Cycle Hire: Can anybody hear me?
Post categories: Cycling, Transport for London
| 12:07 UK time, Tuesday, 10 August 2010
I've tried again to change my cycle hire membership from a weekly to an annual as no-one has called me back following my efforts yesterday.
The contractor Serco's call centre is really struggling with the weight of calls. Having waited for five minutes this morning on the phone the first time I was cut off.
The second time I tried I was put through to the main reception. The receptionist there took my details the same as happened yesterday.
I've been told someone will call me back. It's midday now. Watch this space.
Update: 1330 - just received a call from the Barclays Hire Scheme. My weekly membership is being unsubscribed and they will call me back in another two hours to make me an annual member. Things are moving but it's not yet done. However I remain optimistic ....
Update 2: 1537 hold the front page. I just got this email at 1532 confirming I'm now an annual member.
Dear Mr Tom EdwardsWe are pleased to confirm that you have successfully purchased an access period of annual. As a Member, your access period will start when you first use a cycle hire key to hire a cycle from a docking point.
Yours sincerely,
Barclays Cycle Hire
So, 27 hours after my first call it's finally sorted. Room for improvement Serco I think ....and reading the comments I'm obviously not alone.
Update 3: Wednesday, 1030
The bike hire saga continues.
Last night I failed in my latest attempt to hire a bike. With the first three bikes I got the red light at the station on Portland Place.
The docking terminal itself was showing error messages so I walked upto Great Portland Street. Again, no joy so I got the Tube. Hrmmmph.
However, a new day brings fresh optimism and this morning I tried again. And yes! It worked.
So I cycled into work and, personally, as I've said before the bikes handle pretty well. It reminded me of riding my Grifter back in the day.
The only slight hitch was when it came to finding a docking point.
All the slots around the office were full. So myself and a few others had to back track to find a space.
That's not ideal and I have noticed some racks seem to be full and unused while others are heavily used, particularly around rail stations.
There are meant to be 1.7 docking points for every bike and no doubt Serco and TfL will be trying to figure out how to solve the problem.
In Paris where they had the same issue they give extra credits to people who leave the bikes in more inaccessible places, i.e on the top of a hill.
Also unlike The Times who reported this morning a certain animosity and snobbery between hardened cyclists and those on the hire bikes I found no such thing. In fact, most cyclists were very friendly and inquisitive.
In another development today, TfL have admitted that thousands of people have been overcharged by the hire scheme. Are you one of them?
Please post a comment if you've had problems or indeed a good experience...
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~07~RS~)
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Looks like we all joined an exclusive club of the ignored. Tried calls and emails to no avail. Even c/c'ing Boris gets a 'this will be redirected to TFL' response. Great scheme, shocking support.
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Tom, I have been waiting nearly a week for Serco to return the various messages left at the overflow call centre, so don't hold your breath! You can, I eventually discovered, change to annual on the temperamental website by choosing to buy a new access period, but it is far from obvious (and for me, possibly for an unrelated reason, I then could not use the bikes for a day). Hopefully the admin/IT side will improve soon, as it is becoming a barrier to what is a great scheme...
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Wish I had your luck - I have also been promised return calls that never get made. Many users have had this problem. I honestly don't understand why the customer service has been so terrible and why TFL/Boris have been so quiet on the numerous problems.
Of course, then there are the problems with website failure, full/empty docking stations, non-functional kiosks and charging for every key even if only one is used. I'm stunned that this process has been so inept. They clearly rushed into launching this rather than suffering further delays. They did not do enough testing.
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I've used the scheme every day apart from Tuesday the 10th (raining) and I've not had one problem (other than bikes with brakes that bind)
Bearing in mind the timescale and complexity of this project I think it is amazing.
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Doridriver - thanks for posting. A lot of people absolutely love the new bikes so thanks for reflecting that ......
dmac, tom1111, cyclelondon .. how you getting on ??? Up and running yet?
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I've used the bikes about 15 times since the launch, and never once had a problem finding a bike, or putting one back. There are some useful Apps being developed so you can check availability before you commit to the bike option. However they are being a bit slow on BlackBerry - Spotcycle is the best one I've found, but it doesn't have a map functionality on BB (only on iPhone and Android) so you need to know the names and locations of the docking stations you use regularly.
I've had a few charging glitches with odd charges appearing on my 24hr member account, but they've all been dealt with quickly and courteously (even at 11pm at night) by the very friendly call centre staff.
Frankly it must be a nightmare installing a whole transport network like this at once, when you've no real idea what the usage patterns are going to be. And going live with 300+ remote electronic systems and 5,000 moving parts is never going to be easy! I think Serco, Boris, TfL and everyone else involved has done an amazing job. This has already revolutionised how I get around London, at least at the weekends. And my taxi bill is practically non-existent! Good on you Boris and TfL.
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Tom - yes - up and running now. Touch wood now that my annual membership has bedded in and the red lights have stopped appearing I'll have no more reason to attempt to call the call centre and I'll be using the bikes every day to get from the West End to Liverpool Street.
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I have to say I am furious with the new cycle hire scheme. I registered over 2 weeks ago for annual memmbership and have still not been able to use a single bike! I have activated 2 separate keys and called countless times to report my problem - at first I was told I had a faulty key/the docking station was faulty/it would take 24 hours to reactivate... I was given countless excuses - now I can't even get through to anyone and have left 3 messages over the last 72 hours for call backs which have never arrived. Does anyone know where you can make an official complaint? The website conveniently doesn't seem to have a complaints section.
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First of all thanks for opening this channel so more people can get to know the barbarities that has been happening unfairly with users of the Barclays Cycle Hire.
I became a member of the scheme at the very first day, but until now I barely could use the service.
I went on a journey once which I properly docked the bike at the end of it and got home to find out online they were charging me £150 for a late return. Therefore, according to them, my period was suspended. I've tried to call the contact centre unsuccessfully. Then someone called me back after hours, as they gave the excuse that they're receiving high call volumes, and said the £150 wouldn't be charged on my account and offered me a refund of the money I've paid for my period, after I complained a lot that I couldn't use the scheme, cause it was been mistaken suspended every evening.
Things got worst when I went to check my bank account and noticed they charged me the £150 the attendant has before advised they wouldn't. It's very annoying to have all this amount of money stolen from your account and also to notice it's very hard to get hold of them through the contact centre as they're experiencing high call volumes since the first day, apparently, which means they haven't tested the scheme before, they haven't got enough staff to help costumers and make the service works, also there are lot's of stations not working yet, including the closest one to where I live and they never mentioned any form of compensation for all the hassle I had to go through. Now I'm taking the problem to the ombudsman, after I've called them so many times and today just found out online there has been usage on my key, even if I never took it out of my wallet, which is always with me, and the history shows the bikes were taken in East London, which is far away from where I live in W2 and where I've never been. And the worst is that my period has finished on he 6th of august and I didn't renew, although it shows activity on my account on the 7th and 8th of august including a late return and a charge of £150 which I'm afraid it can be taken again from my account.
The idea of public cycle hire is very good, although is been so far too delayed in London, as there are lots of capitals in Europe where the scheme works great since years ago. I encourage potential customers to wait a bit more to become a member until they improve the system and the whole thing is working properly, because now it's all just a shame!
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Sorry ABR, but I can't agree that people should wait before signing up. Especially if it's true we have to wait until Christmas to be a credit card user on the street. You seem to have been treated badly, but I do wonder how many of the other thousands of members have had problems?
I've had one of our bad experiences - I have seen things on my recent activity list that are nothing to do with me. They were on the front page but not on the activity log itself. I called the contact centre, managed to get through 1st time (some people seem to have all the luck) and they suggested I log out and log back in again to stop these things showing, apparently they leak in from someone else's activity log.
It worked. The strange trips and access period charges disappeared.
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Just noticed that I've been charged £50 for a journey in November - when I'm always very careful to dock the bike! Have wrote to complain and say that it's a mistake. It must be the docking station. Any hints or tips would be welcome please?! [Personal details removed by Moderator]
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