Frustrated pensioners unable to get through to a permanently jammed helpline about new style bus passes have been turning to the Express & Star in their droves.
Our switchboard has been flooded with calls from the elderly who have either not received their application pack or have queries on what to do next. Bosses at transport authority Centro have made a plea for calm.
The firm has told the half a million West Midlands pensioners eligible for free travel on any local bus in England to wait a few days before calling.
They have promised pensioners will not lose their passes when the new scheme comes into force next April, even if they have not sent their forms back in time for the October 15 deadline.
Pensioners who did not receive their forms by September 24 will get them by the end of October and will have until the middle of November to return them.
The new helpline on 0121 775 0001 took 3,000 calls in the first few hours since it went live on Tuesday.
But thousands of over-60s have been making more than 50 calls a day to a line which is permanently engaged.
Tony Gough, aged 73, of Rocester Avenue, Wednesfield, said: “When I call it says the number isn’t recognised. It doesn’t even give me an engaged tone.”
Vivian McClouney, aged 62, from Walsall, said she had tried to get through for two days on the first number, which is now defunct, and tried 30 times without success on the second number.
Bilston 66-year-old John Turner is in a similar position. He said: “The customer service is diabolical.”
Tony Winfield, also 66, is a former bus driver who worked for 20 years taking people around the Black Country for Dream Bus and Travel West Midlands.
Mr Winfield, of Coronation Road, Heath Town, has also never received his application pack. “It’s appalling,” he added. “We need to be able to use the bus because it’s expensive putting petrol in the car.”
Across the Black Country this week, queues of up to an hour were forming at photo booths as pensioners tried to get their pictures taken for their new passes.
By Transport Reporter Daniel Wainwright
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2 Comments
Late, inefficient, expensive, over-crowded and incompetent. The public transport system in this area is a sham..and this is a shameful way to treat pensioners. We accept such low standards - it’s a pity those lines aren’t jammed demanding a new form of leadership.
The Network West Midlands website no longer contains its original high-handed statement to the effect that any pensioner customer not returning his/her form by 30 September 2007 would simply not receive the new bus pass in April 2008. Originally therefore, the customer would have had only some two weeks to respond, leaving the authorities with some five or six months. How convenient!
The number of pensioners trying to get through to explain they have not received forms seems enormous. I have actually received a form, but my wife, who is older and therefore received her original pass first, has not. Could it be that Network West Midlands or Centro have lost some of their earliest relevant computer records and therefore have no means of identifying these customers to send out forms to? If not, perhaps they can give us their own explanation.
The website now includes a form which can be filled in on-line. However, it is not an application form for the new travel pass (that would have been too easy - it could have been printed and posted back with a photo!) but rather an application form for the application form. My wife submitted this on-line last Wednesday, but has not yet received a form even though Network West Midlands now should have all her details. So don’t hold your breath if you use this method.
The website states that no acknowledgement will be made of any application submitted. Given the authority’s record on administering this project so far, I am not sure that we can have full trust in their ability to complete it, not losing any applications and getting all the new passes out on time. We could at least perhaps campaign for an acknowledgement of receipt of our applications, a seemingly elementary and obvious step to restore confidence in the system.