Earlier today I tried to buy an one day travelcard using the last £4.70
prepay credit left on my Oystercard. Halfway through the transaction the
machine said that there had been an error and that the purchase had been
cancelled. I tried to start again, but most of the buttons had vanished
from the machines display so I switched to a different machine.

This second machine said that I couldn't buy travelcard as I had not
credit left on my Oystercard. Checking the transaction record on the card
showed that the last £4.70 had just been debited from the card.

As I was late for an appointment, I just bought the travelcard using my
switch card and carried on my way (effectively paying for the ticket
twice). But as the ticket office was quiet as I returned this evening I
decided to explain the problem to the man behind the counter. I got
halfway through my explanation before he stopped me to tell me that I
couldn't have bought a travelcard using prepay credit as that part of the
system wasn't implemented yet. I explained that he must have been mistaken
as I'd done it several times in the past. He printed out my oystercard
usage report and I showed him where I'd done just that a week ago and he
insisted that I couldn't have as the system didn't do that.

As I was obviously getting nowhere I just took the report and I'll call
the helpline in the morning.

But before I do, can someone please confirm that I'm not going mad. You
can buy travelcards with prepay credit can't you? I know I've done it
before. Or was that just a glitch in the system?

Cheers,

Dave...