blatent muggery: ticket inspectors at Liverpool St station
- Thread starter maximilian ping
- Start date
teuchter
je suis teuchter
When you say they start reminding you... do you mean the tiny little messages on some ticket gates? This is true, but I don't think many people look at these as a matter of course. Speaking for myself, I am normally just looking at the little green/red lights to see if the card has read properly and it's going to let me through.
Was that on Oyster or when it was a printed card, with the date printed on it? When they had the date printed on them, which you would see each time you took it out of your pocket to put it through a machine or show to a bus driver, it was much easier.
With the Oyster you have to rely on remembering a date for a whole month. Personally, I find that difficult.
No they are not. And the people are not attempting to get a free day's travel.
On the occasions where I have forgotten, and been fined (or more reasonably, been made to pay the single fare), I have then gone on to buy the travelcard anyway, as the cost of a monthly travelcard divided by the number of days in the month is generally less than buying individual tickets for the remainder of the travel that I'll have to do that day.
maximilian ping
Grrrrr
It';s also interesting to watch who they target (people who clearly look easy to bully) and who they, mysteriosuly, seem unable to see.
yes. they are lazy as well as cowards. when i've had to jump the barriers/go behind someone to avoid one of their 'fines' they never seem up for much of a chase through the concourse
poster342002
PROPER leftwing socialist
I think they're supposed to excercise some sort of reasonable discretion (IE use a bit of common bloody sense if someone's oyster/travel card is valid, has money on it but has not scanned in/out properly through no fault of the passenger). They rarely excerise this discretion, however, unless some violent-looking (but curiously invisible) thug has blatently strolled through with no intent to pay.
quimcunx
imprimeo, lamino, distribuo
the message on the ticket barrier that reminds the person behind you that you need to renew your card?
I've tried to renew my card when I've remembered only to be told it was too soon to do so.
What normally happens is, my bus fare comes off my PAYG, my tube journey to work puts me in debit, and I get stopped trying to go through the barriers at the start of my journey home. If I worked somewhere without oyster scanners I wouldn't find out till I tried to leave the sation.
kyser_soze
Hawking's Angry Eyebrow
Got a mobile? Set a reminder with a little bell. Write it on a calendar.
I've been caught without sufficient fare and I've known I've gotten on the train without it, as have most of these people I suspect. It's always worth a punt, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't...hell, my most annoying capture was the day after my annual season ticket ran out (when I still had such a thing), I even had the fucking cheque for the new one with me, thought I'd bunk it just for that day since I would've been late for work queueing at the station etc, made a big fuss about annual travelcard and the dude said 'Yeah, but I'm talking about you not buying a ticket for this journey mate, not the last 365 days or the next 365 days' and it was pretty hard to fault his logic.
marty21
One on one? You're crazy.
poster342002
PROPER leftwing socialist
It IS easy to fault that sort of logic - because it's the twisted, sadistic jobsworth "rules is rules - and ain't I loving it!" type of Dalek-speak.
I can't understand why anyone's defending these arseholes.
kyser_soze
Hawking's Angry Eyebrow
No it isn't. It's the same when peeps whine about being busted with weed on them - you got on a train without a valid ticket for the journey, you've been caught.
As for anyone thinking this is 'capitalism', the ticket inspectors I've dealt with in Germany, France and Switzerland make these guys look like little lambs - one chap in Germany threatened to throw me off the train at the next stop for not having a ticket, despite my offer to pay on the spot...
I'm not defending them either - it's fucked up, but getting caught is getting caught.
As for anyone thinking this is 'capitalism', the ticket inspectors I've dealt with in Germany, France and Switzerland make these guys look like little lambs - one chap in Germany threatened to throw me off the train at the next stop for not having a ticket, despite my offer to pay on the spot...
I'm not defending them either - it's fucked up, but getting caught is getting caught.
quimcunx
imprimeo, lamino, distribuo
i can see it when i swipe my card
I've seen it on the person in front's card. Not as often as I've seen them instructed to seek assistance. They never ever have, unless the barrier didn't open for them, which would suggest they don't see it. I've never seen my own, and I can't see how I would unless I stopped at the barrier, took out my oyster card, held the oyster card on the swiper, observerd the screen, took the oyster card off the swiper then walked through the barriers, and tried to ignore the hate of the people behind me.
While we're on the subject, oyster cards make it slower to get through the barriers, with the old tickets I never had to break my stride at all.
poster342002
PROPER leftwing socialist
What if you've gotten on a train WITH a valid ticket and the scanning system has fucked up? A situation in which you are BLAMELESS yet are treated like a criminal, fined and told that YOU have to then faff around trying to prove your innocence?
marty21
One on one? You're crazy.
I've seen it on the person in front's card. Not as often as I've seen them instructed to seek assistance. They never ever have, unless the barrier didn't open for them, which would suggest they don't see it. I've never seen my own, and I can't see how I would unless I stopped at the barrier, took out my oyster card, held the oyster card on the swiper, observerd the screen, took the oyster card off the swiper then walked through the barriers, and tried to ignore the hate of the people behind me.
While we're on the subject, oyster cards make it slower to get through the barriers, with the old tickets I never had to break my pace at all.
i see mine, when i swipe, it was definitely mine as no one was ahead of me
maximilian ping
Grrrrr
exactly!
kyser_soze
Hawking's Angry Eyebrow
So I take it this has happened loads to you then poster?
teuchter
je suis teuchter
Yes you are.
All they need to do is exercise some discretion and recognise there are certain situations where it is highly unlikely the person has intentionally evaded a fare.
You are advocating a no-discretion approach.
poster342002
PROPER leftwing socialist
I suspect that if there was no fare dodging or accidental errors - and thus they had no cause to issue ANY penalty fares at all - they'd loose shitloads of money and have to put the fares up.
marty21
One on one? You're crazy.
i can't understand why you can't see it, last week i got a weekly pass as i was starting a new job, it's the first time i have had a weekly pass on oyster, as i wasn't really commuting beyond a bus journey to work, since 2002
when i swipe the card, i look at the reader thingie and from about 2 days before the card expired, i saw the message
you must really race through those things
kyser_soze
Hawking's Angry Eyebrow
I reckon ping and cumx are 'touch and step', where you touch your card on the reader while walking thru the barrier, as opposed to stop, touch, move forward which is what you do (which enables you to look at the card details whereas ping and cunx can't cos they zip thru the barriers at light speed)
teuchter
je suis teuchter
This is me too. I don't like to break my step in the slightest.
The downside of this approach is that you are brought to quite an undignified halt if the card doesn't read properly.
kyser_soze
Hawking's Angry Eyebrow
I do that too, I like my 'flow' when I'm on the tube and get quite annoyed when it's disrupted by a non-functioning barrier or, more likely, a non-functioning human being staring at the barrier, waving a not-workng card/ticket around...if it doesn't work after the 2nd attempt, MOVE AWAY FROM THE BARRIER...
Oh, and those peeps with bags with the extending handle on the exit side of gates or top/bottom of escalators...grrrr...anyway...
Oh, and those peeps with bags with the extending handle on the exit side of gates or top/bottom of escalators...grrrr...anyway...
quimcunx
imprimeo, lamino, distribuo
maximilian ping
Grrrrr
i do, it's like a super power
kyser_soze
Hawking's Angry Eyebrow
Nah, I step and touch as well...hell quimmy, you've never seen me on a 'What are these useless slow idiots doing on my fucking tube' rant before have you? 
marty21
One on one? You're crazy.
I think kyser and marty are slowcoaches.
i am swift of foot
and so quick, that i can whizz through there, and catch what it says on the reader
My favourite time was when I got stopped with a valid ticket by a guard who had a faulty machine.
I beeped through at Waterloo gates but when I got to Wandsworth they had guards on the entrance with the small scanners.
It went something like:
The guy scanned my card and it was not registering
He said that I had to pay a £20 fine
I said I would not as my card was valid
He said it was procedure
I refused
He told me to pay and them claim it back
I refused
He looked at me blankly
I asked for his name so I could call TFL
He told me that I had a trustworthy face so could just pay for the journey, not the fine.
I refused
He told me to pay and them claim it back
I refused
He looked at me blankly
I looked at him blankly
He told me that I had a trustworthy face so would let me off
I could have punched him 20 times in the face but that would have been mean
I went to work
I beeped through at Waterloo gates but when I got to Wandsworth they had guards on the entrance with the small scanners.
It went something like:
The guy scanned my card and it was not registering
He said that I had to pay a £20 fine
I said I would not as my card was valid
He said it was procedure
I refused
He told me to pay and them claim it back
I refused
He looked at me blankly
I asked for his name so I could call TFL
He told me that I had a trustworthy face so could just pay for the journey, not the fine.
I refused
He told me to pay and them claim it back
I refused
He looked at me blankly
I looked at him blankly
He told me that I had a trustworthy face so would let me off
I could have punched him 20 times in the face but that would have been mean
I went to work
quimcunx
imprimeo, lamino, distribuo
