TAP Transit Access Pass

It’s ridiculous that reloading your TAP card online doesn’t automatically update the amount available on your card. LA, get with the program — every other city (as well as every retailer) manages to do this without a problem.
Once you actually purchase your additional funds at the station (after waiting… and waiting… unsuccessfully for your pre-​purchased funds to make it to your card) — they system is clean and efficient. I do wish LA would invest in subway lines that get you all over LA.

I ordered a TAP card on January 28^th with funds to be added (in the same transaction), and despite seven contacts spanning over two months, my card is still not working as funds have not been added to the card. I would suggest carrying cash as it’s less hassle, despite the idea that the TAP card provide cashless convenience.

Before anything, I will say I just started using the TAP card recently so I cannot speak for those who have used the service much longer that I have. However, from the reviews I am seeing and from my personal experience, the website is disastrous in terms of processing payments. I am already being charged on my bank account for loading my card yet no word of the processed order on the
site. I’ve done businesses with less trusty websites and yet they been able to manage and process payments much quicker than TAP. LA, c’mon! Get this website running for us the commuters. For now, I will advise customers to always have backup cash readily available in case the site isn’t fully functioning. Such a hassle to say the least.

Save your receipt for every single online transaction, just in case. And carry a buck seventy five in change on you at all times.
Your card could take days/​weeks (?) to actually get loaded with the charged amount — nobody really seems to know the exact time span. Completely unacceptable.
Their website is a complete mess — remaining amount, start/​end date, everything is blank all of a sudden. They took the website down during the most recent upgrade for multiple days at a time and they clearly have yet to test it properly.
The whole system is absolutely ridiculous. These folks should not be allowed to run a business, especially not in a large city. What a damn shame.
Which brings about the question — is a TAP card even worth the trouble in the first place?
Help me help YOU, LA Metro.

They’ve revamped their website — but their promise of loading stored value onto your card within 48 hours of purchase is utter BS. I’m at about 70 hours and counting, and nothing… and I need to ride the bus tomorrow morning. 48 hours is bad enough — this is *incredibly* frustrating. Why the hell can’t you just load funds onto your card while you’re on the bus? Ah, right — that would be too easy and convenient. Bite me, LA Metro.
Update: at 80 hours from purchase and counting, and still no stored value showing up on the TAP site for my card. Just received this gem of an email from the fine folks at TAP:
«You must TAP the card to ensure proper fare usage and the web will not show the updated balance until the card has been tapped. Until then you the balance will not update online. «
Then how on earth am I supposed to know if it’s been loaded or not… until I’m actually on the bus, and it’s potentially too late?! What a genuinely terrible idea!
There are many successful transit systems in place in many other cities around the U.S./world. Why didn’t the perpetually dysfunctional LA bother to learn from them!!!

Having tried to use their old website for a couple of years with disastrous results, I have to say that the brand new site is fantastic. I registered as a new user, which went perfectly smooth in about 10 seconds. Then I registered my newish Tap card. I loaded up another 30 days for the Big Blue Bus (Santa Monica) and it did seem a little glitchy to me so I… called customer service.
Around 4 years ago I attempted to deal with Tap customer service and it was a nightmare! Rude representatives who kept giving me different answers to a problem I was having loading EZ passes.
So the phone rang twice before the recorded message came on. blah blah.“due to blah blah, you will have to wait up to 25 minutes for a live representative blah blah”. And then about 5 seconds later, a very pleasant representative was on the line. She had a super attitude and helped me out so quickly! Nice to speak with somebody who knows her job and obviously has a good time doing it.
Great experience!

Okay, so Metro did a recent update to the TAP website and here’s my updated review:
The look is more modern and it’s a lot more easier to navigate around to do things like adding fares. It now gives you the flexibility to add in fares that you want so say if you have $ 2.25 left over in your TAP card, you could add in $ 8.25, to give it a total of $ 10.50, which is good for 6 rides on Metro. That’s actually one big improvement over loading up cash at a train station which only gives you prompts in pre-​set denominations.
But they still lack in key features:
One of the new features Metro said they’ll include was the ability to transfer funds from one card to another. They actually showcased this on their Youtube channel video (
) This is actually a very helpful feature if you still have money left over on a card that’s nearing expiration and would like to transfer the balance over to another card. But the feature is nowhere to be seen on the website and is unavailable.
There’s no way to store credit card information so everytime you need to make a purchase you have to whip out your wallet and manually enter in your card info. This is a huge pain in the butt if you have several TAP cards like for your family that everytime you load up one card, you need to re-​enter the credit card information from scratch.
They still have no way to set up an auto reload feature where if it gets below a certain threshold, the TAP automatically recharges it from my credit card.
They also still tell you that it can take up 48 hours for the system to process it. Totally unacceptable in this day and age. We’re talking about living in an era where people can just hail Über at a press of a button and it comes here in less than 10 minutes, yet Metro can’t figure out how to get our funds active in two days. Who runs their IT department, seriously?
Nowhere to ask how to get a refund on remaining balances on your TAP card. So if you decide to load up $ 100 onto your TAP card and have like $ 40 remaining on it by the time you leave LA, there’s no way to get your money back.

This service couldn’t be worse if it had been designed by dyslexic monkeys — and might even have been better. I have never been able to get my card to register on the website, so I have to load my monthly pass at Ralph’s, where the TAP machine seems to be down as often as not. A monthly pass also costs more than riding the bus twice every weekday, which is ridiculous and counterproductive to encouraging bus ridership. It basically only makes sense to buy a pass if you don’t have access to a car at all (or your employer pays).

Used similar cards before and this one was clearly inferior. I am not a frequent bus rider so I figured I would add value online. However you have to wait for 3 – 4 days after using their site before you can access that value. If you don’t use your card within 30 days though the value is lost into the ether.
Thus if you have a trip tomorrow, you put value on thinking you can use your card without having to bring cash… no such luck. And then your money is gone too, you don’t get it back after 30 days. It’s been 6 months since I first tried using my card, added value twice, taken trips perhaps 6 separate occasions and still have not successfully made a trip using it since I always forgot to plan calling the Tap card company exactly 5 – 25 days in advance of an impromptu bus trip.
At least your money isn’t completely gone because they can look up your past charges and re-​add it if you contact them, but you still have to wait 3 – 4 days before you have to tap to get the value added and it’s gone again after 30.
You also can’t check these past charges on the site since they never fully went through, so if you forget what you spent, there’s no way to check how much money you spent and never received in the past. I also worry that they’ll lose the data in the back-​end and I’ll have no proof that I ever spent anything at all.
If you’re a frequent bus rider or have found a physical machine to add value then maybe you’ll have better luck but the «convenient» online service as been completely unusable for me.

The TAP website is such a joke! They just did a revamp of the site yesterday. Even though I had an account on the old site, I was prompted to create a new account on the new website. I created the new account and was told I don’t have a TAP card registered on my account. When I try to «register» my TAP card, it says that it’s already registered.
I called TAP and was on hold for 18 minutes yesterday. When I was finally able to speak to someone, they told me that their system was down and that there was nothing they could do.
I was on the phone for 28 minutes today, between talking to three different people and being placed on hold and I think/​hope they loaded my monthly pass for next month.
Can’t say I was in love with the old website and I don’t really care for the new one, so far!

Basically the only positive is that it’s easier to hold up a card to a machine than to deposit cash money, other than that it’s been useless. I mean, I can’t even reload any money on the dang card unless I go to a rail station and even then it only lets me load set amounts (which if I don’t use will expire). Customer Service said it could take a few days for the card to be put into their online system (meaning I cannot ad fare until then) but it has been two weeks. Easier to carry cash.
The website is so confusing and has so many issues that I’m beginning to believe they made it that way on purpose. When I was filling out the form to contact customer service, the page kept refreshing and erasing everything I wrote! I had to quickly copy and paste my question in the form and hit submit before it disappeared.

I never knew that Tap cards expired. What a stupid idea. Another way to nickel and dime riders. I had 50 bucks on my card. When I called the help line they said I could go to a service counter. Isn’t there only one at Union Station? Why should I have to spend all that time (I don’t have) to jump through their administrative hoops. Give me my money back! I they say these things last for 3 years. I have had my card for 6 months. Because I was late for work I bought another Tap card and it stopped working by the time I reached my transfer. Thank You very very very much.
If you want Metro to work in Los Angeles ignore these small ideas and make it bulletproof.

The concept of using the TAP card is good, the actual use and implementation is poor. The new User Interface on the TAP machines is pathetic! Did anyone do a usability study for this? As clumsy as the original U.I. was, it was a bit more user friendly. Come on TAP, get your heads out of your rears… At many of the rail stations there are not enough machines to cover peak times! I’m looking at you Artesia Station! At many of the stations the TAP machines face the sun! Which makes it VERY difficult to read the the 1990’s technology screen. I’m looking at you Artesia Station and many many others. Why don’t you guys (TAP) just put up a sign that says «All of you public transportation using people are SUCKERS and LOSERS, nyah nyah…»
Creating an account for your TAP cards falls under; What for? What good does it do? What a joke.
Newbies, as you enter turnstile always TAP on the right sensor. Also, if you tap but for whatever reason you do not go through and you mill around for a bit and then decide to to tap again, you will get the RED prompt and and will have to wait a while! I am not sure how long. I suppose the reasoning behind this is so folks don’t pass their card to a friend. Instead, it mainly messes up law abiding users whom lolly-​gagged a bit. I have seen MANY tourist inconvenienced by this «feature». Fix it TAP.
The website is just not fun to navigate through.

The Tap site GOT a major overhaul, just as I was told, and the difference is amazing.
Now, the site is intuitive, and you can see your card and find your balances easily. They are phasing out the three-​year-​expiration cards for ten-​year expiration. And you can add money IMMEDIATELY at a nearby Ralph’s.
I added money via the site, and like clockwork, it was on my card the next AM.
They just incorporated new transfer rules, so it will be cheaper to take multiple lines in one direction. TAP is now accepted on all Big Blue Buses and Culver City Bus for the Westsiders.
With a little planning, the TAP card works and TAP continues to get a lot better.

the website never works when I try to reload my card… and i’m talking for months!
it’s pretty easy… just go up to the bay area and copy everything SF muni and BART do, then you’ll get up to at least an average level of competence. right now, you’re not even close. it is sad and embarrassing since efficient public transit needs to happen down here.

HEY INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE!!!
I know Boston won for 2024 but L.A. is trying to steal it away and get it back here.
DON’T DO IT!!!
You’re counting on good transpiration for visitors to the Olympics. The transit system here is OK BUT — –
THE TAP CARD SUCKS!!!
The website is probably the worst on the planet (even scammers make better web sites than this one) and I truly wonder how this can be in the 7^th largest city in the world with the budget that must have been thrown at this.
I went to college in Boston for 4 years and it’s train system and payment card are incredibly easy and understandable.
If you REALLY want horrible reviews of the Olympics, pissed off visitors and people who can’t get to really expensive events that they paid outrageous amounts of money for years in advance, L.A. is your city.
Otherwise, keep Boston as your first choice as their metro transit people have been doing it for almost 100 years and they know what they are doing.
Keep in mind, back in the 1930’s L.A. dismantled its’ Red Car Line because Standard Oil paid them to do so.
It’s still that corrupt as evidenced by how bad the
web site is and how much money I’m guessing they got to build that site.
STAY AWAY FROM L. A!!!
I’m going to email this to Garcetti and the IOC and let them know I’m crusading against the city I’ve been living in for 20 years!

I am so upset that I decided to join Unilocal and this is my first review! they’re customer Service is horrible. I pay for the 31 day pass every moth at $ 124.00. First time in 3 years I have misplaced my TAP card and I have to pay $ 2.00 for a new card and wait 5 – 6 days for a new one… AND an additional $ 24.00+, that I do not have, to use the bus for the next week even though they told me that I have 5 days remaining to use my pass, PLUS an additional 31days after that I already paid for. There is nothing they can do, give, or show that you are paid up until you receive your card in the mail. I can go to a local store to buy one, however, it will take 5 – 6 business days for then to transfer my current balance! So I have to use money I don’t have to use the bus to commute to work for the next week. With no refund, no credit on the next purchase, NOTHING! So if you forget or lose your card, there is no redundancy plan for it. I asked if I can have 2 cards to have one as back up. and she said yes… but that I can have only 1 active one at a time. And, it will still take 5 – 6 business days to transfer balance and activate the other. So you’re screwed either way.
What others are saying about re loading your pass, is true. It is very difficult and 5 others in my office told me they had to have someone on the phone from TAP services to walk them through it over the phone.
Also, TAP services is a different company than LADOT, DASH or any other bus that accepts TAP card. So, if you have a problem with one, they will tell you to call the other. And so on. If you have spoken to TAP services and they say all is well, when you get on the bus and your card doesn’t work, it is the bus driver’s decision to let you on or kick you off. they do NOT communicate at all.
As you can tell, I am very upset and I can’t afford this.

I’ll keep this short. I was going to load some money onto my TAP card (first time using it) so going to Angel Stadium would be a little more convenient on the Metro today. Then I read, «12 HOURS UNTIL BALANCE WILL SHOW UP ON CARD».
Reading reviews here, I see that most everyone is waiting 2 DAYS for balances to show up on the card.
I was invited last minute to a baseball game so I couldn’t plan that far ahead. I’m still taking the train, minus the TAP card, but crap like this is why people choose to drive.
I feel bad for the people that are restricted to public transport. I used to be one of those people and am glad I have other options now.

There’s nothing I despise more than incompetence.
It is absolutely ridiculous how low-​budget this company and website is in the year 2014. They can take your money (and make you wait 2 days before it’s worth anything), but they suddenly don’t know how to give it back because «it’s all done through computers.» Yes that’s a response I was given.
I would look on some hacker message boards for someone who could destroy their entire online operation, but it’s already well fucked up, so…
Zero stars needs to be an option here.

The TAP card system is a good step in the right direction of promoting the use of public transportation. I specifically use mine for the LADOT Commuter Express buses to go to work. I’m still not completely confident if I can use that LADOT credit on the Metro lines. (although I do always get a Base 1 — 30day pass.)
Anyway, my BIGGEST COMPLAINT is about the website. I didn’t know how to reload my TAP for the longest time. Luckily, the youtube video I found was able to help, but I had to watch it again for the next several reloads to remember how to do it on my own. Also, why is the website so slow? Does it only work during business hours? Does it not work on weekends and holidays? Because it’s Columbus Day and the site isn’t working.