A warning to Manchester Metrolink customers

[LisaH]

Today a passenger was stopped on the tram who had bought 2 tickets, for himself and his companion, using the Getmethere app. He was told that he wasn't allowed to do that. (Common sense prevailed and he was simply told not to do it again and wasn't fined.)

I'm posting this because I nearly did the same thing the other day and it hadn't occurred to me that it would be a problem to do it.

 

[ffm]

I assume you refer to the companion's ticket and not the app user, as the app is perfectly acceptable for the purchase of tickets for the app user.

 

[Trackman]

I thought you could only have 1 ticket activated at a time, or will the app activate 2 at the same time?

 

[185]

Rules do state in app conditions strictly one person per device.

http://www.getmethere.co.uk/terms.php
7.8. The get me there app can only be used by one customer, per smart phone at any one time. Individual customers must be able to present their ticket on their own smart phone.


Under the impression it's partly to do with liability, ie phone with two tickets on fails or is lost, and two people become liable. That said, when an app ticket is presented with two people on, I don't think anyone has been fined so far, just reminded of their error.

(A person can purchase multiple tickets, to use later during the same day)

 

[infobleep]

Rules do state in app conditions strictly one person per device.

http://www.getmethere.co.uk/terms.php
7.8.The get me there app can only be used by one customer, per smart phone at any one time. Individual customers must be able to present their ticket on their own smart phone.


Under the impression it's partly to do with liability, ie phone with two tickets on fails or is lost, and two people become liable. That said, when an app ticket is presented with two people on, I don't think anyone has been fined so far, just reminded of their error.

(A person can purchase multiple tickets, to use later during the same day)

May be when buying the tickets a warning message needs to be displayed saying you can only purchase tickets for yourself and not anyone else. Each person must run their own app.

I mean people should read all the terms and conditions that come with the app but I bet most people don't.

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

 

[Haywain]

May be when buying the tickets a warning message needs to be displayed saying you can only purchase tickets for yourself and not anyone else. Each person must run their own app.

I mean people should read all the terms and conditions that come with the app but I bet most people don't.

Warning messages could be carried and displayed for many things, but perhaps we could just assume that the vast majority will read the T&Cs or use common sense rather than inflicting messages on every user for every ticket purchase.

 

[SS4]

Warning messages could be carried and displayed for many things, but perhaps we could just assume that the vast majority will read the T&Cs or use common sense rather than inflicting messages on every user for every ticket purchase.

T&Cs need to be in a format much easier for the average person to read and understand

Here is the text for the GPLv3 which boils down to allowing the user to distribute the software and modify it as long as they release the code under a compatible licence

This one is for Spotify and has 25 clauses not all of which will be relevant but will have to be read.

On top of this a lot of sites will now have a privacy policy which the user must also read.

In short it's fine to say that the user must read the T&Cs but they need to be easier to read and understand for the common person.

 

[Clip]

Ive just read them http://www.getmethere.co.uk/terms.php and 7.8 seems pretty clear to me

7.8. The get me there app can only be used by one customer, per smart phone at any one time. Individual customers must be able to present their ticket on their own smart phone.

How much clearer do you think they need to be made then?

Though a note on the first page next to the shiny video would be handy for sure but as with everything if people dont read stuff then they are not going to know either way are they?

 

[najaB]

In short it's fine to say that the user must read the T&Cs but they need to be easier to read and understand for the common person.

I agree with the principle of making T&Cs simpler, but how simple can you make things? There will always be someone who doesn't understand.

 

[PermitToTravel]

This is actually mentioned in the FAQs, which are considerably more accessible than the T&Cs.

 

[BestWestern]

Warning messages could be carried and displayed for many things, but perhaps we could just assume that the vast majority will read the T&Cs or use common sense rather than inflicting messages on every user for every ticket purchase.

That's the funniest joke I've heard today. Railcards, Advance tickets, etc etc...

 

[PeterC]

How much clearer do you think they need to be made then?

There will always be somebody who will "misunderstand".

 

[philthetube]

I do agree that 7.8 is clear to understand but bear in mind that before you get there you have to read 7.11 and to fully comprehend that you have to read the full metrolink conditions of carriage, and 7. all the others on top.

If you condsider this reasnable try reading it all, time yourself then get someone to test you on them, if it takes more than a couple of mins to discover all you need to know or remembering it is difficult then the T&C's are not fit for purpose.

 

[185]

the T&C's are not fit for purpose.

Perhaps from the point of view of a passenger, in a similar fashion to the (often seemingly contradictory) railway NCOC/NCOTs - but that said, if a person wishes to do something other than the basics of purchasing a a single/rtn/day/season ticket the rules are there, and in a reasonable order to find the answer.

Whilst I don't disagree they are extensive and well into the thousands of words... the additional, fairly good FAQ section seems to have been added at the time of introduction to mitigate this.

 

[Sacro]

In my mind the application developers should read up on the Principle of least astonishment and not allow people to activate duplicate tickets. People could otherwise quite happily assume that given you can buy your friend a ticket whilst they are en route using a ticket machine, that the same principle holds true for the app which is quite happily recommended as an alternate to purchasing tickets.

 

[najaB]

In my mind the application developers should read up on the Principle of least astonishment and not allow people to activate duplicate tickets.

Indeed. I'm trying think of a situation where someone would legitimately need to have two active tickets at the same time. The only thing I can think of is a zonal ticket active at the same time as a single/return to somewhere not covered by the zonal.

 

[Sacro]

Indeed. I'm trying think of a situation where someone would legitimately need to have two active tickets at the same time. The only thing I can think of is a zonal ticket active at the same time as a single/return to somewhere not covered by the zonal.

Or just two adjacent tickets. Perhaps they have a season ticket part-way. Perhaps you shouldn't be able to activate a ticket if you already have a valid ticket activated for the journey.

 

[najaB]

Or just two adjacent tickets. Perhaps they have a season ticket part-way. Perhaps you shouldn't be able to activate a ticket if you already have a valid ticket activated for the journey.

I think season tickets are safe to ignore. Does the Metrolink allow split ticketing?

 

[PermitToTravel]

Doing so will only ever increase the cost of journeys.

 

[185]

Indeed. I'm trying think of a situation where someone would legitimately need to have two active tickets at the same time. The only thing I can think of is a zonal ticket active at the same time as a single/return to somewhere not covered by the zonal.

Split ticketing (in a railway sense) is certainly allowed but would generally be irrelevant, the fares are zonal and generally price capped so buying two is very unlikely to work out less... that said NajaB correctly mentions combining an app season ticket (yes, season tickets are zonal - groups of 3ish stations in each fare band) with an add-on single or return app ticket for the extra journey.

Two tickets are seen commonly on apps, often the passenger is wanting to travel from A-B then B-C where the gap at B is often more than the permitted 120 minutes for completion of single / outward portion tickets.

 

[LisaH]

As a parent there is a legitimate reason for me to have 2 tickets on my person and it would be useful to be able to buy a ticket for my daughter on my phone.

Regarding split tickets, if you are combining say train and tram it is often cheaper to buy separate tickets - although that's diverging from the topic!!!!