Caltrain/Caltrain

My response to Caltrain was then taken up by a different representative, maybe because Leigh thought she was too cool to actually take care of riders. Here's what I got back from Astrid, a "specialist":

“	Mr. Bokhorov: Thank you for your comments. If you became a member after November 2006, you should have been advised which transit systems the card was valid on; at that time Caltrain was not included. ERG, the project manager for the MTC, apparently had some problems with their software which is why some TransLink equipment became reactivated after initially having been turned off. The Caltrain TransLink coordinator has therefore at times had to manually turn off the equipment at some stations. That some equipment remained active has not presented a problem, however, since the relatively few individuals that participated in the Caltrain pilot program were aware of that it had been terminated. I am not sure how you obtained your card, but if you got it through the TransLink web site http://www.translink.org/index.do, you would have seen that the card currently only is valid on AC Transit, Golden Gate Transit and Ferry, and Dumbarton Express. If you have any further questions or comments concerning your TransLink card, please contact their Customer Service Center at 1-877-878-8883.	”
—Astrid Lindell, Caltrain Customer Relations Specialist, Sat, 26 May 2007 14:02:06 -0700

Wow, they really don't get it. It doesn't matter what the website says. What matters is that there's a reader that's deducting money off people's accounts, and they refuse to honor that. Notice, by the way, that they still can't spell my name – shit, copy and paste was created for a reason. I responded to her as follows:

“	Hello Astrid, I am amazed that while no matter who gets in touch with me from your side of the story, no one seems to see anything wrong with the situation. This is in stark contrast to essentially every single person that I've relayed the information to, including people in the Bay Area. Not one person from either Caltrain or Translink has offered to give me a refund to this day. If, as you say, the machines cannot be used for paying the fare, then I'm owed a refund on not only this transaction, but also another one that happened earlier this year. Perhaps we should just cut to the chase and I can donate the rest of my Translink balance to Caltrain to make life easier for all of us. To be honest, I couldn't care less whose fault it is that the machines are malfunctioning. What I do care about is that it is your responsibility to be aware of the malfunctions, and deal with them accordingly. I'm amazed by the customer service you are providing – you are asking me, the consumer that got screwed by a malfunctioning machine, to accept the results given by these malfunctioning machines. If all your VTMs [oops, that's supposed to be TVMs] counted only half the cash that you put into them, whose fault would that be? The point isn't what some website says. The point is that the machines are not working properly, and I have suffered (and wasted uncountable hours) as a result. The fact that neither Caltrain nor Translink has done anything to resolve this over a week later is absolutely unbelievable.	”
—Paul Borokhov, Sat, 26 May 2007 19:03:56 -0700

Funny thing was, she responded back immediately...with an out-of-office reply. lol. I heard back from her for real on Wednesday morning finally, with this amazingly insightful text:

“	Please advise how and from where you obtained your TransLink card. This is apparently when you received the incorrect information concerning its usage. You could not have received the card from Caltrain, since we no longer were participating in the program at the time you obtained your card. I am also not certain why you are requesting a refund. I assume that you only used the Caltrain machines when taking the train, in which case payment was due.	”
—Astrid Lindell, Caltrain Customer Relations Specialist, Wed, 30 May 2007 10:23:12 -0700

Damnit, are they really that dull, or am I really that bad at articulating my point? Is it possibly both? That's a killer potion right there...anyway, unfortunately I didn't get her message until Wed night, so I couldn't get an immediate response from her, but here's what I wrote:

An active Translink reader enticing you to "Select destination zone"...com'on, you know you want to do it!

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...it even shows you how much money it will gladly take off your account!

“	Hello Astrid, I am amazed at the incompetence of your organization. You see, it doesn't matter where or how I obtained my card. What does matter is that when I arrived on the platform, I saw that there was a functional Translink reader. I don't know about you, but every reasonable person that I know would assume that since The reader was on the platform and functional, and The reader deducted the fare from my card it was a valid method of payment. You see, payment was not due since I was kicked off the train. If that didn't happen, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. Let me know if there are any other obvious points that I missed. Just in case you think I'm making this stuff up, I'm attaching some pictures that I took yesterday that still show the readers being active. Paul	”
—Wed, 30 May 2007 21:40:34 -0700

I've inserted the images that I attached into this section (click on them for full versions), so now everyone can see what I'm talking about.