[Tyraell]

(Original post by Architecture-er)
but why? How does he get the authority to deny the bus company revenue, just because he doesn't want to get rid of some of his change?

I'm not sure there's a law saying you can't refuse service of you're someone else's employee. Also, if they accept, say, a 20 pound note from someone they might be costing money if they then lack change to let others on.

[Waterstorm]

(Original post by Architecture-er)
but why? How does he get the authority to deny the bus company revenue, just because he doesn't want to get rid of some of his change?

There just technically isn't a law against it. - well tbh, I'm just assuming there isn't for buses, but I used to work at M&S and I know from there that sales assistants don't have to serve a customer for whatever reason if they didn't want to. Whether their manager was happy about that is another matter.

[Architecture-er]

(Original post by Tyraell)
I'm not sure there's a law saying you can't refuse service of you're someone else's employee. Also, if they accept, say, a 20 pound note from someone they might be costing money if they then lack change to let others on.

(Original post by Waterstorm)
.

Ah ok, thanks guys

I suppose the point about lack of change is something they have to bear in mind

[Clare~Bear]

I know shop assistants don't have to sell you anything so I don't think the argument about them or whoever not owning the shop or bus or whatever holds.

(Original post by Tyraell)
I'm not sure there's a law saying you can't refuse service of you're someone else's employee. Also, if they accept, say, a 20 pound note from someone they might be costing money if they then lack change to let others on.

I've been on buses where the bus driver ended up charging me an extra 10 or 20p because they didn't have the change. They don't refuse you entry, it jsut becomes your choice if you want to pay that extra to get on the bus or not.

[DuncanMono]

Round my way if they don't have the change they give you a voucher which you can change at the station or on another bus. With more and more people paying for other goods and services on their cards and cash machines giving out notes, maybe they should be more prepared to accept notes. Or even a more widespread oyster-esque scheme

[Dude Where's My Username]

(Original post by Architecture-er)
Ok, here's a spin on the situation.

Someone said earlier that a shopkeeper can refuse to take money, regardless of what it is. But what happens with people who don't really 'own' their 'shop'?

For example, I once tried to pay a bus fare with a 10 pound note, but the guy refused to take it. I tried to point out to him that he couldn't actually refuse payment, so he got out of his cab and started shouting at me, telling me "I couldn't tell (him) what to do with his bus".
I'm not glossing over anything, he really was that unstable, but was he right? Surely it's the bus company's vehicle, so he is basically a cashier? It's not like a taxi, which is owned by the individual driving it.. right?

Bus drivers carry limited change and time spent fiddling for change can make them run late. I see this all the time on London buses where people try to use £20 notes to pay, thinking the driver will refuse to take it and let them on for free anyway to save time. This happened to me. But much more often than not they'll take one look then tell you to GTFO his bus, then drive past you when you hail down his bus the next day.

In short, he was right.

[TheSownRose]

(Original post by Dude Where's My Username)
Bus drivers carry limited change and time spent fiddling for change can make them run late. I see this all the time on London buses where people try to use £20 notes to pay, thinking the driver will refuse to take it and let them on for free anyway to save time. This happened to me. But much more often than not they'll take one look then tell you to GTFO his bus, then drive past you when you hail down his bus the next day.

In short, he was right.

With my company, I've often wondered three things:

- why don't drivers get sent out with a larger float?
- knowing that it causes a problem and the company doesn't send them out with a larger float, why don't they bring some of their own money in and take it back out at the end of the day?
- why does my local company almost expect exact change for such strange amounts?

I've pondered on that last one the most. I could understand expecting exact change if they charged simple amounts, like £2.50 or £5. However, the fare for a one relatively common route is £3.37. In order to pay that exactly, you are going to need at least six coins - £2, £1, 20p, 10p, 5p, 2p. When your exact fare requires people to take out a money bag, it's unreasonable to expect it to be exact, IMO. However, the amount of change a driver on the first route of the day has, it's obvious that really, they do expect you to be paying it exactly!

Another awkward example of how they really shouldn't expect exact change: recently, the company installed ticket machines at the bus stations and a few of the larger stops along some of its routes. Now, instead of buying your ticket from the driver, you buy it from this machine instead. Sounds like a good idea? They don't give change and, even better, they don't accept cash. So, when a weekly ticket needs to be bought for £22.60, you can't pay that with a £20 note and a £2, 50p and 10p coin combination. You're expected to take at least thirteen coins out with you in order to pay that! So, in reality, people on a Monday morning get on the bus, say, "I don't have ten £2 coins for the machine" and have to buy their ticket from the driver anyway. Why did the company even bother!?

TL;DR: bus companies are insane. Apart from the Shetland bus service - I have nothing but praise for them. To read more about why I love the Shetland bus service so much, see the spoiler.

Spoiler:

Show

Why I love the Shetland bus service: I recently visited the Shetland Islands for a holiday. There, they don't have a single bus company providing the service; instead, they have a co-operative of several bus companies across the various different islands running a service together. Some of the routes have a single company, some have different companies running different parts of it - these jointed routes tend to be the ones that run over different islands.

The friend who I was on holiday with and I caught second last ferry of the day from Island A to Island B, needing to cross Island B in order to get to Island C, where our hotel for that night was. It was only once we had got to Island B (and after the ferry had already departed) that we realised, from looking around the bus shelters, we were stranded (there wasn't another ferry back, just one more ferry to arrive in 3 hours.) We were working from a old bus timetable that detailed a bus route that ran from Island A, collected at various locations on Island B (including where we were located) and then ran up to the top of the island, where it met up with another ferry that got over to Island C, where we would be transported to where we needed to go on Island C. The new bus timetables didn't detail any pick-up in Island B, although the shopkeeper confirmed that an evening bus still met up with the evening ferry to Island C.

After a while of panicking (remember, we can't get back, and Island B didn't really have a whole lot on it - a few small villages, no hotels or accommodation beyond cottages you rent for a week) and a completely uninformative encounter with tourist information, we had the idea of phoning the bus company just to make sure that we weren't misreading the timetables and panicking for nothing (actually, we first had the idea of phoning a taxi so we could get up to the top of the island and catch our boat, but couldn't get through to them. Probably for the best - what would we have done once we got to Island C?) After a while of trying to get a signal, we got through, explained what had happened and found out we weren't reading it incorrectly, that bus route had recently been changed. Then came the wonderful words: "But we have to go that way anyway - wait outside the shop at 4pm and I'll make sure the driver knows to stop and pick you up." Much thanking from our end followed.

And the best part of all, he actually did. We were waiting outside that shop and, from our experience of buses, we reckoned it wouldn't go as smoothly as was said, so planned to wave frantically when we saw the bus. As it was, my friend was desperate for the toilet so had to quickly nip away, and the rain was obscuring my glasses, so neither of us saw the bus. I was wiping my glasses off when I heard something pull up, a bus door open and someone call out, "Are you one of the women I've been told to pick up?" The man in the office had done exactly as he said he would and told the driver to make an un-timetabled stop, and the driver had actually done it. The happy end to this story is the bus waited for a minute for my friend to return, we got on and arrived, as planned, at our hotel on Island C.

We both sat in our hotel room that night, marvelling at the fact a bus company the actually cares about people exists. We agree that, if a similar situation had happened at home and you'd phoned our local bus company, they would have laughed at you. Even if you'd said you can get to a convenient location on one of their routes, there is no way they would have stopped to let you on. It's not just this incident - the drivers were unfailingly friendly, the buses actually picked up on time where they said they would, we saw several instances of someone obviously trying to catch the bus but not being at the stop on time so the bus just waited for them - but it is one of the many reasons why I admire the Shetland bus service so much.

[martin jol]

anyone who watches 'the chase' over 'pointless' (best quiz show in the world) has my contempt

[PJ991]

(Original post by Waterstorm)
There just technically isn't a law against it. - well tbh, I'm just assuming there isn't for buses, but I used to work at M&S and I know from there that sales assistants don't have to serve a customer for whatever reason if they didn't want to. Whether their manager was happy about that is another matter.

Sainsbury's had a similar thing when I worked there. If you refused to serve someone, for whatever reason, the supervisor/manager had to be on your side, even if it was something stupid, like asking a 50 year old man for ID for a bottle of wine.

[vickie89]

it depends on the shop and how busy they are really. if its really busy they wont appreciate being paid a lot in coppers and small change. i always apologise about it all being in change if i have to pay in small change (like if its over £2 and i only have 5ps and a couple of 10/20ps). though i do take the opportunity when im in supermarkets that have the self serve machines, i can give them all my small annoying coins that seem to accumulate in my purse without being glared at by the cashier, especially in sainsburys as i can just drop it all in the chute rather than individually passing them through the slot.

[Clare~Bear]

(Original post by martin jol)
anyone who watches 'the chase' over 'pointless' (best quiz show in the world) has my contempt

My dad prefers the chase but I like pointless although they seem to be mainly repeats these days.

BUT I think I'd prefer going on the chase as it seems more do-able to actually win something.

[tehforum]

(Original post by martin jol)
anyone who watches 'the chase' over 'pointless' (best quiz show in the world) has my contempt

The Chase ftw.

I watch the repeats on Challenge, at 3pm, then I watch the new The Chase episodes at 5.

[Juno]

(Original post by TheSownRose)
- knowing that it causes a problem and the company doesn't send them out with a larger float, why don't they bring some of their own money in and take it back out at the end of the day?

Do you really think that that would be acceptable? It would seem suspicious if they were taking money out at the end and nobody would believe it was already theirs - even if it all balanced they could be accused of over charging the customers to steal money at the end. Really, you make some stupid threads, but I think this one wins.

[martin jol]

(Original post by tehforum)
The Chase ftw.

I watch the repeats on Challenge, at 3pm, then I watch the new The Chase episodes at 5.

how do you not die of boredom, the chase is ok when the chaser is going at it in the last bit but it's just the same **** up till then, pointless is friggin great trust me i used to prefer the chase but richard and his pointless facts are too good