Acceptable or unacceptable?
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I realise it isn't the drivers job to remeber every passenger that travels with him, but in this case i had purchased the ticket at most 2 minutes before i spoke to the ticket inspector. To me this seems like a reasonable length of time to be able to remeber someone.
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On one hand, he was clearly being a job's worth, I'm sure he could see you're honest (unless you look really shifty?), checked with the driver and told you you to be more careful the next time... but on the other hand, he's a "ticket inspector" not a "determine-whether-passengers-have-paid-their-full-fare-via-witnesses-and-anecdotal-evidence inspector". A large part of a ticket inspector's job is to ensure the honesty of their own employees- making sure that bus drivers aren't letting people/friends/family on for free... and so asking the driver to corroborate your story would've just implicated him in your cunning scheme to defraud the bus company!
I know it's such an obvious question, but I gotta ask... why would you buy a ticket and then throw it straight into the bin?
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Would that also apply during a rush hour when the driver is processing many passengers too?
You also said you "chucked it in the bin", so with the logic that you purchased the ticked on the bus from the bus driver and then discarded it in the bin, two minutes later when required to produce it how much trash could have accumulated that one could not retrieve it again? -
I agree with Solo on this one.
Why? Simple. I used to work in a shop, when I just graduated. Obviously, there'd be customers, and lots of 'em too. I can tell ya, after a while you don't even notice the faces anymore. Your mind occupies itself with, errrr, more interesting things.
I'd remember the deviants, though. (And when I say 'deviants', I mean 'deviants' - it was an 'adult' sort of place.
)Look at it this way: that inspector was just telling you that you're NOT a deviant.
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i find threatening behaviour works well in this situation.
joking of course!you don't really have a leg to stand on with reagrds to this dilema, you have no ticket, he's a ticket inspector. seems a bit of a no-brainer to me.
was a bit unlucky though to be fari, i've done that loads of times with my single tickets.
oh and by the way, this:
@jackson said:
he's a "ticket inspector" not a "determine-whether-passengers-have-paid-their-full-fare-via-witnesses-and-anecdotal-evidence inspector".
pure comic genius!
pav
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I thew my ticket in the bin because in the 100+ times ive been on a bus before ive never been asked to produce my ticket. It was an on bus bin btw, and the ticket inspector said i couldn't retrieve.
Stinkie, i work in a cafe, and im pretty sure i could remeber someone who ordered 2 minutes ago.
Solo, of course it wouldnt apply to such an extent during rush hour, but i was the last person to get on the bus and it certainly wasnt during peak times, at most 10 people got on the bus.
Just to elaborate on my feelings, i think what im really annoyed at is that fact that i was put at a great inconvienence because the ticket inspector didnt have enough sense to even confirm with the driver or even let me retrieve my ticket.
p.s. jackson, id say a witness statement is a fairly valid form of authentication.
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Chalk it up to a learning experience. Whether the the inspector was behaving as an a$$ or not, or you've never had to produce the ticket before, is irrelevant. They obviously have a policy you need to retain your ticket, and you didn't.
I'll also add, having worked in a customer service type job such as the bus drivers, when having to greet people repititiously, it becomes sorta automatic, and you don't always actually recognize or remember people, even from 2 minutes ago.
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Is it right that i wasn't allowed to try and prove that i had bought a ticket, though?
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Look, I can understand you're annoyed. I'd be too. But there's really only one possible conclusion: next time, don't chuck your ticket.
It's an unfriendly world out there. I regret that. But it's just the way it is.
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Damm this, i can tell my opinion is wildly skewed because ive been the person involved, and i kind of what to write a ltter to the bus company to ask what their policy is
i think im going to have to think it over for a couple of days.p.s. i cant remeber who mentioned bus drivers being investigatedfor giving lifts to family members, but in my area being a bus driver means free bus travel for your immediate family.
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Remus,this is the life!A TICKET INSPECTOR!
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the thing i find most shocking about this whole scenario...is that we're still talking about it! (no offence remus) come on, lets leave this in the corner bar to archive, and we'll all meet up in a pub to talk about the wonders of sketchup.
what time is the next bus to the pub?
pav
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This is really quite off the point now. The question is did they stop the bus or slow down before they chucked you off? Did they open the door or the window and did a crowd of very scarey people start to gather around you thinking you might be food?
If the answers are no, no and yes, you were on the Manhattan crosstown and they dont have ticket inspectors.
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Just found this.
Up until a certain point I totally agreed that you are just SOL and you should have known better.
Up until I understood that he wouldn't let you retrieve your ticket from the bin.
Is anyone listening? Guys at this point the ticket inspector changed from a man doing his job to a mean-spirited a-hole.
What would it have cost him to allow the guy to find his proof? Nothing wrong with that. That was just plain evil.
There, there. Stroke, stroke. Big bad man was very wrong and you are a poor dear, foolish, victimized soul. You have my total sympathy. -
IT WAS ME
joking...i ebayed my conductors uniform ages ago.
if he had let you retrieve your ticket he would have been a super-conductor...he he
if the conductor was a midget, would that make him a semi-conductor?
sorry couldn't resist
pav
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@sorgesu said:
Up until I understood that he wouldn't let you retrieve your ticket from the bin.
Is anyone listening? Guys at this point the ticket inspector changed from a man doing his job to a mean-spirited a-hole.
What would it have cost him to allow the guy to find his proof?I would agree that the guy was being an a-hole- anybody who is a reasonable judge of character can see the difference between a serial offender waste-of-space loser who tries to get away without paying for anything and someone who honestly mislaid their ticket, but the fact remains that retrieving a valid ticket from the bin is not proof that YOU bought it. It's reasonable to say that as soon as a valid ticket is discarded into a bin it becomes invalid, otherwise any chancer could play the "ooops, I'll have to retrieve my ticket from the bin" trick.... and I bet the ticket inspectors hear that line 20 times a day.
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Arent the tickets time stamped though? so logically if everyone else on the bus had a ticket, and i didnt then the tim stamped ticket could only be mine.
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From the ticket inspector's point of view he's probably heard just about every story about lost, stolen, eaten by the dog, used for Granny' shopping list, disappeared in thin air, abducted by aliens, . . . thrown in the bin is just another variant. And unfortunately many students make a practice of travelling as far and as often as they can without a ticket and having a fund of plausible stories.
How would you have known which ticket in the bin was yours - only by searching through for one with more or less the correct time-stamp and that proves nothing, except that someone bought a ticket around that time and threw it away. But the time that takes is keeping the inspector from getting back to the tea-pot at the depot.
Bob
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the should just stamp your hand like they do when you go to a club.
i'm a genius.and i'm modest.
pav
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And another thing thats pissing me off about public transport:
my SINGLE fare for a bus journey lasting 45 mins: 5 pounds 20.
my friends RETURN fare for a train journey lasting 3 hours 30 in total, 4 pounds
i wish theyd left it nationalised.
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