Pleasant surprise, but a bit confusing

Gingernutty

A bit of background:

I pay National Express West Midlands (NXWM) £43.50 per month, by direct debit, for a Black Country Faresaver.

This means that, as long as I don't want to travel into Birmingham, I can travel on any NXWM bus service around the Black Country. If I want to travel to Brum, then it's extra on the bus when I show my pass.

The vast majority of the bus services around here are NXWM, but some services (very occasionally entire routes) are run by different providers and I then have to pay the fare on the bus. In spite of me having a £43.50 bus pass.

The pass is meant to arrive in the post at least five days before my last one runs out.

There is a website, run by network west midlands which gives the fares for all buses, trains and trams running around the West Midlands.

The different service providers have their own, NXWM have one for example.

That's the background.

I have recently been given the start date for my new job. Part of the journey to my new place of work will be by tram (metro).

Now, NXWM actually run the metro (tram) service. On checking my terms and conditions and my bus pass, I realised that during my days off, my bus pass had expired and I still hadn't received my new one.

so I rang NXWM to ask about upgrading my bus only pass to a bus and tram pass and asking about the whereabouts of my late bus pass.

I fully expected to be told to buy a tram pass and use it with my bus pass this month and they'll sort out the direct debit next month.

So I fully expected to be asked to pay another £61.50 for the tram pass on top of the £43.50 I was already paying.

The girl I spoke to seemed to have the attention span of a goldfish and repeatedly asked me for the same information over and over again.

She eventually told me that she could charge me a 'bridge fee' so that I'd pay the difference between the bus pass and the bus and tram pass and that it would be another £21.50. Which I thought was a very good deal. So I paid the £21.50.

On Wednesday, I received my bus pass (£43.50), what appeared to be a tram only pass (£65.00) and an invoice for my £21.50 'bridge fee'.

Something didn't seem right. The NXWM bus pass I pay for is £43.50, the bus and tram pass advertised on the NWM site is £82.50. Why was the 'bridge fee' only £21.50?

So I rang up again and queried it with the girl I spoke to the day before. She insisted that the bus and metro travelcard is £65.00 by direct debit and that the blue tram pass would get me onto the buses as well. She sounded a bit peeved that I was questioning her.

So I rang off and checked again.

And, eventually, I found this page on the NXWM website. After I tried to make sense of this page on the same website.

As long as I only use NXWM buses, the direct debit for a bus and tram pass is £65.00. A whole £20.50 cheaper than I expected to pay by monthly direct debit. :beer:

So

Praise to National Express West Midlands for only charging a 'bridge fee' of £21.50 for the bus and tram pass and making the direct debit £20.50 cheaper than I expected it to be (£65.00 not £82.50).

But Boo! for making it so flaming complicated to see the right prices! Jeepers! :eek: Getting to work shouldn't be this complicated!!

paddyrg

Hooray! Complicated, but £1.50 each way each working day is pretty decent value, and you have totally free leisure travel the rest of the time! :-)

Gingernutty

Jus to confuse things further......this morning, I received a second bus pass also starting from 20th August. :huh:

It's at times like this that I miss London.

tealady

Hi
I think you were just unlucky with TWM as I have only had 1 problem where it was their fault (bus pass arrived late) and 2 when it was mine (lost my pass).
Each time I found the staff in the Pavillions office in Birmingham incredibly patient and helpful, they got me a replacement bus pass within a day. If you are still having problems it might be worth seeing if there is an office you can visit.
I think my bus pass is a bargain, it shocks me to see how much tickets cost when going to other parts of the country.

Gingernutty

tealady wrote: »

Hi
I think you were just unlucky with TWM as I have only had 1 problem where it was their fault (bus pass arrived late) and 2 when it was mine (lost my pass).
Each time I found the staff in the Pavillions office in Birmingham incredibly patient and helpful, they got me a replacement bus pass within a day. If you are still having problems it might be worth seeing if there is an office you can visit.
I think my bus pass is a bargain, it shocks me to see how much tickets cost when going to other parts of the country.

I agree. They are very quick to rectify their errors if one complains.

I've got an old thread about a previous pass arriving late. When I complained about having to pay for a weeks pass to cover the 'missing week', they hand delivered a new pass and refunded the weeks pass money as well. :beer:

Then the 'lost' pass showed up a day later. :huh:

What I don't understand is why these prices aren't better advertised. £65 instead of £82.50 for bus and tram travel is a bargain.

Abbafan1972

Gingernutty wrote: »

I agree. They are very quick to rectify their errors if one complains.

I've got an old thread about a previous pass arriving late. When I complained about having to pay for a weeks pass to cover the 'missing week', they hand delivered a new pass and refunded the weeks pass money as well. :beer:

Then the 'lost' pass showed up a day later. :huh:

What I don't understand is why these prices aren't better advertised. £65 instead of £82.50 for bus and tram travel is a bargain.

That was good that they refunded you, as it states in the T&C's somewhere that they don't refund for late tickets. I have the West Midlands one for £49.50, which I just use for travelling to and from work and going to the shops etc.

Johno100

I've never understood why you can get a discounted Black Country or Coventry Faresaver Pass but not a Birmingham only pass at a similar price?

Gingernutty

Johno100 wrote: »

I've never understood why you can get a discounted Black Country or Coventry Faresaver Pass but not a Birmingham only pass at a similar price?

NXWM does the city hop single fare with the weird proviso that no journey should use or go beyond the Middle Way.

And there's the nNetwork Zones for all buses, trains and trams, not just NXWM buses.

you could just get Zone 1 for £71.00 for 4 weeks.

Shame they don't just do bus passes.