London Banter - View Single Post - Oyster: still an unreliable rip-off

[email protected] · April 21st 14, 11:28 PM posted to uk.transport.london

In article ,
(Scott) wrote:

On Fri, 18 Apr 2014 16:56:11 +0100, David Cantrell
wrote:

For the last few days I've been using a PAYG Oyster card instead of my
normal paper Travelcard.

I did one of my usual journeys - tube from Waterloo to Balham, then
train to Thornton Heath - on Wednesday evening. But the Oyster card
reader at Balham didn't work properly. The gate opened but didn't record
my touch-out, so I've got an unresolved journey.

TfL, despite knowing my email address because that's what I use to sign
in to their website to make sure they haven't ripped me off, couldn't be
bothered to notify me. I only know about the unresolved journey because
I don't trust Oyster and went and checked.

And of course I can't submit my claim for a refund using my normal web
browser which works on every other site. I have to use Firefox instead.

It remains to be seen whether I actually end up being charged the right
amount or not. And, of course, I have to use Oyster again to pick up my
refund. I didn't see any option on the website for "refund my credit
card" or "send me a cheque", they just blithely assume that I use Oyster
all the time, when in fact I was planning on getting a Travelcard
again on Tuesday and not using the trains at all this weekend.

Sounds like what my Australian former flatmate used to call 'Pommie
over-reaction'. Tens of thousands of passengers use Oyster every day
without incident. It is a hugely useful facility. When I had a
difficulty (my own fault) it was corrected very quickly.

Lucky you. For some types of completely innocent errors it is possible to be
left considerably out of pocket with no chance of redress. It happened to my
wife and me.

--
Colin Rosenstiel