RTE's Crimecall discussing Dublin Bus Ticket Scam

dublinman1990

Did anyone watch crimecall on rte 1 tonight guys, about selling Dublin Bus tickets from unauthorised agents.

Apparently, they are selling tickets which had last year's price rates on them. Example's shown were a 5 day rambler ticket which showed of €21, even though they cost €22. A 30 day rambler ticket being sold for €105, even though the actual price is €110.

This never has happened before, certainly not in my lifetime.

coylemj

dublinman1990 wrote: »

This never has happened before, certainly not in my lifetime.

I'd say it most likely has happened before. The reason I say so is because about 10 years ago you could buy a 10 journey Dublin Bus ticket for a specific fare, let's say (in today's terms) 10 x €1.65 bus journeys and there was 10 journey tickets for the other reguar fares on Dublin Bus. I don't think you saved any money buying the ticket, the attraction was the convenience of jumping the queue (to pay the driver) and the fact that you didn't have to have the exact cash fare, you just validated the ticket when boarding and it docked a journey.

Then they suddenly stopped selling 10 journey tickets and all you could buy was a two journey ticket, the reason I reckoned at the time must have been that someone had started cloning the tickets, they only involved a magnetic strip, not a chip so probably were a breeze to clone.

Victor

There have been scams before.

coylemj, the 10 journey tickets used to offer a 10-20% discount, but that was cut back at some stage.

The 10 journey tickets were withdrawn and replaced with a book of 5 x 2 journey tickets as there was an excessive level of reported faults, many of them believed to be customer induced.

AlekSmart

Victor wrote: »

There have been scams before.

coylemj, the 10 journey tickets used to offer a 10-20% discount, but that was cut back at some stage.

The 10 journey tickets were withdrawn and replaced with a book of 5 x 2 journey tickets as there was an excessive level of reported faults, many of them believed to be customer induced.

Very true Victor,almost every form of pre-paid ticket product has been subjected to some form of scam.

However,this reflects rather poorly upon the company's Revenue Protection Apparatus (or lack of ) as it is neither feasible or desirable to have the Driver having to focus 100% on ticket scanning whilst the Bus comes equipped with machinery for that as well...:rolleyes:

It's down to how we do stuff here.....eg: It's still quite possible in Edinburgh to buy and use a one-day card ticket which is a simple scratch-off-date type,long ago abandoned in our Knowledge-Based Economy...:o

ScouseMouse

Alright folks. There is more to this than they are saying.

The real reason they are telling people to buy only from authorised agents is because there are tickets in circulation which are completely genuine but were sent for destruction. They ended up on the streets going cheap and Dublin bus are loosing big money. I cannot post a link as i cannot use the search function on thejournal.ie for some reason as I am on my iPhone.

Maybe it will work for you.

It was reported about six weeks ago.

I bought some if them in a supposed liquidation sale but I was scammed.

ScouseMouse

Link

dublinman1990

superscouse wrote: »

I bought some if them in a supposed liquidation sale but I was scammed.

You should go to the guards if you were a victim of this crime. I am also saying this to anyone who was victimised to the strictest confidence. It will help you a lot in the long term if it helps the guards put them in prison.

http://www.thejournal.ie/four-arrests-over-dublin-bus-unauthorised-ticket-scam-287985-Nov2011/

ScouseMouse

I'm already talking to them. Dublin bus, in their wisdom, are mad at me for buying from unauthorised sources.

The first anyone knew about them being in circulation is when a poster appeared in a city college offering cheap tickets. They bought one and the serial number was one that was supposed to be destroyed!

As they were not known to be in circulation, no one missed them.

SandyfordGuy

It would be interesting to calculate how much money would be lost by selling the tickets at the lower price rather than destroying them, versus the amount of revenue lost in fraud.

AlekSmart

Crikey....From the thread title I thought somebody had reported us to the Gardai over the €2.40 LeapCard default error !!!!......Phew.....:o

miller50841

Best and cheapest ticket (smart card) to buy is the travel 90 it works out at approx €1.85 you can use as many buses in 90min and if using xpresso or going full way on normal route you will save save save;););)

Hotblack Desiato

miller50841 wrote: »

Best and cheapest ticket (smart card) to buy is the travel 90 it works out at approx €1.85 you can use as many buses in 90min and if using xpresso or going full way on normal route you will save save save;););)

All I can add to this, is stock up on them now. They will either go drastically up in price within a couple of months, or be abolished. They are way cheaper than the default Leap fare so something's gotta give. (Hopefully the crock of whatsit that's Leap!)

miller50841

ninja900 wrote: »

All I can add to this, is stock up on them now. They will either go drastically up in price within a couple of months, or be abolished. They are way cheaper than the default Leap fare so something's gotta give. (Hopefully the crock of whatsit that's Leap!)

That ticket should be sticking around people didnt know about it but there are more using it now it probably go up by 50cent thats all it went up last year

Hotblack Desiato

I hope you don't mean 50c a fare :eek: 50c a ticket is OK and what it went up by the last time.
T90 as it is now makes Leap very bad value for journeys 13 stages or over (never mind transfers to another bus) but Leap is being marketed as 'saving money' :rolleyes:

ScouseMouse

Maybe Dublin Bus intend to sell out the currrent stock and put up the price of the new stock?

After all, the last time they tried to withdraw a ticket, they kind of didnt do it very well :rolleyes::pac::pac:

LXFlyer

Until they advertise a change in price the ticket stays available at the current rate.

Miss Lockhart

I tried to buy a Travel 90 ticket in a city centre shop yesterday and was told that it "is no longer available now that the new smart card is here" and was given a booklet about Leap.

AlekSmart

Miss Lockhart wrote: »

I tried to buy a Travel 90 ticket in a city centre shop yesterday and was told that it "is no longer available now that the new smart card is here" and was given a booklet about Leap.

If you read the script along the bottom of the New Fares List above the Luggage Pen on each bus,you see a small note on the bottom which reads along the lines of....

"Dublin Bus Rambler and Travel90 Ticket Products continue to be sold and remain valid on relevant DB services"

Whilst the Travel90 is apparently going to be the first "Pre-Paid" product available on Leap,this is not until Q2 of 2012,so perhaps March/April.

The level of pre-publicity and marketing from Leap has been appalling,for whatever reason...there is no on-bus promo or information material and even so-called Ticket-Agents appear to be in cloaked mode.

For a system reputed to be a game-changing and far reaching one,it appears as if some of it's main players are less than confident in it's abilities ?

Mysterious...you bet it is !

Miss Lockhart

So T90 tickets should be available?

Perhaps he just didn't have any in stock so spun me a line?

I'll try somewhere else so..

As others have said, T90 is still the best value for longer DB journeys and I never take the Luas or IR.

dublinman1990

Miss Lockhart wrote: »

I tried to buy a Travel 90 ticket in a city centre shop yesterday and was told that it "is no longer available now that the new smart card is here" and was given a booklet about Leap.

I'd suppose the shopkeeper told you that either he/she has got that word from the so called ''training''. Imagine if another newsagent actually says the exact same thing. It beggar's belief that the level of communication between the shopkeepers and leap card staff will go this bad probably in the next few weeks.

ScouseMouse

dublinman1990 wrote: »

I'd suppose the shopkeeper told you that either he/she has got that word from the so called ''training''. Imagine if another newsagent actually says the exact same thing. It beggar's belief that the level of communication between the shopkeepers and leap card staff will go this bad probably in the next few weeks.

What training. I got none whatsoever.

There you go, another shopkeeper has said it.

pavelpro

Hi, need some advice.
It looks that i got some of such tickets described earlier in the thread. I remeber i bought couple of tickets on <snip> Street from one of the <snip> shops. THe thing is that my wife was fined 40 euro and ticket was confiscated from her. Is it any way you can check which ticket is not good and which is good? HOw i could know while buyng from the shop that the tickets is not real? Unfortunately i dont have a recept as usually not keep them. Can i appeal for fine refund? Thanx for advice.

Losty Dublin

Go back to the <snip> and talk to the shop manager and see what they can do for you. If they were selling legitimate tickets and a genuine error was made then you should be able to sort it out with DB; if not then the retailer is up to something. In the meantime, contact Dublin Bus and see what they say.

foggy_lad

Is the shop a legitimate Dublin Bus agent?

According to the list of agents on the Dublin Bus website there is no <snip>store listed as an agent on <snip> St
http://www.dublinbus.ie/en/Fares--Tickets/Ticket-Agents/?filter=C&currentIndex=3

Victor

I was in Dublin Bus today while a woman was trying to reclaim her ticket. It turns out she had bought it from her flat mate.

The Dublin Bus line was they don't have the money that was paid for the ticket, so she wasn't getting a ticket.