Remember back when I suggested that the new Opus smart-card transit pass was working well (at least relative to the disastrous magnetic card)?
Well, now that the STM is forcing all students to get Opus cards, it seems problems are arising with those as well, as this post suggests. And lineups and delays are leading (indirectly) to kids getting ticketed for not having the passes on them.
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On the plus side, if you have the newfangled tickets and the reader on the bus is broken, you ride for free. :D
Totally agree with the assessment. I had to use tickets I had bought for friends and relatives visiting because for 2 days straight I couldn’t wait in line with over 100 person in front of me to get my opus recharged.
Once again, the problem lies not so much the card (although it too has its issues), but mostly the planning behind its implementation.
I called the STM about this since I was buying a reduced card for a Grade 7 student (who woudl never have needed the student card before). STM told me that they are tolerating it until October.
I waited 2 hours in line at Berri-UQAM to take my picture for the student Opus card. Not only there was only one photograph working on September 2nd between noon and 2 (the first day of class !) but when it was my turn to pay, I found out that the stupid card will be delivered by mail in 2 weeks and I cannot buy a student monthly pass before that because I don’t have the proper student id (I just move to Montreal last month). Instead, I have to buy weekly pass until my Opus card is delivered at 19,25$/week (student pass cost 36$/month). When, my Opus card is going to be delivered, I have to go to a Opus counter and get a refund. None of this was on the website. A complete lack of organization and communication from the STM.
It has happened to me on several occasions that the interac/credit card terminal is non-functional; however, they don’t “grey-out” the option of payment by debit/credit, so it’s still selectable. Once you select it, however, you get an error message, and the machine prints out an “incompleted” receipt. A waste of paper, and frustrating because it’s never clear that that is what the problem is, unless you look closely at the screen on the terminal itself, which more likely than not is blank instead of saying “Bienvenue”, indicating that there is a problem. One more thing for them to take care of!
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