30 day Dublin Bus ticket and activation

John37

Went to use a 30 day Dublin bus ticket yesterday and it would not scan on the machine. It kept warning about a bad read error so I handed it to the bus man and he hovered it over a machine and handed it back to me and said it was not yet activated and told me to go on ahead. I was just wondering does this mean that the days usage or days credit is still intact on the card and was not used up yesterday. I decided to pay the full cash fare and the way home and not use the ticket for the return journey

LXFlyer

I doubt it - just bring it into Dublin Bus HO and tell them what happened and they'll replace it.

coylemj

When you go to buy the 30 day Rambler or the Adult (Bus Only) Travelwide Monthly tickets from the DB website (and get redirected to Ticketmaster), you are always asked when you want the ticket to commence, currently you can only buy either of them to commence in December.

Is it possible the OP bought the ticket and it was stamped to commence in October or earlier so now it can't be activated and he needs to get a refund or replacement?

If you get around the activation issue, is there an overall time limit within which to use the 30 day ticket? I know the 30 days are non-consecutive but as an occasional DB user, is there a possibility the ticket will expire before I've used it on 30 separate days?

I have a Leap card for single bus journeys and I use Travel90 tickets where I need to use two buses to get to a destination, the 30-day ticket would be better value than the Travel90 card for those days as the round trip (at least two buses per leg, outward and return more than 90 minutes apart) with Travel90 costs 4.30 whereas one day on the 30-day ticket costs 3.83.

John37

coylemj wrote: »

When you go to buy the 30 day Rambler or the Adult (Bus Only) Travelwide Monthly tickets from the DB website (and get redirected to Ticketmaster), you are always asked when you want the ticket to commence, currently you can only buy either of them to commence in December.

Is it possible the OP bought the ticket and it was stamped to commence in October or earlier so now it can't be activated and he needs to get a refund or replacement?

If you get around the activation issue, is there an overall time limit within which to use the 30 day ticket? I know the 30 days are non-consecutive but as an occasional DB user, is there a possibility the ticket will expire before I've used it on 30 separate days?

I have a Leap card for single bus journeys and I use Travel90 tickets where I need to use two buses to get to a destination, the 30-day ticket would be better value than the Travel90 card for those days as the round trip (at least two buses per leg, outward and return more than 90 minutes apart) with Travel90 costs 4.30 whereas one day on the 30-day ticket costs 3.83.

There is no commencement date on the ticket. There is anexpiry date of Dec 2013. I got it in the newsagents before the last fare increase was introduced and the shopkeeper never mentioned anything about a commencement date. So I would best off lokking for a replacement or refund? I should be entitled to this shoudn't I?

coylemj

John37 wrote: »

There is no commencement date on the ticket. There is anexpiry date of Dec 2013. I got it in the newsagents before the last fare increase was introduced and the shopkeeper never mentioned anything about a commencement date. So I would best off lokking for a replacement or refund? I should be entitled to this shoudn't I?

Dead right you should be entitled to a refund.

So the expiry is roughly one year out, that answers my question - or does the ticket mention that it must be activated by that date? It isn't necessarily that the ticket can't be used beyond that date, I do recall some ticket where the 'expiry' date was the date by which you needed to start using it, not the date beyond which you couldn't use it so as long as you validated it once before the expiry date you were ok.

Other users comments on this topic welcome.

John37

coylemj wrote: »

Dead right you should be entitled to a refund.

So the expiry is roughly one year out, that answers my question - or does the ticket mention that it must be activated by that date? It isn't necessarily that the ticket can't be used beyond that date, I do recall some ticket where the 'expiry' date was the date by which you needed to start using it, not the date beyond which you couldn't use it so as long as you validated it once before the expiry date you were ok.

Other users comments on this topic welcome.

Cheers for the advice. It just states use bY date Dec 2013 so I should get a refund or replacement. I will try it one more time on Monday on the machine and she if it works if not I will be into Dublin Bus HQ

The_Wrecker

Ive seen a few bad read errors. Sometimes i wonder is it picking up other cards in the customers wallet. If holding the card away from other cards it may also be a software problem with the bus? Try it on another machine before giving up hope.

LXFlyer

There will be no issue with getting a replacement ticket - but as the wrecker says try it again before going into DB Head Office.