Ah, the MBTA...

The Boston subway system, the MBTA, more colloquially known as the T, recently went high tech. Gone are the days of little metal tokens and turnstiles and here are the days of CharlieCards, CharlieTickets and "bleekers" that read your card and open the automated doors to let you through.

It's been a bit of a nightmare transition. We New Englanders hate change. We hate to admit we hate change, and instead just call everyone stupid and claim that the new thing is broken, not good enough, or just stupid. We rarely just say, "Hey, we are afraid of change!" So, even on a good day, people have struggled.

I myself accidently bought my January monthly T-pass in paper CharlieTicket form at the machine because I didn't pay enough attention to the directions to properly use the bleeker and bleek my pass onto my hard plastic CharlieCard.

And the poor old people! My goodness.

Today, I went to the customer service desk at Downtown Crossing (which, is the only place, as far as I can tell, to get T customer service). My goal was to buy 13 individual CharlieCards with $10 each on them for our Teen TeamWorks Program Participants to use next week. (I couldn't just get CharlieTickets, because with those, it is an extra $.30 a ride which over the course of a week and 13 users, would be a waste of money.)

Below are the two letters I wrote and submitted to www.MBTA.com this afternoon. They do a fairly good job of telling you how my purchasing experience went. Enjoy.

FEEDBACK ONE: sent under the heading "Employee Commendation"

"I do not know her name, but her Badge Number is 7044 and she was working at the Downtown Crossing Customer Service Office today at noon, February 16, 2007.

I wanted to buy 13 CharlieCards with $10 each on them and do one credit card charge. This is not possible. So then I said, "Okay then, just do 13 separate charges." This is not possible since there is a 2 per day limit on credit card charges to the T.

So finally, I said, okay, how about I buy one CharlieCard for $130 and then you move $10 increments onto 13 different cards? Couldn't. CharlieCards have a limit of $100.

Finally, she figured out that she could do 2 charges for 13 separate CharlieTICKETS and then switch each ticket over individually to a CharlieCard for me. She had to do each one separately, feeding it into the machine, recording it on a sheet by hand and then putting the CharlieCard on the black card reader and printing out each receipt. It took her 25 minutes and she did it well, quickly, and without complaint.

She made my day. And she restored my faith in customer service completely (a faith that's been tested lately.)

I commend Badge #7704, whose name I wish I knew. Please make sure she knows I wrote you. And hire more like her.

Thank you.

Karen Boss, T-user"

FEEDBACK TWO: sent under the heading "Complaint"
"Why can someone only charge twice a day with the same credit card with the MBTA?

Why can a CharlieCard only hold $100?

Why can I not buy multiple CharlieCards on one credit card transaction?

These all seem like rules that only serve to lose you money and make people like me, who work with groups, have a harder time figuring out how to get them onto the T.

Can you tell me why these are the rules?

Thank you,

Karen Boss, T-rider"