Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

TFL charging me £94 per day to rent a bike despite advertising £2 a DAY aibu

77 replies

jobbinggogger · 18/09/2019 14:49

So TFL state you can hire a bike for £2 for 24 hours. I've read their T and C and seen nothing to state anything other than this. I took out a bike last week, returned it within hours and was shocked to see a completely unexpected £76 charge on my account. When I called, they explained that the £2 is for access and that cyclists are then charged £2 every half hour thereafter unless they return the bike to the docking area every half hour. So a cyclist would have to stay awake all night and travel back and forth to the docking area in order to get the bike for £2. The terms and conditions are extremely waffly and difficult to understand.

Soo AIBU that £96 for 24 hours of bike hire is A)daylight robbery
and that B) very different to the advertised rate of £2 per day!!!

TFL also do not care and are not sorry. The blame is solely on the customer for not understanding their contradictory and at time batshit rules. Am I the only person to be horrified and much poorer?

OP posts:
lottiegarbanzo · 18/09/2019 15:15

The point is to keep the bikes available for other users. The scheme only works if you can always rely on finding a bike at the nearest location.

They'd need hundreds of thousands more bikes, if everyone was taking them for the whole day, instead of returning after each journey.

titchy · 18/09/2019 15:17

got it for a teenager who assured me it was £2 per day.

Ahhh.... Suggest you get the teen to pay then. And don't trust teens in future!

Original poster
jobbinggogger · 18/09/2019 15:17

Fair enough.

OP posts:
verticality · 18/09/2019 15:17

You poor thing! It does sound like it's an easy mistake to make if you're in a rush. Obviously, read the T&Cs in future (you don't really need me to say that, though, do you?) and yes - maybe their advertising should be clearer. I would say '£2 for 30 minutes' printed on the docking station would do it!

I am shocked that it costs that much.

Original poster
jobbinggogger · 18/09/2019 15:20

I'll chalk this one up to experience and just buy him a bike I think! We both made the same mistake. I think to be fair alot of people do not read the T and C in great detail and trust what they believe to be the price (hence lots of people buying PS4 boxes on ebay in the past). I think they need to be much much clearer about advertising the actual cost of the bike as I am sure I am not the only one to be fooled!

OP posts:
EarringsandLipstick · 18/09/2019 15:21

But you don't even have to read all the T&C in detail.

The link shared by a PP
tfl.gov.uk/modes/cycling/santander-cycles/what-you-pay?intcmp=2315
has all the details including a really, really clear video!

Yes, it's costly if you take it for the amount of time you did. If you take it for short trips, as intended, it's cost-effective. You are misunderstanding the purpose of the bike scheme!

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 18/09/2019 15:24

If you think the lighting was bad at the docking station report that. It could be a safety concern.

caringcarer · 18/09/2019 15:25

This sounds like a rip off to me. I don't get how if it cost £4 per hour it could come to £76 for a few hours. This would have been 19 hours charge.

DGRossetti · 18/09/2019 15:30

Interesting to reconcile this with the "planets on fire" message from other areas.

Clearly not that on fire then.

Xenia · 18/09/2019 15:34

I have always thought it was an awful scheme - much cheaper just to take your own bike into London!

verticality · 18/09/2019 15:40

"Interesting to reconcile this with the "planets on fire" message from other areas."

Eh? What's that got to do with it?! No-one has attacked the idea of a bike scheme here, or suggested that cycling isn't a good thing. The most anyone has said is that it's a bit pricey in comparison to getting your own bike!!

DGRossetti · 18/09/2019 15:40

much cheaper just to take your own bike into London!

If you're using (or trying to use) a train, that's another thread right there.

SolitudeAtAltitude · 18/09/2019 15:41

easy mistake to make

so I guess you are not meant to take them home overnight?!

DGRossetti · 18/09/2019 15:43

Eh? What's that got to do with it?! No-one has attacked the idea of a bike scheme here, or suggested that cycling isn't a good thing. The most anyone has said is that it's a bit pricey in comparison to getting your own bike!!

Shall we save the planet ?
Great idea, how much will we make from it ?
Er ... guys this is 𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘵 !
Oh, we know. But if there's nothing in it for us, there's no point.

and so on.

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 18/09/2019 15:44

We used a similar scheme (well scooters, but bikes available too) in Berlin. They were popular.
We were on holiday. We don't tend to take bikes etc on a city break.
Commuters used them a lot. It was obviously more convenient for them, although a lot of people had their own bikes too.

Its just another form of public transport.

SellmeyourMLMcrap · 18/09/2019 15:45

FWIW OP I think YANBU.
It should be very clear at the point of sale what the costs are, if it wasn't for any reason then I feel you have a reasonable case. You most likely haven't deprived anyone by having this bike so I think feeling unhappy about it is perfectly reasonable.

I'd give TFL another call and see if they can do something as a gesture of goodwill due to your misunderstanding, I've found them to be pretty reasonable to be honest, just explain exactly as you have here and say it was your child's mistake and it won't happen again, something like that.

violetswordfish · 18/09/2019 15:47

so I guess you are not meant to take them home overnight?!

No, that's not what the bikes are for. If everyone took them home overnight there'd be none for anyone else to use! They're supposed to be instead of hopping on the bus or the tube, you use it for a journey, not commandeer it for the whole day.

hammeringinmyhead · 18/09/2019 15:49

I'm kind of amazed someone would take them home overnight. They're not for weekend jollies! They're supposed to replace a bus or tube journey hence the 30 minutes timer.

verticality · 18/09/2019 15:49

"Shall we save the planet ?
Great idea, how much will we make from it ?
Er ... guys this is 𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘵 !
Oh, we know. But if there's nothing in it for us, there's no point."

I still have literally no idea what you are trying to say.

I can't even work out if you're criticising the bike company, the OP, or other Mumsnet users.

Bluntness100 · 18/09/2019 15:51

So TFL state you can hire a bike for £2 for 24 hours. I've read their T and C and seen nothing to state anything other than this

They really don't state that, not even slightly. Confused

As others said, the purpose of this scheme is you hire rhe bike, ride it some where, dock it. Bikes are available for everyone. It is not a scheme so you don't have to buy your kid a bike and can hire one instead. If it was two quid a day there would be no bikes, folks would just keep them for days on end.

BertieBotts · 18/09/2019 15:52

I would write explaining you were confused and see if they will reduce your bill as a courtesy. Yes you were charged according to their pricing structure, but presumably you wouldn't have used it that way if you'd have realisrd. They can only say no?

verticality · 18/09/2019 15:52

"No, that's not what the bikes are for. If everyone took them home overnight there'd be none for anyone else to use! "

I think part of the issue may be that other bike schemes elsewhere in the country work very differently. With Ofo, for example, you could just leave the bike in the street outside your house. And it was something like 50p for half and hour and there was a cap of a fiver a day, or thereabouts.

Original poster
jobbinggogger · 18/09/2019 15:55

I think I won't call any more I was in a rush and didn't read the T and C's clearly however I didn't see the extra cost mentioned and was at a docking bay not online. I too, think they should clearly state £2 per half hour as the way it is written now could be construed as being misleading. So I have accepted my YABU!

OP posts:
FiddlesticksAkimbo · 18/09/2019 15:56

You most likely haven't deprived anyone by having this bike so I think feeling unhappy about it is perfectly reasonable.

She definitely did deprive someone else! They are in massive demand. The pricing structure is deliberately punitive against people monopolising one bike all day. The underlying idea of bike-sharing schemes is that we all share them. There are docking stations all over central London. When you're not using the bike you need to leave it at a docking station so someone else has the use of it, rather than hogging it. Next time you need to make a trip you go back to the docking station and take one of the bikes there.

Bluntness100 · 18/09/2019 15:58

It should be very clear at the point of sale what the costs are, if it wasn't for any reason then I feel you have a reasonable case

But it is very clear at rhe docking station. The op has accepted she didn't read it, but to be fair to tfl, it's beyond clear. You can google images of rhe docking station signs if you are unsure. Also what rhe screens show.