Clipper

Its such an embarrassment to use clipper card for your daily commute. Even developing countries have better systems and here in the Bay area where all the best software companies reside we have a clipper service which is dated to stone age. Horrible service.
1) Why does it take 5 days to load your clipper card and 10 days if its your bank account. Does some one manually does these things or are they even automated.
2) Why do i have to tag on/​off for the monthly pass. Does it not indicate once you have taken money from my account the pass if active.
3) I had the most horrifying incident this January.
Tag my card for the monthly pass and 2 days later I get a mail that my pass was not activated. I call the wonderful people at clipper for the reason and since our commuter benefits partner changed I have no enough cash for the pass. I agree to it and ask what has to be done. They advise me to tag the card again at the station and disable it and wait for 48 hours.(Nonsense. Again the same manual work clipper people do to complete the process). Further advise me to buy a ticket henceforth since the pass will be deactivated for the rest of the month. I agree to this and get tickets everyday to travel for the rest of the month.
As January comes to end since the stone age manual process takes 5 days for the credit card information to update I update my information which now has enough funds. As soon as I add this information the amount for my Jan pass at the end of January are taken out from the credit card. I call and ask why and they explained I needed to have tagged off not on the same day but 48 hours later after I had called early January since the system does not get updated before that time. Even in the most underprivileged countries have things moving much faster.
Long story short I paid for both the pass and tickets for the month of January and after calling the wonderful people at Clipper they are reluctant to accept and give back my refund when I mentioned I have all the proof for the tickets purchased. Since both ways the money went to Caltrain Authority.
For gods sake if you cannot maintain better systems and servers just move to paper pass you cannot do better than that.
Horrible and most disgusting service ever !!!

I amfrustrated with Clipper Direct, for multiple reasons.
The only reason I use Clipper and not cash is that you do get a slight discount using their service and you can have funds deducted pre-​tax from your paycheck. Yet the negative aspects of Clipper almost out-​weigh these two benefits.
Issues I have with Clipper:
1) It takes forever for money to load onto your Clipper card. You can have funds deducted from your bank account or paycheck in an instance, but to get it to actually show up as value on your card can take up to 2 weeks!!!
2) The Clipper systems often has errors where you can get charged for a full length trip from end to end transportation zones even if you’ve only traveled a short distance. They incorrectly charge you.
3) The Clipper customer support is not good.
4) The Clipper website is archaic at best.

Wow. What a bad payment system. The website is needlessly complex. Tag on and off. What does that mean, is it synonymous with ‘pay’? But my favorite part is that it when you add funds to it, it really does take 0 – 5 days for them to load. Such a pain. I didn’t believe that was possible so I took the bus with a $ 20. Had to pay with a $ 20 and get a change card because the funds added 10 hours before hadn’t hit. Ugggg.

The worst customer service ever. Purchased a card, website was unclear. Did not get the option to autoload at the time of the purchase so I ended up paying $ 3.00 for the card. Then I added cash value and thought I could use it for BART Parking, but BART has EZ Rider, which is an account associated with the Clipper Card. I called to see if I could get the $ 3.00 credited and the person on the line said, «No». I asked if I could get the $ 30.00 Cash Value refunded and he said, «No.» I asked why I could not get a refund considering I am never going to be able to use it. He said that my option is to cancel the card, and I would get a refund, less $ 5.00. They get you both ways. The rudeness is the least of the rip off. I expected more from a vendor of public service. I’m sure I’m not the only one that has been screwed over by Clipper. Other than mine, I see 5 reviews and 4 of them are 1 star. I sure hope Clipper is looking at this to know how bad they are. I sure hope BART and other public services are looking at this as well.

Clipper regularly blocks cards for no reason. It has happened to me on multiple occasions. Apparently, something goes wrong with the Autoload attempt. There was nothing wrong with my funding source credit card, and it had much more than sufficient balance. But for some reason they got a denial. Maybe some system was down for maintenance. Maybe there was a network glitch. Who knows? You would think they might retry the transaction in such circumstances? Hello? Data Processing 101! But they don’t. Instead they block your card. And, as many others have pointed out here, it takes FIVE DAYS to get it unblocked again! And Customer Service is worthless and incompetent. They are not able to do anything to resolve the problem. So what the heck are they there for, anyway?

Bought/​loaded a September fast pass on Friday, and it still isn’t working two days later. It kept deducting all cash funds, and now I have insufficient funds. Is it not working because of my cash balance? How ridiculous those things are interconnected. So inconvenient. What’s the point of buying monthly unlimited if it doesn’t start working right away??? I added $ to make the card minimum, but how much is the new purchase going to delay my monthly pass purchase even more? Terrible.

Okay, I’ve found another reason to hate Clipper. If you add value to your card and the balance is in excess of $ 300, the transaction is frozen until the amount added is below the maximum card limit of $ 300. That means that Clipper can float MY MONEY for days or weeks while I don’t have access to it. I’m at the point of cancelling this piece of shit service and going back to cash for tickets.

Worst public transportation payment system in the world based on my experience having lived in 30+ cities worldwide. Super complex and takes forever for funds to transfer. The tagging on and off thing combined with mandatory cash is just stupid. Can’t believe these guys can exist in Silicon Valley.

What a mess! I use Caltrain and the process to pay for monthly passes and monthly parking are ridiculously difficult to understand. Clipper takes up to 5 days to authorize a pass after payment. Even many small on-​line businesses can process a credit card payment within minutes.
Why is it even necessary to tag on and off at the beginning of the month? Why can’t I print my parking pass at home? Clipper seems to be at the root of these problems.

The clipper card works pretty good for me if say maybe 1 out if 150 ‘tags’ fail to register, and that’s usually on MUNI. I have never had a hard time reaching customer services and they are usually polite and helpful. It’s very convenient that multiple agency’s are on the same payment system, especially for commuters that have to take multiple public transit systems like AC to BART.

The one star reviews start on page 2 of 6. The 2+ star reviews are for people that have yet to encounter any kind of problem or issue…
A major problem is that there is no alternative that works across transit agencies, so the company has no motivation to offer anything that even resembles customer service. Go ahead and check the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and see all of the official complaints against Clipper over payment issues there as well.
My story? My credit card had to be re-​issued by my bank (due to unauthorized use), so the card on file with Clipper was invalid. Clipper disabled my card with a $ 37 balance even though they were not trying to charge my card (Autoload is for balance below $ 30) Clipper disabled the card anyway (remember I have a $ 37 balance).
I went online and updated the credit card information and called customer service to activate the clipper card. Here is as far as I could get «There is nothing we can do». Even with a $ 37 balance!!! and a valid credit card!!! They could not activate the Clipper card for 3 – 5 business days!
They also told me that I should carry cash in case Clipper didn’t work…
The problem with a monopoly… Comcast has better customer service

I’m not reviewing this business location nor the customer service there in this review, but I’m reviewing the clipper card (the product) itself. I believe this review is important and clipper must update their illogical function that is currently giving me headaches.
My clipper card is blocked because of the auto-​loading cash value unable to make a transaction using my credit card (due to the fact that the card is expiring). However, I have purchased a 31-​day pass way before the card was blocked, and I should be able to use it for 31-​day right?
No. The card is simply blocked and I can’t use it. I completely understand if clipper would block the cash value function ONLY in my case. But the 31-​day pass is a completely unrelated feature that gets blocked just because of something completely irrelevant. It pisses me off. What’s worse is that it takes up to 5 days for «removing» the unblock card. 5 days! Which means from the moment you realized that you’re card are blocked, you called the customer service or do it yourself in their website (which I did) to fix whatever they want you to fix. You still have to wait 5 freaking days and double spend your money to travel because of this illogical function of the clipper card.
I thought that calling customer service would resolve the issue and my card gets unblocked right away but NO. They told me that they have no control over the card too. Plus, apparently it was my fault that I didn’t read the email clipper card sent notifying that my card is about to be blocked. Furthermore, apparently this was the agreement the moment you sign-​up for the clipper card autoload function which I should have read, but obviously I didn’t. It’s all my fault then, but clipper card should have designed a product that let the customers have a peace of mind while using it, and it’s reliable, and when there’s a problem we should be able to fix, and fix it fast because we are relying on it to function everyday.
We are people and we all make mistakes, it’s ridiculous that when there’s a mistake you have to wait 5 freaking days. That’s what pissing me off.
To the fellows who are using clipper card or thinking about using clipper. Don’t use the auto-​load function as it’s faulty when there are things going wrong.

Clipper rejects automatic payments regularly when the credit cards used for the auto payments have positive balances and are not expired. Clipper costumer service does not have the ability to fix these errors. I have called Clipper several times. This makes it occasionally difficult to get to work on time and also creates a lot of wasted time dealing with it. When auto payments are rejected and I attempt to use the card, it will not work and I pay for transit out of pocket which is not employer pre-​tax money, the whole reason I have the card.
This is a horrible service, unfortunately it’s the only way to use employer pre-​tax for transit.

I’m not sure why they are so many bad reviews here. Sure, occasionally it fails to register, and I need BART staff to fix it up, but that’s not common. I use Clipper almost every day on BART and it works as well as expected — honestly, what kind of system would be better?
The alternative is to buy tickets at machines, which is a PITA. So, here’s to Clipper, until they think up something even better.

Their phone tree is a disaster. Also setting up a pin with your clipper card via the phone is a disaster. So many hours wasted on the phone trying to reach a customer service rep.
If you call for a refund, good luck getting your money back. They said it takes up to 30 days to receive a refund. What? I tagged in and tagged out of the Powell street station in literally a minute, and it was sure quick to take my $ 5.55… Seriously?

AVOID THE AUTO-​RELOAD!!!
I have used Clipper Card Fast Pass for several months. It works well as long as there isn’t a problem. Once there is a problem, watch out! The customer service is like something conceived of by Kafka or Terry Gilliam.
I am going back to using it only with purse amounts for BART and MUNI. The thing that really sucks is that there is no way to erase your credit card information in their system. So, there it sits as I wait for them to find ways to charge me for something in the future I didn’t use.

It’s really nice to be able to use the same card to pay for Muni and BART.
The system, though, is needlessly complicated. The money from BART discount fares is kept separately from cash. So if I have $ 2.00 left in BART discount money and I take a $ 3.00 BART trip, it doesn’t just add the money I have in my cash account. Nope, I have to pay off the fare in cash at an Add Fare machine. The dumbest part is that your BART discount balance always flashes, no matter how much you have left in cash. And as long as you have at least $ 1.75, it lets you through, even though you’ll have to finish paying your fare later.
And don’t even get me started on Clipper Direct. Again, why are the systems separate? They’re administered by the very same people.

WOW… My finger hurts from pressing USEFUL on one-​star reviews.
It is obvious that Clipper is the definition of Stupidity an Incompetence. But as if they need yet another HIDEOUSLY BAD REVIEW…
Worst customer service EVER.
If this were a Hospital, I would have died of Negligence.
Your phone tree is ridiculous.
Your employees are arrogant, ignorant, and lackadaisical. They care less that they are «being recorded for customer service improvement». Obviously no one is listening.
The two fat, sweaty, hippie kids in tank-​tops, are watching cartoons on YOUR computers while dishing out incompetence and attitude at Embarcadero kiosk. They should be fired at the LEAST, and banned from any career aside from cleaning Monkey shit from a Zoo enclosure! Picture Perfect IDIOTS. Great job Clipper…
You should be embarrassed, bankrupt, and destroyed.
You SUCK.

This is one of the POOREST designed systems I’ve ever used.
Loading value on the OFFICIAL WEBSITE takes 5 days to process
BUT
Loading at a Walgreens and your transaction is INSTANT!
How does this make any sense at all?
If you or the clerk inputs the wrong pass or amount onto your card ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE. There’s absolutely NO backtracking or reversals of ANYTHING.
ie: Jan 20^th
Went to the Walgreens to buy the Feb Adult Muni Pass for $ 66. The clerk puts in $ 66 as cash value instead.
Now in a common sense design, the system would just let the user move that value to the correct Muni Pass. NO!
Clipper dictates that they must take the old card and issue a new card with the corrections made on it. But it’s already Jan 20^th, so there’s no way for the clerk to put in a January Fast Pass onto a new card. After calling Clipper services with the clerk, I was told I had to come back Feb 1^st and do a card swap.
I thought we were in the information age where simple things like this can be instantaneous. It’s just rediculous the hoops we have to jump through to pay for a bus pass.

It’s embarrassing that in the most high tech place in the world people are required to use the this god awful Clipper system designed to prevent the users from getting to their destination. I use it on the Caltrain and see if you can follow this logic for the monthly pass:
–A monthly pass has to be loaded with $ 180 every month for it to stay active. The money has to be loaded a considerable time in advance of the 1^st of month for the pass to be active. So plan ahead! If Clipper has a problem and is not able to load it they will notify you whenever they feel like it.
–In addition to the $ 180 your pass has to have an additional $ 1.25 cash balance that you never actually use. Why? Just because.
–On the 1^st of every month you have to tag on your pass on the station you get on which subtracts the cash value from your card (previously mentioned $ 1.25). And tag off on the station you get off (which add the cash value back to your card). Makes sense? Nope.
–So even if you pay $ 180 every month, your card is not active unless you remember to tag.
–Best part of it all is that if you tag on but forget to tag off the Clipper will put a negative (-$ 12) balance on your card. That means next month you need to pay $ 13.25 in addition to the $ 180 to get the cash balance that you never use back to $ 1.25! Great business model! Make sure to call the wonderful folks at Clipper to get your refund!
–Forgetting to tag off costs me literally an extra 30 minutes of going back to the station every month.
How about you just provide an annual paper pass for the whole year that I don’t have to worry about and leave the tech to companies that know what they are doing!