The case of the vanishing balance on two Clipper cards

Q Dear Mr. Roadshow, wise Sultan of

Stop & Go, Tsar of Transit, Oracle of Offramps:

Last December, my wife had a substantial balance on her company transit deduction account.

She went from going into the office four days a week via Caltrain to working from home, because, well, you know … COVID-19.

We took that balance, and put most of it onto our Clipper cards, for the day that we would once again ride the rails. — Marcel Burlet, Morgan Hill

A

But a couple of weeks, later …

Q

I’m taking VTA, and *ding*: You are down to less than $1 on your Clipper card.

Huh? I checked online, and, lo, about $100 has disappeared from my account, and over $200 from my wife’s account.

Online, I can only see our last three months of transactions, and I’m sure all $100 didn’t go into two cable car rides and one bus trip.

I called Clipper, and after a 60-minute hold on a 75-minute estimated wait, the polite customer service rep started the process to restore the missing money, telling me, “If you have no activity for six months, it gets deactivated.”

In a pandemic, with 90% of tech working from home, even the Clipper rep admitted to “driving to work, because being on transit with other people is scary.”

Clipper’s terms state that after three years your card is inactive, but there’s something weird about “Undelivered Order — Transaction ordering products or cash value that is not added to a Card for more than 180 days after payment has been received.”

Pardon my anger and incredulity: Clipper will abscond with my balance?

No notice, even though they have my email?

And, to get it back, it’s an hour on hold, and “3 to 5 business days.”

I’m so glad that I don’t have to go into the office the last two weeks.

The money is still missing. This is just another barrier to transit: an opaque payment system. — Marcel Burlet A Your anger is warranted. If one does not use the Clipper card for six months, it can be frozen.

The reason for this has to do with how much space unused orders take on their computer system. But if a customer already has value on his/her card, that value should not be removed.

Clipper does not take funds away, even if the card goes unused for years.

Any last thoughts? Q Please edit my missive as you see fit, especially if it makes me look smarter and better looking. — Marcel Burlet A You made me laugh, thanks! Yours is the first email I’ve gotten on this issue.

Have others had this problem with frozen or the seeming disappearance of funds on your Clipper card?