Let save one Million dollars in one blog post.

So, as you may have read this morning, a "myki Customer Experience Panel" has been created.  The Government is paying $1 million to a Consulting firm to gather real world experiences from 1200 myki users, and in return they will get movie tickets and other various rewards.

I'm really not sure where to begin.  The stupidity and incompetence of all involved actually defy belief that somebody thought this was a good idea.

Does anyone in myki actually use the system?  Do they read the twitter stream?  The problems are plainly obvious to anyone who has shown more than a passing interest in myki.  So, here's a list of ten major points, which will save the government a million bucks.

• Frankenbarriers (hybrid metcard/myki gates for the uninitiated).  Yes, I know they're being replaced,  it needs to be done yesterday.  In crowd situations they fail regularly and the lack of screen means no feedback and confusion and chaos.  THEY MUST GO.
• myki barriers.  They don't always work, they crash, they send mixed messages with the reader saying one thing while the indicator arrow says another.  If these are to be our major exit and entry points into the CBD with myki, they MUST be made to work properly.  Several banks of barriers have been in place for some time, so they've had ample time to iron out problems, and there is no excuse for the state they find themselves in on a regular basis.
• readers in general, speeds are too variable.  Some respond instantly, others take a few seconds.  Some crash for no apparent reason.  Bus readers are often out of service.  Entire stations have been known to be offline meaning uncertaintly for passengers (will I get fined if I couldn't touch on?  Do I need to buy a metcard?  What if my station has no metcard machines any more?)
• card failure.  Some cards fail for no apparent reason, eg no physical damage.  This has got to be a software issue, causing corruption in the files on the card, due to shoddy programming.  
• online topup is unreliable.  It seems to work fine on trains, but on trams and buses it won't always be there the next day. 
• in some cases people are getting overcharged when using myki money.  Allegedly overcharges will be picked up in periodical audits, but even this isn't working 100%.  Fix these dreadfully obvious errors, people.  How hard is it?  
• This one I'm putting in big letters, to make sure somebody, anybody reads it.  MAKE ANONYMOUS MYKI CARDS FULLY REFUNDABLE.  DO YOU HEAR ME TED, BERNIE, ANYONE?  ARE YOU LISTENING? So many people are complaining and bitching and moaning about the cost of the card.  For the sake of the sanity of all involved,  MAKE THE CARD REFUNDABLE.  If it's not registered and it doesn't have your name on it, then if they hand it back, give them their $6.00 and the balance back, on the spot.  Then, sell it to someone else.  How hard is this?  The fact this hasn't been done makes me think nobody involved in the myki project has even visited other cities with smart card ticketing systems.  This solves the problem of short term ticketing.
• More topup machines.  Yes I know we're getting more through out the rollout as it continues and metcard machines are removed, but we need many more particularly at major stations like Flinders Street and Melbourne Central.  Queues are already a big problem and only half of all PT users are on myki right now.  This is only going to get worse.  Fixing online topup so it's reliable would also help here.
• READ TWITTER.  Doing a search on myki produces a myriad of results, readily identifying many, many problems with the system.  Some of the problems are real, some are as a result of a lack of customer education, speaking of which
• EDUCATE CUSTOMERS.  People should be getting swamped with useful and helpful information.  Although very pretty, this is not particularly helpful.  If I do say so myself, although not particularly pretty, this is helpful and useful.

I could go on and on.  But I'm not going to.  I'll wait for my movie tickets to arrive.