"Mizter T" wrote in
ps.com:

Paul Corfield wrote:

On Wed, 18 Oct 2006 01:06:59 +0100, asdf
wrote:

If you don't mind Paul, could you confirm whether ticket offices
won't be able to fix incomplete journeys any more? (The OP reported
it as something of a rumour.)

I can't see any advantage whatsoever in making such a change (except
perhaps small savings in ticket office staff training, or extra
money from people phoning the 0845 helpline). On the face of it, it
would seem almost deliberately obstructive, and certainly against
the spirit of customer service (which is normally very good).

I've had a look at the training material. It is very clear that
where there is a system problem (e.g. reader is not working, card
problems or there was an emergency evacuation or something else in
LU's control) that card resetting at the ticket office will be
permitted. Where someone is simply not validating because they can't
be bothered / forgot / whatever (i.e. in their direct control) then
that will NOT be dealt with at the ticket office. Only a call to the
Oyster helpline will suffice.

The rules relating to charges and card resetting are also changing.

If you think about why the change is being made then there is a logic
to this approach. The whole point is to get people to play by the
rules and to do what they are supposed to do. If you make it too easy
to get round the rules how will people ever learn to play by the
rules? If people keep getting charged £4 and have to go to extra
effort to deal with the helpdesk perhaps they will think twice before
doing it again. Where the problem is LU's fault then the customer is
dealt with straight away - that sounds like a decent deal to me.

I concur. This change will plug a hole in the Oyster system that was
open to abuse. The critical thing now is to make sure that all Oyster
readers and gatelines are operational at all times - if a gate is
broken it can just be closed so passengers can use another one, but if
a standalone Oyster reader is out of action it should clearly be
signed as such so passengers know to use another one, and it should be
fixed ASAP. That said I don't think I've ever seen a standalone Oyster
reader that was broken.


The problems will occur at stations with no gateline - such as most of
the DLR - where it is all to easy to forget to touch out if you get
distracted at the wrong moment.