(28 Feb 2014, 10:24 pm)Bus_User wrote And what proof you got of that statement? Also the girl that was fine because assumingly she did not have a valid ticket but should be let off because she is a "kid"... How do you know she is not 16 or over... she looks around 16 too me so hardly a 10 year old and a teenager should know better anyways. Person that is in the wheelchair, how can anyone judge from the photo that the person is actually being fined? And even so, should we really be lenient just because the person has got a disability or is in a wheelchair? If a person got a disability and they assaulted someone, should they get away with it because their disability affected their behaviour? You be setting a dangerous precedent if you did. The guy that is tackled to the ground, is there anything against a anyone using some sort of self defense? for all we know the guy could of been very aggressive and out of control and you don't really want anyone to be behaving like that when you got a drop to the train track nearby! Number 1 priority is your own safety so whilst I'm sure a lot of people would take that photo out of the context and label it as mean inspector and poor guy on the ground, perhaps we should actually see the full incident before we judge either way and that goes for all the photos really.
Checky watch is nothing but fraud and the owner is just one of those lazy folk who feels everything should be free. And if your wondering why Metro Inspectors look miserable etc, then its the same with bus drivers, you have to deal with members of the public which there are some who drives you nuts!
The other simple fact is, BUY A VALID TICKET and you won't have to deal with the inspectors apart from showing them your ticket. Travelling without a ticket is fraud and therefore an offense so anyone travelling without a ticket and gets caught is always pleasing too see.
Of course I cannot back up my opinions with evidence, but I have given stories and photographs of my experiences whereby Metro Inspectors have seemingly taken pleasure in fining people. I'll not get onto the anecdote of the racist Inspector who had 'no time for pakis' who I came across a year or two ago.
The girl looks like she is in her mid-teens to me, and looks the sort to be Under 16. She may have paid for a ticket every day in her life apart from that day, and it could have been linked to a Metro ticket machine fault (see my stories a few weeks ago where I was not able to purchase a ticket and Customer Services were completely useless), could have been linked to her running onto the Metro for safety as she was being chased, could have simply been down to having no money (whether that's down to being mugged or generally just having no money, you can decide). Given my previous sightings of the bad Metro Inspectors, my judgement of every Metro Inspector has changed. I really don't think the Inspectors would have been understanding, nor do I think they would have let her off if it was her first time offence.
The photograph's caption suggests that the disabled man is being fined, so we have assumed that it is correct. The price for a Gold Card is fairly cheap (£25) and I really don't know many Metro users who do not have one. It's cheaper for them to have one even if they only use the Metro twice a month. This is being reduced even more, as per recent discussions. There is no reason why the disabled man would not have owned one of these cards, and I have assumed that he mustn't have been in possession of one that day. That really could be simply down to the fact he had misplaced it.
Your statements are rather worrying in regards to the man being rugby tackled to the floor. Surely it is equally as important that customers are safe, and not just themselves? You're right though, that is the sort of impression I get from them. There's self-defence and there is clear assault - I'm going with the latter option, with no knowledge of the reasoning behind it, because of how aggressive it appears. That sort of behaviour cannot be condoned and brings the company into disrepute.
Your statement regarding the owner of the "Checky Watch" page is wrong. The owner of the page has quoted to newspapers (which I'm sure I actually mentioned at the time) that he does not want free travel on Metros, he wants cheaper travel on Metros. Is it any wonder that he is requesting just that, when he is your average "buy a single" kind of customer? The price of his ticket has rocketed in recent years to pick up the cost of ticket reductions elsewhere. We can only assume that this will happen again when the cost of the Gold Card is slashed.
Bus drivers may look miserable, but at least they don't practice their rugby skills on customers.