Paul's Comments

[Update 3/14/2008] As of now I have heard nothing from either Metro Access nor WMATA; the silence has been deafening; on the 17th I am going to send both of them a second letter indicating that their failure to even acknowledge my first letter or make even the slightest amount of noise or response to the first one is exacerbating my already unhappy state into a much worse condition. I'm thinking I might state that maybe since their only response (by either of them) is complete and utter silence, that maybe my next step is an Americans With Disabilities Act lawsuit over everything I've mentioned in the original letter. Maybe I'll CC the Post, Times and the major local TV stations and WTOP news too! [End Update]

MetroAccess Customer Relations
8405 Colesville Road, Suite 400
Silver Spring, MD 20910-6341

To the reader of this letter:

On March 1, 2009, I called in a request to schedule 3 trips on Metro Access for March 2. As I am in a wheelchair it basically would have been physically impossible for me to accomplish what I had to do without help, I got someone to assist me. My assistant was not scheduled to show up until 10:00 AM so I specifically asked for a departure time on the first trip for after 10:00, and was given a confirmation number for that trip and the other two.

As shown on the enclosed photocopy of the written order I downloaded from Metro Access' website on March 1, the trip was correctly scheduled to occur with a window from 10:30 to 11:00, which was fine. [Update 3/4/2009] The actual time was 10:29 to 10:59, which might even further indicate I was really mad, since I misstated it by one minute! [End Update].

Late in the evening of the 1st, as is your policy, my cell phone rang informing me that a call came in. I have Metro Access' computer programmed into my phone; and as my policy, that call I specifically ignore. This forces it to voice mail, which causes the automatic announcement to be read into the voice mail system and I have a record of the call, any time I want to check, I can call my voice mail and play back the message instead of having to navigate your menu system, give my ID and so on; it's much easier to get a playback from voice mail.

So anyway I don't worry about it because I have a written order giving me confirmation. The next morning I check my voice mail anyway. I hear the woman's synthesized voice saying that the window for my trip is from 10:00 to 10:30.

Wait a minute. I thought I ordered a trip which was scheduled for 10:30 to 11:00. Maybe I made a error or the computer misread it. I look at my written order and it says 10:30-11:00. So I go back on your website, and discover there is no error; the window for my first trip has been re-scheduled for 10:00 to 10:30 (a photocopy is enclosed). And make no mistake about it being a different order, the transaction number as shown in both examples for the first trip is the exact same number.

This could be a serious problem; in between the time I booked the trip and this morning, we've received something like anywhere from 2 to 3 inches of snow. I had an assistant coming who wasn't scheduled to get here until 10; if your shuttle shows up at the start of the window, and my assistant is a few minutes late because of the snow, I could be placed in the untenable position of having to take a no-show because of your office rescheduling my trip earlier than I asked for it.

There was snow. A lot of it. I can understand being late. I can understand having a problem showing up and arriving later due to inclement weather. But I cannot accept rescheduling my trip to be earlier than what I asked for unless someone called me to ask me if it was acceptable, not simply unilaterally reschedule my trip.

Further, I have not seen or noticed anywhere in your customer rules or regulations that permit you to unilaterally reschedule a trip to be earlier than the time I asked for. It is entirely possible that it may be physically impossible for me to rearrange a schedule to leave earlier than the original request I made which is confirmed by the agent at Metro Access when I place the call, and by a written order from your website.

To put it bluntly, "THIS. IS. INEXCUSABLE!" (Said in the tone of the actor from the trailer for the movie 300 who yells "This is Sparta!") I am not ticked off mad by this inexcusable behavior on the part of Metro Access, I am pissed off mad.

Actually that's incorrect; to say that I was mad about this action on your part would be on the level of calling Niagra Falls "moist." Clearly I am seriously not happy about this incident. Fortunately my assistant did show up a little early, and wouldn't you know it, the very gracious and extremely helpful driver from Metro Access, despite the snow, came exactly on time. (I have written a separate letter commending her performance for helping me out on what basically might have turned into a disastrous experience.)

Now, normally I might just simply shrug off such an incident, but I thought about the fact that if I make this sort of mistake and got to a departure site ½ hour late, I get charged for a no-show (as I should). Or worse, if I couldn't have made it, I'd have to try to explain to the driver, who has basically gone through hell to get to me (or maybe something else we don't have a word for since it was cold and snowy outside!) that I was unable to take the trip because my assistant wasn't there and because your office unilaterally decided to bump my order up half an hour without regard to whether it was possible for me to be able to make it. Then I've got to argue with your office that I shouldn't be charged for a no-show for what was basically your misconduct.

I'm figuring, if it happens to me, it will happen to someone else who might not be believed that the no-show was not their fault, if they weren't lucky enough to have a confirmed written order showing their booking was changed. I cannot allow this sort of insolent incompetence, negligence, and/or misconduct on your part to go unreported.

This also constitutes an official notice of a problem with service to the Board of Directors of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority pursuant to the provisions of Article 62(b) of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Compact which provides that

"(b) [ ] any person, firm or association served by or using the transit facilities of the Authority [ ] may file a request with the Board for a hearing with respect to [ ] any service rendered with the facilities owned or controlled by the Authority. Such request shall be in writing, shall state the matter on which the hearing is requested and shall set forth clearly the matters and things on which the request relies."

While technically Metro Access is operated by a contractor on behalf of the transit authority, I do believe it qualifies as a facility which is effectively controlled by the Authority and is reasonably within the provisions of making such a request under Article 62(b), since Metro is spending something over $60 million a year to have the contractor operate Metro Access.

Since I am filing a request for hearing with the Board I will add some other issues which if I wasn't mad enough - "mad enough" probably being an understatement, I'm thinking of the scene in the film Pulp Fiction where Samuel L. Jackson is in the back seat of a car, saying to John Travolta that if Travolta thinks he is unhappy about the incident they are having to clean up, Jackson is a Hiroshima Mushroom Cloud by comparison - to file a written notice about the earliness issue, I probably wouldn't have bothered but I might as well include them too.

The "matters and things on which the request relies" are as follows:

• Whether it is the policy of the Authority to allow scheduled appointments for service to be unilaterally advanced to be early, and if so, why this is the case, and if not, what steps are to be done to prevent this from recurring. (Not that I believe it is a general rule or a policy, but since your rules say I have to state a matter, there you have one.)
• In some cases, the operators of Metrorail vehicles allow an extremely short amount of time between the time they make a stop at a station and the time that they close the doors to move on. In more than one instance, while I was rolling my manual wheelchair and was partially in the door, I have had the door slammed on me. Now, I have learned the simplest answer is to keep my hands out of the way so they don't get caught since it would be dangerous for me to try to hurry and move and maybe get my hands caught. If I hear the "closing bell" and I haven't quite cleared the door, my only alternative is to stop, get my hands out of the way rather than try to continue through the door, "take the hit" and let the rail doors slam on my half-entered wheelchair and wait until the train operator figures out that I'm stuck in the door. In more than one case I've had to scream out into the station that I'm in a wheelchair and to ask the operator to open the door. (Actually I yelled it a little more forcefully than that, in a manner that decorum prohibits mentioning!) I believe something needs to be done to see to it that rail operators are more careful to look and see if there is a wheelchair sticking out of a rail car door before closing the car doors.
• I have noticed a regular pattern of Metrorail station elevators listed as being out of service. While this may have to do with regular preventative maintenance, my own experience in being trapped in an elevator breakdown at Capitol Heights (requiring the Prince George's County Fire Department to get me out, no less) implies otherwise. It is possible that perhaps the level of maintenance Metro is providing on Metrorail station elevators is inadequate to prevent systemic failures. I am aware that currently Metro is attempting to find a way to cover something like a $28 million shortage, perhaps it needs to look into ways to reorganize its maintenance, that in doing so it might find ways that are less expensive that might also reduce future costs (such as repeated breakdowns) caused by the necessity to otherwise defer maintenance.
• There is an inconsistent and confusing (lack of) pattern in the manner and method of call buttons on Metrorail Elevators throughout the system which I have noticed makes it very likely people are pressing the "station manager alarm" button instead of the "elevator call" button, such that some stations are posting hand-written signs telling people which button to push. I have made the mistake myself at least once. This sort of thing looks like your operation is slovenly, and perhaps, during regular maintenance, the Authority needs to discover some way to clean up this problem so as to make the correct button more obvious. One serious safety issue on this matter is that if alarm buttons tend to be pressed by mistake often, someone having a serious real emergency requiring attention might not get a response in an adequate amount of time.

The remainder of this letter deals with the issue of rescheduling trips early.

I basically consider this sort of mistake or error so serious in nature that it deserves examination and by making a serious furor about it it will be noticed and maybe not reoccur or be very unlikely to reoccur. Unilaterally rescheduling someone's appointment earlier, notwithstanding a written order otherwise, is, in my opinion, a very serious matter that needs to be looked into.

Sincerely,

Paul Robinson
"A computer programmer and Notary Public in and for the Commonwealth of Virginia, at large, and the State of Maryland in and for Prince George's County."

CC: Board of Directors, Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority; my blog