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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to complain about London bus driver?

77 replies

addictedtofrazzles · 31/08/2011 09:49

I live in London and was returning from my antenatal appointment at the hospital by bus. I boarded the bus and handed over a £10 note (£2.20 fare). The bus driver refused to take the money as he said I should have an Oyster card and he was under no obligation to carry change. I replied that I don't use public transport frequently enough to justify the cost of an Oyster card and that no where on the bus was there a notice saying that change would not be given for £10 notes...

So I delved into the pits of my handbag for loose 2p's and literally hand to count them out into his tray. I counted clearly, putting the coins in piles so that the driver could keep a check. By this point the other passengers were understandably getting annoyed.

The driver then told me that he would have to re-check the loose change and that, "he had all the time in the world". He counted and said I had short changed him...BUT REFUSED TO TELL ME BY HOW MUCH and demanded (rudely) that I recheck it again!!!

At this point the passengers are even more irate, as was I, but I recounted the money and sure enough it was correct.

AIBU to complain about his unhelpful, difficult and arrogant approach?

OP posts:
cestlavielife · 31/08/2011 11:43

get a pay as you go oyster card and load up £10 on it so it's ready when you need it. you save money. the money alsts indefeinitely. there is no reason not to have one.

some bus drivers are rude.
some are not.

porcamiseria · 31/08/2011 11:45

LOL at siamofottutiu, you are very bullish today!!! GRRRR

OP just get an oyster, as long run its cheaper!

2.20 without oyster
1 with

I have had this happen many times, they hate it, I just made sure my oyster was charged

WreckaJones · 31/08/2011 12:01

Is it £1 with an oyster? Christ on a bike. I just had a squiz at the oyster rules on the TFL website and they are obligingly enigmatic about their charging system. I only work it out in retrospect when I get a statement from an oyster machine.

TheLadyEvenstar · 31/08/2011 12:08

On the odd occasion I travelled into London with DD1 in a pushchair, I thought it would be easy to get on/off buses because of the newer ones having disabled access. Hmm yes. Disabled access only works if the driver pulls up to the kerb, not a foot away. So I ended up having to lift the buggy onto the bus, which was fine - would not be so easy with a 13 stone man in a wheelchair though.

But a buggy is not meant to use the disabled access ramp. The driver looks for wheelchair users at stops or fellow passengers inform him there is a wheelchair user waiting to board. The ramp then comes out on hydrolics (sp) and the passenger boards.

What gets me is the ignorant passengers who refuse to move themselves, buggies, suitcases etc for wheelchair users which delays the bus and makes things awkward for everyone.

crazynanna · 31/08/2011 12:16

WreckaJones I wish it was £1! I think it's £2...saving 20p

TheLadyEvenstar · 31/08/2011 12:27

Crazy, I think its £1.30 (Just asked DP who is a london bus driver)

StopRainingPlease · 31/08/2011 12:28

They give you change in London? I haven't been on a UK bus that gives change for years. By the way, they are not obliged to take more than 20p in copper coins.

I'd go prepared next time.

SardineQueen · 31/08/2011 12:32

wreckajones it is only bus stops further into london that have ticket machines. None of the bus stops on the routes that I use do.

OP he was very rude to you and so you can complain if you like. You can get a form to fill in but did you note the number etc?

I have nearly complained about buses about 3 times but never done it and I should have really. I did go and shout at a bus driver last year which was quite out of character.

ruddynorah · 31/08/2011 12:36

I live in Leeds and have an oyster card for when I'm in London. How bizarre not to have one when you live there. Do you only go to places within walking distance? When you worked at the school is that really the only place you went to? Hmm

crazynanna · 31/08/2011 12:46

TheLadyEvenstar I think you may be right..and I live here! Grin

TheLadyEvenstar · 31/08/2011 12:49

Crazy I live here too Grin I have no idea what it costs tbh as I have free travel Smile

Original poster
addictedtofrazzles · 31/08/2011 13:32

Thanks for your responses!

Well, tbh I don't really have the time, energy or inclination to actually complain. What I should have written in the title was more "AIBU to think this bus driver was particularly arsey and obtuse?". Some of you would clearly say yes and others no! I still maintain YES!

However, I have now been educated into the world of Oyster cards and will go and get one.

Anyway, off to more pressing matters - how on earth to make a dinosaur cake for DS1's third birthday...

OP posts:
Missmodular · 31/08/2011 13:35

Try to see it from his point of view. You walk on the bus with a tenner, it's common knowledge (maybe not to you, but probably to most passengers) that it's not acceptable (not his fault that there's no sign, he doesn't decorate the bus every morning). You then stand there and count out 2ps onto his counter while the rest of the bus get irate and he gets later for his route. I know he was rude but can you not see how you might have wound him up a bit? Maybe he was having a bad day. He may have just been at the receiving end of a rude passenger, or been shouted at by another driver for stopping in front of them. Bus drivers (and other frontline workers) have to put up with this kind of behaviour daily. My dad's a London bus driver and I've heard some awful stories about how he's been treated.

Missmodular · 31/08/2011 13:36

Sorry, xposted with your last one - glad you're not complaining! :)

2shoes · 31/08/2011 13:37

yabu
even my teen ds knows to have the right change for the bus

Original poster
addictedtofrazzles · 31/08/2011 13:40

....Okay, distracted from my dinosaur efforts...

I didn't treat him badly and I was perfectly polite. I have a right to travel on the bus and I had the funds to do so, it just so happened that I had it in small change. The bus could have got going after 3 minutes if he had bothered to listen to me count it out the first time. But instead he chose to count it himself, tell me I was wrong, not tell me by how much and then make me count again. He was a twat.

OP posts:
Firawla · 31/08/2011 13:40

he was rude but tbh you should just get a pre pay oyster, so you will save this kind of problem in future and it also saves you money, so yabu a bit yourself aswel. would have been best just go into a shop and buy a water or something to break your tenner, then you could have used it.. asking you to recount all the money again was very ott of him though and unnecessary

crazynanna i agree 43 and w5 drivers do tend to be quite ruder than average, especially 43

Wiifitmama · 31/08/2011 13:41

You got on a bus and tried to pay with a ten pound note?? In London?? And are now complaining????

(Walks around central London flat shaking head in wonder........)

crazynanna · 31/08/2011 13:41

Firawla And don't get me started on the drivers' on the 91! Hmm

WreckaJones · 31/08/2011 13:45

frazzles I do agree he was unnecessarily arsey about it but like I said the other option (you having to get off and wait for next one) said with a smile and a wave goodbye, would probably have made you madder even if he had been polite! In future, he may think twice about being arsey and holding the bus up further ....but...he probably hoped you would think well that was an unnecessary faff about nothing...hmm maybe a standby oyster card is needed. And he would be right in that surely?

sqweegiebeckenheim · 31/08/2011 13:49

I was thrown off a London bus to gales of laughter for trying to pay with a tenner...

on the other hand... I take several buses daily for work, and drivers seem to wave people on at their discretion when the Oyster card doesn't work or have enough money on it. You are pregnant. A little courtesy and care wouldn't have gone astray.

Original poster
addictedtofrazzles · 31/08/2011 13:52

I feel a bit like Ross in Friends who has to keep saying "We were on a break"...I have conceded in posts above that an Oyster card is the way forward (I thought, until today, that you purchased them like a weekly travel card which in my case would not be cost effective!) so on that count I agree.

However, I had the funds in small change so should still be treated in a civil manner!

OP posts:
Original poster
addictedtofrazzles · 31/08/2011 13:54

Sqweegie - thanks!!

Don't get me started on when I tried to pay with a Scottish note 20 years ago (was at Uni there and had come home)...was told it wasn't legal tender...!!!!

OP posts:
worraliberty · 31/08/2011 13:57

You should have got off, walked to your nearest shop and got some change.

BalloonSlayer · 31/08/2011 14:00

So how come you had 2.20 worth of 2ps in your handbag?

(I have quite a lot of 2ps in mine, bizarrely, as I got lucky on one of those arcade machines and kept the proceeds for the next arcade we went in. But we didn't. And I haven't got 110 of the buggers.)

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