Whereas mine sits nicely in my wallet, and has no problem being accepted by
machines - Would suggest that your oyster card is faulty!

Andy


"Paul Corfield" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 22 Oct 2005 14:20:11 +0100, Dave Arquati wrote:

TKD wrote:
So, what happens if the Bus card-reader is broken, and the driver
waves you on - happens a couple of times per month on the routes that
I use (308, 678). Take it I should insist on paying cash?

You can add the 8, 277 & 15 to that list and countless more probably.

The official TfL position is that you should pay the cash fare and
request
a refund of the price difference from them...

Unless you were capped that day in which case you would be entitled to
a full refund.

Or if that journey was the last one that day and took you past a cap
then
you would get a refund of any extra you paid in total beyond the cap.

Not a very elegant solution.

Surely since they advertise that Oyster Prepay is an accepted form of
payment, and given that you have enough credit to pay, it's totally
their problem...?

I have not seen any rules that advise on what to do if the Oyster card
or equipment is defective. It wasn't in the last Oyster or Fares booklet
that I've seen. Something has to be sorted out to explain how the whole
set up works because it is becoming overly complicated. Drivers and
passengers cannot be expected to comprehend all of the complexity and it
gets a whole pile worse come the January fares changes.

In Hong Kong it is easy - if the reader is defective they place a
special "bag" over it explaining the situation and requiring the
passenger to pay cash. The reader is a fully separate unit and is not
stuck on the side of a ticket machine (as they don't have such things in
HK just cash boxes). However it is extremely rare to ever encounter this
problem unlike in London where reliability seems to be hopeless and
there is no clear way of dealing with the problem.

I also think something has to be done about the signal strength of the
readers. Again in HK there is a degree of latitude and you do not have
to place the card flat and flush with the reader. Passengers regularly
place wallets or handbags on readers and their card is read correctly.
You couldn't do that in London because the card would not be read - I
get a misread if my card is not completely flat on some bus readers
which is an utter nonsense.

I was having a discussion along these lines with a friend yesterday, who
said that he was on a bus recently where someone got on and tried to pay
for a cash fare - with a £50 note. Unsurprisingly the driver wouldn't
accept it. Apparently the whole bus had to wait for a few minutes whilst
they wrangled about it (and I think the driver just gave up after a
while).

Someone put £10 down for a £1.20 fare on a bus this morning. The driver
did not have change. I simply gave the passenger £1 to add a 20p he had
so I could get home rather than wait for 10 minutes while a debate
ensued.

Goodness knows how on earth London is going to go completely cash*less*
when it cannot cope with cash in the first place. Does anyone think
this is going to work based solely on Oyster cards and a limited
scattering of roadside machines?

Do TfL advertise appropriate means to pay? (e.g. not £50?)

They do advertise the limits on legal tender re coinage in the tickets
booklet but I have never seen a statement limiting the proffering of
bank notes for payment.
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!