Money Moral Dilemma: Is it OK to use other people's leftover parking time?

19lottie82

I wouldn't think twice about it. I've also given all day transport tickets to people entering the underground station when I've been leaving, if I've finished with it for the day.

tindella

esmerobbo wrote: »

OK can we open it up, I have both passed on and used tickets with time left on in the past and will no doubt do in the future.

However lets look at it from another angle. If you owned a restaurant and someone came in for a meal, and as they did someone left after eating only half their steak and chips, would you find it acceptable for the person coming in to sit and eat the food left without making a purchase? If you owned a pub would it be OK for someone to come in and drink up all the left over slops without buying a drink? If you ran a bus would it be OK for someone to pass a ticket as they got off to someone getting on?

After all the food, beer and ticket have all been paid for!

Just asking!

Well the food and drink have been paid for, presumably, so the proprietors are no worse off. Their employees probably eat/drink the leftovers anyway - and at worst, they get thrown away - which doesn't benefit anybody - causes more waste.

anotheruser

I do this.
Someone has paid and not used all of it so they want to give it to someone else.

If I buy some food at a restaurant and don't eat all of it, I can take it home and give it to someone else yes?
A poor comparison and I realise the terms of the ticket say "non-transferable" but terms of things are broken all the time... windows, web hosting, software, music, movies, video games.... all broken.

snowleopard61

stork wrote: »

But the question was whether, as the owner of the restaurant, bus company etc., you'd still be fine with that.

You wouldn't, because you'd want to extract as much money as possible from the general public. This is only natural. You can't be expected to like anything that earns you less money! However, as the customer, unless you are actually depriving the restaurant owner/bus company/car park owner of material goods, then morally I think you are perfectly justified - it's not morally OK to nick the bus seats (!) or plates of food from the servery, but it's fine to make use of someone else's leftovers, and they are perfectly entitled to give them to you.

I'd certainly think it was yukky to eat/drink a stranger's unfinished food or drink, but I wouldn't have a moral problem with it at all, and absolutely no moral problem with giving/using bus or car park tickets. If the company makes it risky to do so by requiring a registration number or otherwise, I wouldn't do it because of the consequences, but I'd think it was very unfair.

stork_2

In relation to rail fares at least, it's a criminal offence (under Byelaw 21 of the Railway Byelaws) to transfer or receive a non-transferable ticket, whether for money or not. Rail operators can and do prosecute where they detect the offence being committed, and the maximum fine is level 3 (currently £1000, proposed to increase to £4000).

Where specific laws don't apply, there's still potentially a breach of contract and a fraud offence.

gloriouslyhappy

I have passed on my tickets and accepted other people's tickets too - this service has been paid for once, and the car park should not double charge for the same time. I think car parks should all run on a payment at exit system rather than asking you to estimate how long you'll be there for, hospitals being a case in point - you might be on time for your appointment but be kept waiting for ages, leaving you with the options of over-paying significantly, dash out to top-up risking missing your name being called, or sit there wondering if you're getting a fine!

Having said that, limited-time carparks like Matalan's £1 for 2 hours, make things easy and transparent, and there's no limit on the number of times you can return and top up another two hours worth. But personally, I still prefer pay-on-exit, and think transferring a valid ticket with time left is more than fair if a pay-in-advance system is in operation.

gloriouslyhappy

stork wrote: »

is that OK? ..if I get fibre broadband and share it with half a dozen neighbours?

BT allow this anyway with their OpenZone and FonSpots, you can search for a hotspot wherever you are and just log on, because the people in that area have signed up to the sharing programme.

When people visit me I give them my password so they can log on, and when my neighbour on a different system was having problems with signal reception, I gave them my password as my signal covered into one room in their house. I have no problem with this and would do it again, and use my friends' passwords when I'm visiting them all the time.

DigForVictory

I routinely pass on my hospital car parking pay & display chits, mostly as it's a brilliant gift whern you're already stressed! Also, I can point out where the space I've just left is.

The ANPR &/or reg no info systyems on hospital grounds are vile.

spikyone

gloriouslyhappy wrote: »

I have passed on my tickets and accepted other people's tickets too - this service has been paid for once, and the car park should not double charge for the same time. I think car parks should all run on a payment at exit system rather than asking you to estimate how long you'll be there for

This, although even with pay-on-exit, you're generally paying a rounded-up amount, so the council/PPC is getting some money for nothing - my local council charges £2 for up to 4 hours during shopping hours, which jumps to £8.20 for 4-6 hours, and an eye-watering £22.00 for 6-8 hours. An extra minute or two could cost you £13.80!


What makes matters worse is that many P&D car parks (and bus companies, amongst others) don't give change, and in those cases I'd have even less qualms about passing on/receiving a part-used ticket. "Exact money only" ought to be illegal, it's certainly immoral to charge someone more simply because they don't carry a pocketful of coins around with them - this is supposed to be the 21st century...

Andijs200

Absolutely OK as far as I'm concerned.
If the shoe was on the other foot, and you went over your time, the council would sure as hell hit you with a penalty fine.
Time to hit back and pass those tickets on... and on if possible!