"James" wrote in message
o.uk...
My new Freedom Pass was issued in March.
It has never been bent or damaged in any way.

To stress this point it's kept in an inside
breast pocket with a thin ply stiffener
inside its own wallet

Its presented to the card reader in its own
wallet. I do also carry a contactless
card although this is transferred to
my left hand pocket before going
through the barrier.

Despite all this, starting around two weeks
ago it can take two or three attempts with
the card oriented both vertical or horizontal
or swiped, often in two readers for the card
to be read. Sometimes its not read at all.
At other times at various stations I sail through
first time. This seems to vary, week by week.

As a follow up to this, the card continued to
behave erratically. Sometimes working in a
particular gate, the next day not, the following
day working fine again.

Eventually, on two occasions of the card not working
it was taken from me by TfL staff, tried in the gate
unsuccessfully, and actually bent "so as to make it work".
Despite my request "please don't bend the card" The
last time by a Revenue Protection Inspector, complete with
gold pass. Unbelievable though this seems.

Obviously after this the card is no longer "faulty"
but "damaged" so that when sending it back the £10
deposit is lost. Despite any accompanying letter
by way of explanation. £10 for such convenience
is still cheap at the price but there's maybe a
principle involved. They shouldn't have bent the
card.

The revenue protection inspector in question got the
ticket office to generate an oyster printout of my
card at the same time so the actual time and location
of the incident along with his identity are a matter
of record. Unless he's prepared to lie, I suppose.

Anyway following up on revenue protection officers -
and the only reason for this post, I came across the
following answer to a FOI request

"There are five Revenue Control Inspectors involved in
the collection of penalty fares, the processing and
prosecution of fare evasion on the Underground network,
who have criminal convictions for offences related to
theft, fraud, assault and public order offences."

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/reque..._officers_or_e

(Assuming the entire thread isn't a hoax. )


J