Hacking Muni Part Two: What to do When You Realize That it's Impossible.
So, enough about catching a bus. What do you do when you try to use Muni, and it fails you? Believe it or not, complaining can ACTUALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE. The key with complaining is not to be discouraged. Muni may not acknowledge your complaint, and it may seem as though they never received it at all. But they did. And someone read it. And sometimes it takes months for them to act, but your complaints REALLY DO MATTER. Don't give up. Don't be discouraged. Don't stop complaining. Ever.
Gather evidence. Take photos or screengrabs, and post them to Flickr so you can point out how effed-up the situation was. Even better: take video, and post it to Guba. Write down the bus number, the run number (that's the small number at the bottom of the windshield), the date and time, what people were saying, a physical description of the driver, and the driver's badge number.
Getting a driver's badge number can be tricky. It might be covered up by a jacket, or in the case of one of our favorite morning 33 drivers, might have a digit or two simply ripped off of the shirt. You might have to ask them for their number, and that's obviously weird and awkward. But don't be afraid. Just ask. Be polite. Don't get into a fight with a driver like you're a skinhead on Geraldo.
When you're ready to actually make the complaint, you can either call 311, Passenger Services at 415-923-6164, or you can do it online. Doing it online is nice because you get to write it out and choose your words carefully. Doing it over the phone is nice because you get an assurance that someone actually received it.
Include every relevant detail in your Customer Service Report. Give them your address and phone number; they're required to respond. But that doesn't mean that they will -- we've submitted a lot of complaints and have sometimes received no response at all. So we started using a pseudonym (actually, we enlisted a friend to use their name and contact info) in case they were ignoring us for submitting too many complaints. It's unlikely that they'd do that, but this way you can be double-sure.
If you submit a complaint online, you may not receive a response for many days. Weeks, even. But you can verify that they received it by calling the Passenger Services office the next day and asking for the CSR (Customer Service Report) number for the report that you filed. You can use that number in the future to check on the status of your complaint, and you can refer to it in the letter you write to your Supervisor when they fail to fix the situation.
Generally, the only response you'll get to a complaint is a form letter (usually sent 3 weeks later via post, not email) letting you know that they're passing the buck on to someone else. "Got your letter, sent it to some other dude, KTHXBYE." You will probably not hear from them again. In most cases, if you call to check on the status of the complaint, all they'll tell you is that someone important read what you wrote, and maybe they might've acted on it. They will certainly not tell you the result of an investigation -- that's a personnel matter, and they don't reveal that sort of information.
(NextMuni problems, incidentally, can be reported directly to NextBus. Write to them at website at nextbus dot com.)
So, let's say your problem isn't solved. For example, buses on your route are constantly bunching up from the very start of the route, and multiple reports haven't fixed the problem. That means it's time to escalate to your Supervisor. Write a nice letter, including times, dates, bus and driver numbers, and CSR numbers. Supervisors find it difficult to act on complaints such as these unless all those details are in there. This step is sort of a gamble; they might not be able to help, and they might not even have time to care. But it can't hurt to try.
In the fall, a new service is going to be launching that'll let you send text messages directly to your Supe about Muni. It'll be awesome! We'll provide more coverage on that as the launch date approaches.
In fact, "it can't hurt to try" is the motto for this whole endeavor, for there's no guarantee that your complaint will get you anywhere. With no means to follow up on your complaints, it's hard to know that your kvetching had any positive impact. That why we urge you to send us your phone recordings, and copies of your complaints, and what meager responses you wind up getting, so we can post them here. All San Franciscans need is a place for everyone to stand and a big enough glove, and we can all collectively slap Muni into the 21st century.