Last week I had no choice but to call the customer department of the “EASY” card system from Miami-Dade’s metro rail. I thought I followed all their cumbersome and complicated system, but still, I was not able to see my account’s REAL balance.
-“Once you add value to your card online, you should wait between 24 to 48 hs…” -What? did I hear right ? The system doesn’t allow you to use YOUR credit instantly as with the station’s kiosk. You have to wait a casual day or two in order to use.
-“If you don’t use your new credit in the next two weeks it might become voided” Add insult to injury. So, if you’re adding value to your card it should be ready whenever you need it, voiding it for limited usage is a mistake.
-“If you don’t use your credit in 30 days, it might expire” This is awful for occasional users. If you take the metro-rail orange line to the airport and return 45 days later, lets say at 6 PM, you would not be able to use your “EASY” card credit unless you call customer support. The friendly folks at customer support only operate during business hours. So there you have it.
This are just some of the many issues I mentioned on my lengthy email to the “EASY” dept people (No pun intended)
Next August I’m going to be commuting from Medical to Main campus.
I’ve discovered not only that my original “EASY” card had expired without me knowing, but that I had also expired credit inside it that I couldn’t transfer between cards by myself.
Did I also mentioned the lack of online support to solve this and all the other issues ?
Adding this and other simple online functionality can do wonders for the service and make it more accessible to riders.
There are many things that can be improved, a lot of great ideas come to mind; let’s hope the “EASY” card system can utilize them and expand their ridership.