beak

As an early adopter of the Bay Area’s transit fare system, Clipper (formerly TransLink), I am familiar with its flaws. My least favorite is being questioned by overzealous transit cops when a Clipper card reader fails to read my card.

This morning, one of the card readers on my train informed me that my card had been blocked. It was a new error to me, but I wasn’t shocked. When I called Clipper customer service, I was informed that there was a problem with my credit card so the autoloaded “Clipper Cash” wasn’t able to autoload.

Fine, I thought, although I wasn’t happy to hear there was a problem with a perfectly-functioning, well-under-the-limit credit card. That was something I could take up later with the credit card company.

What stumped me is why this had anything to do with my monthly Muni pass, loaded onto my Clipper card with pre-tax funds directly from my paychecks.

The answer is that it shouldn’t, but because Clipper is broken, it does.

I don’t even have to have autoload Clipper Cash on my card. I set it up because I was tired of waiting 24-72 hours for credit to show up on my card when I wanted to take a non-Muni transit system.

That’s right: Clipper is careful to state that any changes to an account take 24-72 hours to show up on a card.

I commute twice every 24-hour period during the week, so because of this ridiculous setup I will be paying at least an additional $4 and as much as $12 cash.

To sum up:

1. My monthly Muni pass is paid for with pre-tax funds directly withdrawn from my paychecks.
2. As of this morning, I cannot use this pass for my daily commute because my Clipper Card is blocked due to a Clipper Cash autoload issue.
3. I set up autoloaded Clipper Cash to make using non-Muni public transit more convenient.
4. The card block may take 72 hours to resolve.
5. I am out an additional $4-$12.

Is San Francisco a real city? Why is a real transit fare payment system so difficult?