go_gentle | in which I vent

so, I have a monthly T pass, because I commute every day, right? and I buy them online, and this was the first month that I tried the automated version, where they just bill your credit card and upload a new pass automatically. So on the 20th, I got an email reminding me they were going to bill me, which I thought was very thoughtful of them, and on the 26th, when I tapped through the gate, I saw the message that my pass had been updated, and I thought all was well.

Scene: This morning (ie, the first of November). I'm running a little bit late, and the T station is full of people buying passes. I fell very smug about having already taken care of that! But when I tap my card, I get the angry buzzing noise and the "not enough funds!" message. I say, "WHAT THE SHIT". Except, 8am, so it's more like, "blergh what the shit". So I have to put a few bucks on my card so I can, you know, get to work. It's not a big deal, except my tolerance for dealing with basically anything at 8am on a Monday morning is basically non-existent.

I checked at work, and the online system thinks I have a November pass (and thus wouldn't sell me one even if I was willing to buy another), and my credit card's been billed.

On my way home, I checked my card on the fare vending machine, and there are two lines of passes listed. One, from September 1 to October 31, and one for October 1 to October 31. So it looks like they sold me a second October pass. On October 26th. The guy manning the vending machines looked at them and asked, "why do you have two October passes?" to which I could only say "I have no clue." So I went to the ticket window.....where they told me since I bought it online, they couldn't help me, and I had to call.

So I called, and I spent 20 minutes talking to two different people (or on hold) who could only come up with "huh. That's really weird." (but promised to get their supervisor to manually push a pass tomorrow, and hopefully I will have it before it's time to go home.) (on the bright side, they did also tell me they'll reimburse me for any fares I have to pay while they try to get the pass to work.

BLARHG. tell me something cheerful?