The Leap Card Thread
 

Please use this thread for all leap card issues/experiences

Leap cannot add correctly
 

Despite IBM and HP developing the system they have made a first year computer science error, they can't handle floating point numbers correctly

Attachment 1433

The system is having trouble as it is rounding numbers when it shouldn't

So, if I understand this correctly, those of us on point-to-point tickets have to wait until sometime in 2012 to be able to add credit to our cards for use on the Luas or bus.

Going by the timescales of this project, that will probably be very late in 2012.

Didn't realise this before, but the card I got delivered in the post this morning is not activated. Attempts to top up online fail and result in the following email:

Which kind of sucks. I'm not going to a Luas stop just for this when I live and work nowhere near a Luas line, and I'm not going out of my way to a shop just for this(as again, the only agents near me are not places I usually shop at).

Just going to shelve the card until it works with IE ticket machines and stick with my IE smartcard for now.

This roll-out is a bit of a joke. Why aren't IE's ticket machines ready?

There is some fuzziness with the list on payzone.ie.

Can people tell us their experiences with buying and topping up, especially at Payzone agents?

Credit expiry
 

The issue of credit expiry on the Leap card is not covered in the official FAQ on the website.

In response to a direct query, Leapcard Customer Care told me: "The credit will last 24 months on your leapcard after the last usage."

Our understanding that if a card is not used in a 24 month period it will be cancelled and refunds at that point are at the discretion of leap card/NTA

If you put 10 euro on today and wait 23 month make on journey in month 25 your remaining credit will still be there

Why can't you buy these cards at train stations? A complete farce of a "roll out". The brother went looking for one at Connolly Station on Thursday but was told to go to the nearest agent. Sure what would one of the biggest and busiest transport hubs in the city be doing selling integrated tickets...

Leap cards will be available from all Irish Rail ticket machines in the Dublin Short Hop Zone by Feb 2012. Some genius authorized the public launch without this in place.

It could be some time before Luas machines can issue cards as they never issued smart cards before now, but there are technically capable of doing so.

At no stage was it planned to sell/support smart cards through booking office windows. It would require total replacement of booking office equipment and there is no budget for that. The view was the ticketing vending machines could do everything as a self service operation. That has worked very well for Irish Rail's smart card until now.

Anyone holding an Irish Rail smart card can apply online for a free replacement leap card. Dublin Bus head office is the busiest leap card issuer.


Edit
Despite being published in the Irish Independent, RPA records say 75,000 Luas smart cards were issued.

For the record there should be as of today 10,000 leap cards in circulation (as in issued to the public) which is broadly equal to the total number of luas smartcards issued in its entire history.

Dublin Bus seems to be charging 2.40 for flat fare Leap tag on's which seems to be in breach of the fare increase authorization.

Anyone who has discovered they have been charged 2.40 and not 2.20 should seek a refund

Can you top up a Leap card by American Express?

On-line: Laser, Visa, Mastercard

Payzone agent: Whatever cards are accepted - some agents may not accept credit cards for such transactions due to the low margins.

Dublin Bus head office: not sure

Irish Rail / Luas TVM: I don't think so.

Irish Rail do not accept american express (despite what graphics you might see on the TVM's) Luas I think does

I'm going to DB HQ later so I'll check with them

It transpires you can top up by Amex at Luas TVMs.

Just registered my card and added my first top-up on-line...or at least I thought I did until, it seems, that topping up on-line is way too logical a process for the leap card, so I have to go to a "load location" to "collect" my top-up. Selected IR, but what do I do to collect the credit that I bought on-line when I get there, seeing as you can't yet use the machines to top-up??? Bizzarre!

The next time you tag on at a Dart stop, you card will automatically collect the credit. There's nothing you actively need to do - it will just happen.

Thank you.

Any idea when ticket products and capping are to be implemented on the card? Thanks.

Capping will be implemented on one operator in a few weeks from now (not hard to guess which). Not sure when all operators will issue caps and when multi modal caps will arrive

Quicker than I expected. That certainly is some good news!

Major revision to Leap customer support rolled out this week.

Gone is the weird english voice and a more logical options menu

Current bug is all times in the transaction list are 1 hour out

Do you mean online or on the bus ticket printout? Cause they're find for me online and always have been (I checked a few weeks ago when this was mentioned on boards.ie).

What's the story with the on-line problems? Tried twice to top up, but on both occassions recieved an e-mail the following morning telling me my top up was successfully refunded without any real explanation.

When this happened to me, it was because the card wasn't activated. If you bought the card online and had it delivered, it won't be activated. You have to take it to a shop or Luas machine for that, after which you can top it up.

Back office only, so you will see it only on leapcard.ie
Attachment 1438

Vs
Attachment 1439

The first journey there was actually 8:57pm not 7:57pm

The second one at 4:24am is the Harmonstown Bug not shown on the cards history

All the Luas ones are out by an hour as well as you can see

Thanks. Yes I bought it on-line but recieved no instruction about having to activate it, nor could I find any message related to card activation on the website when I checked again just now. It's probably there somewhere but well hidden. Why can't the card be activated on-line? Inspite of two attempts at topping up there was never any indication given as to why it wasn't working or what I should do.

Are they deliberately trying to make it as user unfriendly as possible and why weren't these shortcomings detected during the trial period?

I imagine its something that needs to be done with the card, as opposed to the account.

I got an email from Leap after a couple of failed top ups and refunds, copied below

I think I only got this email because I have a "free" card that I got for exchanging my IE smartcard(which I still use, BTW, since activating this card is too much hassle)

Cards issued to replace Luas/IE cards does come with a letter which explains everything.

I can now confirm online top ups now take no more than 24 hours

Topup in the evening and it will be there for collection first thing next day

Bug at Harmonstown has been resolved

why is it not instant? seems a bit bizarre that you have to wait 24hrs for credit to be applied to your account!


also is this the integrated ticketing I've heard so much about? seems to be just single use journey use of credit? no monthly/annual options?

Anyway you can check your credit on-line? Went to a luas stop to add my first credit. Seem to go through ok but given that it's my first transaction of any kind I'll like to have it confirmed before I plan travelling with it.

Create an account, register your card, click on Manage My Profile (at the top right), My Leap Card (menu on the left), View My Leap Card History (in the submenu) and you'll see your topups and travels. It can take some time for details to show up there because they're only loaded overnight (at least for some operators).

Yeah tried that a few times, but this line just pops up everytime:

The application experienced unexpected problems completing your request. We're sorry for the inconvenience. Please try again later.

At what stage?

On the "View My History" page when you select your card.

It's because your credit is not "applied to your account", it's stored on your card. A message is sent overnight to whichever channel you've chosen to collect your top-up from, and as soon as you touch in/out there, your top-up is applied to your card.

Hi,

I'm not sure if this has already been discussed, but can you top up the Leap card at an Irish Rail ticket machine? I've been using it fine on the buses since Christmas, and used it on the train today, but there isn't an option to top it up at the machines?

There is just a 'rail only' card topup allowed? I put the leap in the card holder and tried to proceed, but it threw up a red warning screen. (which incidentally didn't disappear... did I break the machine?)

There is no indication on any of the menu items that a Leap can be topped up.

Am I missing something?

Not yet, but it will be one of the first upgrades.
This is the existing Irish Rail smart card.
It stays up for about 30 seconds. If it stays up, the machien will eventually re-set itself.

The machine did its correct action, it saw a card type it doesn't recognize and it typically puts up an I can't read this card type error.

Colm and I have the unique ability to break the smartcard functionality on the ticket machines (it does require money...) . The equipment vendor rewrote part of the software to ensure the machine could recover. The trigger was akin to an Oceans 13 style slot machine routine a very weird sequence of steps which to our knowledge no passenger has been able to recreate.

We expect that Irish Rail will have leap card top up, leap card top up collection and leap card sales from its machines sometime in February. The RUI test group are likely to be in the know as to where the trial machines are.

A hidden feature on Irish Rail's system is that you can collect a top up made online by simply placing the card in the ticket machines cradle. With that in place, very few people noticed the fact online top up was not instantaneous as any attempt to check a cards balance was preceded by application of any outstanding top-ups.

Luas in comparison will be some months before it can issue leap cards and do top-up collection from a ticket machine as neither feature was provided before on the Luas system