Free Travel Pass out of date. Anyone else having problems?

B

Black Sheep

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My Free Travel Card expired in December 2020. According to DSP they will be renewed in Spring 2021 and in the meantime the out of date card is still acceptable. Last Saturday I made my first trip since Covid to Dublin by bus and my card would not scan.
 
No I didn't have to pay. I explained to the driver (it sounded like it was news to him) so he allowed me to travel this time. I felt like a school child who hadn't done his homework especially I had to do the same on the homebound journey and this time offered to pay but he did not accept.
 
The driver is an ignoramus.
People use those passes daily and they cannot be renewed at present, beggars belief this is the first time they came across the situation.

Print this out or show it on the phone. If any driver tries to make you pay give them hell.

The National Transport Authority (NTA) has confirmed that all transport operators are allowing customers with a PSC Free Travel Card to continue to avail of the Free Travel Scheme during the COVID-19 public health emergency, even if the card has expired.

Free travel in Ireland

Everyone aged 66 and over living permanently in Ireland is entitled to travel free of charge on public transport. People under 66 on certain social welfare payments are also entitled to free travel. Find out more about free travel in Ireland and the Senior SmartPass which allows you to travel...
www.citizensinformation.ie
 
2 people I know were able to renew them by calling up - I think the office is in Sligo.

One of them had tried to use her expired pass (1 week out of date) on a bus and got a lecture from the driver who acted as if she was committing some high crime. She tried to explain that she had checked the website but he was having none of it. She was really shaken by it, terrible attitude.
 
The moment has passed but that bus driver was guilty of slander.
 
Most of the newer travel passes are basically the same set up as Leap Cards. Once it hits an expiry date and you scan it it won't work. NTA clearly have not put in a system workaround and given the age of some of the equipment on the buses (which they are looking to update) and the fact no one can clearly say when Covid restrictions will end, I can forgive them that.

However there is a training issue here with some of the bus drivers, that is not unusual as well, most are fine but a handful should never be let out. I would suggest to the woman who had the issue that she complain to the NTA directly in Harcourt Street, identifying the bus route and time she was on it
 
JUST SAW THIS. DOES THIS MEAN RINGING THE PSC CARD NUMBER HELPLINE THAT IT WONT BE ANSWERED AND THE TAPE MESSAGE IS A JOKE. ON HOLD FOR 11 MINUTES SO FAR
 
If you have a public services card, which you are using as your travel pass, you can renew it online.
You register on MyGovID.ie
They will send you out a PIN in the post.

I completed the process for a family member, note it seems very fussy about the photo used.
I used one which passed the official passport photo checker on the dfa site but it wasn't accepted until I put it into 960 height x 720 width pixels.
They are looking for just a head shot whereas the passport photo they want the top of your torso and some filler space.
 
I've used my services card, my travel pass, my passport and my driving licence as proof of age many times. Never had a problem. Travel pass lasts 10 years, so can't understand how any driver wouldn't recognise a mid to late 70's pensioner.
 
noproblem said:
I've used my services card, my travel pass, my passport and my driving licence as proof of age many times. Never had a problem. Travel pass lasts 10 years, so can't understand how any driver wouldn't recognise a mid to late 70's pensioner.
Click to expand...
Hi
There are lots of 40 something with travel passes, In fact, I used mine yesterday on the Dublin intercity bus
A Very nice and helpful bus driver I must say,
Yesterday on the return journey The bus driver announced that people with tickets or bookings board first
There was plenty of room for everyone,

the reason For doing this was to speed up boarding he was able to remove the scanner from the base and use it as a handheld unit to check tickets,
He then put the scanner back in the base unit to scan free pass customers he came across a card out of date pass card passenger scanned the passcard again and again on both sides and still not working all handled well by the bus driver, I would say the person was not yet pension age,
When we got on the bus I overheard the person with the scan problem saying they already ran into this problem
before, they never said anything to the bus driver,
One thing I noticed and I could see the bus driver also spotted the passenger behind this person having the problem moved forward the next person also moved forward several were no longer a safe distance from one another,

Maby it is just me but if I was the passenger with the out of date pass seeing they ran into this problem before
I would have boarded last and informed the bus driver it was out of date and not waste time scanning it,
 
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It might not be all down to the bus driver yesterday I seen a customer trying to scan an out of date bus pass,
I am not sure whether the passenger was scanning it correctly or not,

In the end, the bus driver took the pass from the passenger and scanning it himself, which in these covid times was not a safe thing to have to do, it was only then the bus driver realized it was out of date I overheard the passenger later
say they knew it was out of date,

I suspect but I don't know for sure an out of date pass card acts the same way as if is not being held to the scanner correctly, a lot of bus run time can get wasted if passengers scan an out of date card rather than informing the bus driver it is out of date,
Lots of times when I get on a bus I see passengers having problems scanning in date bus passcard because it is not the correct way around, yesterday the bus driver spent a lot of time waiting as the passenger tried scanning pass several times on different sides,

They knew the pass was out of date but let the bus driver find out the hard way,
 
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Update.
I finally contacted the Free Travel Section (DSP) in Sligo and my Pass and that of my OH were renewed for 3 years and I received them by post.
Why didn't I think of doing that at first, but I suppose I just trusted their website which said "passes are valid though out of date".
 
Even so, it's good to talk
 
Both my wife and I used our free travel pass this week for this first time since the start of Covid. We were on the DART.

My card worked fine. My wife's card did not work. Both were in-date.

My wife phoned the relevant department to seek a replacement. Phone number on back of card. She answered a few security questions and was told that a replacement card would be issued.

Within an hour my wife received an automated phone call from the Department of Social Welfare to state that her card had been fraudulently used and to Press 1 etc.

My wife assumed that when making her initial phone call that everything was in order and had been told that a new replacement card had been ordered.

So she became suspicious and just hung up on the second call.

Thinking it was some sort of scam call she decided to alert the department that she had been in contact with to see if their phone lines/computer systems had been compromised in some way.

When she rang back she was subjected to an unprecedented amount of security questions. Considerably more than the security questions that she was asked first time. It began to be ridiculous when they started asking for the middle name of our eldest son!

She began to be concerned at the amount of questions and asked the person on the other end why was she asking all these additional questions on top of the initial security questions. The person then just stopped asking these questions.

When my wife suggested that perhaps their computer systems/phone lines might be compromised the lady said that this was not possible and that the second scam phone call was pure coincidence.

So, it appears that this lady in the Department of Social Welfare wouldn't even entertain the possibility that there was something strange in the fact that within an hour of contacting them about a Travel Card that wasn't working correctly that we received what appears to be a follow up scam call.

Anyone else have a similar experience?
 
Mrs Lep and I have got such calls on our mobiles and landline over the past few days. When asked to press "1" we just hung up. Convincing cultured voice asking information though, I can understand how somebody could be fooled.
 

There have been so many scam calls pretending to come from DSP, that it could easily be a coincidence.
I am getting them regularly, and I have absolutely no contact with DSP, and no social welfare payments apart from child benefit. I dont even know if they have my mobile number.
 
We have had 5 calls in the past two days. All from different numbers. Some have a recorded message re fraud on your Public Services card and others have nobody at the other end when you answer.....they just disconnect the call.......hoping you will ring back thinking it is a missed call.

We had a contact with the Department of Social Services recently......there has to be a link as suggested above by Bronco.
 
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