As we’re now nine months into the Mayor’s flagship cycle hire scheme, it’s worth having a look at what the users are saying – after all, the software bugs and unresolved operational issues should’ve been ironed out by now, right?
Wrong.
First, the verdict of Evening Standard journalist, Ross Lydall. Having received an erroneous bill for £644, Ross spent half an hour on Friday last week trying to find a dock for his hire bike. He visited eight different docks (some repeatedly) before he was successful. Yesterday, further problems culminated in seventeen attempts to get a hire bike to successfully release from its dock.
Users are still having problems with both the call centre and the website. The overflow call centre is still in use and operators are failing to call back hire bike users who have problems. The website is currently asking users to reset their passwords but not acknowledging when users do as they are requested.
Those who had previously been enthusiastic about the scheme are becoming frustrated with its shortcomings:
Everything from more faulty bikes, broken keys, very poor data management on my account, incorrect billing. Final straw today was when I noticed they have removed the call centre telephone number from the contact us page on the main website. When I asked why I was told ‘too many calls’. It’s a pity that what could and should be a flagship scheme filler London is heading down the tubes (pun intended)
The unofficial “Boris Bikes” forum reports:
I think the over-riding issue, when you look back at posts over the recent months, is that loyal users and supporters have seen a significant deterioration in the service. Whether it’s a system that has already reached its capacity, is developing faults, was built to be obsolete within a short period of time (IT companies do this to keep the money coming in) – it doesn’t really matter. Perhaps additional investment is needed. To talk about extending the scheme when the existing one is now unreliable is silly.
A trawl through Twitter in the past few days reveals the following comments from frustrated users of the scheme:
Why are no Boris bikes working in victoria?? #tflfailsagain about 6 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone
Boris bikes not working again #fail 6:41 PM Jun 3rd via Twitter for iPhone
Barclays cycle hire, you never fail to disappoint me… 9:12 AM Jun 1st via Echofon
Boris bikes not working…. about 3 hours ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®
Tech side of Boris Bikes is utter crap! about 3 hours ago via Twitter for Android
6:26 PM Jun 1st via EchofonThere we see the disadvantage of having your name associated with a product or service – “Boris” evidently means unreliable, frustrating, untrustworthy, not fit for purpose and not working. If I were Barclays’ marketing department I’d be none too happy at having my name endorsing such a service, either.
UPDATE: The BBC’s Tom Edwards has reported on the continuing problems with the cycle hire system and has also discovered that £5m has been withheld from Serco by TfL; Assembly Members’ previous requests to the Mayor for this information resulted in them being told it was unavailable due to “commercial confidentiality”. The BBC report includes some good shots of cyclists riding straight through red lights at pedestrian crossings at high speed – a phenomenon which I observe on every trip to central London.
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I was in Paris for a day last week and had a go on the Veli’b system – and fell foul of a few problems myself (lack of free spaces, wonky docking stations, broken terminals).
I’ll try to post on it in the next few days – but I wonder if cycle hire systems are just inherently prone to cock-ups.
cash flow problems for Bixi in Montreal / and that’s after selling London dud software.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/quebec/montreals-bixi-pedals-hard-for-more-funds-from-the-city/article2025949/
Scheme works well if you understand it’s limitations and use an app like spotcycle. The call centre staff have been very helpful each time I had to call. I also was delighted that when I dropped my key set in the street I got a courtesy call from them saying my house keys h ad been handed in . The bike fob had enabled the police to notify BB and they used the barcode number to identify me. That was exceptionally helpful! so I think your review is unbalanced sorry.
Two of the three times I’ve gone to use a bike, I’ve ended up walking a third of the way there because of these problems:
* No bikes in the docks in the evening
* The bikes that are there are broken
* Someone with a key took the last bike just as I’m getting a code from the terminal
* The terminal was broken so I couldn’t take working bikes
Great beat ! I would like to apprentice even as you amend your website, how could i subscribe for a blog website? The account aided me a acceptable deal. I were tiny bit familiar of this your broadcast offered vibrant clear idea
A copy of my e-mail to Barclays cycle hire.
The flakiness of the system (from bike to web site)
is driving me up the wall.
—————-
Dear Madam, Sir,
I’m sending this as an e-mail, since your web “contact us” form
does not work (no matter what I try, it always returns the same
page with the word “Invalid” in red letters under my message):
I’m a professional software developer, and am amazed at the poor
functioning of this part of your web site.
A complaint, March 14, 2012:
————————————
Dear Madam, Sir,
Just now I tried to take out a bike at Notting Hill Gate.
After a few tries (!) I found a bike that gave me a green light.
As I tried to pull it out, the light immediately turned yellow, then red.
Other bikes there gave me an immediate red light.
I walked to the next station (Palace Gardens Terrace), where I could not
take out a bike. I called, spent 10 minutes on the phone with one of your
people, who couldn’t fix the problem.
Because of this I wasted a lot of time, money, and I missed an appointment.
I’m not happy that frequenty I have to try multiple times before
I get the green light.
I would appreciate it if you would let me know what went wrong.
In addition: I sent an enquiry about a week ago, and have not yet received a reply.
best regards,
Patrick
incident date: 14/3/2012
time: 17.48
station: Notting Hill Gate
————————————————————–
A second enquiry, sent March 2, with no response from you:
Hello,
Yesterday morning I biked from Notting Hill Gate to Cardinal Place Victoria
(arrival approximately 10.45, March 2). If I remember correctly, my bike number
was 14784. When putting it back in the slot, the light came up red.
I also can’t find this trip in my recent activity list.
I tried taking the bike out again, and putting it back in, but the light
again came up red.
What exactly happened here?
thanks,
Patrick
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[...] Mayor’s flagship cycle hire scheme was riddled with software problems for at least a year after its launch so it remains to be seen how well TfL’s latest electronic payment initiative will work. [...]