"Leap" into the unknown: The feedback thread

AlekSmart

lxflyer wrote: »

Right, frankly I am not going to bother answering this.

You know exactly what I meant.

Spending ages to come up with a situation to catch someone out on a technicality that would occur very rarely seems to give you a lot of amusement based on reading your posts. Personally I would suggest that it's rather sad.

Go and look at the LEAP card website and you will find the answer to that question - which you clearly already have done.

You were wrong on the main point - auto-top up does work on Dublin Bus.

This final point really does need to be reinforced by Leapcard in it's PR stuff.

By far and away the biggest obstacle to it's expansion is the Banking end of the business and the significant amounts being sought.

€10 is far too high a trigger point and €30 is too much a minimum top-up.

Halve these amounts and you will get far more signing up for it.

Seaswimmer

AlekSmart wrote: »

This final point really does need to be reinforced by Leapcard in it's PR stuff.

By far and away the biggest obstacle to it's expansion is the Banking end of the business and the significant amounts being sought.

€10 is far too high a trigger point and €30 is too much a minimum top-up.

Halve these amounts and you will get far more signing up for it.

Depending on what bank you are in it can also be difficult to set up. For example when I put in my EBS BIC and IBAN details I get a pop up message warning me the bank is not in their database. I go ahead anyway and then in my account statement when I get the small credit amount transferred I can never see the last 6 digits of the code.

I then have to ring EBS, log a ticket and after a couple of days I get a call back with the final 6 digits.

Why can a credit card not be used for auto top up as opposed to a direct debit??

LXFlyer

AlekSmart wrote: »

This final point really does need to be reinforced by Leapcard in it's PR stuff.

By far and away the biggest obstacle to it's expansion is the Banking end of the business and the significant amounts being sought.

€10 is far too high a trigger point and €30 is too much a minimum top-up.

Halve these amounts and you will get far more signing up for it.

The problem is Alek that only one direct debit can be made within any 5 day period - anyone travelling around Dublin on a regular basis would require more than that.


The amounts are set at the levels that they are to cover the weekly cap for travelling around Dublin (€40).

MOH

lxflyer wrote: »

The problem is Alek that only one direct debit can be made within any 5 day period - anyone travelling around Dublin on a regular basis would require more than that.


The amounts are set at the levels that they are to cover the weekly cap for travelling around Dublin (€40).

I don't travel around Dublin on a regular basis. And there's no way I'm happy to have €40 permanently allocated to my leap card. Even when I was getting the bus to work every day I'd never come near the weekly cap.

So give people the choice, let frequent users choose higher trigger/topup amounts, and occasional users a lower amount.

bk

AngryLips wrote: »

Did anyone else get invited for the trial for the leap NFC app? You can do an instant top-up through NFC on your phone ...probably the only time I've seen this tech being used for anything on a smartphone.

No, but at last, that is fantastic news.

Though it won't work on iPhone and many android phones don't have NFC either. But certainly a step in the right direction.

Where did you hear this?

I'd love to get on the trial.

LXFlyer

MOH wrote: »

I don't travel around Dublin on a regular basis. And there's no way I'm happy to have €40 permanently allocated to my leap card. Even when I was getting the bus to work every day I'd never come near the weekly cap.

So give people the choice, let frequent users choose higher trigger/topup amounts, and occasional users a lower amount.

Well then don't get the auto top-up. Just top up at a shop whenever you need to.

Auto top-up is really designed for regular users.

Stevek101

Don't get what everyone issue is with the 30 euro. I'm in low paid employment but don't have an issue, I'm spending 27.50 a week anyway doesn't really make a difference having to have 30 in the account especially when you get an email a few days before the debit.

Alun

AngryLips wrote: »

Did anyone else get invited for the trial for the leap NFC app? You can do an instant top-up through NFC on your phone ...probably the only time I've seen this tech being used for anything on a smartphone.

Is that using the NFC on your phone to top-up a Leap card, or using your phone as a Leap Card? Either way it's a improvement.

Van.Bosch

bk wrote: »

No, but at last, that is fantastic news.

Though it won't work on iPhone and many android phones don't have NFC either. But certainly a step in the right direction.

Where did you hear this?

I'd love to get on the trial.

I got invited too but don't have android. Mail below for anyone interested:





We would like to offer you the chance to be the first to trial our exciting new app for NFC-enabled Android Smart Phones - Leap Top-Up!

The app allows you to instantly top-up your Leap Card, collect pre-purchased tickets and check your card balance details, all at the tip of your fingers!

All who take part in the trial will be entered into a draw to win €100 Leap Card travel credit.

What do you need?

• An NFC-enabled Android smartphone running v4.4KitKat or later
• A Google Play store account
• A Leap Card

How to get involved?

If you would like to download the trial App, simply reply to this email now and let us know the email address associated with your Google Play account and we’ll send you the link to download the app from the Google Play store.

Once the trial period is finished, we will ask you to provide feedback on your experience which will be used to ensure the App offers the best experience when we officially launch to the wider public.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Kind regards,
Leap Card Top-Up App Team

markpb

Alun wrote:

Is that using the NFC on your phone to top-up a Leap card, or using your phone as a Leap Card? Either way it's a improvement.

The former.

bk

lxflyer wrote: »

Well then don't get the auto top-up. Just top up at a shop whenever you need to.

Auto top-up is really designed for regular users.

I have to disagree with that, I actually think it is best suited to infrequent users.

Frequent users should be on tax saver tickets or monthly tickets.

It is the person who might use the bus once or twice a week who most benefits from it.

And no, just go use a shop isn't the answer as there might not be a shop close by.

I see it all the time with my girlfriend. A broke student, so can't afford €40 of auto-topup and then she is always forgetting what the balance on her card is and ends up having to switch to routing in her purse for change, holding the whole bus up and costing her more money.

I see it happening all the time and the whole system is broken. It would be so easy to fix with newer ticket machines that allowed for online top-ups on the bus.

I'm delighted to see the NFC app coming, I'll try to get her on the trial, she has a NFC enabled phone.

devnull

bk wrote: »

I have to disagree with that, I actually think it is best suited to infrequent users.

Frequent users should be on tax saver tickets or monthly tickets.

Not necessarily it depends on your fares day to day, for those who take one bus or train in the morning and evening, it can be cheaper to use the e-purse, as well as for some people who transfer modes due to leap 90 discount possibly offering better savings than the multi-operator taxsaver ticket.

JohnPPP

Possible to change a normal leap card to a personalised one? (without getting a brand new one?). Would like to keep my current balance etc.

the groutch

Hypothetical question.

Although it's impractical, could someone get a city centre fare for 60c, get off after one stop, and then do their planned journey on another bus with the €1 Leap90 discount, giving a net saving of 40c?

LXFlyer

the groutch wrote: »

Hypothetical question.

Although it's impractical, could someone get a city centre fare for 60c, get off after one stop, and then do their planned journey on another bus with the €1 Leap90 discount, giving a net saving of 40c?

No - in that case you would only get a €0.60 discount.


In other words, the city centre trip would be free.

wench

lxflyer wrote: »

No - in that case you would only get a €0.60 discount.


In other words, the city centre trip would be free.

Actually, you get the full €1 off, even if the first journey is the city centre fare.

ailbheg

wench wrote: »

Actually, you get the full €1 off, even if the first journey is the city centre fare.

Not according to this. https://about.leapcard.ie/leap-90

wench

ailbheg wrote: »

Not according to this. https://about.leapcard.ie/leap-90

That page says that the discount is limited if the second journey is the city centre fare, not the first.

Where the second trip is for a fare that is less than €1, the discount will equal the lower amount. E.G. if the second trip is a city centre fare for 60 cents, the discount will be 60 cents.

From my own leapcard history, the €2.05 fare clearly got the full discount:

25/10/2015 8:58 PM Dublin Bus Travel Credit Deduction -€0.60 €29.83
25/10/2015 9:10 PM Dublin Bus Travel Credit Deduction -€1.05 €28.78

devnull

If I were you, I wouldn't have posted it

Very early in leap 90 there was a bug where if you went into an Irish Rail station, tagged on and tagged off at the same station within 5 minutes, you'd still get a €1 discount on the bus.

However what you're saying raises an interesting case since it means it could be in-fact in some cases cheaper to get a city centre fare, then at the end of the city centre zone ask for another fare from the driver without getting off, rather than paying once?

That is clearly a loophole, you should never get a discount of higher than you paid in the first place. There is numerous ways to abuse it.

EG: I get on a bus in the knowledge that one bus on the same route is a short while behind. I pay 60c and get off next stop and get on the second bus and pay €1.05 + the 60c I already paid = total of €1.65 rather than €2.05.

That's without taking into account I could possibly travel a few stages further as well than I could if I just paid €2.05

AngryLips

bk wrote: »

No, but at last, that is fantastic news.

Though it won't work on iPhone and many android phones don't have NFC either. But certainly a step in the right direction.

Where did you hear this?

I'd love to get on the trial.

I got an email inviting me to trial it. I'll report my experience of using it once I actually get a chance to use it, I have a monthly ticket on my card with two weeks left so probably won't get to top up on it for some time.

In other news: does anyone know if, when you purchase a 30 day rambler ticket, do you need to wait for the tickets to be exhausted because you can buy another 30 day ticket? Will the second purchase get added to your existing unused amount or will it overwrite it?

Frank Grimes

AngryLips wrote: »

In other news: does anyone know if, when you purchase a 30 day rambler ticket, do you need to wait for the tickets to be exhausted because you can buy another 30 day ticket? Will the second purchase get added to your existing unused amount or will it overwrite it?

No you don't need to wait until the existing one gets used up, the second rambler will be there as a separate ticket that will kick in once the previous one is used up. E.g. if you have two days left on the existing one, when you buy another it won't show you have 32 days remaining but once you use up those two days the new one will come into use. I think you can have a maximum of five products on a card, lxflyer can confirm this - I only ever have two ramblers on mine at any given time.

bk

Oh... I see they have updated the website. I haven't gone through it in detail, but at a glance it looks much nicer, cleaner and more modern now. Good job. Also it looks well on a mobile browser.

However when you log into your account, it looks like they are still using basically the same pages as the old website. That could certainly do with a clean up and re-org.

I'm glad to see that they have added an "Settle Auto Top-up" section, I had a massive headache with this just two months ago, when my auto-topup direct debit didn't go through due to bank account issues. I ended up having to print off a doc, fill in banking details, etc. and sending them my leap card to get it unlocked. Was a mad, stupid process in this day and age! Hopefully this new section fixes this.

Also claiming a refund if you forget to tag-off Luas/Dart is still too complicated. You have to contact Luas or IR. It would be more user friendly if you could submit a claim through the leap card website, like I see in other countries with similar systems (e.g. Amsterdam).

On the whole, some nice steps in the right direction.

Dravokivich

You'll still need to post the card back. The "Settle Auto Top-up" only allows you to pay.

bk

Dravokivich wrote: »

You'll still need to post the card back. The "Settle Auto Top-up" only allows you to pay.

Jeeze!!! That is terrible!!

I can't understand why you have to send the card back. Surely if you pay online, you should be able to simply unblock it by doing a balance check in a store or IE/Luas ticket machine.

Yet another broken, partly thought out Leap process :mad:

At least you can pay online now.

Also I see there is no way to change your direct debit details online! You have to fill in a form and send it to them!!

Hello!! It isn't the year 2000 any more!

bk

Interesting to note, that the company developing this NFC app, ViX, also develop public transport payment systems that work by EMV (contactless debit and credit cards) and mobile phone payments (i.e. Apple Pay).

Hopefully an indication that these might be coming too soon:

http://www.vixtechnology.com/

aine92

Hello folks, quick question I hope someone can answer. I've been snooping on the website and I want to make sure of something; if I have a student leap card and I use both the Dart and the bus everyday, my weekly usage will be capped at €40? Does this sound right?

TIA!!

Taco Chips

With a student leap card, the multi mode cap per week is €30 from Mon-Sun. So Bus + Dart should cap at that automatically.

Source: https://about.leapcard.ie/fare-capping

bg07

I tried it as part of the trial. Straight forward functionality with a simple design.

You top up easily and load tickets purchased online etc but cant buy tickets directly with the app (yet anyway)

It still has glitches though. With my phone anyway every time I connect to my card I have to turn NFC on the phone and the app on and to get it to work again.

JohnPPP

Taco Chips wrote: »

With a student leap card, the multi mode cap per week is €30 from Mon-Sun. So Bus + Dart should cap at that automatically.

Source: https://about.leapcard.ie/fare-capping

Is there a cap for all services or only some? Eg. Bus eireann?

Mario95

bg07 wrote: »

I tried it as part of the trial. Straight forward functionality with a simple design.

You top up easily and load tickets purchased online etc but cant buy tickets directly with the app (yet anyway)

It still has glitches though. With my phone anyway every time I connect to my card I have to turn NFC on the phone and the app on and to get it to work again.

Does it let you use your phone as leap card, or is it just a simple top up app?