortunately, I did not. It was one of those "I need to add money in a hurry" since no one on earth has a clue as to why I lost all of my SmartBenefits. I usually ask for a receipt when I added my SmartBenefits. It was just weird and annoying.

+2 Vote up Vote down

DMCinDC · 684 weeks ago

Oh wait... yes that is the elusive third purse. You can only see it online. I definiotely recommend going online and printing out that page and a report on a monthly basis. You never know when metro might steal some!

+1 Vote up Vote down

UnSuck Fan · 684 weeks ago

Well, I've been extremely luck with my SmartBenefits and have received them without any problems because I used WageWorks to manage my money.

Uh, I'm not really sure I need to worry about Metro might stealing some of money as I suddenly haven't had the need to use Metro.

0 Vote up Vote down

VeteranRider · 684 weeks ago

The way it's supposed to work is:
Personal Money: This is money you added at the Blue FareCard machine. That machine will only display your Personal Money balance, not your Benefits Balance.
SmartBenefit Money: This is the money you get via your employer (though it may be your own pre-tax money, or if you're a Fed, the benefit from your agency.) This is the 'primary balance' -- as long as you have a Benefit balance, that money will be used first to pay your fare; this is the balance you will see flashed on the Faregate; you will not see this balance at the Farecard machine. Only if you have $0 Benefit balance will the fare be deducted from your Personal money (the 'secondary balance') in which case the Personal Balance will be displayed.

Nowadays your monthly Benefit money is added automatically to your Benefit Balance each month the first time you use your SmartTrip card - no trip to the farecard machine is necessary any more to add the monthly benefit.

Why your Benefit balance wasn't shown at the Faregate and then appeared is odd, if that happened on the same day. If it happened over the change in month, that could make sense .

As for your $20, that was personal money, so if your personal balance was negative, then the $20 would be added to that negative balance, therefore showing a net balance of less than $20. If you then entered the faregate, the balance shown there would be your Benefit balance (the primary), not the personal money you just added (the secondary.)

As for the Third purse - that is for parking which I don't use so I am less sure about, but I believe that it works in relation to the Personal Balance as does the Benefit Balance, but for the separate parking benefit rather than fare benefit. Parking money cannot be used to pay for fares.

SO - that's my attempt to try to explain Metro's excessively complicated set-up. I hope it helps, but ... I doubt it. But I thought I'd try.

+1 Vote up Vote down

DMCinDC · 684 weeks ago

They still stole $5 from my Smart Benefit load and loaded $80 and not $85. I have the report from their system showing such. Report shows $85 should have been loaded, and total before load $81.20. Total after I touched the gates (did not ride - just loaded) was $161.20. See something wrong? That's why I said everyone should check their accounts after SB loads.

I cc'd unsuckdcmetro on the last email I sent metro, with the reports attached.

+1 Vote up Vote down

DMCinDC · 684 weeks ago

I got a automated response to my email, basically that they are not going to even respond. I have tried calling smartrip four times already this morning, and their system keeps saying the lines are busy and then just HANGS UP! WTF? SERIOUSLY... WTF?

+2 Vote up Vote down

Luci · 684 weeks ago

I made the mistake of giving my phone number as an ALTERNATIVE to e-mail. Now I don't get the e-mails but I get the phone alerts at all hours of the night despite my set preferences. Interestingly, all of the alerts are about "resolved" problems and never about the actual problem.

1 reply · active 684 weeks ago

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Cathy · 684 weeks ago

I made that mistake and got all these text messages on my phone but no emails. I deleted my phone number the following day. I did not realize that they changed it so that you have to click on a link in the confirming email from WMATA in order to started getting the emails again. By the time I figured it out, clicking the link did not work so I had to reenter my email address and then I clicked on the link as soon as I got the confirming email from WMATA. I finally signed up to follow on Twitter. You can't be selective on which messages you see on Twitter but I do not have delete them from an account or get charged for text messages.

+2 Vote up Vote down

JJS · 684 weeks ago

I signed up for elevator alerts for my station. I was under the impression that if there wasn't a problem, I would not get an alert. I get an alert every day. The escalators, if you can believe it, are fine.

I can't unsub either.

Also what up with the late night alert-athon. I don't want to hear that then? I enjoy my away time from Metro

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UnSuck Fan · 684 weeks ago

I’m not keeping up with this as I should, but if it’s what I think it is, all I can say is, “Whatever!” When the social media mouthpieces joined everyone was more than thrilled when they created the “Metrofoward” account. People started getting notices and things were going well. Then, BAM! Just like everything else, it failed and the social media team became anti-social. Just like the whole, new, shiny “Tell Metro” account. If you see anything that’s in need of repair (what DOESN’T need to be repaired ?!?), you’re supposed to use this account to let them know. I think that account is supposed to be used for more than just telling them what needs to be repaired, but again, I haven’t been keeping up with this. So, as usual, they’ll open another account and make it work for a few weeks, and then it will have problems and fail like so many other things.

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Anti-TB Guy · 684 weeks ago

Just out of curiosity and comparison's sake, I signed up for the San Francisco BART alerts, too:
http://www.bart.gov/news/alerts/index.aspx

Their messages are so sincere, friendly and polite, it makes me want to move to the Bay Area! The whole web site bart.gov fits the description "too good to be true" but in actuality, it just is that well done.

More examples: http://bartbikestation.com/ http://sfbart.posterous.com/

1 reply · active 684 weeks ago

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Anti-TB Guy · 684 weeks ago

For example: "We're using Posterous to share tidbits of news and photos from riders. On the spectrum of Stuff You Get From BART, this is in between our official www.bart.gov website -- where you can go for trip plans, schedules, advisories etc. -- and our twitter.com/SFBART feed, where you can get little 140-character updates but not the pretty pictures. Tell us what you think at webadmin@bart.gov!"

0 Vote up Vote down

@schrammalot · 684 weeks ago

I signed up a while ago, never got messages, now I'm getting them round the clock on my phone and they're not recognizing my phone number! I've tweeted them MANY times!