Altercation with Dart officials

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Ah! He sells cars, doesn't he?

I suppose buying a car is one way of stopping such altercations.
 
So let's summarise, Brighid. There wasn't anything wrong with the ticket machines, it's just that you didn't know to select the payment type option? As a result you felt you were not obliged to buy a ticket? Then you refused to provide a name and address to officials even though you are required to do so if you don't have a ticket? Then your friend calls them the Gestapo? And you wonder why they were abusive?

I've no doubt you were upset by the incident but you certainly didn't help the situation by not accepting that you were in the wrong from the start.
 
I'm pretty sure I get it Brighid and it's obvious you don't understand.

You were treated rudely and abusively Irish Rail staff and this upset you. You have my sympathy in that regard. But that is the only grounds for your complaint.

What you don't get is that you were completely in the wrong. You didn't have a ticket when you should have had one and you refused to provide your name and address when you were obliged to.

The rules are for everyone. And ignorance of the rules is no excuse.
 
darag said:
I'm pretty sure I get it Brighid and it's obvious you don't understand.

You were treated rudely and abusively Irish Rail staff and this upset you. You have my sympathy in that regard. But that is the only grounds for your complaint.

What you don't get is that you were completely in the wrong. You didn't have a ticket when you should have had one and you refused to provide your name and address when you were obliged to.

The rules are for everyone. And ignorance of the rules is no excuse.
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I think the above pretty much sums it up. And that's not for one minute condoning the outrageous response of the rail officials, for which we all should have a lot of sympathy for the OP.
 
darag said:
I'm pretty sure I get it Brighid and it's obvious you don't understand.

You were treated rudely and abusively Irish Rail staff and this upset you. You have my sympathy in that regard. But that is the only grounds for your complaint.
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thats what the OP is complining about...the abusive manner which they were treated ...what dose it cost to be civil and polite to another person?
 
starlite68 said:
thats what the OP is complining about...the abusive manner which they were treated ...what dose it cost to be civil and polite to another person?
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Hold on a second.

There was no abuse or "offensive behaviour" until Brighid escalated the situation.

The ticket inspector completely reasonably asked to see her ticket - she didn't have one and we all agree she should have had one.

He then asked for her name and address which he is completely entitled to do. But she refused (in fact she admitted she was tempted to give a false one - i.e. commit an even worse offense).

Now, not only is she in the wrong in not having a ticket, she deliberately made the ticket inspector's job impossible.

She has now escalated the situation and, according to her own account, it was only THEN that the burly back-up arrived and the officials started acted rudely (however calling officials trying doing their job "Gestapo" as her friend did is hardly going improve their mood).

As I said, the rudeness of the officials (after she escalated the situation) is her only ground for complaint. She should be grateful that they decided to let her off without paying the fine never mind that the guards weren't called to arrest her. To call her treatement "horrific" is a complete overstatement given her own behaviour.
 
OP, Where was the Ticket Sales Person in Bayside Station on the morning you tried to purchase the ticket? Was there nobody there or had he just gone to the loo?

Yesterday I tried to purchase a ticket using the machines in Raheny station. They were both out of order. There was no Ticket Sales Person there. A few people walked through with no ticket. I waited & the Sales person came back after 3 minutes.

When I got on the train an inspector looked for tickets. The people with no tickets were requested to get off at the next station & buy a ticket, Made sense to me.
 
batty said:
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When I got on the train an inspector looked for tickets. The people with no tickets were requested to get off at the next station & buy a ticket, Made sense to me.
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You should be able to purchase a ticket on the train. In other European countries you are expected to "find" the ticket inspector on the train and purchase your ticket.

You shouldn't have to wait for the inspector to come to you. Proper signage and a proper system in place would go a long way to clarifying the situation.

There is nothing worse than a "tin God" though.
 
Odea said:
You should be able to purchase a ticket on the train. In other European countries you are expected to "find" the ticket inspector on the train and purchase your ticket.
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I agree. As long as you have a ticket when you're going through the exit barrier at your place of arrival, why should it matter whether you bought it on the train or at the station. If you don't get one at the Station it should be up to you to make sure you get one before disembarking from the train or else take the consequences.
 
I suspect that it is more to do with Iarnroid Eireann suiting themselves rather than their customers. Can you imagine trying to make your way to the ticket seller on the train at rush hour? Can you imagine Iarnroid Eireann employing extra staff to sell tickets? Can you imagine somebody in authority saying " How about improving our signage"?
 
darag said:
As I said, the rudeness of the officials (after she escalated the situation) is her only ground for complaint. She should be grateful that they decided to let her off without paying the fine never mind that the guards weren't called to arrest her. To call her treatement "horrific" is a complete overstatement given her own behaviour.
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I don't agree with this. I believe there are a number of grounds for complaint here
  • Firstly the fact that the ticket office was unmanned
  • Secondly the fact that neither the OP or 2 other people who tried to assist her were able to get the ticket machine to work. If they could not understand how the ticket machine worked, then that suggests that the instructions available to use the machine are unclear or else that there was something actually wrong with the machine.
  • She was accused of lying by the inspector, in front of witnesses, a potentially slanderous comment which is damaging to her reputation
  • At no stage did she refuse to purchase a ticket, on 3 occassions, at the ticket office, the machines and the inspector she attempted to do so and all 3 occassions IR either did not provide her with the adequate means of doing so or refused to sell her a ticket
The fact that she thought of giving incorrect personal details is irrelevant, she didn't, simple as that

If she was genuinely afraid to give out her contact details to the inspector and his colleagues, given their threatening behaviour, then on grounds of her own health and safety, she was probably correct

The inspector and his colleagues would find it far easier to do their jobs if they behaved like reasonable human beings
 
Mpsox said:
I don't agree with this. I believe there are a number of grounds for complaint here
  • Firstly the fact that the ticket office was unmanned
  • Secondly the fact that neither the OP or 2 other people who tried to assist her were able to get the ticket machine to work. If they could not understand how the ticket machine worked, then that suggests that the instructions available to use the machine are unclear or else that there was something actually wrong with the machine.
  • She was accused of lying by the inspector, in front of witnesses, a potentially slanderous comment which is damaging to her reputation
  • At no stage did she refuse to purchase a ticket, on 3 occassions, at the ticket office, the machines and the inspector she attempted to do so and all 3 occassions IR either did not provide her with the adequate means of doing so or refused to sell her a ticket
The fact that she thought of giving incorrect personal details is irrelevant, she didn't, simple as that

If she was genuinely afraid to give out her contact details to the inspector and his colleagues, given their threatening behaviour, then on grounds of her own health and safety, she was probably correct

The inspector and his colleagues would find it far easier to do their jobs if they behaved like reasonable human beings
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well said mpsox, that sums it all up....and to the OP i say once again definitly do complain about this, any company that depends on the public will take this in a proper manner and follow it through.
 
Indeed. It's obvious the system is badly designed. I wouldn't go blaming the user.
 
starlite68 said:
.. any company that depends on the public will take this in a proper manner and follow it through.
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This crowd won't, IMHO. They have a monopoly and treating a customer disgracefully and having it publicised won't make any significant dent in their turnover or profits.
 
Joanne, yeh there were two machines but I had a similar problem with them. When u press destination and the payment comes up, in my case 4.70 euro, I went to insert the money but it wouldnt take it, apparently I should then have pressed on the 4.70 but there was no instruction to do that so that is where I came a cropper!!
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Well in that case you can hardly make a complaint. If it was impossible to purchase a ticket it was a different story.

I have to say I have used the DART many times and not had a negative experience.
 
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