Fareham mum’s fury as she’s turned away from bus for being 20p short
NOT HAPPY Mum Kasi Brewer with her four-year-old daughter Erin. Picture: Malcolm Wells (120597-1909)
A BUS company has apologised to a mum and her young daughter after they were kicked off a bus – for being 20p short on the fare.
Kasi Brewer had collected her daughter from nursery and went to get the number 5 bus home from the Mountbatten Centre in Stamshaw.
But they were not allowed on by the driver because Kasi was 20p short of the full fare.
She said no other services arrived and was given no help when she walked round to the Hilsea bus depot.
They had to wait two hours in the cold before a friend could drive round to pick her up and take them back to their home in Fareham.
Kasi, 24, of Trinity Street, said: ‘I use First buses on an almost daily basis and generally don’t have a problem.
‘I got on the bus and realised I didn’t have enough change. I was 20p short and asked them to take me as far as they could. But he was very rude and told me to get off the bus.
‘No-one was willing to help me. I just wanted some advice or help.
‘I finally managed to get hold of someone to drive down from Fareham and collect me at about 8.30pm, with still no news on a number 5. My little girl was cold and tired.
‘It was lucky that she’d already had dinner otherwise she would have been hungry too.
‘By the time my lift arrived I was so angry and upset. I was shaking with rage and in floods of tears. I’m not bothered about myself, but my young daughter is an entirely different matter.’
Kasi says she has to use First buses on a regular basis to get to and from work in Portsmouth.
‘If I could afford to get a taxi I would,’ she added.
First only responded to Kasi’s complaint after they were contacted by The News. It said a failure on its website meant it didn’t receive the email.
The firm said the driver should have allowed her to use the bus and sorted out repayment of the 20p at a later date.
Chris Bainbridge, regional service delivery director for First on the south coast, said: ‘We acknowledge that Ms Brewer’s email to us was not acknowledged or responded to due to a failure on our website.
‘We offer our sincere apologies to Ms Brewer for this oversight.
‘We’re concerned that Ms Brewer states she was told she was unable to travel by a member of our driving team, all who have the facility to make alternative arrangements for customers who may not have the right amount of money to make their journey.
‘It is obvious from Ms Brewer’s email that she found herself in distressing circumstances on a cold evening and with a young child.
‘If First in anyway contributed to these events it is extremely regrettable.’
The company confirmed that two buses arrived at the Mountbatten Centre between 6pm and 6.40pm but that Kasi may have missed the service as she walked round to the Hilsea depot.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Portsmouth
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 22 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 24 mph
Wind direction: East
Comments
There are 67 comments to this article
Page 1 of 5
Pompey BD
Monday, February 27, 2012 at 11:53 AM>Simon.farlington you really ought to be ashamed of yourself. Hear Hear. Comments made by 60 are clearly spot on! It seems he and rose tinted twits are clearly ignorant. As for the 20p issue - it's disgraceful Kasi wasn't allowed to travel as far as she could on the money she had. Also, SHAME on the other passengers for not coming to her aid. 20p!! It's not life-savings for christ's sake! And our friend Yocal (who is an anti-car and public transport advocate) seems awfully quiet - YOCAL - this is WHY people don't use the bus! LOL.
kiteman
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 12:52 PMwell i think your great kasi. good on you. ps . can i get your phone number?
Kasi
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 11:27 AM@Gosport Lass As I've said before, that was just the start of a series of problems with First, the 20p thing wasn't the bit that annoyed me most. And I know there are bigger problems in the world, and I have bigger things going on in my life too. My main point was when I raised a complaint about 3 different issues from that evening, they didn't get back to me in what I would consider a reasonable amount of time. I think 2 weeks is long enough to even just expect an email like 'We're looking at your email at the moment, we'll get back to you within the next week' (or something along those lines). I know people don't consider it 'newsworthy', but at the end of the day The News is a local paper for local interests and affairs. First have not got a set complaints procedure, so when I was unhappy I didn't know where to turn next. The local paper seemed like a useful resource to help my complaint get resolved. Hopefully it will make First see that they need to make changes. That's all I wanted from this.
Gosport Lass
Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 09:54 PM#62, hope they give her a bus pass for a year ... well I don't wish to sound as miserable as the driver, but I hope they don't. It was simply a case of her not having enough fare wasn't it, and in all honestly there was nothing at all stopping her asking to get off a stop early and walking the last little bit, yes admittedly the driver was miserable and seemedly acted against available options but I don't think she should be rewarded with the likes of an annual bus pass or anything for what ultimately was her own fault. Under this logic perhaps all of us should write to The News then with our woes, after all for me within the last five years I, like thousands of others, have lost my job, have a constant struggle to provide food and pay the bills, endured two breakdowns, polished off with the big "C" and umpteen operations .. do you think they'd care about that, errr NO and rightly so! Sometimes life stinks, but you have to just get on with it.
Jenny46
Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 07:44 PMI honestly do not get why this is newsworthy. If I got on the bus without enough money I wouldn't expect to be taken the full distance. This just smacks at journalism tugging at heartstrings because a child is involved. Ok the bus driver should not have been rude but it was the mother's fault she did not have enough money not the driver's. How many other people a day does he have with the same story? I'm sorry but this is sensationalism. The mother should have just got off a couple of stops early and walked the rest of the way. I'm sick of reading about bleeding hearts blaming everyone else for their own shortcomings instead of giving themselves a buck up lecture and kicking themselves for being stupid and dealing with it. I hate to say this but if this had been a bloke I think The News would have laughed at him never mind about print it!
BrigitteB
Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 07:35 PMThis makes me si sad that I wasn't a person near her on the bus! - I would have given her the 20p in a heart beat! It's harder than most of us even know to be a young Mum! (I dfon't know if she's a single mother) but this is unforgivable! - I hope they give her a bus pass for a free year to make up for it! I wish I could contact her and send her something to make up for it!
armchair reporter
Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 12:47 PMThis is getting way out of hand, why didnt she just pay what she had and get off a few busstops before the stop she wanted 20p could only of been 2 or 3 stops difference.
Doddsy156
Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 09:25 AMAll bus drivers are issued "unpaid fare" tickets. These should be used when a person doesn't have enough money. The company then make arrangements to collect the money from the passenger. Bus drivers are told not to leave vulnerable peopleyoung childrenwomen standing at bus stops regardless of circumstances. This bus driver has failed in his duties. Oh, and simon from farlington - you are a total idiot. Let's hope your wifespousegirlfriend is never put in a similar situation. Although I doubt you have one judging by what a plank you are. Get a life.
Stella Bell
Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 07:00 AMGood for Kasi, We all know there are many really lovely bus drivers but it cannot be denied that there are also a few awful ones. We also know that nowadays is very hard to get an acknowledgement of a complaint by using the phone or writing letters. So what better way is there other than using your local newspaper?
HKBlue
Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 02:15 AM20p!! What a disgrace! What's the world coming to? How have people allowed themselves to degenerate into the beings they are now? That's the cost of a complete fare here in HK on some routes. But never have I seen a person refused entry for not having a portion of the fare or in some cases the whole amount. And they say the Chineses are rude. Kindness DOES get repaid in full. Start showing some
shazzerjo
Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 01:10 AMI think that a few people need to re read the story, it was not about the money but the rudeness from the driver, she works full time and was not expecting some thing for nothing, The driver was rude and unhelpfull, yet works in a job that you need at least some kind of public relations, people say this is not news, well in a way it is with the fact that the public are told time and time again to use the publis transport and yet when you do you get treated in an ill manner ( im not saying all of the drivers are like this ) If it is not bad enough that Kasi had to stand in the cold with her 4 year old daughter but she then brings the story to the public eye and gets more abuse from small minded people that have not read the story properly or are un able to take in what is actuly being said, the main point of the story is that a company as big as first should make more of an effort to train there staff, for the people that say should make sure you have enough, Kasi did also say that normaly she gets an earlier bus and it is noramly a bit cheeper. i am still shocked with the comments on here that have been aimed at not just Kasi as a person but at her mothering skills... all i can say is you should be disgusted at your self for being so small minded and feeling the need to bad mouth some one that you dont know, never herd the saying if you have nothing nice to say then say nothing at all.
shazzerjo
Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 01:09 AMoh and one other point, the story also said that first only responded to Kasi's complaint after being contacted by the news, so good on you Kasi for going to the news as it seems that is what it took for first to take notice of your complaint
rose tinted twits
Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 12:28 AMComment removed by moderator
rose tinted twits
Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 12:17 AMComment removed by moderator
Gosport Lass
Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 07:43 PMHello, whilst I personally do not understand at all why the driver would not let the young mum and child travel as far as they could with the money they had, I equally do not understand how in Kasi's words "If they went into detail this story would have had to be a double page spread" - how?? wasn't it just "Young mum waits for bus - bus comes along - young mum hasn't enough pennies to pay the full fare - young mum gets off bus". How on earth can this warrant a double page spread? I am genuinely sorry that the driver was miserable and wouldn't let you travel as far as poss tho.
Page 1 of 5
Your view
Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.