Oyster Ineptitude

By · February 15, 2010 at 9:00 am · No comments · Latest News · Report an error ·

trainsocks.jpg
By Randall Murrow

Whilst the Oyster PAYG rollout to National Rail was long awaited and much welcomed, news that passengers overpaid around £500,000 in January is not entirely surprising. The BBC report blames user ineptitude, with travellers failing to comply with the touch in, touch out mantra. Key is that “when you touch in an entry charge of up to £6.50 will be deducted from your Oyster card. When you touch out, the charge will be adjusted so that you pay the appropriate Oyster single fare.” And if you don’t, you’ve already been charged. There’s an extensive ‘how to’ on the TfL website. Let us know if you’ve been caught out. We’re also interested to know if you’ve fallen foul of the Oyster Extension Permit palava as yet.

Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Report an error

  • http://undefined sinisterpictures

    So what happens when the machinery to touch out isn’t working?

    • http://undefined Matt

      You then have to touch the bottom of the nearest person. It’s in the rules, honest. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, your honour.

    • Lindsey

      Ahem. I suggest you complain to staff and get them to manually sort your Oyster charges out. But it’s likely to be at rush hour and the queues and hassle may not render it a practical step. In which case, call the helpline 0845 330 9876 (open 8am-8pm, 7 days a week) or make an online complaint.

    • http://undefined Ana

      I tell you what happens: The other day I went from New Cross to London Bridge however there none of the barriers where working because there was a fire alarm. When I touched in at the tube I saw that it had charged my 6.50 for the rail journey. I went to complain and the 6.50 got adjusted however somehow I wasn’t able to receive the daily price cap after said adjustment so that I ended up paying 10 quid for that day.
      The guy at the ticket office said that it happens all the time and I should complain to tfl but he wasn’t sure if that would actually do much.
      Well well…

  • http://undefined Lindsey

    We’ve been contacted by another reader who wrote this letter of complaint to SWT.

    “Yesterday I boarded a train from Vauxhall with GBP 4.90 in credit on my oyster card and a Zone 1-4 travel card valid till 3rd-Feb. My usual journey of late had seen me disembark at Richmond. Yesterday however I needed to get off at Feltham.

    Having seen the notice regarding PAYG on South West Trains, I naturally expected this to work as it does on the tube (if I have to queue at a machine again, then how is it actually PAYG).

    The single journey fare from Vaux to Feltham is GBP 3.40 (so I had sufficient credit on my oyster card to cover a single trip) and I expected the deduction at Feltham to be somewhat smaller than that based on my travel card.

    Imagine the frustration when I was stopped and asked to pay a GBP 20 fine. I support this sort of action to combat fare dodgers, but a customer of 7 years with a travel card valid for 80% of the journey and credit to cover the entire journey being fined is somewhat incredible.

    Let alone the fact that getting an OEP costs nothing by itself (and therefore should just be enabled by default on such journeys). However, the most irritating issue is that fact that had I not had a season ticket on my oyster card, I would have got through without any issues at all (as the oyster card would have seen a single fare deducted.)”

    They say: “As of yet I have not had a reply from TFL or IRCAS (to whom SWTrains suggested I send my complaint). Indeed SWTrains forwarded my frustration to TFL as they claim they do not have remit to discuss the topic. When I subsequently asked them for a TFL reference (in order to follow-up the issue) I heard nothing back.”

    • markle

      I think your correspondent should have a look at http://londonreconnections.blogspot.com/2010/01/with-snow-dominating-much-of-transport.html

      In particular, there are some interesting paragraphs about the rules under which rail companies operate penalty fares schemes; namely that a) customers must know that they need to buy a valid ticket and b) the facilities must be available to buy a ticket.

      Seeing as the rail companies have no literature or signage about OEPs, and that South West Trains do not retail OEPs, I think it would be quite reasonable to argue that SWT had not followed DFT’s guidelines on this, especially as the user had the PAYG credit on their card to pay their fare.

  • http://undefined Mawia

    It seems if your overground journey takes more than one hour (which happens quite often due to cancellations/delays), you are unable to touch out at the end of the journey as you have already been charged the full penalty fee and then have to walk to nearest tube station to get it adjusted. This has happened to me on a number of occassions on my way home from work, when the last thing is you need is this extra hassle when its dark and cold and you’re a starving marvin. And to add insult to injury you have to explain what has happened to confused tube staff who look at you like you are scum of the earth and ‘have obviously either forgotten to touch out/in’.

    What a great system. Sigh.

  • http://www.oxocubeeditorial.com/ Beth Torr

    The reader at Canary Wharf DLR wasn’t working for me once and I didn’t realise until I was charged the extra for apparently not touching out. I called TfL to ask for a refund and was told that they only ‘give you the benefit of the doubt’ and issue a refund once (I’d already had to claim another refund for the same problem elsewhere). The implication was that I must be lying and it wasn’t possible to have faulty readers. After a protracted argument with the TfL employee about the location of the reader and the barriers for the Jubilee Line (don’t ask), I got my refund, but it was painful.

  • http://undefined bascule

    If you swipe into a station and then see that the trains/tube are broken and walk out again then it will charge you for that privilege. £1 I think.

    • http://www.oxocubeeditorial.com/ Beth Torr

      Yes, I’ve had this before. I asked the station staff to reset my card and they refused, saying I had to call for a refund.

  • http://www.skepchick.org Rebecca Watson

    I was overcharged in January trusting the Oyster system. I carefully checked the TfL site before using it and learned that at maximum I’d be charged the travelcard daily rate, which was fine as that’s the card I usually buy. I was overcharged because on my way back out of London I tapped in to go through the gates and by the time I got to Kingston the gates were shut down and open. Tapping it did nothing.

    I’m furious, and have written to TfL asking for a refund. Thus far I’ve only received one email suggesting I remember to tap out. Screw you, assholes, I TRIED!

  • http://carolineld.blogspot.com carolineld

    I was overcharged last month when I took the train from New X to Charing X. As I left, I touched out and the gates opened – but by the time I’d walked as far as Embankment the card was showing incomplete journey and had taken the full fare. Utterly bizarre!

    The charmless woman in Embankment ticket office insisted she couldn’t sort it out without including a tube ticket charge in there as well, and the mainline station has no facilities for refunds. I ended up having to go back to the station, walk down to Charing X tube with a member of staff, and get it sorted out like that – now late for work and fed up of trudging up and down Villiers St in the snow.

  • http://undefined Phil McKerracher

    I’ve already been caught twice by non-working gates at the destination (allegedly “power failures”). Staff weren’t very helpful. They eventually refunded me.

  • http://undefined Boggins Dad

    All four machines not working at Bromley North this evening. Pain in the neck. Went to ticket office: “We can’t do anything – call Oyster”…

    Phoned helpline but (unlike the system used by ticket machines in tube stations) their systems are not real time so they couldn’t see my journey – call back tomorrow.

    They also apparently have no area on their system to record my call (great CRM!!) and nowhere to log that there were problems with Oyster card readers at Bromley North. I’ll wager they don’t record how many people phone up to get Maximum fare adjustments as a result and South Eastern Railway who I suspect are ultimately to blame for failure to supply power to the readers aren’t cross charged for the inconvenience.

    Joined up thinking?

    Never in the mish-mash of TOCs and TfL… Grrr

  • http://undefined AndrewAfresh

    Since the new year, I’ve been overcharged most times that I’ve used the tube or national rail with oyster (once or twice a week). I’ve touched out at both ends of the journey, but get charged the max single fare at the entry station as well as another fare at the exit station.

←
→