Train Ride to the Complaints Department
Welcome to the 6th floor.
Today’s contributors are: Sara, Tabitha, Frank, Billy
Subject: Local Train to the Complaint Department
“Ugh!” Sara says, tossing her bag on the counter as she arrives home. “I hate the MTA.”
“What’d they do now? You get a ticket for having your feet on a seat or something?”
“It was a combination of things really. It just led to a bad day. It started by my 30-day Metrocard running out without me realizing it.”
“So? It happens every 30 days right? How surprising could it be?”
“Well it wouldn’t be a surprise if I’d remember when I bought it, but I forgot to make a note of it, and I guess the month went by faster than I imagined. Some warning would be nice you’d think? Like if you had less than 24 hours left on the card? You listening Billy?”
Billy looks up from watching tv. Huh? Yeah, a warning would be nice I guess. I don’t know, mine doesn’t expire.”
“Well aren’t you just so special! You have to be able to do something at work. Put in a suggestion or something.”
“I’m just a worker bee. I have no more say than you do. I guess the card readers just aren’t set up to display that information. You do know they expire 30 days from first use right? So you can buy a second one anytime and just pull it out of your wallet when the first expires?”
“Really? I didn’t know that.”
“Oh. Well still, a warning would be nice. The thing has to compare the current date to the expiration date, so it wouldn’t hurt to display the difference.”
“Well, the subway often seems no frills. It’s better than a lot of other places though.”
“No frills? Kind of like Billy’s cooking.”
“So I like simple foods. Nothing wrong with that. Why do I need sun-dried tomatoes in my pasta or fancy cheese on my burger?”
“Fancy food can taste good too. Another thing, would it be so hard to allow me to refill my 30-day Metrocard? It wouldn’t have been that big a deal, it only would’ve cost me a minute if the machine had decided to accept my credit card. Of course it decided not to be able to read it.”
“I get that a lot too actually.”
“Did you try a little sugar?”
“Sugar?”
“Yeah. You know, be nice to it. Treat it well. Maybe you were rude to it and it decided not to accept your card out of spite.”
“So I’m supposed to what? Flirt with it? Oh Metrocard machine, you’re so pretty! Here, let me clean the stray Metrocards off your head. There, isn’t that better?”
“Yeah, that should do it.” Frank says, laughing.