Gota love inACTION
I purchased a 10 ride ticket to allow my child to travel home from school. Sadly, I was forced into it, as the driver gets shitty at the children if they elect to tender the coins of the realm as a form of payment…. (Go figure! It probably makes them late to watch the Simpsons, or Australian Idol, when they get home at night)
The next day, I have a sad child, because the ticket machine printed the phrase “xxx xxx 18OCT06 15:32 CANNOT BE READ TICKET IS FAULTY – DO NOT RE-USE” across the ticket… After a brief discussion, and the payment of some of those coin thingies that the driver really doesn’t like, she was let on. (Thank God that she had $2 on her). She was told that the ticket had to be returned to the newsagent from where it was purchased, and that they would exchange it. So, I was tasked with taking it into work to arrange for a replacement after one of those company funded coffee breaks us consultants are entitled to (under our EBA).
That’s when things started going sadly wrong. Just after my coffee, I visited the newsagent where I purchased the ticket. As I suspected, the newsagent didn’t want to know. Probably because it broke the basic “you give me money and I give you a thing” business model that they use to feed their children and pay their mortgages. I was told (quite nicely) that I had to take it to an “ACTION ™” office.
OK, So I start my quest to find an ACTION office… Off to the Civic bus interchange went I… Only to discover that my choice of time of the day to have a coffee break was clearly incorrect, as the office had a little sign saying that they were closed from 11.30 – 12.30. Looks like they don’t actually employ enough staff to ensure continuity of service…. That’s ok though, as It was bascially time for a company funded lunch with a client (Also covered by our EBA).
Back I wander at about 2.30, and I discover that the one person who staffs the office is there. I explain the situation to him, and he tries it in his machine, and declares that it works for him… Gosh – How did the neat writing saying “xxx xxx 18OCT06 15:32 CANNOT BE READ TICKET IS FAULTY – DO NOT RE-USE” end up on it?
He declined to replace it, and suggested that I try it again (in the actual bus that had the problem), and if it still doesn’t work, then he will replace it.
Priceless – Wow! Such sensitive service!…. If there is another failure, then my daughter had better have $2 on her, and she will probably get growled at, because the dumb-ass driver will probably scream at her because she tried to re-use the ticket, when the ticket says that it shouldn’t be re-used. Heaven knows that there are *many* examples I have been told by my kids of ACTION drivers providing helpful acceptable workplace behaviour examples to kids on school busses….
Do I bother playing their game, or do I simply apply another $16 to the problem?
Raises a couple of questions;
1) How un-reliable are others finding the ticketing system?
2) Are there other stories from riot-act readers where their kids have had examples of ‘quality’ service from other frustrated drivers?
3) Does anybody know what the single staff member at ACTION actually does during the 1 hour when he is absent? Because he probably doesn’t do his job when he is there…
4) Finally, because there is only one staff member employed, what happens when he needs to use the potty?