Student Travelcard

P_1

Hey is there anywhere open this week where I can get myself one of these?

seraphimvc

i think you can get one in a travel agency around the luas stop...at the street of the front of eason....whats ta street name again?=.=

Stepherunie

All the info here

Most of the shops doing them are only open during term time though.

Red Alert

The student travelcard is a big rip off in my opinion. If your student card is good enough for most government offices (like Revenue etc) then it should be good enough for a transport company.

delta_bravo

Red Alert wrote: »

The student travelcard is a big rip off in my opinion. If your student card is good enough for most government offices (like Revenue etc) then it should be good enough for a transport company.

Completely agree. Its simply an extra money maker for the company and the Gaa and the transport bodies. It just a created barrier to travel for students to gain revenue

seraphimvc

dude,i was thinking it was a rip off as well....until i took a train to galway....a standard 40+ adult ticket turned out to be 20+ student ticket!!cover the fee for once use already....

but completely useless on dublin bus/bus eireann tho...

btw i use it in Topman many times,good for always 10% discount...but...lol you dont need that card for that discount,you can use your student card...

Raphael

Think the point that Red Alert was making is that you should be able to use your student card for all the things you need a travel card for. Pretty sure Dublin Bus and Iarnroid Eireann are the only things you really need it for, almost everything else with a student rate will accept a normal student card.

Stabshauptmann

Red Alert wrote: »

The student travelcard is a big rip off in my opinion. If your student card is good enough for most government offices (like Revenue etc) then it should be good enough for a transport company.

Theres no law that says students deserve discounts.

Its a business starategy that depends on payoffs.

If you could listen to yourself objectively you'd laugh. You are complaining that one discount isnt as generous as another one. Dont look a gift horse in the mouth, you are entitled to nothing.

Michael Collins

seraphimvc wrote: »

i think you can get one in a travel agency around the luas stop...at the street of the front of eason....whats ta street name again?=.=

I think that shop is on Abbey Street, the right side as your head due north up O'Connell Street.

Red Alert wrote: »

The student travelcard is a big rip off in my opinion. If your student card is good enough for most government offices (like Revenue etc) then it should be good enough for a transport company.

I'd say apart from a nice revenue earner for CIE, the main reason for the student card is standardisation. While the UCD card may be hard to forge, a lot of colleges give their students cards which are just laminated pieces of paper...very easy for anyone to copy. Not to mention it being difficult for the inspector to know every type of card there is.

But as for the legality of it I'm not sure...there was an article in one of the college papers there recently saying how it was being challenged by somebody...

Stepherunie

Ciara Brennan applied to the Consumer Obudsman challenging the use of the Student Travel Card. They initially agreed that it wasn't legal to force students to use one type of card which must be purchased but then changed their mind.

I don't see why Irish Rail and Dublin Bus are allowed to force us to buy the card, I use Bus Eireann when at home and my UCD student card is more than valid to get a student fare and that's part of CIE too.

princess-sprkle

Kaptain Redeye wrote: »

Theres no law that says students deserve discounts.

Its a business starategy that depends on payoffs.

If you could listen to yourself objectively you'd laugh. You are complaining that one discount isnt as generous as another one. Dont look a gift horse in the mouth, you are entitled to nothing.

i don't think anyone is saying students are entitled to discounts or that the law says students deserve them.

simply that a student card issued by a college should really suffice if a company/service decide to offer a discount, rather than the purchase of a new card entirely.

Stabshauptmann

princess-sprkle wrote: »

i don't think anyone is saying students are entitled to discounts or that the law says students deserve them.

simply that a student card issued by a college should really suffice if a company/service decide to offer a discount, rather than the purchase of a new card entirely.

And the Grafton Barber has no right to charge me full price during peak times, the cheek of them to set what price I pay.

Its a condition, like many other in the real world.

The student travel card is a copy of the ISIC principle; and whats funny is that ISIC is not for profit yet more expensive.

(ISIC commonly refered to in Ireland as USIT cards)

Stepherunie

USIT cards are a rip off too - if you go on a J1 with USIT you have to buy one, the only reason you need one is to quote the number to them.

Aircoach are the only company who demand them to get student fare.

Red Alert

As a student i'm not universally entitled to anything as a fact, but a ruling on the matter could make it a de facto right.

Stabshauptmann

Stepherunie wrote: »

USIT cards are a rip off too - if you go on a J1 with USIT you have to buy one, the only reason you need one is to quote the number to them.

Aircoach are the only company who demand them to get student fare.

I think USIT are the main issuerers of ISIC cards in Ireland, but you'll find many companies in many countries insist on ISIC cards

Stabshauptmann

Red Alert wrote: »

As a student i'm not universally entitled to anything as a fact, but a ruling on the matter could make it a de facto right.

which case?

Stepherunie

Kaptain Redeye wrote: »

I think USIT are the main issuerers of ISIC cards in Ireland, but you'll find many companies in many countries insist on ISIC cards

I was implying Ireland. I'm well aware that other places need ISIC Cards, I experienced this in Malta.

Kaptain Redeye wrote:

which case?

I'm guessing from the wording of Red Alerts post that he meant in the event that a ruling was made that it oculd become a defacto right.

Ballboy

I got 50cent off a bus down to wexford the other day!!
The only thing I used it for so far!!

Spectator#1

Kaptain Redeye wrote:

Its a condition, like many other in the real world.

Yawn. Nice citation, "cf. the world."

I actually think that if you read the posts again, you'll notice that the people you're arguing are well aware that it is 'a condition', as you so articulately put it, but they've gone a step further and said that they think it to be an unnecessary and extortionate one. Keep up.

Turns out the card might actually be unconstitutional, like many other unconstitutional things in the real world. Apparently the Observer ran a story on it a couple of weeks back, I think I saw an article on it in the Irish Times or the Independent as well. They're reviewing the legalities at the moment. Turns out they had a point after all, who'd have thought?

the evil lime

I think we know we're not entitled to anything, but it's just somewhat annoying to have to purchase a separate card, which expires in the middle of the college year might I add. September to September would make much more sense, and leave less scope for graduates to exploit them. There is no unique material on the card which is not on the student card, and there doesn't seem to be any directed marketing application of the information we give them.

Further, given that they have to have offices, staff, etc to issue the things, and the fairly low price (spread over the course of 12 months) that is charged to do so, I'd wager they'd make more money by abolishing the card, adding an extra euro or so next time they hike the monthly tickets, and using the general student cards instead.

Stabshauptmann

Spectator#1 wrote: »

Yawn.

Aww, you tired, up past your bed time? Exciting Saturday night?

I actually think that if you read the posts again, you'll notice that the people you're arguing are well aware that it is 'a condition', as you so articulately put it, but they've gone a step further and said that they think it to be an unnecessary and extortionate one. Keep up.

Well I'm sorry if you think "condition" such an uninspired use of vocabulary. I used the word condition because of its quite specific contractual meaning.

I look forward to your upcoming novel showcasing your superior diction and narrative skills...

So I'm going to take you're advise and re read the first of post I replied to:

Red Alert wrote:

The student travelcard is a big rip off in my opinion. If your student card is good enough for most government offices (like Revenue etc) then it should be good enough for a transport company.

There is no indication there that this poster understands the concept of why a student discount is given. The poster compares an commercial business entity with a public service provider (and before someone jumps at the opportunity for a socialist rant check "The Transport (Reorganisation of C.I.E.) Act 1986". )

And if we check my second reply, which you selectively quoted, we see, yes, shock horror, that I notice that a second poster is complaining about the validity of the condition but wait, whats this, something you didnt spot, how strange, I answer this point.

I have already said, and you already read, a counter to the unfair condition argument. Wow, what were the odds on that. Its as if you selectively quoted me so you could make a point I already answered, possibly in some vain attempt not to look stupid.

I'd tell you to keep up, but I think you're out of you're league all together.

Turns out the card might actually be unconstitutional, like many other unconstitutional things in the real world. Apparently the Observer ran a story on it a couple of weeks back, I think I saw an article on it in the Irish Times or the Independent as well. They're reviewing the legalities at the moment. Turns out they had a point after all, who'd have thought?

Those who no nothing of law or business?
It is perfectly legal to attach a condition to a discount. There is a question over whether it can be called a student discount because it is not open to all students automatically. However, if it were to be called a student club discount, there would be no legal or constitutional question. All the travel card co. would have to do is change their name to The Student Club, and CIE change their student fair to The Student Club fair. Nothing would have changed except the name.

It would be like signing up for a tesco club card, except you've to pay for it.

The question is, for the sake of nitty gritty bureaucratic correctness should these changes be made.

Stabshauptmann

the evil lime wrote: »

I think we know we're not entitled to anything, but it's just somewhat annoying to have to purchase a separate card, which expires in the middle of the college year might I add. September to September would make much more sense, and leave less scope for graduates to exploit them. There is no unique material on the card which is not on the student card, and there doesn't seem to be any directed marketing application of the information we give them.

Further, given that they have to have offices, staff, etc to issue the things, and the fairly low price (spread over the course of 12 months) that is charged to do so, I'd wager they'd make more money by abolishing the card, adding an extra euro or so next time they hike the monthly tickets, and using the general student cards instead.

Lots of things CIE do are inefficient. Im personally amazed they dont do demand time price differentiation; its so obvious its mind boggling.

CIE is possibly the worst Irish company when it comes to Labour Relations and near the bottom in terms of efficiency as well. Its a real pity, because CIE makes the perfect argument for deregulation and privatisation; but its ESB and aer lingus that the government sells off. The latter a very profitable business which has since stopped providing services that were merely in the national interest and the former was one of the most efficient and cost effective energy supplier in the world. We had the lowest electricity prices in Europe before the government started meddling.

Just for the record, of course I'd like to get cheaper travel prices, Id like to get cheap and more hassle free everything. But Im not going to be so disingenuous as to claim it unfair because thats looking a gift horse in the mouth. And Im not going to go looking for ambiguous legal loopholes, because obviously enough, the loopholes once found, will just be shut.