Unhappy Thread

[dannyboy]

Demand (and price) will have gone up again by then 

The Law of Sod! 

[Newportnobby]

Last time I was at Carnforth station (and that was pre Covid) the car park was pay and display i.e. using coins of our realm.
Today it was purely a mobile phone/app job and I hate it. I dare say 'RingCo' are a well established and honourable business but I intensely dislike giving my card details over the phone to someone I've never heard of before.
Sure, they texted me as promised to let me know my parking ran out in 10 minutes but there's no receipt and until I check my online banking I haven't a clue if they only charged me the £2.20 stated I'm sure it won't equate to the £1000 fine if you don't cough up.
And they call this progress.

[Dorsetmike]

How are those of us luddites without mobile phones supposed to deal with that?

[Newportnobby]

It's becoming more and more widespread, to the extent town/city retailers blame some drop in trade as folks just don't want to/can't comply

[joe cassidy]

On the other hand my cousin in the city of Dublin told me that the buses in Dublin are cash-only, in fact coin-only, with a tariff of 2 euro per trip.

[Newportnobby]

@Dorsetmike
There was a section on BBC news this morning about cashless parking etc and, basically, about 2.4 million people will just be stuffed as there's no way councils etc will revert to cash machines as they have to pay someone to empty them at the very least.
If the technology breaks down and, let's face it, it appears to do so quite regularly, they don't give a damn. They're just happy to get a percentage of the fine for anyone parking illegally.
It's one of the reasons I finally had to give in and get a smart phone but even then it's a complete PITA

[Nbodger]

I appreciate this has nothing to do with car parking but is of a similar vane

Yesterday morning when I was crossing our local station footbridge, there was an elderly lady looking bemused outside the ticket office. I had to explain to the lady that the railways were on strike and virtually no trains. The lady was Turkish and only spoke broken English. She was going into Hull to meet her sister, there was a train the Hull Trains Service but she couldn't purchase a ticket as the ticket office was closed and the two tickets machines only accept card payment, unfortunately the lady only used cash.

Yes in theory she could purchase a ticket on the train but quite often you do not see the guard as they don't always check tickets as there are ticket barriers at Hull.

She did catch the train, I hope she got sorted and was treated fairly

I didn't have any means of payment on me at the time else I would have purchased a ticket for her.

[Browning 9mm]

@Dorsetmike
There was a section on BBC news this morning about cashless parking etc and, basically, about 2.4 million people will just be stuffed as there's no way councils etc will revert to cash machines as they have to pay someone to empty them at the very least.
If the technology breaks down and, let's face it, it appears to do so quite regularly, they don't give a damn. They're just happy to get a percentage of the fine for anyone parking illegally.
It's one of the reasons I finally had to give in and get a smart phone but even then it's a complete PITA

when SWMBO was in hospital over christmas, before she passed, there was only 1 parking machine working in the carparks.
in the end I got fed up and instead of playing 'hunt the one that works'  I took a pic of the out of service messages in the end, and chanced it.
with the situation as it was, my least worry was a parking ticket.

[Bealman]

That's exactly what I have done in Betws-y-Coed tonight. Stuck car in church car park there and took picture of machine not in use.

[JBQFC]

@Dorsetmike
There was a section on BBC news this morning about cashless parking etc and, basically, about 2.4 million people will just be stuffed as there's no way councils etc will revert to cash machines as they have to pay someone to empty them at the very least.
If the technology breaks down and, let's face it, it appears to do so quite regularly, they don't give a damn. They're just happy to get a percentage of the fine for anyone parking illegally.
It's one of the reasons I finally had to give in and get a smart phone but even then it's a complete PITA

it took me 3/4 of an hour to get the app to work for Crawley railway station it wanted full details of the car our address then if refused to accept the first card i put in 
missed 3 trains in process good job it was not an important trip

i have found out from station staff that you can get a parking ticket from the train ticket machine but they don't tell you this on the parking notices

John

[Papyrus]

Parking in Brighton is going the same way, with many streets having the machines removed, forcing you to use the phone app. I've never managed to get this to work, and like Mick, I'm very reluctant to give my card details away to an unknown company. One day, I'm going to leave my car with a sign in the window saying "Unable to pay due to no machine accepting coins" and see what happens.

The Dartford Crossing annoys me too. All right, I know the reason they got rid of the barriers, but you now have the faff of paying online by the next day. Meanwhile, anybody with a foreign registration heading for Dover can drive off into the foreign without paying because nobody is going to try and chase them for payment. Would have made more sense just to abolish the tolls altogether.

Cheers,

Chris

[Bob G]

When we were in Sydney Australia we had our travel on the ferries just tapping in and tapping out. The only downside is you have no idea how much you are paying for your travel. Bars didn't want cash either.

Then we went to Brisbane and to travel on the ferries you had to get a card, but you couldn't get a card from any of the boarding piers. Only at special shops that sold the cards. Madness. One of the ferry crew said to us "just get on and get off where you want and if any inspectors get on, just say you are a tourist!" So ferries in Brisbane were free because we couldn't figure it any other way.

Bob

[Graham]

only works for international tourists, not us local tourists unfortunately.

[The Q]

Ok it's not like Im living in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland as I used to do, where MRCs are nearly non existent as are shows.
But here in Norfolk, planning this year's show visit schedule is a problem when you live out on the coast when over half of the area you live in is north sea. (it's approaching 2/3rd sea).
It means higher milages across country in a county with no motorways, so the travelling to show time becomes high.

But then two shows I had to dismiss were both town centre shows without their own parking.
One I dismissed because it's phone app only payment, and at the time I only had a phone that could make phone calls.
With travelling costs added to parking costs added to show entry costs even a small show becomes expensive.
Both would involve a considerable walk from  free parking areas outside their town centres.

[Newportnobby]

My Home & Contents insurance renewal notice came through a couple of days ago and they want 40% extra - an additional £70 a year.
My attempts to use comparison sites led me to believe that, despite answering all the questions, the cover I was then offered came nowhere near matching what I was getting from the current insurer. There were things I wanted to add in but couldn't as they weren't on the forms and their required excesses were radically different. As an example, for items insured outside the home I could choose between laptop or bicycle. Not both, oh no (And before some joker points it out I'm unlikely to pedal off down the road with my laptop slung over my shoulder )
A mate recommended NFU Mutual as they are not on comparison sites but I spoke to a surly bloke who asked me only a few questions and asked when my renewal date was. When I replied "End of this month" he asked "What - the 31st?"
I don't think he liked me pointing out there was no such date so quoted me £550, which is twice my next year's premium
I just told him he doesn't want the business and bid him a fond farewell

I have come to the conclusion my current insurer got the price wrong last year for a very good package and is levelling things up so will be leaving it with them