A new report found the MTA takes 9 to 11 weeks to close out most MetroCard claims, far short of the 14-day goal it set.
The audit of recent claims, released Monday by Comptroller Scott Stringer, found a large majority of MetroCard complaints are solved, but the time it takes to process them renders the goal as “neither realistic nor attainable.”
Claims include defective cards, damaged or expired pay-per-ride cards, and double charges to a credit card, according to the report.
“Two months is too long for New Yorkers to wait for a replacement MetroCard,” Stringer said in an email. “While the MTA does a good job ensuring that commuters are properly reimbursed for damaged or expired MetroCards, my audit recommended more resources be put toward speeding up the pace of claims. Additional staff assigned to tackle this problem will help New Yorkers get new MetroCards faster.”
MTA Spokesman Kevin Ortiz said in an email the MTA will “reassess the reasonableness of the 14-day goal, taking into account the standards used by other processing centers.”
He said the MTA added four positions to the claims unit in July, resulting in a 79% reduction of open claims at the end of last year, compared to 2013.
In 2013, the MTA processed and closed 94% of the claims it received, according to the audit. But the agency took more than two months to process 80% of those claims.
The MTA responded to 382,239 claims and reimbursed 79% of them.
About 6% of claims received remain open. The average reimbursement was $22.44 per claim, according to the audit.
In 2012, the MTA received 334,933 claims and reimbursed 77% of them.
