Dublin Bus Customer Service

WexCan

Prompted by two recent threads about DB's customer service, thought it might be interesting to see how people rate them.

Vote based on your overall experience with DB, including drivers, depot staff, public affairs (complaints), inspectors etc etc. Usual customer service crap: how satisfied are you?

MrPudding

I am completely unhappy.

What are we talking about here? Are we talking about the drivers or calling in to make a complaint? If it is the drivers then there seem to be a lot of assholes. If it is calling in to make a complaint I have only done it once. I was not impressed in the slightest but will not form an opinion based on one experience.

MrP

Red Alert

Neutral.

tbh you will generally fair better with the garage controllers rather than with those thick dumbo's in O'Connell Street.

WexCan

I am completely unhappy.

I'm talking about your experience as a DB customer in general, all inclusive. Think of it as points based - one bad experience, lose points, lots of good experiences, gain points.

subway

OK most of the time.

ive posted that i love em.
over the years i have been well treated and served by many different bus drivers on many different routes.

yes,
ive had bad experiences with certain drivers,
but with so many routes, shifts and buses theres bound to one bad egg so to speak.

tbh,
if our company kept that many people happy over that extended period of time every day we,d all be bloody milionaires

enterprise

OK most of the time.

Any time I have emailed Dublin Bus over issues I have had with either service or bus drivers the reply I have got (usually within 24 hours) has been excellent.

WexCan

I am completely unhappy.

Red Alert wrote:

tbh you will generally fair better with the garage controllers rather than with those thick dumbo's in O'Connell Street.

How'dya figure? Not challenging, just wondering

Turner

OK most of the time.

I voted "Love em"

Because when i get on the bus i..

* Say hello to the driver and mind my own business
* Have the exact change ready even before I catch sight of the bus

Major point is im organised and I mind my own business.

Only interaction i should have with the bus driver is to say hello, state where im going and goodbye and thanks when getting off.

I dont expect any response however, he is dealing with the public all day; from the lowest of the low inbred scumbag to the poshest snooty nosed doo-gooder. Depending on the route he can be held up or have rocks thrown at his bus.

Ray777

Neutral.

I agree. I voted "Ok most of the time". Dublin Bus is far from perfect, but in fairness, they are forced to operate within an awful infrastructure and under a completely uncooperative and incompetent government. I can only guess that some of the people who voted "I am completely unhappy" did so because they have a rose-tinted view of privatisation and others because they are the type of awkward gits who are just never happy with anything.

MiniD

They get on my nerves.

Awful "customer service" on Suffolk Street yesterday evening... two VT ( extra long tri axel) buses pull into the stop to let passengers off. Our no.10 bus pulls in behind them to let passengers off too, bear in mind the No. 10 (AV30) is now about 80 ft. from the stop behind the two VT buses, one or two passengers spot the no.10 and run down the get on, but the rest of the passengers at the stop don't see the bus. So, as the two VT 46A buses pull away from the stop the passengers see their bus approaching and put out their hand, but the driver who has already let off his passengers just drives past them, even though the people at the stop have their hands out.
This sort of thing really annoys me, I usually defend Dublin Bus as they have a lot of crap to deal with but incidents like this just really frustrate me!

cgf

Neutral.

Voted OK.

Some of the drivers are ignorant but the majority are fine. They have improved over the last few years.

The passengers are the problem now - try sitting upstairs on a 77/77a from city centre to tallaght. Makes some of the cafes in Amsterdam look like convents - I'm not impartial to the odd spliff myself but there is a time and a place....

WexCan

I am completely unhappy.

cgf wrote:

Voted OK.

Some of the drivers are ignorant but the majority are fine. They have improved over the last few years.

The passengers are the problem now - try sitting upstairs on a 77/77a from city centre to tallaght. Makes some of the cafes in Amsterdam look like convents - I'm not impartial to the odd spliff myself but there is a time and a place....

Happens on most routes with double decker buses - it's not just a mild annoyance, it's damn intimidating. When I'm on a bus I like to keep to myself and do whatever I'm doing - reading, listening to music, etc etc.

Got the no 7 into the CC this morning, 9am, and there was a drunk guy sitting at the back yelling out at anyone who stood up. A small sample:

"Fcek ih she's gorgeous, come on back here and I'll give yeh a ride!"
"Tha one looks like a faggeh!"
"Would yeh look ah him wih his suit, who the fcek does he tink he's kiddin'"

Blah blah blah. At 9 in the morning, remember. Driver didn't do a thing despite the fact that the guy could be heard all over the bus and was yelling out the windows as well.

But I digress...

Red Alert

Neutral.

the driver didn't want a punch in the face from someone.

the 'suits' in o'connell street like their ubiquitous PRO Grainne Macken know little about bus services - you'll get the same response no matter what the criticism. any time i've rung donnybrook for an explanation about anything they've been quite uprfront about it and said the bus didn't go or whatever.

spareman

Neutral.

Driver didn't do a thing despite the fact that the guy could be heard all over the bus and was yelling out the windows as well.

What do you think the driver should have done in this situation?

bullrunner

spareman wrote:

What do you think the driver should have done in this situation?

hes got 2 options..1 ignore the situation (which it sounds like he did)
or 2 ask the person to stop being abusive. If that fails contact the garage and get them to have a garda meet him somewhere and remove the person


i have to say i've had multiple bad experiences with DB...ranging from them closing doors on my girlfriend as she is trying to board the bus to buses (clearly not full) refusing to stop for passengers at bus stops to drivers just being plain ignorant to customers (ie screaming at people to move down the f*ckin back as theres plenty of room to just not turning up on schedule)

spareman

Neutral.

bullrunner wrote:

hes got 2 options..1 ignore the situation (which it sounds like he did)
or 2 ask the person to stop being abusive. If that fails contact the garage and get them to have a garda meet him somewhere and remove the person


i have to say i've had multiple bad experiences with DB...ranging from them closing doors on my girlfriend as she is trying to board the bus to buses (clearly not full) refusing to stop for passengers at bus stops to drivers just being plain ignorant to customers (ie screaming at people to move down the f*ckin back as theres plenty of room to just not turning up on schedule)

The driver is not allowed to leave the cab, so do you think he should shout down the bus to this fella, and tell him to get off?
What do you think the drunken guy will do then? hop off?
Option 2 is better I use this one myself, I dont bother talking to the passenger as this usually agrevates them, I just get control to call the Guards, although the Garda are not always their to meet me. maybe I was the Bus driver and the Guards didnt turn up??????

As regards to your own problems with Dublin bus, Ive seen many a passenger get struck by closing doors, they seem to have a habit of jumping into them as they are closing like there life depended on catching that bus, once the doors begin to close the driver cannot always stop them, although if the passenger was standing in the doorway when the driver pressed the button he obviously didnt look at the doors when pressing the button, anyway maybe this will help some people here understand why they dont use the rear doors. if people get struck by the front doors and they are easier for the driver to see.

Explain what you mean by clearly not full?
Drivers should not have to tell passengers to move down the back or sit upstairs, should they? I mean if 3 people get on and decide to stand, the next person gets on and stands too, then theres 20 people standing and empty upstairs? maybe this is what you mean by clearly not full?

As for the schedule thing, most of us know about the traffic situation here in Dublin, for those that dont, OPEN your eyes. Dublin bus send the buses out after that they have little or no control over them getting to destinations on time, the problem here is if they allow extra time for buses to make journeys the frecency is reduced, and when the traffic is light all the buses will be sitting at the terminus, if you know a way to solve this problem, let me know and I can suggest it to management and take all the credit.

Propellerhead

I am completely unhappy.

spareman wrote:

As regards to your own problems with Dublin bus, Ive seen many a passenger get struck by closing doors, they seem to have a habit of jumping into them as they are closing like there life depended on catching that bus, once the doors begin to close the driver cannot always stop them, although if the passenger was standing in the doorway when the driver pressed the button he obviously didnt look at the doors when pressing the button, anyway maybe this will help some people here understand why they dont use the rear doors. if people get struck by the front doors and they are easier for the driver to see.

Dublin is unique in my experience - I haven't been anywhere else where if you miss a bus on some routes you can have up to an hour to wait, and more.

As for not using the centre doors - there must be a thesis in tabulating all the excuses that DB people have come up with throughout the years.

Red Alert

Neutral.

Ok to the centre-door fan, the basic problem is the opening the centre doors can make the bus sit down and die essentially. I remember not so long ago being on an RA bus in Dundrum where the driver opened the centre doors. Result was that the bus sat down and refused to move afterwards. Unlike the front doors, the centre doors have an interlock which stops the bus from moving (i'm not sure whether it's by blocking the handbrake release or forcing the gearbox into neutral). because centre doors aren't used a lot, and realistically don't need to be on most routes, the sensors aren't in great shape. therefore it's generally better not to use them.

on another note, i was on the 10 bus into town yesterday at about half one. the driver was a very mannerly and friendly youngish man, i'd say from the middle-east. as we pulled into o'connell street, this woman attempted to board the bus along with some other people. it wasn't even at a stop (i think he'd pulled out from the stop or else had the doors open, not sure because i didn't really notice what was going on). she then began giving out stink that she'd been waiting hours, not true as i'm beside the 10 terminus belfield and they go like clockwork. he said she didn't get on a stop or something to that effect and that she could get off. she said she wouldn't, demanded his name and address. he told her to write down the bus's number. at this stage she was screaming blue murder and began roaring about missing an appointment. she then threw some coins into the autofare and demanded he give her a ticket, which he wouldn't. he stopped the bus engine and asked that she leave. she wouldn't and then just walked down and sat in the seat behind the standing area (it was an AV bus). he apologised to the passengers and said he'd ring control. as the rest of us got pissed off with her, she roared 'thanks for your support' and stormed off. that's the sort of piggy customers the drivers have to put up with, what an absolute bitch!

markpb

Red Alert wrote:

Unlike the front doors, the centre doors have an interlock which stops the bus from moving (i'm not sure whether it's by blocking the handbrake release or forcing the gearbox into neutral). because centre doors aren't used a lot, and realistically don't need to be on most routes, the sensors aren't in great shape. therefore it's generally better not to use them.

The fact is that multi-door operation would speed up bus services by reducing dwell time. Many other cities around the world know this and have two, or even three sets of doors on each bus. The report on the DB website whichis nearly six years old (http://www.dublinbus.ie/about_us/pdf/swilson.pdf) clearly states that.

If there's a mechanical problem with the buses, it should be fixed. Hand wringing and saying its not DBs fault will get us nowhere.

WexCan

I am completely unhappy.

Just wondering, who's responsibility is it to maintain order on the bus?

@spareman, driver's can't leave the cab - I've been on many buses where the driver has got out for various reasons, even to run into a shop.

bullrunner

spareman wrote:

The driver is not allowed to leave the cab, so do you think he should shout down the bus to this fella, and tell him to get off?
What do you think the drunken guy will do then? hop off?
Option 2 is better I use this one myself, I dont bother talking to the passenger as this usually agrevates them, I just get control to call the Guards, although the Garda are not always their to meet me. maybe I was the Bus driver and the Guards didnt turn up??????.

Of course the drivers are allowed to leave their cabs..Also if he didnt want to he can use the intercom on the bus.

spareman wrote:

As regards to your own problems with Dublin bus, Ive seen many a passenger get struck by closing doors, they seem to have a habit of jumping into them as they are closing like there life depended on catching that bus, once the doors begin to close the driver cannot always stop them, although if the passenger was standing in the doorway when the driver pressed the button he obviously didnt look at the doors when pressing the button, anyway maybe this will help some people here understand why they dont use the rear doors. if people get struck by the front doors and they are easier for the driver to see.

In this case my girlfriend was getting on behind me and the driver closed the door on her as she was getting on...not her 'jumping into ' the door like her life depended on catching the bus...the driver also never even bothered to apologise , let alone see if she was ok!

spareman wrote:

Explain what you mean by clearly not full?
Drivers should not have to tell passengers to move down the back or sit upstairs, should they? I mean if 3 people get on and decide to stand, the next person gets on and stands too, then theres 20 people standing and empty upstairs? maybe this is what you mean by clearly not full?

What i mean by clearly not full is that it is obvious (even to the most ignorant stupid DB driver) that there is space..seats downstairs , seats upstairs..room to stand...that kinda thing

Or like this morning...i had 2 half empty bus fail to stop for me and 2 full buses pass me by ...maybe if the 2 half empty buses had stopped then the 2 others wouldnt have been full to capacity.

KC61

bullrunner wrote:

Of course the drivers are allowed to leave their cabs.

Dublin Bus company policy in the event of a disturbance on the bus is that the driver is NOT allowed to leave the cab. They must contact garage control and request either a Dublin Bus inspector or the gardai.

Red Alert

Neutral.

if anything happens the driver as a result of leaving his cab (e.g. scumbag does the only thing his thick head knows and hits the driver), the driver is on his own as regards insurance and the company won't be liable.

spareman

Neutral.

bullrunner wrote:

Or like this morning...i had 2 half empty bus fail to stop for me and 2 full buses pass me by ...maybe if the 2 half empty buses had stopped then the 2 others wouldnt have been full to capacity.

I find this hard to believe, 4 buses passed you by without stopping then?
Were you at a bus stop?
Was it the correct bus stop for the bus you wanted?
Did you signal to the bus to stop in good time by extending your left arm out straight?
Were you drinking a can of beer at the time?

MiniD

They get on my nerves.

spareman wrote:

I find this hard to believe, 4 buses passed you by without stopping then?
Were you at a bus stop?
Was it the correct bus stop for the bus you wanted?
Did you signal to the bus to stop in good time by extending your left arm out straight?
Were you drinking a can of beer at the time?

Spareman, I have been on many buses where the driver refuses to stop because he thinks the bus is full. I have been sitting upstairs on a half full top deck, but because the driver sees people standing downstairs he assumes the bus is full. All drivers either have a mirror or a television screen in the cab to monitor the top deck, so i can only assume the driver is not bothered in utilizing the full capicity of the bus.
I have also seen drivers remove the number from the front of the bus on approaching a busy stop so he wouldn't have to pick up passengers.

While I understand the reason behind Dublin Bus not allowing a driver exit his cab, this is a worrying factor for passengers. Can anyone give details of how many inspectors actually travel around the Dublin Bus network, and I don't mean on-street supervisors, but the inspectors who check tickets etc. as it has been many years since I have had my ticket checked on a bus.
If Dublin Bus are to adopt a policy similar to Luas where the driver is isolated from the passengers then surely there should be some other form of authority in place.
If any drivers are reading this, can I ask, if you were driving a bus late one night and heard screams coming from an empty upstairs from a girl who was surrounded by one or two men, would you just sit there and call an inspector/gardai or would you go to her assistance? There was an incident recently on a 37 bus where a girl was assaulted and noboddy went to her assistance. I understand we all have to work within rules, but in some cases I would think your human instinct would force you to do otherwise. If it was your daughter/wife being assaulted a few feet away from a bus driver would you be happy he just sat in his cab?

spareman

Neutral.

MiniD wrote:

Spareman, I have been on many buses where the driver refuses to stop because he thinks the bus is full. I have been sitting upstairs on a half full top deck, but because the driver sees people standing downstairs he assumes the bus is full. All drivers either have a mirror or a television screen in the cab to monitor the top deck, so i can only assume the driver is not bothered in utilizing the full capicity of the bus.
I have also seen drivers remove the number from the front of the bus on approaching a busy stop so he wouldn't have to pick up passengers.

While I understand the reason behind Dublin Bus not allowing a driver exit his cab, this is a worrying factor for passengers. Can anyone give details of how many inspectors actually travel around the Dublin Bus network, and I don't mean on-street supervisors, but the inspectors who check tickets etc. as it has been many years since I have had my ticket checked on a bus.
If Dublin Bus are to adopt a policy similar to Luas where the driver is isolated from the passengers then surely there should be some other form of authority in place.
If any drivers are reading this, can I ask, if you were driving a bus late one night and heard screams coming from an empty upstairs from a girl who was surrounded by one or two men, would you just sit there and call an inspector/gardai or would you go to her assistance? There was an incident recently on a 37 bus where a girl was assaulted and noboddy went to her assistance. I understand we all have to work within rules, but in some cases I would think your human instinct would force you to do otherwise. If it was your daughter/wife being assaulted a few feet away from a bus driver would you be happy he just sat in his cab?

You cannot always see upstairs sometimes the mirror/monitor is broken or not there!!!
Remove the number approaching a busy stop..:eek:
I cant believe a driver would risk his job so he wouldnt have to pick up passengers, taking a bus out of service without being told too is a sackable offence, If you see such incidents you should report it to Dublin bus head office, Its these guys that give the rest of us a bad name.

Obviously A driver would leave his cab and go upstairs in this situation, well I would anyway, but the company tells us not to leave the cab area no matter what, If we leave the cab it's at our own risk, and we were talking about a drunk passenger who is being abusive to other passengers, and I refuse to put my life on the line because some drunk is abusing passengers, where as in your example I would be prepared to put my life on the line.

bullrunner

spareman wrote:

I find this hard to believe, 4 buses passed you by without stopping then?
Were you at a bus stop?
Was it the correct bus stop for the bus you wanted?
Did you signal to the bus to stop in good time by extending your left arm out straight?
Were you drinking a can of beer at the time?

yes i was at a bus stop (with about 4 other people)
2 or 3 people signalled for the bus to stop in good time...
no i wasnt drinking beer at the time...i find my boss gets annoyed if people go to work drunk or smelling of drink.

to add insult to injury, one of the buses that was full stopped 50 yrds down the road (not a a bus stop i might add) and a number of people disembarked (more than were at the bus stop i was at) the bus

MiniD

They get on my nerves.

spareman wrote:

You cannot always see upstairs sometimes the mirror/monitor is broken or not there!!!
Remove the number approaching a busy stop..:eek:
I cant believe a driver would risk his job so he wouldnt have to pick up passengers, taking a bus out of service without being told too is a sackable offence, If you see such incidents you should report it to Dublin bus head office, Its these guys that give the rest of us a bad name.

It happens a lot on the 84, where the driver blanks out the display while passing the RDS and going through Ballsbridge, where there is usually large amounts of passengers at the stop. My experiences of reporting incidents to Dublin Bus has either been really helpful or very poor, to the point where I end up even more annoyed than I did when I made the call, usually you're passed from one person to the next without getting any answers.

You mention how sometimes you can not see the upper deck because of a broken mirror or broken screen, if this is the case then why is the bus on the road. I would presume you would not take a bus out if there was no safety screen?

Ray777

Neutral.

MiniD wrote:

It happens a lot on the 84, where the driver blanks out the display while passing the RDS and going through Ballsbridge, where there is usually large amounts of passengers at the stop.

Yes, that does happen quite a lot on the 84. However, there is a very good reason for it. As one of the longest Dublin Bus routes, the 84 tends to be more prone to getting delayed in traffic (particularly in the early afternoon, during the school term). When this happens, the driver is often told to blank out the display at Foxrock church and take no passengers, thus arriving in the city centre on time. Yes, it probably does annoy a few people, but far more people (outbound passengers who don't have the choice of alternative routes, as those waiting in Ballsbridge) would be pissed off if their 84 arrived in the city centre 20 minutes late in the evenings. It's the lesser of two evils.

shltter

OK most of the time.

spareman wrote:

Remove the number approaching a busy stop..:eek:
I cant believe a driver would risk his job so he wouldnt have to pick up passengers, taking a bus out of service without being told too is a sackable offence, If you see such incidents you should report it to Dublin bus head office, Its these guys that give the rest of us a bad name.

.

I cant believe that you would not know about this kind of situation how long have you been working in Dublin Bus

It is common throughout the city on various routes that drivers are asked to cover the portion of the route not serviced by other routes and then blank the Bus out and either leave anyone collected at a stop to meet up with another bus or drop passengers off and not pick up anyone else.
Another one is to skip part of the route at the beginning and take up the route further on to put the Bus back on schedule.

These things are done everyday at the controllers request drivers do not make their own mind up to blank buses out or skip part of routes.

On the issue of seats being available upstairs if the people who were standing downstairs refuse to take the seats available upstairs there is no reason to believe that allowing further passengers on to the Bus will improve the situation. The driver is not the one denying the people at the stops entry to the bus it is the people standing Downstairs who are doing that.
Unfortunately now that conductors are just a memory there is no one on the Bus to ensure that the bus is filled to capacity drivers are isolated in the cab keeping track of how many people are on board at any given moment is impossible on a busy route.

shltter

OK most of the time.

MiniD wrote:

You mention how sometimes you can not see the upper deck because of a broken mirror or broken screen, if this is the case then why is the bus on the road. I would presume you would not take a bus out if there was no safety screen?

Well how impressed would you be if the next time your bus did not arrive you were informed that the bus was off the road because a mirror upstairs was broken or because some gob****e had scratched his name into the perspex at the top of the periscope.
Even when the mirror is there it is impossible to see if the seats are full at best it allows the driver to see if anyone is standing up in the upper saloon that is all and that is presuming someone has not put their handbag on it or some kid is not sticking his tongue out at you through it.
Newer buses have a camera and a little TFT in the cab which is much better but even then you can not see all the seats.

spareman

Neutral.

shltter wrote:

These things are done everyday at the controllers request drivers do not make their own mind up to blank buses out or skip part of routes.

But Ballrunner was blaming the driver so I presumed it was done by the driver to avoid picking up passengers, I hadnt thaught he was taking bout when control tell us to "blank it out and go light"