Those of you who have experienced the London bus service might know about the ticket situation, but for those who don't, here's a short introduction:
Unless you have an Oyster card, to ride a bus within central London, you will need to buy a £2.20 ticket at the stop, from a little red machine. This machine will sell you a ticket for one journey only, it used to sell day travel passes, but I don't think they do anymore. Paying your fare on the bus is not an option within central London, but as soon as you are outside an invisible border of sorts, this suddenly becomes possible! Strange but true!
The other monday I was going home with my boyfriend, and I didn't have my oyster card on me so I tried to buy a ticket at the stop, but the machine wasn't co-operating.
Now, on the Saturday before I went to his place from the same bus stop and the machine didn't work then, but this time it did react to pressing the button by displaying how much to insert so I thought it had been fixed. But this was not the case! Somehow I ended up somehow putting abt £4.50 in the machine but it wasn't providing a ticket... and that's when the bus arrived!
So we got on the bus, my boyfriend had his Oyster card, and I told the driver the machine wasn't giving tickets even though it had taken more than the fare money, but he wasn't having it and said I had to buy a ticket at some other stop in the area. I repeated that I had used enough money for 2 fares and told him I wasn't going anywhere, and he claimed that since I couldn't prove this, I couldn't ride.
At this point, enough was enough, and we informed him that the defect ticket machine was not our problem and that I had paid and we were going to sit down... to which the driver reacted by shouting after me that he wasn't going anywhere till I had a valid ticket! And then he promptly stopped the bus!
So I got up, went up to himand asked him if he seriously wasn't going to drive the bus anywhere... to which he replied yes, so... I called the police!
Now this never happens when it's something serious, but as luck would have it there were 3 police men on the opposite side of the street and they came over. I calmly explained the situation and told them the outcome and the attitude that the driver had presented us with, even added that if there was a ticket control and I had no ticket I would be to blame and would have to defend myself. and they agreed with me and said he was being unreasonable, and even vouched for me! One officer quoted his badge number and told the driver to contact him if there was any further issues.
Begrudgingly the driver had to start the engine and keep moving "not to further clog up traffic" as the police officers said.
I'm not normally one to cause a commotion, but I know when I'm right and I won't stand down. TfL has set up this system which fails on a very regular basis, and buses are extremely infrequent in Central London. Personally I feel that if their system fails it is not the customers problem. If you have to buy a ticket at the stop in Central London the machines should be checked and serviced at least every day if not even several times a day. And, as a customer services person myself I find the attitude shown by not only this driver but several drivers on TfL buses shocking.
From that day I will stand up to any TfL bus driver who does not meet my expectations. TfL say they will not tolerate abuse towards their staff, so why should we, the paying customers tolerate it from them?
Feel free to share your experiences with bus drivers and the like with others here.
Love peace and justice, Diamond xxx
