Faulty Annual Ticket

mikedragon32

My wife's annual bus and rail ticket stopped working in the machines on the bus and in the train station recently, meaning she needs to have someone let her through at the train stations.

I asked her could she look into getting it replaced and she was told that there would probably be a charge for it.

Can CIE/IE/DB charge for replacement of a ticket that is faulty? I know they do charge for replacement of lost tickets, but it would seem to me that the ticket should be capable of working for the 12 months it's valid and not for the 10 weeks or so that it has worked.

She hasn't had it in her wallet with credit cards etc, so it's not possible that it became demagnetised through her storage of it. She normally keeps it in the wallet it came in, which is always in her coat pocket with nothing else.

MarkoP11

There is no charge

Either visit Dublin Bus on O'Connell Street or ask at a large station for the replacement form. Fill in the form and they will send the ticket to the station of your choice you then swap the ticket for its replacement, well thats what is meant to happen

It is important to keep the ticket protected, that said one dodgy ticket reader could have damaged it

Yakuza

The same thing happened mine last year (with about 4 months left to run on it) - I just ended up showing it to the drivers, which was fine most of the time.

My current one doesn't work on some of the newer DART station ones either, again I think it's a function of age.

I keep it in the wallet they send with your card, but putting it in and out of the ticket reader 4 times a day, 5 days a week is bound to wear it out eventually.

RFID technology is the way to go (Is that what they have for LUAS tickets?)

MarkoP11

Yakuza wrote:

RFID technology is the way to go (Is that what they have for LUAS tickets?)

All the buses are fitted currently for the smartcard project, but they need ministerial approval to use them

The new IE ticket barriers are also fitted

No one has yet produced a RFID card with a mag stripe that is thin enough though it is being worked on in the UK

markpb

mikedragon32 wrote:

Can CIE/IE/DB charge for replacement of a ticket that is faulty? I know they do charge for replacement of lost tickets, but it would seem to me that the ticket should be capable of working for the 12 months it's valid and not for the 10 weeks or so that it has worked.

My girlfriend's annual bus ticket died after just 25 days of service. Kept in its own pocket, nowhere near phones or other such devious devices. It looks like a faulty bus reader which rejected it also chewed it up in the process because it never worked again.

On the upside, DB HQ replaced it on the spot which is great if you can make it into their pretty useless opening hours.

MarkoP11 wrote:

No one has yet produced a RFID card with a mag stripe that is thin enough though it is being worked on in the UK

Why would you need to put a magstripe onto a contactless smartcard?

daymobrew

MarkoP11 wrote:

No one has yet produced a RFID card with a mag stripe that is thin enough though it is being worked on in the UK

In work we have Java Cards that have a mag stripe, smart chip (like Chip&Pin bank cards) and a proximity portion. Same size as a credit card and certainly a lot more durable than the paper tickets that CIE uses.

(The smart chip is also used to access the SunRay thin client systems).

John R

The annual bus/rail tickets are plastic not paper so they are more solid than the rest of the range, problem is the mag readers on the buses particularly are quite old and worn out. They also get a lot of use and abuse.

Using stiff credit card type tickets and flexible card ones in the same mag stripe reader would be problematic.

Really the contactless system needs to be brought into use asap. All the hardware is in place, there is no reason the current range of bus/rail/luas annual and monthly tickets cannot be swapped over to it now except for petty politicking. The integrated PAYG system can then be introduced whenever it is sorted.

parsi

Probably the best course is to ring the ticket provider.

mikedragon32 wrote:

Far too often it happens that people come on looking for advice when the most obvious course of action is to find out directly from the carrier/tour company whatever. Clearly, if the person raising the query knows how to post on a forum, it can't be much of a leap to check the airline's website for the info or find a number to call to get the info.

mikedragon32

Seeing as you're in the mood for quoting my posts, you seem to have made the same error as Kensutz... Read the OP properly...

she was told that there would probably be a charge for it

This was after a call to IE, who were vague about getting a replacement. But thanks for your concern, Parsi.

parsi

Ah good man. So you got a vague reply, possibly couldn't be bothered to try again and see if someone who could answer the question could be found, and then checked with a forum to see what other people's experiences were.

Nowt wrong there.

Nowt wrong with other folk checking with a forum in the knowledge that a possibly lengthy phone call will lead to vague and unattributable replies.