Faregocard - *New* Penalty Fare Notification Service for Go Card Users

[Faregocard]

Faregocard - A fair go for Translink go card users
www.faregocard.com

The Translink go card system is very convenient, but don't you get tired of those sneaky 'penalty' fares that keep appearing on your go card account?

Current penalty fares are $10 on the Translink rail network and $5 on the Translink bus network. It doesn't take long before they can soon add up.^*

Many of the penalty fares charged are due to mistakes and may be claimed back with a quick call to Translink - but did you know that you only have eight weeks from the date of the penalty fare to claim your money back?

How often do you take the time to check the transactions on your go card?

Well, now there's Faregocard!

Faregocard is a recently launched service that will automatically check your account for you and will send you an email notification whenever you're charged a penalty fare. Faregocard saves you the bother of having to remember to log into your go card account yourself - and let's face it, who ever remembers to do that?!

Some Faregocard users have already saved themselves over $100 by claiming back penalty fares the service has notified them of - penalty fares they probably wouldn't have otherwise been aware of.

Come and visit us today at www.faregocard.com

Faregocard - A fair go for Translink go card users
www.faregocard.com

^*Based on a full adult penalty fare. Penalty fares are correct as of 1 August 2013. Please see the Translink website for current details.

[STB]

I think TransLink has since said that they will not refund human error FIXED fares (not penalty fares), unless the fixed fare has been caused by a malfunction with the system or equipment failure.

While nice, at the end of the day it comes down to the user being aware of their surroundings IMO.  If anything, it should be an automatic system under TransLink and Cubic Transportation Systems control.

By the way, as a consumer I'd prefer a trial service to see if it works before paying any money.

Also not sure on the legal side of things given that TransLink own the system and results that sit on the Cubic servers.  Personally I'd rather TransLink deal with something like this than someone independent, especially when it comes to my money and travel data.

[ozbob]

Welcome Faregocard! 

I have allowed you to post about your service because it again highlights the lack of real customer focus for go card users.  London's Oyster card has auto-adjustment ( Automatic correction of incomplete journeys --> http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/26171.aspx ), something lacking on our go card. Our position is to support the introduction of automatic correction on the go card, not an unreasonable request in our opinion.

Admin does not endorse your service, and it is up to individual users to make up their own mind as to suitability for them.

That being said, well done on your initiative.

Cheers!

[Faregocard]

Thank you for your welcome to the forum ozbob!

We agree that having Translink apply automatic correction to incomplete journeys would be the ideal solution to this issue. Maybe Translink will consider providing that facility to their customers in the future? In the meantime, we at Faregocard are happy to help out by providing this service to Translink go card users.

To show our appreciation to the organisers of this site for providing such a useful resource, we'd like to offer 25 of your members each, a free one year subscription to Faregocard's penalty fare notification service. The first 25 members to respond to the following email address with the subject line of 'Back on Track' will be eligible.

Send your email entry to promotions@faregocard.com

Offer closes 5pm on Saturday 10 August 2013.

Faregocard - A fair go for Translink go card users
www.faregocard.com

[longboi]

Just putting it out there...

Use of this application is a breach of the go card conditions of use and indemnifies TransLink of all loss, damage, costs and expenses incurred.


I'm not in favor of this personally. I'm not willing to provide my login details to a third party.

I also believe that customers who are losing this much to fixed fares regularly are clearly not using the system correctly. There simply aren't that many system errors that a single person can lose $100 to fixed fares.
I guarantee an examination of go card data would confirm this. Take one person who claims they are always charged fixed fares, look at their journeys and then look at whether other people are able to touch on/off successfully within the same time periods.

[STB]

Just putting it out there...

Use of this application is a breach of the go card conditions of use and indemnifies TransLink of all loss, damage, costs and expenses incurred.


I'm not in favor of this personally. I'm not willing to provide my login details to a third party.

I also believe that customers who are losing this much to fixed fares regularly are clearly not using the system correctly. There simply aren't that many system errors that a single person can lose $100 to fixed fares.
I guarantee an examination of go card data would confirm this. Take one person who claims they are always charged fixed fares, look at their journeys and then look at whether other people are able to touch on/off successfully within the same time periods.

Knew that would be the case, just needed confirmation.  100% agree with you.  So in other words - don't sign up to this!  Should add too that TransLink makes it quite clear that the Go Card and all data remains their property (says this on the card - and other places).

[ozbob]

Yes, TransLink have confirmed it is a breach of user conditions.

Viz. 

The cardholder must only access the cardholder's go card account, including travel information, address and contact information, balances and credit card account information, through ordinary use of the translink.com.au website by methods purposely made available on this website. The cardholder must not enable or permit any other person, electronic application or system to access the information, including by entering the cardholder's user name and password into such an application or system.

http://translink.com.au/tickets-and-fares/go-card/terms-and-conditions

As indicated above we do not endorse these type of services.  It is not the first.

I am locking this thread.  I suggest you contact TransLink Faregocard to see if there are any options from here.