Clipper Card

Horrible horrible system, I’ve had so many problems. I loaded the 8 ride pass onto my card. I missed one train and had to drive to work instead. They do not allow you to tag back off at the same station you tagged on, so they deduct $ 10. Then my card had a negative balance and was no longer usable, it doesn’t even matter that I spent $ 50 on prepaid rides that are still on the card! It took several days for the money to load back on the card, so I’m paying for single day tickets to and from work in the meantime. Again, I had $ 50 on the card, but it is not usable!
Only use if you need to ride the train daily and are getting a monthly pass! Otherwise, not at all worth the ~$ 0.50 saved per ride. So many ways to screw up, like if you forget to tag off one day (I’ve done this and called right away to let them know and they could not tag me off over the phone either). You will likely end up paying more. Many others have had problems as well.
Also the monthly passes don’t go on sale until a few days before the end of the month and then take a few days to load onto your card! Unbelievable, I could design and program them a better system in a weekend.
Avoid like the plague!

Clipper Card in combination with Wageworks is the absolute worst, only designed to have your hard earned money flow into the pockets of some hapless burocrats!
I called Wageworks to cancel my work salary contributions for a Muni Fast Pass. Nobody reminded me that I still needed to call Clipper Card as well, so Clipper Card happily kept on deducting funds for a Fast Pass I no longer needed from my Credit Card. When I finally canceled the Fast Pass at Clipper Card, the operator told me fine, it’s all done, only to send me an e-​mail instructing me to scan my Clipper Card at a ticket machine to make sure it really goes through. No mention on the phone. To hell with this!

Don’t even bother with a Clipper Card, not worth the aggravation. I called customer service three times today trying to access my online account. Not a single operator could help me. Now I have a card that works only for a bus pass, which I have through the Peralta College system. All I wanted to do was access my account so I could add money for BART. I will go to my local BART station and get a card from them since Clippercard couldn’t handle my simple request.

Very frustrating experience with autoload and customer service in general.
In summary, I was charged in January (and not told I would be) for a December MUNI pass that was only used 4 times in December — it was blocked the rest of the time. In short, I paid $ 70 for a pass used only 4 times (~$ 9) — and was not told this would happen! When I voiced my concern about this, and the fact that customer service reps had misrepresented this along the way, they cited the customer service agreement & terms I had implicitly «accepted».
I was given incorrect information by multiple customer service agents. It took 4 – 5 calls and 4 – 5 emails to even figure out this issue (no one else took the time to investigate this properly and tell me this is what had happened).
The 3 – 4 day response timeframe from the customer service email is frustrating too, especially when you have a MUNI pass that doesn’t work in the meantime. I’ve taken this matter with the BBB and will look to complain to the SFMTA.

Clipper Card, why do you still float online top-​up funds for 3 – 5 days? Is your operations center run by hamsters?

Ok but seriously, is there a faster way to load your Clipper card!!!
Nothing like missing your Cal Train because the Clipper add value machine is «Dialing Host» and waiting for a «Connection Successful». Wtf is this AOL? Then the screen flashes «want a faster way to add value? Go to clip​per​.com». But wait! If you add value online it could take up to 5 DAYS to load on your clipper card.
Clipper, please see the SmartTrip card used by Washington DC and take some tips! It shouldn’t take that long to spend money.

I think Clipper will be sued soon for cheating people out of their pre-​tax contributions, making people late for work and negligent credit card charges. Clipper has failed to autoload from my pre-​tax transit card on more than one occasion. This make me late for work when I unpleasantly find out on my commute and have to use non pre-​tax funds to pay. They’re customer service is awful –rude and unhelpful. If you call them, they make it clear that they cannot help you. I’m not sure why they answer the phone when their response is that you can only contact someone for a response or load your card through their website.

For those who do have transit benefit, specifically via the federal Department of Transportation program, beware of autoload if you ride the MUNI bus!
Bottom line: if you get on a MUNI bus with a faulty wireless signal on the day you activate your monthly pass, or if there is some other delay from MUNI in sending and Clipper in receiving that information that you’ve loaded your pass, the billing won’t occur the normal 2 – 3 days after pass activation and instead could occur 7+ days afterwards.
This delay results in you losing your monthly transit allotment if you’ve set up your system such that you are using last month’s allotment which, if not used by the 10^th of the following month, gets zapped off the card by Chase Bank via direction of the Department of Transportation. If you’re savvy enough and have had time to monitor your transit benefit card daily, you may have caught the delayed billing and sent the funds as cash value or spent it otherwise before it got zapped off.
The loss of funds due to delayed Clipper/​MUNI billing happened to me in October, and the following month (November), I encountered insufficient funds for my pass. The carry-​over I had been using month to month had been removed due to delayed billing in October. Here’s the breakdown after my analysis of 2 years of transaction history:
— Oct 5^th– MUNI monthly pass activated on Clipper card by tagging off on a bus
— Oct 7−10^th: normally expect billing from Clipper to occur
— Oct 10^th: funds loaded to transit benefit card in September (intended for October pass) not used due to delayed billing, so auto-​zapped off transit benefit card
— Oct 10^th: new funds loaded to transit benefit card which I would normally use for November pass
— Oct 14^th– billing by Clipper for October pass is delayed and occurred on this date using funds intended for my November pass
–November 4^th: MUNI monthly pass activated on Clipper card by tagging off on a bus
–November 6^th: Clipper tries to bill transit benefit card; no funds on transit benefit card, Clipper card blocked, I’m paying out of pocket for MUNI because even to add a new card takes 5 days to activate
Minus three stars for the problematic autoload system when interfaced with MUNI bus and my work’s transit benefit program and the whole 5 day delay for any modifications to Clipper. Of note, if they say on the 10^th the card is unblocked and wait up to 5 days, the 10^th only counts as day zero. They don’t count day #1 until the 11^th so you’re waiting until the 15^th! The autoload system depends on the MUNI bus having a good wireless signal. There’s got to be a better way to trigger billing. Since the cards are per calendar month and not # of days since you tagged off, why not auto-​bill on the XX date of each month independent of tagging off?
If you don’t have the luxury of an employer transit benefit program, this problem won’t apply to you. I feel like it’s a «first world problem» to even complain since I realize most people don’t have that luxury and pay daily out of pocket for transit. I’ve been there and done that, too.
Plus one star for the very helpful customer service reps who helped me troubleshoot the problem by:
— providing within 1 hour a transaction history that went back to 2 years per my request (it may be able to go back longer than that)
— explaining to me the problem and walking through solutions with me
Solutions they proposed to me are: STOP AUTOLOAD, buy pass manually online or via phone every month to ensure billing at the time of buying the card (still have to tag off to activate, but no longer dependent on tagging off to trigger the billing), or visit a stationary machine i.e. in MUNI underground stations to ensure no problems with wireless communication between Clipper and MUNI.
Plus one star because overall I had not had any problem for the past 2+ years of autoload with my transit benefit card until now.

Absolutely terrible. As a disabled person, I had a situation that should have been easy to handle. According to their customer service and a supervisor named Janet at extension 8505, I was just crap out of luck. They clearly treat disabled people like they can’t fight back. We’ll see where this goes. I’m going back to the monthly pass system. I never got screwed that way.

I’ll join the army of 1-​star reviewers. Let’s try to get someone fired.
I fund my clipper from the WageWorks card — like many other folks in Bay Area. In about 20% of the cases autoload fails. I did call WageWorks, they informed me there were no authorization attempts.
Anyway, when autoload fails, Clipper does not retry, no. Instead they BLOCK your clipper card in the most creative way possible: next time you tag (next day, next week– does not matter) — a block is «loaded» on your card locking you out of using Caltrain, BART, Muni, etc. Then you have to «update» your autoload source (really re-​enter same card number) and in 5 – 10 days the «unblock» will be loaded on your card. Even if you do re-​enter credit card song-​and-​dance before you tag next time — your card will still be locked for 5 – 10 days.
Calling support is useless. As mentioned in other reviews, they tell you «let me explain how it works» — and proceed with 5 minute speech loaded with BS on how their «system security» work.
Please fire people who designed this and start fresh

1 star for the poor reps that have to explain the business moronic business practice and have no ability to help.
had a block card due to wageworks dumbass program for one specific month. After that kept taking my monthly payment but i can’t use the card for the later months because i «didn’t» for the month that caused the block card. long story short, they took me $ 200 and they know it.

I concur with every review on here. Clipper is the most poorly operated and serviced system I have ever encountered. Every time I make a payment, they have no way of sending payment confirmation or receipt nor documenting where the payment came from. It makes it very hard for transportation reimbursement through my employer. Moreover, every time I call Clipper Card Customer Service (at least half a dozen attempts) it’s a huge waste of time. They have never been able to resolve an issue which seems fairly straightforward, e.g., sending an email confirmation for a payment made online. Even worse, they make you add the option for Auto Load online in order to purchase high value passes so customers have no other options. What a shoddy business model! Get your act together Clipper because you are going down.

Just have to agree with all the other 1-​star reviews. The customer service is abysmal («I don’t know — that’s not my department» is a response I’ve gotten more than once) and the website/​technology is from the 90s! «Up to five days» to load money?! I can pay for and receive two Amazon deliveries in that time.
If you have WageWorks or another commuter plan to fund your Clipper card, you are totally out of luck if you run into any issues. Dozens of phone calls later, I am here to attest that you will get nothing but the runaround.
And here’s a new one: you can click to get your ride history only *twice per day* ! To make it even friendlier, the website doesn’t bother to inform you of this limit until after you have already clicked twice.

This company is the absolute worse!!! So clipper had a problem loading my card and the money was clearly in the account. They sent me an email telling me the problem will be corrected but it will take up to 5 days. So now I have to pay to ride Muni which I already have a monthly pass for. Clipper never offers you any compensation, they are the worse. The rep I was talking to clearly didn’t give a crap about my call. She is probably use to them ripping people off. smdh

I have no problem using the card, but if you setup autoload with a credit card and should your card expire, that’s when you’ll have problems.
I received notification that funds couldn’t be retrieved from my credit card (new card received by cc company)
As soon as I got the email, I quickly updated my payment info.
Unfortunately, their stupid system takes 5 frickin days to update before I can use my card.
It should be instantaneous, it take 5 days to process. And when you contact customer services they’re utterly useless.
Fail big time.

Clipper has given me the worst experience with customer service and general sheistiness since dealing with the IRS. Possibly worse. At least the IRS is honest about gouging me for money.
Two weeks ago, the clipper refill kiosks at my transit center weren’t working right. I tried to put $ 20 on my card three times, and each time got a «transaction failed» notice. No money went to my card. No big deal, I thought, and just happened to check my bank balance shortly after. When I saw $ 60 had been taken out by Clipper, I called customer service and was informed that the kiosks were down, and that I’d receive a full refund the next day.
Three days passed and nothing happened. I called again and had a guy who sounded like his head might have been run over a few times as a kid take 15 minutes to tell me over and over that it’d take 5 – 7 business days to refund my money and there was nothing else to do.
TWO WEEKS LATER, I notice I have a single refund of $ 20 in my bank now. So I called again to ask where the rest was. The woman on the phone must have been the previous guy’s somewhat angrier twin who also suffered multiple head injuries as a child (I can’t help but think on purpose), and she barked at me about taking it up with «my financial institution» because that wasn’t Clpper’s fault, and the kiosks «aren’t affiliated with us». …that’s weird that all these kiosks say «Clipper «on them, then…
Long story short, my bank is going after them and I will never use one of their cards again. I hope everybody who works there gets a giant bedbug infestation and also butt-​leprosy.

I have used a Clipper card for about 2 years, and after a recent experience I think I am going to close my account.
Monday morning, July 6, I lost my wallet on BART — 100% due, I must admit, to my own carelessness. Once it was clear it wasn’t going to be found immediately, I set about cancelling credit cards, ATM cards, etc., including Clipper. I reported my Clipper card missing just before 10 a.m. that day (I’d actually tried to do it earlier online, but the system wasn’t cooperating). I naively thought that, as with credit cards, once a theft/​loss is reported, the customer is not on the hook for bogus transactions that occur after the report. Wrong-​o!!!
Whoever picked up my wallet continued to use my Clipper card all day, until well into the evening — running up $ 23.85 in fare charges, nearly all of which unquestionably took place after I reported the card missing. The fine folks at Clipper have now informed me that hey, it sometimes takes till the end of the day for blocks on lost cards to filter through the system, and the customer is on the hook for every penny until the very end of the day the loss was reported. They helpfully pointed me to the section of the customer agreement where this is spelled out — see sec. 5.2.2 of the agreement that’s posted online.
Okay, $ 23.85 won’t kill me, but why can’t Clipper do what every other card used for financial transactions does and cancel a lost card immediately? I have had zero problems with Visa, Mastercard, gasoline cards, etc. And cumulatively, it’s not a trivial amount of money. While I have not been able to locate stats for the number of Clipper cards reported lost/​stolen, the MTC reports that about 820,000 unique cards are used each month:
. If even a tiny percentage is lost/​stolen each month, they’re making thousands of bucks on lost cards every month — money literally stolen from customers, even if they diligently reported their lost card right away.
Oh, and to add insult to injury, replacing a lost card costs $ 5, which MUST be paid with a credit card. They can’t take it out of your cash balance on the account (mine was $ 121 when it was lost) and they won’t take cash if you come in personally. So if you’re unlucky enough to lose your whole wallet with all you’re credit cards, you’re just outta luck till one of your credit cards is replaced.
It will be a bit of an annoyance to go back to paper BART tickets and to paying cash for my once or twice per month Muni rides, but I think I’m going to do it. Every interaction I’ve had with them has been an exercise in frustration and lack of concern for the customer.
UPDATE 9÷27÷15. Channel 7, which reported on my earlier misadventures with Clipper, now says they’ve decided to review the policy with an eye toward changing it. Nothing is final yet! I’m not returning to Clipper till they unequivocally decided to stop billing customers for the actions of thieves.

I buy a MUNI pass every month.
Tuesday: Clipper card stops working. I call customer service and talk to a friendly person who tells me to go to Embarcadero the next morning and they’ll issue a new one for free.
Wednesday: Go to Embarcadero. They test it and confirm that it does not work. I’m told that I need to register my card, pay a $ 5 fee, and can pick it up at Embarcadero on Thursday. I call Clipper and register my card while standing at the Embarcadero kiosk. I lose my temper, then apologize.
Thursday: I return to Embarcadero to pick up my new card. At first they were not gong to give it to me because it had not been deactivated. They decided to give it to me. I asked if I would have to pay another $ 5 if the new one stopped working, and was told by the same employee from Wednesday (!) that I never had to pay $ 5 and should have gotten it while I was there yesterday. I mentioned that this was not what her said yesterday and he denied this. To my immense credit, I kept my cool.
Thursday: I called Clipper from work to complain and ask that the $ 5 fee be added to my card next month. They refused. They refused to take responsibility for the poor customer service at Embarcadero, explaining that those folks were not MUNI employees.
Update: Clipper called me back and will credit the $ 5 fee to my credit card. They were very pleasant, however I hope never to go through this again!

Clipper Card on the train really was bad, and now charging $ 4 when it doesn’t work well as a MUNI fast pass.
Can’t they get it right before forced charges!

Well, what can I say, every time I have called the 877−878−8883 number on the back of my clipper card and reach a Customer Service Rep, the person on the phone is:
unhelpful
sarcastic
condescending
unpleasant
lethargic
lacks energy
is bored
always rude — always, always, always… (must be a job requirement)
and has such a NEGATIVE attitude that from the very first word ’ hello may i help you’
(Laughable — «help» ie: treat you like crap”)
I wonder how this «agency» is able to function. Is being rude truly an asset of MUNI /​Clipper Card Customer (LOL) Service.
My mind is blown — truly sad to even bother with a number giving the public a false sense of assistance.
It’s depressing how muni works. Shame on me for getting my hopes up that I would receive some help.
That’s not going to happen. Lesson learned — deal with your own muni problems yourself. no one is out there to help. Period.
Have a nice day.
3:00 PM
Just had to add the awful follow up.
Reported lost card.
Canceled it.
FORCED to PURCHASE a-​n-​o-​t-​h-​e-​r Replacement Card
Told miserable phone clerk at clipper I have 3 in my possession already.
«THREE» clipper cards — all mine, all registered — already PAID for.
Hell no — you can’t use a card you have.
Hell no — you can’t use a card you already registered.
Hell no — you can’t use a card you already paid for.
YOU HAVE TO GIVE MUNI more money or you can go to H*LL — thanks Muni -… you keep up the predictable nastiness.
I’m absolutely disgusted with muni and every hateful person who works for the disgraceful «customer service department» — DEPRESSING…