Hop Fastpass Reviews

Does not work with phones older than iPhone 6s. This little piece of information would have saved me some headache. I was using the physical card with no problems and didn’t want to switch to the virtual card mainly because of the bad reviews here. But TriMet was offering a $5 credit to try HopFastpass and I thought maybe they fixed the bugs. I had been all over the website reading about it and no where does it say it does not work on iPhone 6 or older. So I gave it a try, but I could not get it to work on any of my rides. Luckily the drivers are super cool and just let me on. When I tried to switch back to my physical card, turns out it was deactivated to the point that I had to call customer service. They told me that my phone is too old to use HopFastpass and when I switched, my card was voided and I would not be able to go back to my physical card. So now I have to buy a new card and have funds locked up in an app that won’t work. I know a lot of people that have older iPhones. Who do they think rides the bus? I love using TriMet, but they are missing the mark and I’m sure they spent a small fortune for this system. Get it to work with all phones or at the very least make it super easy to inform people what phones it’s compatible with.

The old tickets app worked perfectly. This new app is a mess. First it wouldn’t let me pay at all. Finally figured out how to load HopFastpass with funds the first time, though it never did link properly with iPay (which I refuse to use generally...why force me to use it for this?!).

Riding TriMet is now an anxiety-inducing event, because half the time HopFastpass doesn’t register that I’ve “paid” my fare until much later. And another portion of the time it takes a few tries for the readers on bus or MAX to acknowledge my swipe. Hopefully fare checkers on MAX are understanding?!

When I ran out of money and had to reload the card, it took two calls to the help desk to finally figure it all out. HopFastpass kept telling me the purchases weren’t going through but it turns out HopFastpass was charging my card the whole time. An annoyance for me but a potentially big deal for someone on a tight budget.

Just get the plastic card and save yourself the headaches. And TriMet, people rely on your otherwise great service to get to work, buy groceries...live their lives. I get that bugs happen, but this is on a whole new scale. If you can’t fix the problem, maybe it’s time to acknowledge that and go back to what worked just fine before.

I was super stoked to see the new Apple Wallet “feature” come available... until I learned that your physical card deactivates in the process. You get either a virtual card OR your physical card - not both. It also seems to be that you either get your virtual card on your Apple Watch or on your phone - not both. This is literally the only card that functions this way, and you won’t learn until you’ve gone too far and finally have to read the FAQs to troubleshoot. TriMet messes up in their marketing around this, which wouldn’t be a problem if their service worked like literally every other card/Apple wallet addition.

Not sure why we are going back in time and requiring so many steps just to board and/or needing to go to a grocery store to buy a physical card?? Got HopFastpass , said it wouldn’t work unless I updated my phone, finally got it and loaded it into apple wallet only to have it not work at all on the bus holding it at various angles near the reader for several minutes at a time. Finally gave up after both bus driver and I kept trying it. Emailed support to ask for my money back and they keep giving me answers 8 hours apart of trouble shooting ideas, most of which are already found on the internet so honestly don’t waste your time with them. I stuck with the tickets app so long since it worked fine and now finally forced to switch over, since it does not work on my phone I now need to find a physical one to purchase elsewhere. Why not just put these in the machines at the transit center like every other major metro area does? You can buy day passes there but for some reason not the refillable kind. This whole situation is absolutely crazy and archaic, just get a normal app that works!! Can’t imagine how much money they are losing because of people having issues with this.

I have a 1-year Hop card and love the convenience of it for my commute, but hate carrying an extra card with me every day. I was SUPER excited this morning when it was announced cards could be loaded on Apple wallet as “virtual” cards. I transferred mine right away!
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to work. When boarding the bus this morning, and tapping my phone to the reader, a message in the reader said I needed to load money on my card. Since I’ve already paid the full value of the card, I don’t care to have to go back to adding money for individual trips (paying twice).
This may only be an issue with the annual cards, which is unfortunate, since I would guess make up some of TriMet’s more loyal rider base.

I don’t think this update would be that big of a deal; I could add my card to my Apple wallet and use it when it was more convenient than pulling out my wallet to use MyHop Fastpass card. However; when I added my card to my wallet it deactivated my physical card. I found this out when I was about to board the bus and my phone was dead. Now I have to decide to risk a low battery, having to buy a new card keeping two balances, or just using that physical card.

I also run into an issue every time I go to add more funds to my account. It will load money in small amounts but I have to re-enter my card information when it’s above $15. I’ve been using The FastPass since the beta and this issue is relatively new.

HopFastpass is a great concept but needs a lot of work.

I’ll echo another review here that it only works 80% of the time and the other 20% is embarrassing. When scanning the card it will say “done”and no pass is actually purchased or “transaction not completed” all while holding up a line of other passengers behind you... irritated because it’s cold and you’re taking too long to scan your card.

I’ve tried multiple methods and distances of holding the phone to the scanner and it doesn’t make a difference. Deleted app, reinstalled, removed from wallet. I’ve been holding off on switching to a physical pass for several reasons but I’m embarrassed enough at this point that I’ll give in for the remaining month I’ll need to even ride tri-met.

I’m generally pretty skeptical of the ratings on transit apps. I think for some reason people are harder on/more frustrated with these types of essential but no-frills apps.

But I’m shocked that this one has close to 3 stars.

I came into Portland for a 3 day trip. On Tuesday I bought my virtual HOP card through HopFastpass around 8 am to get ready for going into the city. But it didn’t appear in my app. I checked online and it was there. The payment processed. But no card.

Thus begins the 48 hour extravaganza of me contacting customer service. I sent an email with the issue and the steps I used to troubleshoot. They sent me a series of emails (each reply takes about 6-8 hours) waking me through each step I took to troubleshoot. A frustrating waste of time. I then asked for a refund and they wanted to a screenshot first. Sure. Then they wanted another screenshot to check a previous step. The help is disorganized, slow, and unhelpful.

It’s 48 hours later and I still don’t have my card. Just a deep rooted frustration with TriMet and the HOP Pass system. All I want is my money back at this point and to never have to use HOP again.

I want to like it but it just doesn’t work most of the time. I usually have to stand in the front of the bus for 20 seconds tapping repeatedly until it scans while other passengers wait behind me. Often times the driver just waves me on as this seems to be a frequent occurrence. I also miss the functionality of the old app where you could purchase tickets for others (like your kids!) without registering an additional virtual card. On top of all of this you have to pay to use it! I don’t believe anyone should have to pay for public transit, but I REALLY don’t believe you should have to pay just to have the opportunity to pay later to ride public transit. Bring back TriMet Tickets!!!!!!!

I’m a high school student who had been using the TriMet ticket app for three years to get to and from school. When I heard HopFastpass was being discontinued, I was a little upset, and was also confused as to why.

I had to download HopFastpass so that I could go to school. However, when I tried to add a virtual card with Apple Pay, all it did was take my money and refuse to give me a virtual card to use. I tried again with a new card. It did not work. I tried a third time; zilch. I logged into my account from Safari—there were my cards, all loaded up, but I could not use them from there or from HopFastpass . Essentially, I have now put away $85 to a thing I can’t even use. I’m looking for a refund and am going to try to switch to a physical card. I am still waiting on support to get back to me. In the meantime, PLEASE try to avoid HopFastpass. It’s incredibly unreliable and makes things much more difficult than they have to be.

Got the email saying that Trimet was going away with the tickets app. I resisted because the tickets app worked just fine, and I was worried every time I would transfer I would be charged again, turns out that’s not the case. I get the hop app, try to download a virtual card. It won’t let me so I have to go out and get a physical card. I then add the physical card to my apple wallet, why not. At which point it makes me make a passcode for my phone so I can use the virtual card without unlocking my phone. Annoying, but okay. Then my phone won’t tap. And its irritating. And the driver and riders are judging you. And finally the driver just waves you on. So you make your way to your transfer and decide to use the physical card since the virtual one won’t tap, and it says the physical one is not registered. What? I try to register it in HopFastpass and it says the physical card has been reported as lost or stolen. So I can’t use my physical card if my phone dies. Cool. Fix the bugs Trimet.

It “fails to read card,” reads too many cards in wallet (despite setting it as the default transit express card), or says “done” on my end, but not on the reader’s end (which means a driver is still staring at you waiting for you to pay, and a lot of impatient riders glaring and shouting suggestions for holding your phone at different angles and positions on the reader). Since cash isn’t accepted on buses during pandemic precautions, you’re basically screwed unless you manage to pay down your hop balance to zero, ditch HopFastpass , and pay as you go with a credit or debit card on Apple Pay.
Read other reviews. This is a common problem. Customer service may tell you to go buy a physical card, for which they will charge you. $3 might not seem like a big deal, but when you already paid for an item, and then loaded funds into the service, it’s unethical to say the fix is to go pay for it again.

I can’t tell if it’s a way to frustrate more people in the world by us getting HopFastpass or if it’s a way for the trimet to make more money by misleading people. Either way, two thumbs down.
I saw the reviews, sadly only after I used it and have had the most frustrating experience with the service workers of HopFastpass and HopFastpass itself.
If you’re new and looking for an app to take the bus, honestly just don’t. It has a lot of issues. And sadly I’m sure it’s an alright experience once the initial head ache is over (maybe, by the looks of these reviews probably not) but it’s hard to understand how people have gotten away creating an app with this level of difficulty and no tutorial before using, it shouldn’t be possible that this continues to happen. It comes off as a scam from my experience. I’ve wasted so much precious time trying to get my money back or at least credit to my bus card, I even showed proof of what I am owed. But no. Instead the folks working for HopFastpass simply don’t care. Stay away from HopFastpass!

Load my card with more money this morning and it keeps telling me it’s not working (all 3 times) but next thing I know it worked “all 3 times!” But in my iPhone wallet it still shows my last value before I got charged 3 times and I go and use it to board the MAX orange line and it doesn’t change anything on the wallet screen but in app history shows that I was charged but I’m unable to show any type of proof except for in my history. Now I’m freaking out because the Trimet police always board and do their fare checks and of course it happened but they never got to me...even though I was prepared to explain the situation and show them that it deducted in my history but somethings not working! However, it has been my past experience with the Trimet fare checkers that in situations that are not black and white, they tend to struggle with how to handle it and in the mean time I’m likely going to get frustrated because I have places to be and dealing with an app that is unreliable. There was nothing wrong with the old Trimet app and I hate this stupid Hop pass!

HopFastpass actually made me stop using the transit system in the city for a couple years because it was so bad. With the current job I have I don’t have much of a choice so I reinstalled it recently and it appears nothing has changed. I’ve had the virtual card open in my wallet loaded with plenty of money and just had it refuse to tap around a quarter of the time I try to get on the bus or MAX, and that’s when HopFastpass will even open, sometimes it just gets stuck on the loading screen repeatedly, even after restarting my phone.

I’m pretty much convinced that Trimet doesn’t care and is hoping that this awful app will force people into paying for the virtual card. I used to love riding transit in the city and was always proud of how good Portland’s was compared to other cities, however this **** app has really changed that opinion for me since it was pushed out and the perfectly good old app was invalidated

It’s the only problem I’ve had so far, it just says to contact the card issuer for more information but there’s no where on HopFastpass where I can contact anyone about the hop card and I’ve been trying everything bc I was thinking it was my fault as to why it hasn’t been working but there’s nothing more I can do at this point and I already loaded it with money just for it to not work

Initially wouldn’t process my payment for the virtual hop card, but I discovered with some speedy customer service feedback that my wallet app was using an old billing address, which for whatever reason was preventing Apple Pay from paying for my virtual hop card. Customer service thought the problem was with my bank, but turns out the wallet app just grabs/imports your address from your phone contacts and assumes that’s also your billing address. If that info is wrong then Apple Pay won’t work if you try to use it to buy the hop card. Fixed it now, works fine.

I remember HopFastpass was buggy when it first came out but over time most bugs go patched. HopFastpass makes paying with an iPhone so easy and lets me load as much money as I need. Hop also works with Vancouver C-Trans so the versatility is amazing. I really like the fact that if I spend $5 it automatically turns my pass into a day pass, and on top of that if you spend I believe $100 it automatically turns it into a month pass, so this is a nice way of saving money if you don’t use the bus as often as you should. Being able to scan my phone is my favorite part of using HopFastpass. Overall I’d recommend people using HopFastpass and not be discouraged by the negative reviews.

For several months I hesitated to get HopFastpass because of the poor reviews... then I just tried it for myself. It works great! HopFastpass makes it insanely easy to load money on the card, and I’ve had no problems with the card-reader on the city bus.

If you’re discouraged I download because of the poor reviews, just try it for yourself and see how awesome it is.

I’ve been using HopFastpass to pay for TriMet buses and the Max train for about 11 months, since I moved here in May of last year. When I first downloaded it, I was distraught by these reviews - who wants to use an app that crashes all the time and doesn’t function when you need it to? Quite contrary to my worries, I have never once had a problem using HopFastpass. It’s worked every time I’ve scanned it to get on the bus, and uploading more money is simple. Use it!

The tickets app was great, you just start a ticket before you get on, from anywhere at anytime. You didn't have to touch your phone to some grimy disgusting machine only to have it ask you to use apple pay instead of the money you loaded onto HopFastpass because you didn’t want to use apple pay. But here comes your train so I guess we’re using apple pay now and trying to forget the gross surface our phone just had to literally touch to get this garbage to work. Such an inconvenience. Apparently you can’t decide to pay for a day pass so now you have to remember to do your ticket in the morning and after work so that’s another sick bonus. 0 stars

I do not use Apple Pay and why on earth would TriMet think that going back to plastic cards that you have to track down from retailers is a more efficient, user-friendly, or expedient way for people to purchase tickets going forward. Their TriMet ticket app was much better and made much more sense for the growing population of people who do almost everything from a phone. If they are trying to make this more accessible to those of us who rely so heavily on technology, this is not the way to go. This is archaic. Apple Pay integration is not the way forward as so many people don’t use it or even has access to it, and plastic cards are a terrible method for paying for public transit. Sorry TriMet, you’ve lost a rider for a while as I have now severely limited access to pay for rides.

TriMet shows once again that they don’t care about their customers by charging a needless fee for a virtual card. I understand needing to pay for a physical card as there are costs involved with creating that card, but for them to replace an already functional and favored app that works better with what users want for an app that is littered with problems is blatant disrespect. Asking a small fee simply to check that your accounts connect properly isn’t new, but to ask $3 for something that costs TriMet nothing is a joke. Thanks for once again showing that you only care about the money and not the service you provide.

This app hardly ever works and if you call support they blame it on you.