A Whole New ORCA Bermuda Triangle

RantWoman thinks she is supposed to thank the nice fare inspector last week on the light rail who informed RantWoman that she needs to hie herself downtown to update her Regional Reduced Fare Permit before it expires this coming week, rather than end of the month with her monthly pass. RantWoman thinks life might be simpler if he had just bought her a ticket to the Bermuda Triangle, perhaps payable out of an ORCA purse.


RantWoman of late has been listening to a number of people living in the hinterlands of King County. Apparently, due to the glacial pace at which community ORCA sites are being set up, these transit riders not only can no longer handle their monthly bus pass purchase needs at their corner pharmacy. They also face either tiresome transit journeys downtown or the drumbeat of financial forces demanding they participate in online electronic universes they also may not have access to. So RantWoman supposes she should be grateful to have the problems she has. This is RantWoman though!


Back to RantWoman's expiring reduced fare permit. RantWoman still, after multiple years of having a Regional Reduced Fare Permit has a temporary permit. For one thing, RantWoman has acquired enough of the documentation that generates temporary permits that she does not have to run to her provider every year for a signature. This is fortunate because the temporary permit renewal cycle tends to run just ahead of RantWoman's topical checkup visits so that RantWoman just never thinks about getting the permanent status signed. Then there is the form, not quite the length of War and Peace but large and unwieldy enough not easily to be faxable for a signature.


RantWoman will not opine as to whether this form design might be by deliberate. RantWoman also has a caring provider who, RantWoman supposes might have a pang about the issue of "permanent" in this case. RantWoman has the kind of issues about the subject that make her want to deploy graduate students looking at some data, not particularly the kind that would personalize the topic and consider finding hungry lawyers. Nor is RantWoman herself particularly an icon-kissing, praying to saints kind of gal. Any miracles would come on their own timeline anyway, and RantWoman could perfectly well get herself right with the bureaucracy in the meantime. Again, this is RantWoman, early ORCA adopter here though.

Friday, RantWoman seized the sunny day and took a ride. RantWoman stopped to chat with someone just coming out and still made it to the Metro offices before lunch. Thwack was on the job so RantWoman opted to let a helpful employee fill out the form and then stepped up to the desk, trailing the various cards she was going to have to present: ID, current ORCA card, other topical card, debit card... RantWoman has the sort of spells where she would leave her head behind if it weren't attached so just having that many cards out in different hands was making RantWoman a little twitchy.

Then RantWoman got to the counter: "We goofed. Your card should have expired at the end of the month. But it will be $3 for a new card." Actually, RantWoman thinks there is a different goof: why couldn't her temporary card just be extended? Why does she have to get a whole new ORCA card in the first place? RantWoman did not even pose these questions. "Can I pay out of my ORCA purse?" "No, sorry." "Can you transfer my purse to my new card?" "You'll have to call Customer Service, but I can cancel your autoload." RantWoman opted just to have the nice woman at the counter read her the numbers she will need off the new card and note those numbers in legible to RantWoman form.

RantWoman figured she could log in from home, cancel her own autoload, AND assign the autoload to her new card. RantWoman figured this, but RantWoman was WRONG.

Home went RantWoman to log into www.orcacard.com . RantWoman succeeded in stopping her own autoload. RantWoman is purposely omitting some other Bermuda Triangle points, at least until a call to customer service.

Next, RantWoman tried to add her new card to her existing account. This produced a flashback to last year and issues specific to Regional Reduced Fare Permits. By this time RantWoman had a headache and needed to tend other business her ORCA circus had been allowing her to procrastinate about. RantWoman poked around desultorily for a few more minutes and was delighted to discover some business-oriented links that just MIGHT answer some of the questions RantWoman never followed up about last year. Customer Service here we come!