Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 ··· 11 12 13 14 15 16

Original poster

Was I unreasonable to dob someone in?

391 replies

VulvicMineralWater · 27/04/2017 11:38

NC as this might be quite outing.

I commute to work on the train. I get on at stop A and off at stop D, both of which have ticket barriers. I always buy a ticket when I travel.

Stops B and C don't have ticket barriers.

A man got on at Stop B. The inspector came around asking for anyone who got on at Stop B. The inspector was very visible and called out "Stop B passengers" loudly enough for everyone to hear. The man didn't have headphones in. Yet, the man didn't show his ticket.

So, as the inspector passed I pointed out the man and said he'd got on at Stop B. Inspector then went to check his ticket and what a surprise the man didn't have one.

The man called me an interfering bitch. Meh, yeah, that's pretty accurate but it fucks me off that people feel as though buying a ticket is optional. It's not. You're using a service, you need to pay for it.

So was I unreasonable to dob this guy in?

OP posts:

ProfessorBranestawm · 28/04/2017 07:42

On a train recently where a passenger, who had been on the train for several stops, said oh I didn't have time to get a ticket can I buy one now? (Fair enough.) What stop did you get on at, the inspector asked. He said the name of a station much nearer than the one he'd actually got on at. Inspector pointed out the train hadn't actually stopped there. :o I could never be bothered to dob anyone in but it was amusing listening to someone land themselves right in it :o

Lweji · 28/04/2017 08:42

The lower the profits are of the company, it is highly simplistic to assume that the fares are all ploughed into track maintenance because they aren't.

Of course the fares aren't all put into track maintenance. Nobody said that.
And if you think they'll simply lower their profit, then you are being simplistic and naive.

Lweji · 28/04/2017 08:46

The price differences between peak and non peak times in different routes may well reflect how much they are used at peak times and how much the companies want to force people out of peak times.
A 25% difference won't have much effect, which means (I suspect) that the route may be popular but not as full as the main one at peak times.

Increasinglymiddleaged · 28/04/2017 08:47

I think what I meant is if they got an additional £100 train fare it would be ploughed straight into profits and nowhere else .....

Who's naive now?

Lweji · 28/04/2017 08:53

You aren't sure what you mean?

No, they won't invest an extra £100 into tracks. But if they don't get a minimum amount of profit they will not invest in improving the service. Particularly if they had registered that only 1000 people use and pay for the service, when in fact 2000 are using it, but half don't pay. Then you can't complain about full carriages, when the service is planned for a much smaller number of people.

BTW, I'm not in favour of private public transport companies and I agree that they abuse the system, mostly because there isn't enough supervision and enforcement by regulators.
But I don't think that justifies people not paying fares.

NewPapaGuinea · 28/04/2017 08:55

Inspector should check everyone's tickets. But you were not unreasonable. The guy was unreasonable expecting to get a free ride and then whinge when he was caught.

AnneElliott · 28/04/2017 08:59

I don't think you were BU. but you won't get much sympathy on mn! I once caught a colleague dodging the bus fare ( as a civil servant we have really tight rules as to our behaviour outside work).

MN had a whole load of implausible reasons why he might have fisher his fare, and also suggested he might not actually be a civil servant (despite having a staff pass and coming in the staff entrance )

FairytalesAreBullshit · 28/04/2017 09:03

Did you offer to pay it forward, I would have. He could be up shit creek without a paddle for all you know.

Funnyonion17 · 28/04/2017 09:09

That's weird, why does it concern you? As others have said he maybe had a back story which lead to desperate times. I thought this thread was going to be about benefit fraud, not train tickets!

FairytalesAreBullshit · 28/04/2017 09:12

Yeah OP should dob in the ticket inspector too as he's not doing his job properly as per her guidelines for how he should be doing his job. How lazy. (SARCASM)

If you get so much joy out of people's misery I think you might be a traffic warden, or some kind of person who goes YES, tonight I'm going to watch people get their shit repossessed or kicked out of their house. Nachos please!

Dowser · 28/04/2017 09:12

They employ people to catch ticket dodges. My cousins husband was one ( ex police officer)
I'd just let them do their job

As someone said, they might be down on their luck.

nopunin10did · 28/04/2017 09:18

He said the name of a station much nearer than the one he'd actually got on at. Inspector pointed out the train hadn't actually stopped there.

ProfessorBranestawm Hmmm...surely if he had got on an early stop he would know exactly which subsequent stops the train had visited? I'm pretty sure anyone attempting to claim they entered on a later station would be mentally taking note of when the train stopped.

FairytalesAreBullshit · 28/04/2017 09:25

You have to question embellishments, I doubt anyone who takes a train daily would be so dim. I last travelled on a train 20 odd years ago and can recall the stops. I did the journey maybe 5 times. Not daily.

FairytalesAreBullshit · 28/04/2017 09:27

An architect, a Dr, a solicitor, all decent wages, doesn't guarantee that they're loaded.

Would OP have been so brazen if it was a woman?

GetInTheFuckingSea · 28/04/2017 09:35

I honestly can't get worked up about fare dodging. I save my ire for the gouging bastards that run our railways. And no, I wouldn't grass anyone up. It's their business why they do it and I am not party to that. Also I know that it's not them who are the real rip off merchants.

BenadrylCucumberpatch · 28/04/2017 09:45

Woman I seen shoplifting calpol, wouldn't dream of reporting.

If she can't afford to look after her baby, maybe she shouldn't have got pregnant in the first place. I'd absolutely report the freeloading scummy mummy.

Isn't that right, OP?

FairytalesAreBullshit · 28/04/2017 09:52

Totes Benedryl, Miss Smith is a single parent and lives opposite OP, so she's keeping tab on the nights he stays over, just to dob Miss Smith in for being so naughty. She's only known Clive a week, but rules are rules.

FairytalesAreBullshit · 28/04/2017 09:54

Sorry was a bit premature, as is Clive so I hear.

Miss Smith has just got a boyfriend she met recently.

NewPapaGuinea · 28/04/2017 09:55

I get a train daily and I get annoyed when people talk in the quiet zone so seeing someone getting a free ride whilst I've paid hundreds a month would irritate me somewhat!

BenadrylCucumberpatch · 28/04/2017 10:00

FairytalesAreBullshit yeah Clive, that's him!
Only been there 5 minutes and she's already got herself up the duff by him.
What do you expect with these types, couple of kids, couple of dads.
Bet she trapped him.

Anyway I'm reporting her too, if more people do it they'll act quicker. My Husband's taxes aren't for the likes of them!

NewPapaGuinea · 28/04/2017 10:02

Should Tim Hardy have let the moped thief get away? After all there are people employed to do that job...

user1489179512 · 28/04/2017 10:57

Fantastic question!!!!

user1489179512 · 28/04/2017 11:00

Except the hero is called Tom Hardy!
Still, a very good question. Watch the idiotic ones line up to say he should have let the poor thief have what he wanted. Lol

MaroonPencil · 28/04/2017 11:13

Yes OP, basically you are the Tom Hardy of the railways

FairytalesAreBullshit · 28/04/2017 11:34

Who is this Tom Hardy?

Benadryl - you're thinking of Miss Jones, Miss Smith already has 3 from 3 different Dads, all toddlers too. You'd think the tax credit cap would put her off. But she says if it's a way to get away from OP snooping as she does bar work on the side, it's a blessing. How can she afford the designer gear otherwise?

Flip

1 2 ··· 11 12 13 14 15 16

Swipe left for the next trending thread