I'm at my wits end with the Oyster card at the moment, twice in two days has it charged me for incomplete journeys and I have yet to receive any of the my money I am owed back.

I'll separate the incidents in to two easy to digest reports:

Incident 1
Thursday 08/03
Time: 22:00 hrs (off peak)
Planned journey: London Liverpool Street (National Rail) - Leyton Midland Road (London Overground)
Price: £3.10 single fare

I firstly intended to travel from Liverpool Street to Forest Gate with Greater Anglia, then walk the interchange to Wanstead Park to travel with London Overground to Leyton Midland Road. However, on this occasion Fenchurch Street station was closed and c2c was diverted in to Liverpool Street - so I decided to travel to Barking direct with c2c then travel with London Overground to avoid walking along the grim and dark high road at Forest Gate - much safer and a valid route either way.

I traveled on the 22:11 Liverpool Street - Barking service with c2c, upon arrival at Barking I intended to travel on the 22:47 Barking - Gospel Oak with London Overground but due to a points failure the guard informed the train that there may be a slight delay until departure, over 30 mins passes and the train is still at Barking at 23:15 and the guard announces the service is now canceled - so therefore I have no direct route to Leyton Midland Road. After speaking with the c2c staff at Barking I was informed I would be best to go back to Liverpool Street and try another route - so back in to London on c2c I go again. I returned to Liverpool Street and this time traveled on Greater Anglia to Walthamstow Central - arriving at 00:15 - almost 2 hours after tapping in so I expected to be charged a full fare but due to the time being passed midnight there was no ticket offices open and I had no option of getting a refund until the next day at the earliest. I finished my journey to Leyton Midland Road by taxi.

Two days later (Saturday 10/03). I have the first opportunity to speak about my full fare charge at Walthamstow Central (London Underground) and to arrange a refund but only to be told it's impossible to do over the counter because the journey was made two days ago. I explained that this was my first opportunity to sort the refund because I arrived at gone midnight and the ticket offices were shut. I'm told to go and explain the situation to TfL by telephone of which I did - I explained the aforementioned incident to a lady at the Oyster team on the phone and she said the refund would be added to my Oyster the next time I tap the London Underground barriers at Walthamstow Central, okay, fine. Not...


Incident 2
Saturday 10/03
Time: 20:00 hrs
Planned journeys (both off peak):
- Walthamstow Central (London Underground) - Stratford (London Underground)
- Stratford (London Underground) - Walthamstow Central (London Underground)
Price: £1.40 each way.

After tapping in at Walthamstow Central (London Underground), I notice my credit has remained the same and the refund promised over the phone has not been added. I traveled on the Victoria Line to Tottenham Hale, then interchanged to Greater Anglia to Stratford.

Upon arrival at Tottenham Hale, I tap out at the London Underground barriers and several seconds laer tap back in at National Rail validator so that my interchange between LU-Greater Anglia would be combined in to one fare, 20 mins later I arrive at Stratford and tap out and am charged £1.40 correctly. I go in to Westfield shopping centre for 25mins to pick up a gift and immediately return to Stratford station and tap back in but am confronted with two problems of which are (1 I missed a direct service to Tottenham Hale and the next isn't for an hour and 2) the London Overground is suspended because of long term power supply problems since 12:00 midday so I can't travel via Highbury & Islington and the Victoria Line. So to the only alternative route to return to Walthamstow Central is to go in via Liverpool Street and Zone 1. I travel on Greater Anglia from Stratford - Liverpool Street and the barriers are open so I don't tap out because I would be charged a zone 1 fare - I just walked out the Great Eastern barriers and back in to the West Anglia barriers then traveled on the Stansted Express to Tottenham Hale so I would correctly be charged for my alternative route. When I go to tap out at Tottenham Hale (National Rail validator) I get an error 36 on my Oyster card and the journey history shows that I have in fact traveled from Walthamstow Central - Uncompleted but I know why - because I only exited the system for 25 mins at Stratford the system has thought it was an interchange and combined my outward (successful) journey with my return journey and charged me the cash fare and taken all of my credit. I now cannot get through Tottenham Hale (London Underground) barriers because I have only 0.60p credit but luckily I explained the situation to the very nice LU barrier staff whom opened the barriers and phoned through to Walthamstow Central to allow me to travel and exit. Kudos to the LU barrier lady at Tottenham Hale.

Now I'm going to copy this in to an e-mail to the TfL oyster team in hope to to get this all rectified - given that I did for the first incident and never received my refund I'm not confident that I will.

I have traveled on railway systems all across Europe using smart cards and none compare to the sheer complexity and complication to the Oyster card in London. Ironically there was a report having a bash at Oyster in the Evening Standard a few days ago - I think I might have to add my two penny.

There is a place reserved in the lower regions of hell for whoever designed the Oyster card.