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

[email protected] · April 22nd 14, 09:11 PM posted to uk.transport.london

In article ,
(Paul Corfield) wrote:

On Tue, 22 Apr 2014 00:45:47 -0700 (PDT), CJB
wrote:

Isn't TfL coining it with thousands of unresolved journeys? I would opine
that its tourists who lose out most of the time. If regular commuters get
caught out then tourists must - all of the time.

The scam I have seen at Paddington mainly at weekends is to force pax to
touch in for the Heathrow Connect or a FGW local from platforms 12 / 13 /
14 - and then suddenly switch the service(s) to platform 11 (or
whatever).
This means that they then have to touch out from 12 not having gone
anywhere and then touch back in to 11.
And this is why so many pax. wait at the indicator boards on 12 -
effectively blocking the route for tourists to/from the taxi rank - until
they know that the Connect or FGW locals really are departing from 12 /
13 / 14.

A few weeks ago I was inbound on the Connect and we came in on platform
9. There were quite a few tourists with luggage already waiting on 12.
They had to come round to 9 thereby touching out from 12.
But then 9 is open access so when they got to Heathrow they would have
touched in and out of 12 but not touched in on 11.
They would have paid a maximum fare for that journey.
The extraction of penalty fares for not touching in and out is tantamount
to theft. But like BT coin phones never giving back change form unused
coins these scams rake in millions of extra profit.
Rip-off Britain as usual.

Nice rant.

Do you have evidence that people are "ripped off" in the way you
suggest? Do you have evidence that tourists are any more prone to a
mischarge than anyone else? Were you able to automatically discern
that the people you saw touching out from P12 were using PAYG rather
than having a Travelcard on their ticket? I also thought there were
Oyster validators at ungated platforms at Paddington. Did you stand
and watch what each passenger did or did not do?

Unless you personally checked the card balances / ticket types on the
cards of those individuals you observed then I fear you are
extrapolating a potentially inaccurate conclusion from random partial
observations.

I thought that multiple gate arrays at terminals like Paddington were
configured to be "tolerant" of entry, exit and re-entry moves with
people NOT being charged maximum fares if using PAYG. This is in
recognition of the fact that trains do get replatformed.

I've used Oyster for years - PAYG and combined with a Travelcard. I
have had one mischarge in all that time which I queried and which was
resolved within minutes. I do keep an eye on my charges as I travel.

The trouble is that you are a regular user so any problems become apparent
quickly enough to resolve them.

As you know because I told the tale here of my wife losing something like
£10 because she was unaware of incomplete journeys because she didn't use
the Oyster card again until a year later. The evidence was clear enough on
the card's journey record but they just said "tough we're keeping your
money".

Also, how do you keep an eye on your charges if you use the older gates that
reveal no useful information?

Occasional tube users from outside London have no option but to use Oyster
or pay though the nose.

--
Colin Rosenstiel