"Barry Salter" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 19 Apr 2004 16:54:44 +0100, "Jon E."
wrote:

Hi,

I was wondering if anybody has any experience/opinions on the
following....

I'm quite new to this Oystercard stuff having only used mine for a couple
of
weeks so far. I usually recharge it with a weekly travelcard a few days
before expiry but last week (as I didn't think I'd need it) I didn't
bother.
I heard over the weekend that I'd be working in central London, but
couldn't
renew it by phone due to the short notice. This morning I got to Clapham
Junction and found they didn't have the facilities to charge it, but one
of
the staff let me through the gates to board my train assuring me I could
charge it when I got to Victoria. On arriving at Victoria, I (stupidly,
in
hindsight) asked a steward where I could charge the card and was given a
£10
penalty. I explained what had happened to him numerous times, but to no
avail. So I basically could have bought a paper ticket and avoided all
this
but trying to support TFL's new technology I'm now £10 out of pocket.
I've
written an appeal letter, do I have a case?

Officially no you don't, and the member of staff at Clapham Junction
*should* have told you to buy a paper ticket rather than letting you
through the gate there (Clapham Junction being in a PF Area).

And as Victoria is gated (apart from the GatEx platforms), even if you
hadn't gone to see a member of staff, you'd still have been issued a PF
for not having a valid ticket as your Oystercard wouldn't have let you
out.

Would'nt the barrier have let him through, but then disabled the Oystercard
until sufficient funds were added to clear the excess journey ?




The only thing you could really do would be to write to South Central or
South West Trains Customer Services [1] (depending on which of the two
the member of staff in question works for) and explain the situation and
see what they say.

HTH,

Barry

[1] Addresses and phone numbers for which can be found on
http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

--
Barry Salter, barry at southie dot me dot uk
Read uk.* newsgroups? Read uk.net.news.announce!

DISCLAIMER: The above comments do not necessarily represent the
views of my employers.