The unending
short comings of B.A.R.T. are constantly in the news. If their police department isn't killing
innocent passengers, or tazing homeless people, management is awarding
multi-million dollar tax payer-funded contracts to foreign companies. The entire operation is a comedy of errors; an
embarrassment, really, but one that, as we all know, costs lives and money.
Indicative
of what can only be described as pervasive and insidious corporate culture
failure, I recently experienced the stupidity and utter lack of common sense
when riding B.A.R.T. Entering the
station at Montgomery Street, a large back-up was occurring at the turnstiles. As I neared the entry, I discovered that of
the nine turnstiles, only one was working in the direction I was heading. As is typical of B.A.R.T. planning, at 5:30 p.m.,
seven of the nine turnstiles were available for people exiting the station and
two were set for the thousands of riders attempting to enter the station.
On this
particular evening, only one turnstile was actually working. And when I say working, I using the term
loosely. The blocks of the turnstile were
stuck in the open position. The “Clipper”
card reader seemed to be working. In any
event, as that was the only means to enter the station, everyone at that
entrance was piling through the hobbled turnstile. As I approached the turnstile I placed my
"Clipper" card on the reader. However,
the reader indicator flashed "OK" which, has been my experience,
means the reader read my card, processed the fee and signaled the gate to
open. Thinking nothing of it, as nearly every
day, something at B.A.R.T. is not working properly, I proceeded to get on my
train to the East Bay.
Upon
arrival, I again, as usual, placed my card on the reader to exit the
station. This time the reader flashed
"See Attendant" and failed to open.
To my amazement, there actually was an attendant on duty. No doubt an accident that B.A.R.T. has since
corrected. I gave the woman my card and
she plugged it into her system and informed me that I did not properly enter
the B.A.R.T. system. She asked where I
had entered. I told her at Montgomery
and then realized that the broken turnstile must not have been working properly
after all, in spite of the "OK" indicator.
So I explained
what I thought had happened. Her reply
was this: “It was MY responsibility to
use a turnstile that is working properly.”
You may want to read that again, I'll wait.... The B.A.R.T. employee actual told me that I
had done something wrong, by placing my valid, functioning, B.A.R.T. approved-card
on the turnstile and walking through after the turnstile indicated that
everything was ok. But wait, the
stupidity did not end there. She then
told me that I owed B.A.R.T. an additional five dollars for using the broken turnstile. I was stunned. I was expecting an "oh, I am so sorry
Sir for the inconvenience, here, please let me open the gate for you so you can
go about your day." Instead, I get,
“Jane, you ignorant slut, you have to inspect every piece of B.A.R.T. equipment
and determine which one is fully operational and use only that equipment to
enter our rude, ignorant and lazy rabbit-hole of a world we call the B.A.R.T. system
and because you didn't we, in all our misguided and moronic customer
service-less wisdom will be charging you an extra $5.00.”
Before
totally losing my mind, I pointed out to the attended that the turnstile I, and
hundreds of others had used that day, was the only option available. Her response, and I kid you not, was
"then YOU needed to go to another entrance to the station and enter
there." So now I am supposed to
Devine which station along the B.A.R.T. system has an operational turnstile,
regardless of where I actually might want to enter the system for, say, my
convenience, and walk, ride, drive, take a taxi or otherwise go to THAT station
and enter there. I literally had to
count to ten before I spoke. I then
proceeded to tell the brain trust that B.A.R.T. hired to "assist"
people at the station that not only was it not my responsibility to assess the
functioning of B.A.R.T. equipment, but to even contemplate that I was to walk
all over the station or go to another station until I found an operational
turnstile, assuming there are any and assuming I would know what one looked
like, after all the one I used that hurled myself unwittingly into this
ignorance abyss, appeared to be working properly, certainly with regard to the
money part of transaction, with which B.A.R.T. appears to be singularly concerned,
was nothing less that asinine. Further,
even a hint that I would be charged because YOUR equipment was faulty, when I
presented a valid card and used your "services" in complete
compliance with what is advertised to be the purpose and process of using that
service, is despicable.
This is
exactly why B.A.R.T. finds itself on the wrong side of nearly every issue it
gets involved with. They simply have no
common sense and no organizational integrity.
