In message , at 00:08:38 on
Thu, 12 Apr 2012, Paul Corfield remarked:
Looking at the journey history I can't for the life of me make out how the
negative balance occurred. It shows two entries for 30th March,

Do the ticket machines show journey history from a year ago?

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/termsandconditions/12321.aspx

Says they only hold data for eight weeks, and are "changing the system"
to keep it for two years [classic mission creep, but I'd welcome being
able to see history older than 8wks]. 16th of Feb is the oldest I can
see today, on their online journey history.

Or does the *card* keep details for longer than their database does, in
which case why isn't the record on the card valid for doing refunds
after their 8 week timeout period?

King's Cross St Pancras and Westminster, with a charge of £4.40 for
the first

If £4.40 was the relevant "maximum fare" for a touch in at KXSP tube at
the time, then it indicates the card didn't touch-out at Westminster.

iirc they have some fairly slow gates there, and it's possible to
inadvertently "follow through" the person in front, with one's own touch
not registering.

When I'm travelling Oyster PAYG I always pause and count to three before
passing through a gate after another passenger, to avoid this
possibility. No doubt Paul will cringe at the thought but three
seconds on my journey time is nothing compared to how long it would take
to get a refund.

Of course, if using an Oyster season or a paper ticket, a pause isn't
necessary.

and £6.50 for the second. Her journeys were KXSP to Westminster and
back again.

I think Paul has the answer for that one, below.

I can't think how this happened. Both are fully gated stations which would
only have opened the gates if they registered the card in and out. It had
more than enough credit for the two £1.90 fares which should have been
charged. We plan to ring the helpline tomorrow to try and sort it out.

More than 8 weeks ago. Good luck!

Getting the details isn't helped by the lack of facilities for getting
printed journey history. It's easy to see on a ticket machine but printouts
are only available from ticket offices. On the day we only passed KXSP
(several times). It either had its usual long queues or was closed. Norbiton
isn't an LU station and East Putney's ticket office was closed whenever we
passed it. The card wasn't registered as it's hardly over-used.

Thoughts?

Kings Cross is an OSI. Did the other half use the Oyster Card to get
through the FCC gates for the train to Cambridge on the way home?
Therefore the system will have expected a subsequent exit and not
seeing one the max fare will have remained deducted rather than having
value added back on. That's the most plausible explanation I can come
up with.

It wouldn't be an issue the other way as I assume a paper ticket was
used to exit FCC and then the Oyster card used to start at the tube.

--
Roland Perry