It’s not been a good week for Melbourne’s much maligned Myki public transport ticketing system.
First there was a report handed down earlier this week by the auditor-general that found no one in charge actually knows if the system is working properly or not.
Now a Melbourne commuter has discovered that the company has more or less tried to consolidated its annual operating losses directly into her account.
Media professional Sarah Coles was attempting to top up her Myki with $5 at North Melbourne Station yesterday afternoon, when a staff member drew her attention to the fact that her account was a tiny little bit in arrears.
And when we say “tiny little bit,” we mean “TWO MILLION DOLLARS.”
It seems the “smart” card ticketing system was attempting to pull some real Dr Evil type shit, and insisted that Coles owed the ticketing company $2,684,350.00. Grabbing a receipt after the staff member at the station apparently treated the debt as legitimate at first, Coles then travelled to Flinders Street Station and again checked the balance on her card, which this time showed a debt of -$2,684,349.60 – a grand reduction of 40 cents.
Speaking to Fairfax Media, Coles stated her bewilderment at the clear error, jokingly wondering if they’ll send the debt to collectors.
“I’m baffled. The figure is so ridiculous. Should I call them? I’m not giving them a call, I’ve got better things to do.”
“I don’t want to go to jail. When Alan Bond went to jail he had debts in the billions. Maybe it will be a nice retreat and I will come out a hardened white collar criminal.”
With a current maximum daily ticket costing $7.52, Sarah Coles would have to have taken trips across both zones 1 and 2 that were more than 2 hours apart every day for the past 978 years to accumulate that kind of debt.
Ironically, 978 years is about the amount of time it’ll take before the Myki system is properly fixed.
Photo: Sarah Coles via Twitter.
via The Age.
