Poorly ‘designed’ system for discounted annual membership
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I’ve been an annual membership holder since the first couple years of the program, and I realized today that my last 6 rides have all been charged $2, as my membership expired on or about Aug. 30th. I had been to the online portal earlier this summer, and had seen both the expiry date and my CC info there. So… I presumed it would renew. Not so.
1) According to the call center rep, my membership was not set up for automatic renewal. Well then… it would help greatly if you’d make it obvious on the profile page that this is the case. I work for a school, and we are offered discounted memberships- which is amazing- but the renewal process has always been dysfunctional. Cap Bikeshare have changed the process more than once, and it has rarely worked properly. Since going off the standard membership and onto the one my school offers, 4-5 years ago, I have never had a seamless renewal- there has always been a week+ of wait, sometimes much longer.
2) When an annual membership expires, the system doesn’t send out a reminder. They just start charging you $2 per ride. It’s my own fault that I ignore the texts I opted to get every trip- looking back, the new ones did say I was charged $2, I just didn’t read them anymore. But what is inexcusable here is that, for people who have additional challenges navigating this system, this is tantamount to theft. I teach adult immigrants, all of whom are learning English, and many (most, really) of whom aren’t fully comfortable with internet technology. Holding them accountable for keeping track of their expiration, and then automatically charging them 40% of their annual membership cost per ride after that is… unethical to say the least. I’m sure the Program will argue that’s it’s not illegal, due to reams of legalese in the rider use agreement, but that doesn’t remotely respect the customer.
Do better, CaBi. The community relies on you.
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