I had a puncture on my bike today that I couldn't fix till I got home so
had to use the District and Circle lines (only) to get from Putney to work
and from work to King' Cross.

Although East Putney ticket office was happy to top me up £1.80 for the
first journey, King's Cross (Western ticket hall) was utterly jobsworth
about the £5 minimum, even though I wanted the £1.80 top up to get a
receipt for the right amount. Are they all that inflexible in zone 1?

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 18:25:05
on Tue, 17 Aug 2010, remarked:
I had a puncture on my bike today that I couldn't fix till I got home so
had to use the District and Circle lines (only) to get from Putney to work
and from work to King' Cross.

Although East Putney ticket office was happy to top me up £1.80 for the
first journey, King's Cross (Western ticket hall) was utterly jobsworth
about the £5 minimum, even though I wanted the £1.80 top up to get a
receipt for the right amount. Are they all that inflexible in zone 1?

The idea behind Oyster is that there's an economy of scale in not having
to manually sell you something (eg a ticket) every trip. You are
circumventing this with your one-trip topups, which are a bit
anti-social.
--
Roland Perry

In article , (Roland
Perry) wrote:

In message , at
18:25:05 on Tue, 17 Aug 2010, remarked:
I had a puncture on my bike today that I couldn't fix till I got home
so had to use the District and Circle lines (only) to get from Putney
to work and from work to King' Cross.

Although East Putney ticket office was happy to top me up £1.80 for the
first journey, King's Cross (Western ticket hall) was utterly jobsworth
about the £5 minimum, even though I wanted the £1.80 top up to get a
receipt for the right amount. Are they all that inflexible in zone 1?

The idea behind Oyster is that there's an economy of scale in not
having to manually sell you something (eg a ticket) every trip. You
are circumventing this with your one-trip topups, which are a bit
anti-social.

I object to having to lend TfL money for trips I may not make until 6
months hence. I also object to the blanket application of a policy, even
to low users and those needing receipts for the correct amount. A printout
of usage is hardly a financial document.

Anyway, I topped up at a ticket stop in Monmouth St this morning. Much
easier, expect when making a trip to a main line station by underground so
no time to wander about for a ticket stop.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

On Wed, 18 Aug 2010 04:58:30 -0500
wrote:
I object to having to lend TfL money for trips I may not make until 6
months hence. I also object to the blanket application of a policy, even
to low users and those needing receipts for the correct amount. A printout
of usage is hardly a financial document.

There should be the option of having it the other way around. You use your
oyster and then TfL send you a bill at the end of the month just like every
other type of utility and service company does.

B2003

In message , at 10:08:52 on Wed, 18 Aug
2010, d remarked:
There should be the option of having it the other way around. You use your
oyster and then TfL send you a bill at the end of the month just like every
other type of utility and service company does.

They don't all advance credit to their customers though (about half of
all mobile phone users are not sufficiently credit-worthy to avoid a
PAYG account, for example).

And good luck doing the credit control on all those who default. If you
cut off someone's Oyster card, they just get another one - quite
difficult for your water supply.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 04:58:30
on Wed, 18 Aug 2010, remarked:
I object to having to lend TfL money for trips I may not make until 6
months hence.

So buy paper tickets.

I also object to the blanket application of a policy, even
to low users and those needing receipts for the correct amount.

And I object to the higher fares resulting from people who want the
bulk-discount benefits, but aren't prepared to toe the line.

A printout of usage is hardly a financial document.

All kinds of railway receipt are a bit weaker than the average
commercial invoice.

Anyway, I topped up at a ticket stop in Monmouth St this morning. Much
easier, expect when making a trip to a main line station by underground so
no time to wander about for a ticket stop.

--
Roland Perry

On Wed, 18 Aug 2010 12:36:32 +0100
Roland Perry wrote:
And good luck doing the credit control on all those who default. If you
cut off someone's Oyster card, they just get another one - quite
difficult for your water supply.

So you make it a condition that anyone who applies needs to prove their
name, address and credit worthyness before they're allowed to have this type
of account. Also FWIW water supplies can no longer be cut off completely.

B2003

those needing receipts for the correct amount.

How is a receipt for the amount you topped up better than (or even as
good as) your journey history? You could, for example, top up by
£1.80 and claim that amount based on such a receipt when you had already
reached the daily price cap by using the same Oyster card for private
travel. Or when you did not travel at all.


--
Robin
PM may be sent to rbw0{at}hotmail{dot}com

On 18 Aug, 12:38, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 04:58:30
on Wed, 18 Aug 2010, remarked:

I object to having to lend TfL money for trips I may not make until 6
months hence.

So buy paper tickets.

I also object to the blanket application of a policy, even
to low users and those needing receipts for the correct amount.

And I object to the higher fares resulting from people who want the
bulk-discount benefits, but aren't prepared to toe the line.

I object to the higher cash fares resulting from organisations that
want to coerce me into lending them money in advance for a
"discount" (ie what used to be the normal fare).

In article , (Roland
Perry) wrote:

In message , at
04:58:30 on Wed, 18 Aug 2010, remarked:
I object to having to lend TfL money for trips I may not make until 6
months hence.

So buy paper tickets.

At more than twice the price!

I also object to the blanket application of a policy, even
to low users and those needing receipts for the correct amount.

And I object to the higher fares resulting from people who want the
bulk-discount benefits, but aren't prepared to toe the line.

But I can buy smaller amounts of top-up elsewhere, including East Putney
LU ticket office and any ticket stop to whom LU no doubt pay handsome
commission! I only didn't buy all £3.60 I eventually needed yesterday at
East Putney because I had a small hope of fixing the puncture while at the
office.

A printout of usage is hardly a financial document.

All kinds of railway receipt are a bit weaker than the average
commercial invoice.

Which is why I prefer to use the actual outwards tickets as receipts.

Anyway, I topped up at a ticket stop in Monmouth St this morning. Much
easier, expect when making a trip to a main line station by underground
so no time to wander about for a ticket stop.

--
Colin Rosenstiel