"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message
, at
16:02:48 on Sun, 24 Jan 2010, MIG remarked:
And someone on a touristy visit is particularly likely to be caught
out, spending short amounts of time at what may turn out to be an OSI,
thus paying maximum fares and cancelling all capping.

I thought I understood Oyster, but those remarks make no sense to me. If
someone is "always touching in and out", how they possibly be charged more
than the daily cap?

Because it doesn't always work properly. This is what happened to me over
the weekend;
As I work for LUL I'd got a new PAYG loaded Oyster with 20 quid on it for
use on National Rail.
Kings Cross 01:19 Saturday touch in on platform validator, screen says
"Entry £20.00"
Alexandra Palace 01:46 Saturday touch out on validator, screen says "Entry
£15.70"
I knew this wasn't right as the fare should have been 2 quid.
Anyway used the card a couple of more times over the weekend
(KingstonRichmond & Kings CrossHornsey) for which I was charged the
correct amount. This morning I went to the ticket office at Turnpike Lane
and asked the chap there for a printed journey history as I'd picked up an
unresolved journey. He printed it off and offered to "sort it out" for me.
It was only once I'd got home that I discovered that his idea of "sorting it
out" was to credit £1.90 back to the card instead of the £6.60 that I'd been
overcharged (I'd been charged £4.30 at Kings Cross and a further £4.30 at
Alexandra Palace instead of £2.00).
Net net result was that instead of a PAYG balance of £14.30, I ended up with
a balance of £9.60.
So on the phone to the Oyster Helpline, on hold for 16 minutes, the lady
sees what's happened and offers to refund the overcharge (can you see what's
coming next?) I just need to make a journey from a tube station to pick up
the refund. I explain that I work for LUL and so would never make a
(chargeable) journey from a tube station due to my staff pass. I then had to
hang up, go online and create an account for the card, phone back (on hold
for another 12 minutes) and give the reference number from the first call
for the overcharge to be credited onto a debit card. I know others have
commented on this before but the systems in place for refunding overcharges
really are not fit for purpose.
Someone, who for whatever reason, does not wish to register their card &
only uses National Rail apparently cannot get any overcharges refunded.
--
Cheers, Steve.
Change jealous to sad to reply.