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SF Murder #44
Well, this is some surprising news. Word has it that whenever you make a Muni-related call to SF service number 311, that call costs Muni around two dollars. No, seriously. During today's Dufty-driven Muni accounting meeting, according to reports," the D8 Supe confirmed with Tom Nolan (MTA board vice-chair) that each "Municentric" call to 311 costs $1.96. That is to say, the $1.96 per call has added up to a whopping bill to MTA of $6.2 million. The 311 operators you call to simply "check nextmuni for you" cost Muni several million dollars. Jesus. 311, for those of you who don't know, is Mayor Gavin Newsom's project that "connects residents, businesses, and visitors to Customer Service Representatives ready to help with general government information and services."
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It must cost $1.96 for the hold muzak cuz I can never actually get through...
Just hold on a second here. Are you saying it costs money when the government provides us with services? I thought that stuff was free.
Muni should just reopen their information line back again. The folks at 311 take their slow time, typing in their computers to find the best route, and a number of times get it totally wrong.
The old Muni info lines had experts and knew things off the top of their head. And if you needed something specific like a departure time, they were quick too.
Seconds instead of minutes.
Whoever would think it is an efficient use of government resources to pay a live person to look up bus schedules for people? I'm surprised, given the expense of labor, that the cost is actually so low.
ok...im still confused...why does that cost MUNI money to have non-muni employees check a free website. I think im missing something here.
More importantly, why can't people check the website or whatever themselves?
surprising though it must be, not everyone has computer access.
I understand someone needs to pay for this service, but why MUNI? And what if you call to report a pothole (or whatever) and also get MUNI service, do they charge the whole call to MUNI or do they split it?
I R CONFUSED.
If they could check a website then they wouldn't need to call someone to ask. Unless they're just like that.
311 is a very useful service, in my opinion. I get through right away (quicker than most calls I make to organizations/businesses anyway). Things I've reported and seen resolved within a few days (maybe weeks in the case of a stree lamp gone bad, due to confusion between PG&E and SFPUC over "who owns this?") include: street lamps with bad bulbs, overflowing drain system on Fremont/FOlsom and Howard/Main in Rincon Hill, cars parked on sidewalk (Spear Street between Folsom and Harrison - pet peeve anyone?), motorcycles parked on sidewalks in front of Gordon Biersch, graffitti that private owner didn't seem to be in a hurry to clean up (gave him 2 weeks), and probably some other stuff .... can't say I've ever called about MUNI and public safety calls go straight to the non-emergency SFPD number.
Anyway ... I've used the service a dozen times or more and would rate it 5 stars on yelp!... and I'm not easy with my 5 star ratings, yo
This needs to be eliminated, considering there is a $126 million dollar shortfall. And if the drivers would stop getting in accidents,running over, dragging people or beating up people... money could be saved from the lack of lawsuits.
Most drivers are good.
And how much does it cost if I call 511 instead?
And how much does it cost if I call 511 instead?
Having 311 let all other departments save on their own information phone lines and staffing needs. Seems reasonable to apportion the cost to each department...the exact cost of $1.96 or whatever seems generic though.
So the question is, how much did Muni spend on 311-like services before 311?
I'm a 311 fan myself; I think it helped to consolidate gov't resources that are usually hard to obtain. Using it to get bus times is a great resource. Knowing when the bus is to arrive helps you plan your commute. Terrorist machine drivers may not understand.
Or they could just tell you while you wait to get connected that you will be responsible for the charges... Personally, I'd pay for Muni info before I'll pay for 411 service. Especially late at night waiting for a bus with no internet available.
No offense, but some city phone numbers still go directly to their office. Got a specific problem and don't want to mess with 311? Call that office directly.
When I noticed some really bad traffic signal problems, I called the DPT's signal department directly, told them what was wrong, and they understood it in a quick moment. Call 311 and you have to explain in great detail the problem and why this needs to be fixed.
Even other city departments TODAY still have phone operators while 311 is now taking the brunt. I get sometimes transferred to 311 to speak directly with Animal Control.
I think it is very presumptuous that people would take the time or pay to figure out the correct department in order to efficiently report issues they see while meandering around the City. With a single, easy number to report issues to the City (for example, my boyfriend reported that one of the advertising kiosks that sometimes also serve as newpaper stands had some of its parts blowing around and could go flying into Market Street if the wind blew hard enough, seriously hurting someone), people are a lot more likely to DO SOMETHING instead of just keep walking and say "I hope that doesn't kill anyone" before going on to their next thought "when is my dinner reservation time?" Seriously though ... I think the chargeback is fine .. .if MUNI wants to charge for that information to cut off idiots who call too often, that's fine too ... but leave 311 alone for us folks who want to report quality of life, damaged public property, and other issues that most City workers would drive past or not notice because they don't live here and don't care.
i wonder if you simply installed nextbus signs at ALL busstops and then eliminating 311 if that would save money.
or (if muni could run on time) post schedules at stops like most transit systems do. In portland or, portland me, and other towns i have never had to call anyone for a time because i just look at the stop's time table
It's a b.s. made up number taking a political swing at Newsom.
Break down the number, bitches. Stop wasting our time, and money.
You would be surprised how f'd the internal money transfers and 'bills' are within city depts...different ways to pay, stupid ass stuff like this $1.96 thing and charging other depts for something they supposedly are around there for.
Maybe it's time to find out how much the city is saving/wasting on the 311 project versus the other way they did it.
311 is a lot more than just Muni; Bikers report pot holes using 311...they get fixed in 3 days! I've also used 311 to report muni drivers while I was on that muni line. Otherwise, I would never do these things.
Let me ask you the question this way: If 311 didn't exist and you had a pothole or Muni complaint, would you still call the appropriate number listed in the government listings in the white pages or report it on their website?
I'm asking this because the "old days" it was like this.
In the old days you probably wouldn't call at all. 311 is expensive but it definitely makes it easier to get the city to respond to things - they even use a trouble ticketing system so you can check on your pothole incident or whatever.
I'm much more concerned about SFPD taking $18M and still never riding the buses.
Exactly. The last time I called was to report that a Muni driver just blew right past the stop while I was waiting. NextBus on the shelter said he should have stopped for me, but he just kept on going at 11PM.
If 311 wasn't around I probably would have forgotten most of the relevant details by the time I got home and it was too late at night to bother looking up and calling.
I don't ever use it to check when the next bus is coming, but as a tool to report the many failures and outages around the city be they mechanical or personnel it is an excellent tool.
I think it should also be noted that this isn't just Newsom's idea. New York has a 311 system as well that sounds more or less identical. 311, community court, how about Newsom tries to bring over one of the ideas from New York (like, I don't know, a functional underground transit system) that we actually need.