Farewell faithful SmarTrip…
Today was a sad day. The day that saw the death of my faithful SmarTrip card.
“Who cares?” you may shrug dismissively. Ah, but this was the Special Edition Commemorative Card Celebrating Metro’s Anniversary in Sleek Shiny Silver! I got it in 2001, and it has served me well, raising eyebrows from the metro to the metrobus, as it’s metallic gleam outshone all others.
But today it cracked, breaking the delicate balance of electonic information contained therein and forcing me to get a replacement card, which looks like everyone else’s. Sigh. I suppose I should be happy that something from WMATA actually lasted five years…
However, the real lesson of my nostalgia-soaked entry is this: Register your SmarTrip card. That way when you need to buy a replacement, you won’t lose the money remaining on your old one.
Wow, that site blows.
After going to the register link (and getting a warning message from my browser because they have a cert for my.wmata.com linked to http://www.smarttrip.com) I filled out the form (which didn’t have room for my whole street address – 20 character??) and submitted it to get this:
“The following errors were found:
A problem exists with this online registration process. Please contact the SmarTrip Regional Customer Service Center at 1-888/762-7874 for assistance.”
Good grief. It’s all a scam!!
You can also register on paper at Metro Center. But who the hell is going to do that?