On 12 Feb 2007 13:28:03 -0800, "sweek"
wrote:

This is my journey history for last Saturday. I was already expecting
this all to go wrong, and I think it did here... but can anyone tell
me exactly what happened?

Basically, I left from home and went to Bow Road where I met up with
friends, to then travel to Clapham Common together starting at Bow
Church. Because Bow Road - Bow Church is an official transfer I
suppose it saw that as a transfer and has put all the journeys
together into one long one, exceeding the 2 hour limit.
After that I went from Clapham Common to Oxford Circus for a quick
drink and then back to Hillingdon.

If anyone can explain to me what happened and tell me if it's possible
for me to claim money back, that'd be great. I have auto-top up set up
as well, which is why it added 20 pounds.

Here's a link to the journey history:
http://img.waffleimages.com/e8c5b57a...icture%201.png

I think the main issue here is that you went through two valid dlr - lul
out of station interchanges in short succession. Each time the card was
attempting to treat you as if you were still on your outward journey. As
you have correctly deduced you then got stymied at final exit at Clapham
Common because you exceeded the two hour limit hence the extra £4
charge.

This is really quite difficult in that you really made two separate
trips on your outward journey; Hillingdon - Bow and then Bow - Clapham
Common. However the fact you went through two OSIs in short succession
made it impossible for the system to determine that. I could foresee
"officialdom" arguing that you were attempting to use PAYG as some form
of rover ticket. The counterpoint to that is you can use it as a rover
if you make enough trips to trigger the cap! There is also nothing to
advise people where it may or may not be advantageous to meet friends on
interchange legs between stations ;-)

Judging from the record I think your charges should really have been

£2 + £1.50 + £1 + £1 + £1.50 + £2 = £9 but then capped down to £6.20.
You were actually charged £11.50 which I think is accounted for by the
£4 max fare less the £1.50 journey not charged between Bow and Clapham.
You also lose the benefit of the cap.

I have to say the journey record is bloody confusing as it does not
differentiate between additions and deductions at the entries and exits.
I had to write this down to work out what was going on.

There is probably no harm in you contacting the Oyster Help Desk. This
is quite a complex problem and I honestly don't know if they would make
the necessary adjustments for you or not as I don't know what ruleset
they work to.

HTH

--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!