Ventra frustrations (Chicago: purchase, pharmacy, buses)

[K 22]

Ventra's certainly got me intrigued. I'm going to be in town in a few weeks and I kept my transit card (it had a 3 day unlimited on it so it's obviously empty now). I'm seriously considering ordering one of these and having it shipped since (1) it's the new standard and (2) when I get to O'Hare, I can just tap and then go straight to the train.

[danfed]

This will likely sound like a bit of piling on but....This is so poorly done it's pathetic. I managed to get my cards registered and it took a day but the balances from my Chicago Card Plus transferred over. However, I read on the Ventra website that the automatic replenishment feature didn't automatically transfer over. I tried to click on the Manage Account link on their website to presumably set up this feature. Instead I get a never ending loop of "Your password has expired. Please change your password." When I do change the password, I get a "Oops! Something went wrong. Please reload the page". Again, an endless loop. I even tried different passwords thinking that my naming convention didn't fit their required criteria. So, what to do? Call for support? Instantly, the phone call gets disconnected. Send an email? Yup, did that two days ago but haven't heard anything back. Went to Midway tonight and wasn't able to confirm I had a balance so now I had to buy a Ventra one trip pass and pay an extra .75. Obviously this isn't going to break anyone but it's ridiculous that they managed to take a system that worked and screw it up to this extent. At the end of the day, as a consumer of a monopolistic service, there's nothing that you can do about it. Someone should get fired over this.

[Chi-town Native]

Interesting article:

Chicago’s ‘Smart Card’ Debacle and Privatisation

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by danfed

This will likely sound like a bit of piling on but....This is so poorly done it's pathetic. I managed to get my cards registered and it took a day but the balances from my Chicago Card Plus transferred over. However, I read on the Ventra website that the automatic replenishment feature didn't automatically transfer over. I tried to click on the Manage Account link on their website to presumably set up this feature. Instead I get a never ending loop of "Your password has expired. Please change your password." When I do change the password, I get a "Oops! Something went wrong. Please reload the page". Again, an endless loop. I even tried different passwords thinking that my naming convention didn't fit their required criteria. So, what to do? Call for support? Instantly, the phone call gets disconnected. Send an email? Yup, did that two days ago but haven't heard anything back. Went to Midway tonight and wasn't able to confirm I had a balance so now I had to buy a Ventra one trip pass and pay an extra .75. Obviously this isn't going to break anyone but it's ridiculous that they managed to take a system that worked and screw it up to this extent. At the end of the day, as a consumer of a monopolistic service, there's nothing that you can do about it. Someone should get fired over this.

...that no one will get fired precisely becuase this level of screw-uppedness does not happen with "normal" companies. There pretty much has to be a least an alderman's dimwitted son-in-law making out like a bandit in this thing, maybe even a state representative's "god son" or two, at the very least quite likely some nincompoop billionaire pretending he is a "tech guru"...

The reason the old system gut dumped before the new system was functional is almost certainly due to the same kind of "no one is really in charge of anything unless the Angry Elf says so" mindest that Rahm is perpuating on the heals of similar mmanagement-by-tirade that Daley had in place. When it is more important that your nephew / campaign donors / wife gets fat contract than actually having a functional means of paying for transit these are the kinds of problems that regular people have to shoulder so the insiders can live high on the hog...

[Three20nine]

Originally Posted by koctail

#1) They send me an email with my username/password. I go online and it does not work ( seems it will work after you get the card )
#2) they say card is coming in a week, doesn't come for several weeks
#3) Receive card and call to activate it but they ask for "Access Code" No helpful explanation of what this access code is or anything
#4) Go to website to register my card, but keep keep getting error saying "Invalid combination of numbers entered"...

I make a living writing computer code, so can't imagine how the rest of Chicagoans are expected to figure out this puzzle?

Perhaps you should consult for them. They added a hyphen to my name, so I can not log in until I update my info, but I can not update my info until I change my user name that has a hyphen that they added and due to some glitch no one can remove. No one will call me back, and customer service claims they can not help! REALLY, SERIOUSLY! To add insult to injury, they are demanding that everyone switch over to Ventra and not to use anything else. Someone actually got paid for this mess?

[Three20nine]

Originally Posted by chet everett

...that no one will get fired precisely becuase this level of screw-uppedness does not happen with "normal" companies. There pretty much has to be a least an alderman's dimwitted son-in-law making out like a bandit in this thing, maybe even a state representative's "god son" or two, at the very least quite likely some nincompoop billionaire pretending he is a "tech guru"...

The reason the old system gut dumped before the new system was functional is almost certainly due to the same kind of "no one is really in charge of anything unless the Angry Elf says so" mindest that Rahm is perpuating on the heals of similar mmanagement-by-tirade that Daley had in place. When it is more important that your nephew / campaign donors / wife gets fat contract than actually having a functional means of paying for transit these are the kinds of problems that regular people have to shoulder so the insiders can live high on the hog...

Angry Elf - LOLOLOL I really like that. I will be calling him that until election day. LOLOLOLOL. Its funny because he really does look like an elf, I can just see the green leggings LOLOLOLOL.
Chet you are too cool. thanks. I needed that laugh

[ChicagoMeO]

CTA claimed that the reason for the ventra cards is that the old system's machines that were needing maintenance/repair - well, they were too expensive to fix, or that they couldn't get parts to fix it or something like that. the equipment was too old and couldn't be repaired. so they went to this.

do you think it was something else than that explanation? like politics or something?

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by Three20nine

Angry Elf - LOLOLOL I really like that. I will be calling him that until election day. LOLOLOLOL. Its funny because he really does look like an elf, I can just see the green leggings LOLOLOLOL.
Chet you are too cool. thanks. I needed that laugh

From what I can tell, you have a really bad sense of humor.

[Three20nine]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

From what I can tell, you have a really bad sense of humor.

you have none.

[Lollapalooza773]

I'm trying to figure out how to buy the college campus pass with it. I already got the card so now what?