Do NOT pass GO. No, really. Don't.
March 17, 2021 5:28 PM Subscribe
My work never canceled a transit pass and has been deducting it from my paycheck for a year. I just caught it today. Do I have any recourse?
My work pays for a portion of our transit passes as part of our benefit package. Last March, HR sent out an email with instructions on how to suspend the passes since everyone was working from home. A few hours later, the person that administers those plans sent out another email and said that she was going to go ahead and suspend all plans since so many people opted out and that there was ‘no further action needed’ in order to cancel. Ok, cool.
Today I checked my most recent paystub and saw a ‘transit deduction’. I looked back over the past year and it seems like my transit plan was not actually canceled – the deduction showed up on every single paystub.
I sent an email to HR and the person responsible for the plans informing them. I haven’t gotten a response yet but I’m anticipating some variation of “whoops, sorry, your plan was never canceled so we kept charging you and there’s nothing we can do”.
I am 100% at fault for not checking my paystub for the correct deductions or my transit pass to verify that it was turned off. That’s on me. I had…other things on my mind at the start of the pandemic.
My question is: do I have any recourse if work tells me there’s nothing they can do? It’s not a massively significant amount of cash but it would be nice to have for sure. I’m located in Philadelphia in case location matters.
My work pays for a portion of our transit passes as part of our benefit package. Last March, HR sent out an email with instructions on how to suspend the passes since everyone was working from home. A few hours later, the person that administers those plans sent out another email and said that she was going to go ahead and suspend all plans since so many people opted out and that there was ‘no further action needed’ in order to cancel. Ok, cool.
Today I checked my most recent paystub and saw a ‘transit deduction’. I looked back over the past year and it seems like my transit plan was not actually canceled – the deduction showed up on every single paystub.
I sent an email to HR and the person responsible for the plans informing them. I haven’t gotten a response yet but I’m anticipating some variation of “whoops, sorry, your plan was never canceled so we kept charging you and there’s nothing we can do”.
I am 100% at fault for not checking my paystub for the correct deductions or my transit pass to verify that it was turned off. That’s on me. I had…other things on my mind at the start of the pandemic.
My question is: do I have any recourse if work tells me there’s nothing they can do? It’s not a massively significant amount of cash but it would be nice to have for sure. I’m located in Philadelphia in case location matters.
Yeah, if you get any push back just refer them to the wording of the email where HR said there was no further action needed on your part to cancel the pass.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 5:43 PM on March 17, 2021 [11 favorites]
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 5:43 PM on March 17, 2021 [11 favorites]
Does the money go into an account that you can then use to buy transit passes? If so, then all you need to do is suspend contributions now, until you've used up the balance. I had to do this.
posted by praemunire at 6:48 PM on March 17, 2021
posted by praemunire at 6:48 PM on March 17, 2021
Is it possible that money has been building up in the transit account?
In my system, if you never started a new monthly pass after the last one expired then the money would just be building up in the account. I would check on your transit account to see what the balance/pass status is there so you know how much money this has cost you vs. how much is left in the account. If the money is still yours, then they may push back on any refund. If the passes have been purchased and expired, you have a much stronger case for them to refund you.
posted by soelo at 6:51 PM on March 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
In my system, if you never started a new monthly pass after the last one expired then the money would just be building up in the account. I would check on your transit account to see what the balance/pass status is there so you know how much money this has cost you vs. how much is left in the account. If the money is still yours, then they may push back on any refund. If the passes have been purchased and expired, you have a much stronger case for them to refund you.
posted by soelo at 6:51 PM on March 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
I doubt you're the only employee at your company with this transit-plan problem.
posted by Iris Gambol at 6:55 PM on March 17, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by Iris Gambol at 6:55 PM on March 17, 2021 [4 favorites]
Response by poster: The money does not go into a transit account. I have a pass that automatically renews every month and the plan allows us to purchase that through our company (pretax, with a discount). So yes, the passes were most likely purchased and expired.
posted by Diskeater at 7:33 PM on March 17, 2021
posted by Diskeater at 7:33 PM on March 17, 2021
Did you ever receive those passes?
posted by wenestvedt at 7:42 PM on March 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by wenestvedt at 7:42 PM on March 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: The pass is a contactless card that auto-renews every month. The only way to see if a pass is loaded is to check at a fare machine or on a website. I did not do that last March because of everything going on in the world and I trusted that it would be canceled like they said. I do see that I have an 'active pass' for April on that card so I assume it was never actually canceled.
posted by Diskeater at 8:08 PM on March 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Diskeater at 8:08 PM on March 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
While it seems like you have a good argument for their refunding you, I suspect there may be a problem with doing so due to the tax deduction. If they chose to make you whole themselves, it'd be taxable and you'd need to have them gross up. I can't think of any reason they couldn't do that, but I would expect a lot of resistance.
posted by praemunire at 9:37 PM on March 17, 2021
posted by praemunire at 9:37 PM on March 17, 2021
In case your contactless card/passes work the same way it does here in Chicago: a coworker had this happen as well and she was able to call the transit agency (or the company [Ventra] that manages the payment system, more accurately) and get them to convert the value of the passes into cash value on the card. This is possible because as I understand it, here the 30-day "clock" on a monthly pass actually doesn't start until that first tap on a bus or train station for that month. So you might have several months of passes that are all on that card if you haven't used transit at all since then. I see your update says the website is showing an "active" monthly pass so maybe it doesn't work that way for you, but thought I would mention in case there's someone you can contact at the transit agency to confirm.
That said, you definitely should get your company to refund you if that's not the case.
posted by misskaz at 4:48 AM on March 18, 2021
That said, you definitely should get your company to refund you if that's not the case.
posted by misskaz at 4:48 AM on March 18, 2021
You need to contact your HR. They said they would be suspending this benefit on your behalf, but they didn't and you can prove it.
However, its probably really complicated. Administration for commuter benefits is almost always provided through a third party, such as TransitChek by WageWorks or sometimes through a payroll company like ADP. If that's the case, your company will need to work with whoever is administering these accounts to resolve the situation in a legal manner, because there are tax implications for both you and your employer.
However, if HR says they cannot resolve it ... I would probably cause a giant stink and basically demand they issue a one time payout (a bonus, effectively) to make up for their error. To my mind is no different that your company "accidentally" enrolling you into some other opt-in benefit scheme (like a gym membership) that you didn't want and didn't sign up for.
posted by voiceofreason at 6:50 AM on March 18, 2021
However, its probably really complicated. Administration for commuter benefits is almost always provided through a third party, such as TransitChek by WageWorks or sometimes through a payroll company like ADP. If that's the case, your company will need to work with whoever is administering these accounts to resolve the situation in a legal manner, because there are tax implications for both you and your employer.
However, if HR says they cannot resolve it ... I would probably cause a giant stink and basically demand they issue a one time payout (a bonus, effectively) to make up for their error. To my mind is no different that your company "accidentally" enrolling you into some other opt-in benefit scheme (like a gym membership) that you didn't want and didn't sign up for.
posted by voiceofreason at 6:50 AM on March 18, 2021
Response by poster: Update: HR finally got back to me yesterday and said that payroll was going to put in a refund for the deductions dating back to April 2020. We'll see what that looks like but I feel that's a positive outcome. Thanks everyone!
posted by Diskeater at 2:27 PM on March 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Diskeater at 2:27 PM on March 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Yep - refund went thru as one large lumpsum payment on the next paycheck after I emailed them and I was made whole. No drama!
posted by Diskeater at 8:50 PM on May 5, 2021
posted by Diskeater at 8:50 PM on May 5, 2021
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by turkeyphant at 5:39 PM on March 17, 2021 [11 favorites]