On tram line 4, on the way to Schiphol, my public transport card doesn't work. Again. Nothing. The Amsterdam conductor tells me to keep walking. "It happens, I have a bad day too," she says. Transfer at RAI station, train to Schiphol. Card doesn't work. There are gates there, you can't get through without a card. Squeak through the gate behind someone else.
At Schiphol to the NS counter, I have some time to spare. I explain the problem to a big NS man with a cap. "He's dead as a doornail," he says after placing my card on a reader. He looks at me. Reproachfully. Says nothing. "And now?", I try. "Well, and now," he says. "You have to send it." "But," I say, "I'm already here, aren't I? Can't I just give you the card instead of sending it?" He shakes his head. How naive can I be? "You're with the NS. The card is a public transport chip card. That's something completely different. You have to send the card."
He slowly walks to the back, looks in locker one, locker two, locker three and comes back with a form. “Here,” he says, and hands me the form and puts a cross where I have to stick my broken OV card. “Can I do it now?” I try again. “No, no, you have to send it.”
When I get back to the Netherlands I check russian phone number list the OV-chip card website. Of course, everything can be done online, it takes five minutes and two days later I get a new card sent to me.
Also read: 4 learnings from successful & failed experiments with chatbots
System works, people fail.
The human and the system
Drawing: Sterre Steins Bisschop
The System III
Rainy morning. Have to go to the Zuidas. Then hitch a ride with someone else, so I grab an Uber. Six minutes of waiting. Uber warns: heavy traffic, the price will increase by a factor of 2.2. Surge , that's what it's called. 'A rise in the sense of a sudden increase', that's what surge means according to the dictionary.
It is not understandable, but it has to be done. Uber arrives, drives a bit too far, I wave, he stops, I get in with my phone in my hand. I accidentally touch the screen and 'cancel' the ride, without realizing it. The driver says that I have stopped the ride. He is not allowed to go any further.