I felt my blood begin to boil when reading yesterday’s “Ask Phoebe” on the rollout of the AT HOP card:
The Herald last week reported that old Hop cards may be exchanged free of charge for new ones. The Maxx website says new Hop cards for the trains are $10 each. Can you please clarify this? Also, from what date are we able to make the old-for-new exchange? I understand that most people will still need their old one to use on the buses, but I don’t as I have moved house and am now a train user. If you are a bus and train user you will ultimately end up with two cards – would a refund be in order for those people once everything is integrated? Jan Patterson, Auckland.
To clarify: the new pre-pay card, to be called the AT Hop card, will have a one-off cost of $10.
The new card will come into use on October 28 on trains only. If at that time you have a 10-trip ticket, you can continue to use that until its expiry date. Any monthly passes still in use after October 28 can be used until their expiry date.
The current Hop Snapper card, available for use on NZ Bus buses, will eventually be phased out and replaced with the AT Hop card once an integrated ticketing system is in place.
Presumably Phoebe got Auckland Transport to provide the response to this question. In which case I cannot begin to explain how stupid they are being. Let’s go through it:
- The integrated ticketing scheme already has a pretty bad reputation, given the myriad of delays and the fact that people with a “Hop Card” and going to need to change it for a “Hop Card”
- People get annoyed at having to pay for a PT card anyway – paying for the privilege of paying seems a bit rough
- Surely Auckland Transport want as many people using the “new” Hop Card” as soon as possible, so an ideal opportunity is to develop a mechanism for current Hop Card holders to get a new card while continuing to use their existing one, for as long as it remains valid.
- For those who spent $10 on the current Hop Card, having to pay $10 again just because Auckland Transport and Snapper were so useless they couldn’t sort things out is just like rubbing salt into the wounds
My guess is that Auckland Transport have thought about this. They probably have set up a Hop transition scheme, but their communications people are just too absolutely hopeless to know how to get this message across.
In the meanwhile, the Hop brand will be trashed even further and integrated ticketing will turn into even more of a joke. Great job AT.
The solution seems simple to me – $10 for the new AT HOP card as advertised, and then a $10 credit on your new AT HOP card when you surrender your Snapper-Hop / Snop card. This allows you to use both and get the $10 back when done with the Snop card.
And I dunno, does the headline on this blog post go a little too far?
Bravo. “$10 for the new AT HOP card as advertised, and then a $10 credit on your new AT HOP card when you surrender your Snapper-Hop / Snop card” seems crystal clear.
Andrew, I don’t think so, AT need to communicate with the people. They are creating a lot of distrust by not doing so.
AT is driven by traffic engineers; traffic engineers conceive of traffic as being like water; water doesn’t need information, it just needs to go where directed; users of transport just need to go where directed; ergo they don’t need to be informed.
Yay, another marketing fail blindy placed at the feet of “those engineers”. Bias, anyone?
Agreed, I would be directing the cynical comment more at the bureaucrats at AT, than Traffic Engineers. Im sure they have nothing to do with the integrated ticketing or public communication.
Lol, can’t tell whether you are taking the p*** of me here. I am just a bit peeved that whenever something goes wrong at AT, there seems to be a “those engineers!” chorus.
The response doesn’t even answer the question. It talks about something completely different.
Yip – not sure if it is Phoebe’s fault or AT. Ultimately this one falls on Phoebe though as if AT didn’t supply the right answer, she should have gone back to them to get it.
One has to wonder if Reports ever engage their brain or if they are in such a rush just to regurgitate low quality content.
Computer says ‘nah’
Snapper has left this whole project smelling fishy to the public. Time to cut the losses on the branding, drop the hop and call it the AT card or something similar. Logo and brand are ready to go.
The Hop name has been damaged and needs to be replaced. I mentioned this in recent AT market research.
When a local government organization to brand a public facing service, there is a tendancy to outsource all responsibility for branding decisions to consultants. Newspapers and central government love to jump on ‘wasteful’ spending. ‘Hop’ probably consumed a lot of marketing budget up front, so now they need to stick with it until there is an urgent political need to rebrand.
Hop card name could not have been damaged too much since it had no good name in the first place. Using Hop card for me has been a pain right from the start. You may be interested in reading this review about how “user-friendly” Hop card really is: http://www.localbulletin.co.nz/hop-card-review-stress-hassles-no-savings/
While I think that you are right with what you say about AT and communicating the Hop transition, I think that in this case the blame is far more likely to fall at Phoebe’s feet rather than AT. Have a look at her track record: she started off a few (five?) years ago providing a really excellent service that was a “must read” and one of very few places you could find out what was going on around the city, particularly in regards to roads and traffic projects. This period was characterised by her repeated phrases “I phoned X and spoke to them” and “I went out to have a look at Y”.
In recent years, however, the quality has fallen dramatically. The key phrases in the column are now “I had a look at their website” and “I looked on Google maps”. I suspect the Herald have cut the time and money she is allowed to spend. This must be extremely embarrassing for her as it is just basic journalism to speak to people and visit places. The end result is that her column is still a “must read” but now I wait a day or two and then read it on the Herald website so I can enjoy all the comments – Ross of Titirangi is particularly voluble – pointing out how crap her advice was and how, if she had bothered to actually go and have a look, she wouldn’t have written what she did. Every second or third column is bad enough that she has to post a retraction in a subsequent column.
Given this history and reading her response, I would say that all she actually did was parrot what was on the AT website. Did you notice how she doesn’t address the main question (the refund) at all but does manage to include some irrelevant (to the question) comments about 10 trip tickets? Her reply is not quite, but almost, copy and paste from media release just one click away from the AT home page.
Time to HOP in and answer this one. Phoebe is great but unfortunately didnt check this one with AT and caused some confusion.Here is how it will work.
A free change out period will be available for NZ Bus users who have a HOP SNapper card who also use rail from October. Go to http://www.maxx.co.nz/trainchanges to register for updates.
That still doesn’t answer the full question though. What happens if you need a Hop Snapper and a Hop AT card.
Thanks for jumping in Sharon.
But – sorry, this is firmly an AT cockup. Phoebe is by quoting the truly awful miscommunication put out by AT in flyers to train users and on the MAXX site.
Read my lips: “register for updates” does not translate as “you can swap your card for free from October”. In any universe.
I for one am now getting pissed off that AT is still not dealing with the issue, and is blaming unrelated reporters to boot.
Please. As one of your customers, can I get some honest service and some straight answers?
Honest and easy to understand answers from AT. You’ve gotta be joking Tim. It needs to be twisted into something that involves a lot of words, doesn’t make any commitment, could be interpreted 15 different ways and doesn’t make any sense for it to come from AT.
Nail on the head mate!
According to Mike Lee a Herald article was the first he and other councillors had heard of a $10 charge.
If that is true, it just shows he is out of the loop. There was always going to be a $10 non refundable charge for the cards – going back to the original tender from memory.
Comments like that are made so they look innocent but just shows their ignorance to those who are involved.
One question I haven’t had answered yet is with the new Hop card can I still use my monthly train pass to catch buses in the city area for free. It is a benefit of the current paper card I use quite a lot. I work in the viaduct and use it to get to the top of Symonds Street often.
I’ve looked online (nothing) and asked a train manager and someone in the ticket office so far and they didn’t know and in fact both said no one else has asked. The woman in the ticket office said she thought no one at AT had considered it but she was going to try to find out for me.
I suspect it is something that will go away? And I get to pay $10 for the privilege!
You will use both cards for a period until HOP Snapper is phased out completely- then you will use one card the AT HOP card
Your nearly there. I know you want to say it. Something like this would work:
“You will have to buy a HOP AT card for $10 if you want to keep using your HOP Snapper card. There will be no refund for your HOP Snapper card but you will be able to trade it in for a second HOP AT card once you no longer need your HOP Snapper card.”
Is your silence on this issue because:
- you don’t want the bad PR, or
- are you considering whether a refund/credit will be given <- please be this one!
OK let’s make this a yes/no question – as that’s the only type of question Sharon can’t wriggle out of.
Here’s my situation: I currently have a Snapper/HOP card which I use on NZ Bus services and will continue to use for the next however many months until you guys get your act together. I occasionally catch a train so I would like to get an AT HOP card.
Do I need to pay $10 for that AT HOP card?
Just yes or no.
Mike is a very busy man in the city. Yes there was always going to be a $10 charge for the cards- just as we all pay for a new bank card etc.
Really? I didn’t pay for my bank card or for the various shopping cards. Even a phone SIM card is only $5 and it will be free as soon as the telco competition heats up (as it is in Europe).
Exactly. Only time I ever pay for a bank or credit card is for a replacement if its been lost or stolen.
That sounds promising.
QLD still has a fully refundable deposit for its Go Card. Now reduced to $5. If you lose your card in QLD you can get your deposit back.
That seems a bit extreme. You should at least have to return the card to get the refund back. Otherwise they will be treated as disposable.
Not sure if still the same but London Oyster card was refundable if the card was returned.
If you registered and supplied them with personal details and demographic information, you could get a replacement Oyster card and even transfer of balance in the case of loss.
As an aside, I think for a while they even had charity boxes at the airport, where outgoing tourists could donate the deposit and remaining prepay.
Perhaps it is extreme. London, WA and Vic all charge a fee for a refund. But none of these systems have a viable electronic solution for tourists. Qld does. Note: It looks like its coming in Vic but will probably be more difficult than what it needs to be.
I’m a bit concerned about the tone of this post and some of the comments here. A $10 charge is an inconvenience, particularly to those on lower incomes, but come on. Critiquing AT’s decisions is one thing, trashing them is another.
It’s not so much the cost, but perhaps an expression of our frustration about this whole project and how things seem to be done poorly every step of the way.
Completely agree Mr A. AT do not know the meaning of ‘communication’, ‘marketing’, nor ‘customer service’. They definitely live in an alternate universe to ours.
Attempting to translate the customer information given out by Auckland Transport. – http://ilovecress.wordpress.com/2012/09/13/attempting-to-translate-the-customer-information-given-out-by-auckland-transport/