Comments on: Ticket off

By: Masrjk

Masrjk — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:30:09 +0000

I overpaid at a hospital car park. My wife’s appointment went slightly over the printed time on the ticket. We were slapped on with a ticket. Upon rough calculations i estimated that with the amount I overpaid I would be entitled to stay 11mins over the stated end time. I wrote to appeal against the PCN and was refused! Where is the justice. AND THEY SAY THAT THERE IS MORE CORRUPTION IN THE SO CALLED “DEVELOPING COUNTRIES” OR 3RD WORLD COUNTRIES.

By: willihudso

willihudso — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 20:10:25 +0000

Piracy

Overcharging is illegal everywhere else. It is a dirty little scam
And what do they do with the money, I dont believe they are legally entitlef to the unfair undue proftovercharge.
Why cant you get credit for a future parking spell with time unused and overcharges credited

It is a dirty little scam by thieves fraudsters spivs cheats corrupt chisseling officials, Judases. rats, pirates, highwaymen, hijackers,

By: Simon

Simon — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 12:26:09 +0000

I have been pondering this question for sometime, firstly how much extra revenue is gained through not giving change, and what they should do with the money, seeing as it is not through choice and i would assume nobody wants to tip…..surely the overpayments should be declared and given to charity, that would make me much happier to overpay. Failing that they should charge by the minute and you get the exact time that you pay for. I think we all know why the parking companies do not give change or offer any other solutions.

By: Ticket off (reprise) at fulminate // Architectures of Control

Ticket off (reprise) at fulminate // Architectures of Control — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 21:37:17 +0000

[...] Last year we looked at the way that the pricing structure of no-change-given ticket machines is often - apparently - designed to lead to overpayment, and I posed the question of whether councils/car park operators actually draw up their budget based on a significant proportion of customers overpaying. [...]

By: Carrie

Carrie — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 02:53:33 +0000

Here in New York, like most major cities in the US, parking meters are priced way below their market value - so “the house always wins” claim wouldn’t apply here. Anyone able to find a metered spot is getting a real bargain, even if they don’t have the right change.

By: A couple of stories from the Consumerist at fulminate // Architectures of Control

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:46:50 +0000

[...] Also, in a similar vein to my earlier post on the price structures of ticketing systems, Consumerist reports on US Postal Service stamp vending machines, which require a minimum purchase of $1 (it’s suggested that this is in violation of Visa’s merchant agreements). [...]

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 15:25:00 +0000

London bus tickets. These are now £1.50. I saw a couple trying to buy tickets at the machine - all they had was £1 coins,so they had to pay £4 for two tickets. If they could have paid the driver, they could have got two tickets for £3. Or, of course, if the machine was designed in a way that allowed multiple tickets to be bought with a single payment.

By: Damien

Damien — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 13:20:28 +0000

I can’t remember which one, but there was a charity in Dublin that started collecting the Bus refund receipts and cashing them as donations. Great idea.

By: Dan

Dan — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 09:33:50 +0000

@Stephen: I understand that the machines would have to be stocked properly. But they’re emptied at least once a day anyway, so it’s not as if it would be significant extra work.

If the prices were set at a level where the likely required change could be predicted (e.g. in the example above, if the price were 80p, and the machine took 10p, 20p, 50p, £1 and £2 coins, then only a stock of £1 and 20p coins would be needed as change, no matter what coins were put in).

There’s also the possibility of a ‘change low’ light, as often used on rail ticket machines towards the end of the day when the change stock may have depleted. In my experience people don’t despise this as much as knowing they’ll never get any change at all.

@undulattice: Interesting - that seems very fair, actually giving customers a redeemable receipt for overpayment. I would guess that a large percentage of people never get round to redeeming them, especially if the excess amount is low, but it’s the principle of treating your customers well which is impressive.

@Tom: That’s a great example. And you know what will happen - the fare will be subsequently increased to £2 for ‘convenience reasons’, whilst also ‘encouraging’ more people to switch to Oyster cards and give up their privacy and anonymity (I think we’ll have to leave the Oyster card debate for another day).

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 18:02:27 +0000

The worst example I saw of this was the machines to buy bus tickets. In central london, you have to buy a ticket before getting on board. This wasn’t such a problem when tickets were £1. But when the price went up to £1.20, bus stops were flodded with furious people shouting at drivers.

By: undulattice

undulattice — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 16:29:54 +0000

Dublin Bus have operated an ‘Exact Fare - No Change’ policy for years now. In the case of over-payment, they issue a ticket receipt which can be exchanged at Dublin Bus HQ.
Oh, and they don’t accept notes either!

undulattice

By: stephen

stephen — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 16:13:59 +0000

Change giving isn’t that simple. It would mean that they would have ensure that each meter was properly stocked with the coins needed to give change. Every day. Imagine how upset get if they expect change and then don’t receive it. Buses also typically don’t provide change for this reason.