Customer Service Kiosks Provide New Services

Customer Service Kiosks Provide New Services
By Lulu Feliciano

A Customer Service Kiosk at Powell and Market

As the city gradually reopens for business, the SFMTA has moved many of our customer service functions on-line. To support our customers who may need in-person service, we are now using three Muni sales kiosks as alternate locations for services previously only available at the Customer Service Center at 11 South Van Ness.

Doing Business at our Reopened Customer Service Kiosks

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted our city and our agency in countless ways and has required us all to adapt quickly. As an immediate response to the March shelter-in-place public health order and to minimize the risk of exposure for our customers and employees, the SFMTA Customer Service Center located was temporarily closed.

Prior to the closure, the location served approximately 20,000 customers a month for citation payments, low-income fare and citation payment programs, Lifeline monthly pass sales, Clipper card issuance and transactions, and Residential Parking Permits. Over the last few months, we worked to modify program requirements and processes, allowing many functions to be moved online.

Our three currently open sales kiosks are located at Bay & Taylor streets, Powell & Market streets and Presidio Avenue & Geary Boulevard. They operate from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., seven days a week except on holidays and during posted breaks.

Services provided at the kiosks:

• Parking & Transit Citation Payments
• Clipper sales/Youth & Senior Cards (not available at Bay & Taylor Streets)
• Lifeline Monthly Pass sales

Redirecting services such as Lifeline sales and citation payments will eventually allow the Customer Service Center to reopen under a much more limited capacity by redirecting up to 75% of the prior transactions on-line and to these alternate sites to minimize risk for both customers and staff.

Citations and Late Penalties

In response to the health orders and shelter in place, we also temporarily suspended enforcing late penalties on citations. However, the SFMTA’s dire financial situation caused by the pandemic requires us to resume generating revenue. Revenue from citations and late penalties allows us to continue to provide critical transportation services for essential works and transit-dependent customers.

We are now resuming the enforcement of late penalties on parking and transit citations as follows: 

• Deadline for submitting citation protests, payment and community service plans: September 1, 2020 
• For parking or transit citations issued before July 21, 2020, full payment of outstanding amounts due, or protests, must be received on, or before, August 31, 2020.
• Standard timelines apply to all citations issued after July 21, 2020.

Customers are encouraged to pay citations online at www.SFMTA.com/paycitation or visit an SFMTA service booth to pay citations. The SFMTA Customer Service Center remains closed.

Published August 05, 2020 at 05:45AM
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