Tempted to give up on Boris bikes

The latest twist in this stupid saga is that my Barclays Cycle Hire key has stopped working altogether. Seems to be a physical failure - the docking stations do not respond at all to the key being inserted.

Previously they at least showed a yellow then a red light when I tried. Now it just does nothing.

12 minutes on the phone with TFL did not improve matters: first they claimed that one of the docking stations might be faulty, then that the problem was with the auto-renew feature (same as last time). Then she claimed that I had made a journey already today (not true). Finally she charged my credit card for another day and then, as I fully expected, the key still did not work.

The new access period has been confirmed to me by email - twice - so perhaps they've charged me for two. The web interface has no record of anything that's happened today, which makes sense if it's a physical failure.

They're sending out a replacement - which will take three working days, of course - and my request for a refund of the cost of my 25 minutes of phone calls has been passed up the chain.

The next step in the epic is sadly predictable. As you can see from the image below, they think they have sent me TWO keys. Because of an unrelated bug in the Serco system, people with two keys are charged for two bikes even when they're only using one. So just wait to hear my screams of fury on Wednesday. I will of course write them up for your further entertainment.

Comments

PunditusMaximus said…
So, how has the decision to skimp on salary and training worked out for Boris Bikes?

Shouldn't have hired that b-school graduate to manage...

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