Can the MTA run /anything/ well?

I signed up for the EZPay MetroCard, as I’m a long-time EZPass customer and figured I’d indulge their attempt to win my confidence by parallel branding.

So they ding my Visa for $30. On the same day, I receive my magic autorefill MetroCard, /and/ a letter saying the Visa charge has been denied. Yet the charge is on my statement, and customer service says my new magic MetroCard’s balance is $30.

I verify the credit card on file with Customer Service. All seems well.

The next morning, my EZPay MetroCard stops working. A station agent tells me the error means my card’s been ‘disabled,’ and that I must to throw it away, and call customer service.

I buy a conventional MetroCard and call customer service. They claim they have no policy of disabling cards, blame me for damaging my card, and issue me another one by mail.

The next day, before it arrives, EZPay dings my credit card for /$40/.

I call the MTA to cancel. They confirm that I have a $70 balance, and that it’s their practice to charge any new credit card they see, even if there’s already a balance on the MetroCard.

So, from the customer’s perspective, the EZPay MetroCard is a program whereby you pay the MTA undue monies, in exchange for no services rendered and some runaround.

In before the “Similar to the experience of riding the train” jokes, and amused that I ever bothered…

This means that I, a very occasional driver who basically only ever rents a car if I’m going somewhere outside of the city, am being forced to pay exorbitant taxes so that daily car commuters can be allowed to continue to drive into Manhattan for free. And it feels like a kick in the teeth.

Eric Adams, I’m pissed off at you personally about this because you are my Senator. If the Senate still exists by the next time you are up for election, I plan to help give you the boot.

Um, because we can’t retroactively tax all the money the stole in the past that was counted as income in past years?

And (I hope) people won’t be stupid enough (again) to allow them to steal that much in the future.

I’ve been wrong when being optimistic before, but this time I believe attempts to “restore confidence in the markets” and set up the next band of suckers are less likely to be successful. After all, most Americans are so deep in debt that they have little wealth to seize.

And unlike the political class, the Wall Streeters have to con people to take their money, not just seize it.