Bus driver wouldn't let my dad on bus aibu to think he is a jobsworth?

[oohopo]

My dad is 85.
He has a bus pass.
He was coming to my house last night for tea.
He got on bus and his pass wouldn't work (it has a tiny rip in)
It was valid for two years still.
Normally you tap your pass and they let you on.
Obviously when he was tapping it wasn't registering.
So he had to get off and go home to get his wallet.
He was coming to mine so didn't think he needed anything but his pass.

It made zero difference to that bus driver
Aibu to think it's a shitty thing to do to a elderly man.

Good old fashioned power trip. Some people are so petty and nasty. Imagine being the Bus God.

DD forgot her bus pass the other day and did not have money with her.

She was late for school. Her fault. (Despite me reminding her over and over)

Buses are overcrowded and I do not want her to expect exceptions for her just because she is young and in a uniform.

"coming for tea" is the same as an 8.30 school bus. It is not dangerous and the driver will beliable for all sorts. Not least keeping his job.

Christ the number of OAPs that would not wear/refused to wear masks was unbelievable last year. I am in Spain and it is law, still now.

@DoubleBuggyDriver Why do you get special treatment just because you’re old….

I have no words.

It's a bit of an inconvenience having to nip back home and get your wallet but Christ on a bike it's not exactly the end of the world. Some of the posters on this thread are wanging on like OPs dad was left in the middle of nowhere at 3am in the pissing rain. He wasn't. He was presumably a few minutes walk from his own front door.

Yes maybe the bus driver could have made an exception but talk about making a mountain out of a molehill.

Cash would be no good in London. Contactless only. Which also means that unless another passenger had a second card they couldn’t have paid for him. The drivers show discredit though- my card randomly stopped working the other week and I was waved on.

If he's that vulnerable then why is he catching buses in the dark alone? Being old doesn't make him automatically in need of being treated as incapable of following the rules

@SleepingStandingUp he isn't incapable of following rules -his buss pass had a small tare in that he didn't notice
The bus driver chose to not let him on when he clearly could tell he had a bus pass which allowed him to travel

What a shitehawk. Damn right I'd complain, your poor dad.

Also till was a 10 min walk to bus stop so not exactly 2 mins
30 mins in total

My Mother is in her 90s and used to go shopping in her local market town with her trolley, she would walk to town and get the bus back( about 2 miles away). One morning she was waiting in the bus queue at the front with about 10 other people when the bus came she got on it and the bus driver shouted at her to get off because he didn't want her trolley on there. She was so flustered and embarrassed she started crying because couldn't work out what she'd done wrong, not one person in that queue helped her and she was left standing at the bus stop alone. She walked home and never used the bus again. She didn't mention it for months and didn't want anybody to complain as she'd convinced herself someone from the bus company would come to her home and tell her off.

That's obv awful but if the bus had been on time, the lad still might not have caught it, or if the traffic lights had gone differently the bus may have been another few minutes late and it would have been too late. Where do you draw the line if you don't want a service free to all without exception? So all kids can get on without a pass, what about women given the risks of being attacked as per the lady who was a penny short on her fare? So also any women should be permitted free travel without a pass. And seemingly anyone who looks old. So we're just charging men aged 18-65 now?

I absolutely love stories like this! What a decent bus driver.

But if my pass didn't scan despite being in date, no one would think I, able bodied middle aged women, should travel regardless. It would be "well you should have made sure your pass worked first!"

And tbf, I've said upthread they should be able to punch it in manually, and I've def seen drivers use their descretion on a balance of probability of being inspected. Which is good and it would have been the kind thing to let him travel. But I don't think it's "sack the bstrd" event either like some people are making out.

@oohopo are you in London? It's definitely against the guidance so I would complain/feedback to TfL or the bus operator

Email the Bus Co's CS.

That driver needs his hat straightened.

YANBU. My lucky friends in London with their over 60s passes say that trying to use it even an hour or so before it's valid generally elicits an eye roll and 'go on, then'. They are referred to as 'Twirlies'.

Actually can't believe @Mariposista that you think that being abusive to someone because they don't give away free produce is something to be applauded!

What actually happened?

Was it that the bus driver said
"oh, your pass doesn't scan"
and your dad offered to get off and return home.
Or the bus driver demanded he leave forthwith.

What happens when the scanner doesn’t work? There must be another way to register him on the bus.

also, there was a tiny tear but what if there was no tear and it was a fault with his pass, would they let him on then as they have supplied sub standard passes?

I’m honestly shocked at the amount of people that are saying the bus driver was right. Fair enough if he had no pass with him but he did.

back in my day we used to show the pass to the driver and he used to use his eye balls to look at it and there was no drama! maybe we should go back to that if people are unable to use their common sense.

I would definitely get in touch with the bus company letting them know what happened. Maybe they need to update their staff training/terms and conditions.

Basically he got on tried to tap his pass several times wouldn't work
Driver told him to take it out of cover said it wouldn't work
Took it off him and showed him small tare
Then said he would have to pay /my dad said he didn't have any money on him
He said he couldn't travel

Needlessly nasty. I'd be straight into the bus company's social media with date, time, route, etc.
Your poor dad.

@Georgieporgie29 I'm shocked too how many people are agreeing with the driver.

There is no way he would have got sacked for letting the man on. I mean can you imagine him going to the papers after. The bus company and the Bosses would have been ripped apart.

I do think some posters (and the twatty driver) would argue for the sake of it.

I’d email just to make aware. Lots of new drivers near us. I’d suspect driver told not to
let on if doesn’t scan but actually company policy is a bit of discretion. It’s probably a training issue.

I agree the overall nice thing to do would be to let your DF on the bus.
But I have worked in the past for bus companies (not as a driver). A few points why these situations happen. One, people do not realise how many times a day this happens to bus drivers. Every person thinks it's just them and it's a unique situation. Bus drivers deal with a lot of abuse because of this. Hundreds of people would be getting on everyday collectively if they were to let everyone one who didn't have a pass to scan. This would cost the companies a lot of money as they claim it back.
Second in the area I worked in a card not scanning could very well be because it was reported lost or stolen and hence the card is cancelled and should not be accepted by the driver. Not sure if the driver realised the cars was damaged or not. But he may have had this in his mind. I know there is a photo on them but this is still the case. Unfortunately people use to purposely report their pass stolen to give the replacement card to others.

Bus drivers tell people to get off of the bus ALL THE TIME. As I said before, I’m not sure if it’s because I’m in London and I see this happening multiple time a week but literally don’t see the problem.

You say common decency so should all bus drivers let everyone on who’s pass doesn’t work for whatever reason? You’re annoyed at the driver for not doing your dad a favour by letting him on. The bus driver really didn’t do anything wrong here