Translink have my money and they won’t give it back!
Back on 1 December I topped up my Go Card at Roma St train station. However the ticket machine that I used decided to fail on me and didn’t add the amount to my card. Since I had to have money on there to get home I tried again and this time it worked.
I’ve had my Go Card since they were first released and have had a few times where it didn’t work properly. Each time I’ve called their 131230 number and each time it was corrected within a couple of days. I left them alone for the full two weeks to give them time to investigate. I work in finance and know the difficulties with working out EFTPOS errors .
Having not heard anything in over three weeks, I call to be told that on 2 December it was decided that they couldn’t find my money and there would be no refund. So where was the phone call or the email to advise me of this? Where is the customer service? You ask for these details when I sign up for a card, so why not used them? Not a good move!
The operator advised that I should confirm that the amount came out. After I did this, she said would she get the finance area to contact me to discuss but that it would not be until after Christmas. Ah, hello. It’s my money, get on the case first thing Monday morning. I’ve been waiting three weeks, lets not make it another one or two on top.
Perhaps this is an symptom of a bigger problem. Cubic are responsible for “all ticketing system operations and maintenance, regional clearing and settlement, card management and customer services.” (source) Are there that many issues with the machines and systems being provided by Cubic that it takes so long to get a response? And where is the customer service?
We need an electronic fare system. We need to have better public transport for Brisbane to grow without more gridlock and pollution. Unfortunately having a system which provides no service and continues to break down and fail users is another nail in public transport’s coffin.