Electron cards are still being dished out left, right and centre.
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ScotRail Facebook - stranded teenager
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Electron cards are still being dished out left, right and centre.
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route:oxford
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I'm looking forward to the day when someone, who has been "investigated" as a consequence of a published comment and found to have acted with honesty and integrity, takes legal action against a parent whose hasty comment temporarily brought the individuals' reputation into disrepute.
What annoyed me was the effective open invitation to get on without a ticket, and you'd just get a form to pay within seven days. A really clever thing to post on Faceache. NOT!
Captain Chaos
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Bit like when someone asks you to just 'fine' them as they have no money. I mean, really? You want me to fine you? Why? I did take someone up on the offer once. False details were given. Surprise, surprise! :roll:
michael769
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If you are willing to take the risk that the next form you get is from the Procurator Fiscal.
Zoidberg
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In the UK only Halifax Easycash from HBOS continue to issue Electron.
theotherguard
New Member
I worked the same train two days running where the same passenger caught the same train with the same baby in the same pram both days. With an Electron card. On day one I was ready to accept her excuse that she had no idea her card didn't work on the train. On day two the exact same excuse - she didn't recognise me from the previous day - just didn't seem as convincing.
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For Halifax, its CardCash that's the Young Persons one. This is issued as a Visa Debit, although can't be used to pay for my shopping in the supermarket for example. Easycash is the Adult version, and does allow you to pay for your shopping.
northwichcat
Veteran Member
Well Electron is not a Major credit nor debit card is it. So they dont accept them
Actually a few years ago Electron cards were one of the most popular debit cards due to them being issued to basic account holders which meant almost a large number of people who were sixth form age with a bank account had one, as did a number of people with poor credit ratings or with a low income. On top of that because budget airlines waived booking fee charges when you paid using an Electron card many people applied for a second basic bank account with Halifax, Lloyds TSB, Co-operative or Bank of Scotland so that they were also in possession of an Electron card.
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michael769
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Well Electron is not a Major credit nor debit card is it. So they dont accept them
I think that VISA might disagree that their cards are not major!
thelongestroad
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Electron is not a major card type though. The majority of debit cards are Visa Debits that are not Electron style.
theotherguard
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Word is the employee concerned has been completely exonerated, after an investigation.
If this is true and the guard is found to be at no fault at all then I hope he demands an apology from the companies social media team. A driver at my depot was accused of something in twitter not too long ago which led to him being taken off track whilst the unit was downloaded etc. The allegation was found to be completely false and the driver was given his keys back and told to get on with his diagram. He refused to drive another train until he got a full written apology for having to go through all that over a false allegation and got a formal apology from the social media team along with a reply from the company to the 'tweeter' stating that the driver was not at fault and that the accuser was wrong.
michael769
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Surely the company is bound to investigate such a serious allegation no matter where it comes from?
If it is found to be unfounded, or exagerrated, surely the apology should come from the instigator of the complaint? Assuming the rumour that he has been exonerated is accurate, hopefully the instigator will reminded that their little darling's claims could have got a fellow human being sacked. Ideally along with a bill for the unpaid fare and Scotrail's costs. Sadly I fear it is more likely she will get. Fw rail vouches in the name of customer service.
If it is found to be unfounded, or exagerrated, surely the apology should come from the instigator of the complaint? Assuming the rumour that he has been exonerated is accurate, hopefully the instigator will reminded that their little darling's claims could have got a fellow human being sacked. Ideally along with a bill for the unpaid fare and Scotrail's costs. Sadly I fear it is more likely she will get. Fw rail vouches in the name of customer service.
Agreed, but in the case I am referring to the social media team basically tweeted back that the driver was in the wrong and apologised on his behalf.
michael769
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I don't agree. They said that the behaviour described was unacceptable and that the matter would be investigated. Which seems to me to be an entirely appropriate response. The guard was never identified, so if he has been exonerated it is pretty much the end of the matter.
If he had been publicly identified before the investigation concluded, it would, of course, have been an entirely different matter.
I don't think they should have commented at all until they had looked into the matter fully and come to a conclusion. Yes I agree that what is described was unacceptable but they had no need to write any more than a simple 'this will be looked into'.
michael769
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I you check upthread you will find a copy of their post which pretty much was what you say. It did not actally criticise the guard.
In that case I don't have an issue with it. I was more commenting on th FCC driver who had a different response by the twitter team.
156441
Member
The original post on Facebook seems to have been removed. Hopefully the guard had been exonerated and those who doubted his professionalism can now perhaps have a small portion of humble pie!!
My 2p's worth on cards is quite simple. Having family in the banking sector there are several options open to the railway which would easily solve the problems with no such more than a software update.
The most simple that is instead of a 'decline' message when a offline transaction is refused a 'refer' message is displayed. A quick phonecall to a referral hotline takes less than 45 secs and a decline or authorisation number is given. This holds the money from the customers account as per a normal 'online' transaction and the code is tapped into Avantix to issue the ticket (the box is actually already there to do this when one 'swipes' a card).
Granted this system only works where a mobile signal is available. But it's one simple solution which could easily be made a reality. (And only takes a phone signal not necessarily a 3G one) I'm lead to believe that FTPE already have a similar setup in place?
My 2p's worth on cards is quite simple. Having family in the banking sector there are several options open to the railway which would easily solve the problems with no such more than a software update.
The most simple that is instead of a 'decline' message when a offline transaction is refused a 'refer' message is displayed. A quick phonecall to a referral hotline takes less than 45 secs and a decline or authorisation number is given. This holds the money from the customers account as per a normal 'online' transaction and the code is tapped into Avantix to issue the ticket (the box is actually already there to do this when one 'swipes' a card).
Granted this system only works where a mobile signal is available. But it's one simple solution which could easily be made a reality. (And only takes a phone signal not necessarily a 3G one) I'm lead to believe that FTPE already have a similar setup in place?
If it is true that the guard has been exonerated and the post has been removed (indicating that the OP knew it was false, otherwise why remove it?) then maybe the company needs to post on face ache (yes me as well
) about the false allegation and if there is a repeat from the same person (which is again found to be false) then they will have no choice but to "follow up" on the false allegations!I am sure a decent lawyer could find a way to prosecute the original poster for bringing the companies name into disrepute or something?
To those commenting that the social media apologised. Many companies who train employees to apologise in empathy rather than actual apologise for the allegation prior to investigation. Most companies I've worked for have trained to pretty much tell a complainant "sorry you feel that way" etc prior to investigations
Captain Chaos
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Indeed. I have had a complaint made about me on Facebook before now. An apology was issued but a backing up of the information I told them was given by the company. But an apology was given anyway. Why? We have to remember that these are essentially Public Forums. But they aren't using a fake name. They are using the company name and thus anything they say reflects the company. Image is important to any company. So it is only right that they issue an apology regardless and say it will be looked into. This is what is expected by the public so that's what has to be said. Does that mean they are genuinely sorry? Not always. An investigation? For all we know it could have been a quiet word with the line manager and not taken any further.
I think it's important to remember that a company has to maintain it's public image, but that doesn't mean what they say is 100% what they literally mean. Take a look at the FGW Facebook page. We have been told that although we can read it, it is probably best not to get involved in any arguments on there. They're right too. The amount of nonsense that gets put on there is remarkable. I think Ollie and Co do a very good job dealing with it all tbh. I once considered applying for the job of which FB is part of. Reading it has put me off somewhat.
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Electron is a major VISA product, just no longer in the UK.
martybabes
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SteamPower
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So you are saying just give them an apology even if they might be making false accusations just because it is "what is expected by the public." Where is the integrity in that?
If, after investigation the claims are found to be legitimate then offer an unreserved apology, compensate accordingly and deal with the staff member the complaint was against, but why should an apology be issued without investigating first! To me that is sending out the wrong message.
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