Woo, I just registered my card!

• Your PRESTO Card registration is pending or expired.
  After registering your PRESTO card online, you need to wait 24h and then take a regular journey with your PRESTO card within 7 days. By tapping on a PRESTO device, your registration will transfer to your card.
  If you registered your PRESTO card in the past 7 days and have not used your card to travel, your registration is pending. In this case, please use your card to travel within the 7 day period to complete your registration.
  If you registered your card more than 7 days ago and have not used your card to travel, your registration is expired. In this case, contact the PRESTO call center by calling 1-8-PRESTO-123 (or 1-877-378-6123) to re-activate your registration.

So the process goes:
1. Buy card
2. Wait 24 hours
3. Register card online
4. Wait 24 hours
5. Use card within 7 days, or else you have to call them to re-activate my registration.

But, but, I don't need to use my Presto card within a week, I typically go home every other week. So much fun!

Also, when can I go and get the student rate applied to my card? Can you do that at Compass?

I know I've sad this before, but I'll reiterate: yes it might take a few days to get used to but it's SO much more convenient than carrying around tickets for GO, TTC, MiWay, Oakville/Burlingon transit etc.

Tap on and off on Go buses+trains (unless you have a preset trip, applicable only to trains)
tap ON on all other transit buses. easy as Pie (or Pi?!)

just what I think. carry on

Originally Posted by Twelve Chars

Woo, I just registered my card!



So the process goes:
1. Buy card
2. Wait 24 hours
3. Register card online
4. Wait 24 hours
5. Use card within 7 days, or else you have to call them to re-activate my registration.

But, but, I don't need to use my Presto card within a week, I typically go home every other week. So much fun!

Also, when can I go and get the student rate applied to my card? Can you do that at Compass?

You have to register and wait 24 hours before COMPASS can change it to a student card. I made the mistake of registering, then going to compass an hour later, only to find out that my information hasn't been updated yet...

Okay, smart people, explain this one to me.

When I received my Presto card I put $60 on it. Since then, I've used it three times, going between Hamilton and Mimico. The cost of one trip between those stops is about $9.05 full price. Using a 10 ride or Presto card, and with applying the student rate, that number comes down to around $8.

So since I've used my card three times, (once without a student rate applied, twice after I'd applied the rate to card), my total usage should come to about $25 (9+8+8). Also there's a $6 fee for activating a Presto card, but I thought that was waived for the month of July? I'm not sure if the guy who gave me the card waived the fee or not.

So the question is, what should my balance be? Well, either around $35 or $29, depending on whether or not the $6 issuance fee was waived or not. What my balance actually is: $20.62.

WHY?

Here's a screenshot of my transaction history page. Good ****ing luck understanding any of this shit. Here's some clues though:
July 7th - When I got my card, and used it to travel from Mimico to Hamilton
July 11th - When I got the student rate applied to the card at Compass
July 20th- Used the card to go from Hamilton to Mimico
July 22th - Used the card to go from Mimico to Hamilton

Originally Posted by pinkprincess

Just a warning about PRESTO as I just had to deal with this issue:

There's the option to have a "default" destination trip. With this type of setting, apparently you only have to tap on ONCE (not when you get on and off!!). I was not told this. I always knew you had to tap on and off, and the attendant who issued me the card told me this too.
However, what happened was every time I tapped, I got charged. I had to tap when I got on/off the train and then on/off the bus. I was charged 4x just to get to Mac. If you take a direct bus to Mac, you'd be charged 2x each way by tapping on and off.

What I found out was this type of setting isn't allowed for buses! I got refunded for the unnecessary charges but only after having to talk to several people. I think a lot of drivers and attendants don't know about this. Please check if you have this setting!

I think you have the same issue as me...here's my previous post.

So just change your setting to normal at a GO station and make sure you ask for a refund since it's not your fault.
They keep doing this...so many people have had this problem!

Okay, that's probably the problem then, right? That's what I'm thinking as I go to the Hamilton Go Centre to get this all sorted out.

The lady behind the glass takes my card, pulls up my transaction history - which looks different and much cleaner than the monstrosity that I can see on the Presto site - and informs me that the problem is on my end. You see, the screen clearly shows that I have been tapping twice at the same station at the same time.

I tell her no, I have not been doing this. I tap once like a normal human being. Why on earth would I tap my card twice at the same machine within the same minute.

She doesn't seem to believe me because the screen clearly shows asetsdagadsfsadgdshjk and she wasn't trained to think about anything beyond what the screen cleary shows ateddsgahdklgh3ewiw

I ask her about the preset destination thing, perhaps that is the problem as you tell me. She pulls up another screen and alas, there is no preset destination on my card! Well ****.

The upshot of this is that she gives me two paper "Credit Voucher"s in refund for my supposed mistakes. She writes in pen: "Value 4.50" on each of them. On the voucher it states "NOT VALID FOR TRANSPORTATION". Uhhhhhhh...But before I can ask her about that she shoos me away because there is a lineup behind me.

So now my balance remains $20.62, and I have two vouchers of questionable value and utility. I submitted an online ticket at the same time I made my previous post 4 days ago, but have received no reply.

Originally Posted by Twelve Chars

Here's a screenshot of my transaction history page. Good ****ing luck understanding any of this shit. Here's some clues though: ...

I just took a look at my transaction history for fun, and my mind is so full of ***k right now.

Why they don't keep all your transaction history, and why this service looks like it was designed by a high school student is beyond my comprehension..

It charges $4.50 because that is the minimum travel cost on GO service. When you tap off the card keeps track of your distance which adds onto that base fee of $4.50. Like a cab.

This is really strange :(

The thing is, you don't have a single positive $4.50 charge. I notice when you're tapping off at the train stations you're getting a -4.50 charge. That's what was happening to me when I had the preset destination.
Here's how it works for me now:

I tap on at McMaster, the charge is -4.50
When I get to Aldershot, I tap off the bus and I get +0.67

Then I tap on at Aldershot before I get onto the train, and the charge is -4.50
When I get to my stop and tap off, I get +4.50 back.
Essentially the train ride for me is "free." How much you get back when you tap off at the train station I think depends on how far you go...but I think you defiantly shouldn't be charged again.

I would suggest you keep trying to figure out what the problem is; try talking to the Aldershot people on the way back from Mac since you have some time before the train leaves. They're usually not too busy so they might be more patient.
The adult single ride ticket from Mimico to Mac is $9.05...so you should be paying less than that due to the Presto AND Student discounts. Right now it's costing you a lot more due to the double charges. So they defiantly can't say there's no problem!
And figure out exactly how much you've been over charged for so you can get a direct refund. In my situation, once the guy at Aldershot understood the problem he deposited the money directly into my PRESTO account and gave me a receipt. No vouchers were involved.

Good luck! I hope this gets sorted out asap!

you can check your balance and all transaction on the presto website.

You do save money by using it form the loyalty discount.

Originally Posted by kevin999

you can check your balance and all transaction on the presto website.

You do save money by using it form the loyalty discount.