London Banter - View Single Post

Colin Rosenstiel · December 29th 06, 02:14 PM posted to uk.transport.london

In article .com, solar
(solar penguin) wrote:

Mizter T wrote:

Get an Oyster, use an Oyster, tell your friends and family to do
the same, or be a mug and pay the higher fares.

I had an Oyster once. I bought it because everyone said "Oh
they're so great!" But I ever only needed to use it two or three
times in the two years I had it. Then next time I tried to use it, it
just plain didn't work at all. The card had just died, and wouldn't
respond to the readers. And I still had nearly five quid on it!

I suppose I should have tried to register it, and sent off to get a
replacement. But why bother for something I never use and probably
won't work anyway...? Far simpler just to write my five pounds off
as lost to the system.

And in the the year since it's broken down, I've only _once_ been
in a situation where I could have saved any money by using Oyster. I'd
probably lose more money on faulty cards in the long run...

So I _will_ be telling my friends and family to do the same, and
stay well clear of Oyster. It's the most useless and over-rated piece
of technology ever inflicted on the travelling public. And the sooner
we're rid of it the better.

If you want to throw your money away, it is of course your inalienable
right to do so. However, why didn't you go to a ticket office?

I use my Oyster pretty infrequently (about 10 journeys in 2006) and it
works fine technically.

--
Colin Rosenstiel.