I am writing to express my unhappiness in regards to an incident which occurred today on Sydney Bus number 466, and the ensuing actions of the driver.
A friend and I caught the 428 bus from railway square bus stop, which departs at 1:02pm. As both of us are students, we intended to pay for the trip using my 3-5 section travel ten card. Upon inserting the card into the machine, the machine jammed and “swallowed” my card. The bus driver was able to restart the machine; however it did not surrender my card. Prior to swiping the card, I had seven trips remaining.
The driver, being fully aware of this, simply shrugged his shoulders and told me “it was not his problem”. When I asked whether he could refund me the balance of the card, he declined and told me that the only way he could only retrieve my card at the end of his shift, when the bus returned to the depot. I was told to contact Sydney Buses in regards to the return of my travel ten card; however this information was not forthcoming. In addition, when I asked the driver to provide me with any kind of evidence, such as a dated signature which I could supply to Sydney buses, the driver blatantly refused.
I accept that there was no other course of action that the driver could do, however my unhappiness stems from the fact that not only did I have to plead with the driver to provide me information as to how to rectify the problem at hand but that during the entire interchange, the driver was incredibly rude and inconsiderate.
As I mentioned before, both myself and the friend I was travelling with are students, with no full time income and very little money at hand and whilst $11.00 for a bus card may seem to be a small amount, it is in fact, quite a substantial amount to a student. I simply ask for the return or replacement of my travel ten card, and an apology would be much appreciated.
I look forward to hearing from you