In message , Helen Deborah Vecht
writes
Kat typed

I don't think reasons were given (I did appear with a form on 13/12/02)
but was told 'not yet'. Yesterday, (at Burnt Oak) I was told it wasn't
possible as I didn't have an Oyster Travelcard to charge with pre-pay.

Did you go along the second time with your filled-in application form?
If so, the only reason I could see for them not issuing one, is that
they'd simply run out of blanks because of the demand.

There was someone trying to help at Golders Green but he didn't seem to
know about pre-pay Oyster despite brandishing a bunch of Oyster
leaflets.

I have now ordered a pre-pay on the phone but it is registered to my
Photo-card so I don't suppose I can lend it to my partner.

If the Oyster doesn't also contain any sort of travel card, the fact
that it has a photocard number on it, shouldn't preclude you from
lending it to whoever you wish.

[...]

It seems staff training was sadly lacking,

I think most of us have come to the same conclusion.

as were the numbers available
to assist on what could be predicted to be the busiest day of the
ticketing year.

Issuing Oysters seems to be a fairly lengthy business and no matter how
many staff there are, it is still limited by the number of TOMs in the
ticket office.
If you had posted this earlier, I would have advised you to try again at
a ticket office sometime in the intervening three weeks and then make a
call to Customer Services if you still had no joy.
--
Kat Me, Ambivalent? Well, yes and no.