London Bike Hire Charge Insanity

urban_winter
urban_winter Posts: 31
edited August 2010 in Commuting general
I registered for the London Bike Hire scheme a couple of days ago. I got the details and keys through last night. I got 2 keys - one for me and one for my wife as we both work in central London.

Turns out that there's a completely crazy feature of the pricing. It's supposed to cost £1 to hire a bike for the day - right? Well, it's actually £1 PER KEY irrespective of how many keys you use. So if you have 4 keys you will be charged £4 for every day in which even a single key is used.

The BBC has noticed (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-10852927) but nobody in the media is really putting the boot in yet. I hope someone does soon so the stupid rule gets changed. Until then just beware - make sure that you only register a single key against an account, and have multiple accounts for different family members rather than using multiple keys on a shared account.

U.

Comments

  • nyanza
    nyanza Posts: 68
    I have two keys, but only one is activated yet they still charge two quid per one bike trip. Crazy. The only way out is to cancel the entire account and start again but registering with only one key.

    This is for 24hours access. Hate to imagine what happens if you went yearly...
  • cougie
    cougie Posts: 22,512
    I cant understand that at all. I'm guessing its just a glitch of the start up of the scheme.
  • Specialized Needs
    Specialized Needs Posts: 802
    cougie wrote:
    I cant understand that at all. I'm guessing its just a glitch of the start up of the scheme.
    It is in the instructions. Mad, but it is there. As such, it seems like it is a deliberate 'feature'.

    There is no incentive to have more than one key on an account. Better to have multiple accounts.

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