It took me nearly 15 minutes to get a new Metrocard today. What a freaking cluster f*ck.
I happen to be at a station that is under construction, so it only has two machines at this entrance. Of course, there’s always a line because there’s only the two machines.
So I got in line. Once I finally got to the front of the line, I’ll bet you can guess what happened. No credit cards.
For whatever reason, the credit card reader wasn’t able to read my card. At first I thought it was just me.
So I got back into line for the second machine. From there, I saw that other people were having the same issue I did with my original machine. So I had to wait in line all overagain.
You know, I really need to get involved with TransitChex or something. I’m getting pretty sick of this crap.
SUBWAYblogger 
This morning my gf had a similar problem, except when she went to pull the single fare card she bought instead a pigeon pooped on her hand. I think there was a system wide issue with credit cards this morning.
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http://www.mta.info/nyct/fare/rfmr.htm
There you are, my friend 🙂
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the machines can be a nightmare sometimes.
here’s what i do to help avoid those situations. i keep a spare metrocard in my wallet with at least 2 fares on it. this comes in handy in a number of situations. mostly i carry it for cases when i’m with a friend from out of town and i dont want to get stuck waiting while s/he figures out how to buy a card. but it’s also come in handy when i’ve gotten to the turnstile only to realize my card is expired or empty and/or all the machines are on the fritz.
but yeah, transitchex and/or wageworks are the way to go if you can get it.
i think you can also get stored value cards that automatically top up now.
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This can be very frustrating when the machines don’t work b/c there aren’t a lot of token booth clerks around anymore and many people don’t have a lot of cash on them and use their debit/credit cards so when they don’t work it can be aggravating. The spare metrocard thing is a great idea I would keep a $10 card just in case my transit chek one starts acting up. If your employer offers transitchek it’s a great way to go, and it’s unlimited rides for the whole year, worth the payroll deduction. Stored value cards similar to easy pass are good just make your debit card always funds or credit card sufficient balance to cover ther recurring charge.
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@Smoot: Unfortunately, that’s only for reduced fare eligible riders.
@liamaa: Thats a great idea.
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EasyPay?
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Again if the machines were just unable to read your card & you never got to the pin or zip code request stage, then again the machine debit/credit reader was dirty. It’s very smart to keep a card with value on it just in case there’s a problem with the machines but people don’t usually have a backup plan. A lot of them don’t know what to do. When the machines are down, these people are lost. And as far as station agents there are still thousands of them, a lot of people are just not going to them that much, they have been brainwashed by TA to use the machines. I know if I were a paying passenger and I was using cash, I would make sure I went to a full service booth to make my purchases. I would not be putting my money in those machines at all. A lot of cash is lost in those machines each & every day and credit/debit cards get stuck in there too.
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