Metrocard Vending Machine Mayhem Blamed on Encryption Device

NYC Transit revealed why the Metrocard vending machines were so screwed on Monday and Tuesday: An encryption device wasn't working! The NY Times explains usually 2 devices "[encode] transmitted data for customer and bank security and [are] housed at a data center on Staten Island," but when one failed, the other couldn't deal with the demand. When the broken device was discovered--and replaced--the problem stopped. The agency says that everyone whose credit/debit cards were charged during "unable to be processed" transactions have been (will be?) refunded.

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By Jen Chung in News on August 1, 2008 1:16 PM

Comments [rss]

GlennQuagmire

Make one miss the good ol' days with the token clerks sitting half-asleep or bored in their booths, giving out change in singles only and giving instructions through a garbled louspeaker.

Snoopy

I bought a lifetime Metro card for 8 million dollars and I want a refund, in tens and twenties.

Anna_Merkin

I understand having two devices for redundancy, but for a system that processes as many transactions as the MTA does, it seems very odd to only have single redundancy with the default fail over unable to handle demand. It's not like we're in the early '90s.

JMH

Yeah, they're so crooked that they're refunding all the money.

yayaya

Amazing. Your card can't be processed, but apparently the machines are set up so you can still be charged. Anyone know of anywhere else where that can happen?

What a bunch of crooks.