London Banter - Interesting Oyster... [Error]

All,
A friend of mine has reacentley been given an oyster through
work. He was told it should 'just work'
We made a bus trip yesterday in zone 1 and all was ok. The bus
accepted him and everything was ok. He went out last night and was on
his way home, but the bus rejected him [zone 5]. Even after a 2nd try.
The driver didnt have a problem and let him on anyway. He didnt get
the error code/reason.

He has just come down to see me today and the same thing happend
again, and again there was no problem him getting on the bus. Both of
the readers where shoing the 'ready' light but faild the card when it
was offered up.
We have just been out to see a bus driver to get an error number, hear
goes:
00296,070,032,00022,052 and on the print out it says The Bus Pass or
travelcard on this card is valid throughout this route.

We have taken a walk down to the local station and offered the oyster
upto a ticket machine - according to the machine there is 1 bus trip
made for 1p So we know he's been given a pre pay and just miss
informed by work as to when/where it can be used. But why did it allow
him to use the bus yesterday afternoon and not in the evening, or
today. Ive seen all the posts relating to 1p bus fares since its not
been roled out to the busses yet. So have TfL sent an update to the
busses at last to stop this, or is there some other reason.

Just had a quick word with the helpdesk, and they say that an error
052 means: ticket not valid within this zone/area but they said that a
lot of the error codes dont always mean a lot, or apply to the ticket.
I was also told that there *was* a weekley bus pass loaded onto the
card on the 17th but was also cancled on the 17th.

Any ideas please folks, google has only turned up a limited amount of
into, and the help desk arn't too helpfull if only because they
couldn't understand why the ticket was loaded and cancled, and the
fact the error code dosent match anything todo with the validity of
the ticket. I know there have been lots of problems with the bus
readers, im just after a definitive answer - and if there is one yet a
list of error codes. If its just the case they have updated the busses
to deny prepay then thats fine. But what about the ticket that was
loaded and cancled?

Thanks in advance.
E.

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