Bus complaint
08/08/2012 § 6 Comments
Here’s the complaint I’ve sent to the Commerce Commission:
Dear sir or madam:
I would like to ask you to investigate GO Wellington and its owner Infratil for violation of the Fair Trading Act.
The specific violation I witnessed was the following:
- On 7 August 2012, I arrived at Lambton Quay, North End, Stop F at 4.15 pm.
- At 4.17 pm, a No. 3 bus did not arrive, although it was advertised.
- At 4.22 pm, a No. 3 bus did not arrive, although it was advertised.
- At 4.26 pm, a No. 3 bus did finally arrive, as advertised.
This is not an isolated event. Many times, I have observed that a No. 3 bus has not arrived as advertised. Sometimes, I have observed a bus not allowing passengers to board, presumably because the buses were too full.
I contend that a bus stop represents an offer to provide services, and a timetable posted on the bus stop represents further details of the services offered. GO Wellington has represented that it would offer a No. 3 bus from Lambton Quay to Karori at the specified times, and then neglected to provide the services when potential customers arrived to purchase the services. I believe these actions constitute failure to provide advertised services and misrepresentation of the services on offer. They are therefore a violation of the Fair Trading Act.
I ask that you investigate these actions; that you determine how widespread the violations are; and that you provide remedies for the affected citizens of Wellington.
Kind regards,
Yes, I am aware that this makes me sound like a crazy old man ranting incoherently on the corner. I’m also really annoyed with the random bus generator that seems to be the basis for the Wellington system.
Groping towards Bethlehem 
I love it. A bit Grandpa Simpson sending the letter complaining of there being too many states nowadays, but of a more worthwhile nature.
Hey! The nerd who built the algorithm for that random generator should be celebrated. They have obviously perfected the art, good enough to appear organised, bad enough to kill by a thousand cuts. I wrote this reply while on the number 11, currently 5 mins late = missed train.
If the “live departures” feature did not crap out at least 3-4 times a week I could almost forgive the frequent “false advertising” of Wellington’s bus network.
Having to call an 0800 number to see how far the bus is away in 2012 is utterly pathetic.
And then the busiest bus stops don’t have the “false advertising screens”!
There has to be a way to use social media mapping to see where the bus is. Do I need to ‘friend’ my bus?
I have actually texted a friend who has a similar schedule before and that is more reliable than live departures!
They should put up an API of their GPS data and I’m sure Wellington’s software community could build something lightweight that works in a brief period of time.
I tell you what, the delays for Karori are annoying but are nothing like the delays on other routes – sometimes I’d lose an entire hour waiting for the Khandallah bus!