Oyster - cheaper, easier, but certaintly not smarter
 

This is the second time such incident has happenned recently -
yesterday, I started a journey, touching in at Camden Town and touching
out at Cockfosters, in the usual way (changing at Kings X for the Picc)
My Oyster usage statement says:
Camden Town - Uncompleted
Unstarted - Cockfosters
the same has happenned before on a journey I can't remember.
Does anyone know how this can happen - could it be that I left Camden
Town and re-entered in a short space of time (my statement says exit and
entry were 8 mins apart)?
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Oyster - cheaper, easier, but certaintly not smarter
 

On Mon, 31 Jul 2006 12:46:18 GMT, Joe Patrick
wrote:

This is the second time such incident has happenned recently -
yesterday, I started a journey, touching in at Camden Town and touching
out at Cockfosters, in the usual way (changing at Kings X for the Picc)
My Oyster usage statement says:
Camden Town - Uncompleted
Unstarted - Cockfosters
the same has happenned before on a journey I can't remember.
Does anyone know how this can happen - could it be that I left Camden
Town and re-entered in a short space of time (my statement says exit and
entry were 8 mins apart)?

Are you using Pre-Pay or a Travelcard or a combination?

I am not an expert on the detailed performance of the cards and readers
but did you get any form of bleeped warning on entry at Camden Town?
From the description you give it sounds like something was written to
the card but not enough.

I assume your journey where you exited at Camden was deducted correctly?
If your previous journey was on pre-pay and not correctly recorded then
you would have had an unresolved journey so it sounds like you exited
OK. If so the card would next expect some form of entry transaction
which it sounds like you attempted to make.

I have to say I don't understand why your attempted exit - I assume the
gates were powered up and working? - was "unstarted".

I would query it with the Oyster Help Desk as something certainly does
not sound right. If you can provide any more detail then it may help
get to the cause.
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!

Oyster - cheaper, easier, but certaintly not smarter
 

Are you using Pre-Pay or a Travelcard or a combination?

Prepay (with a 16-17 discount)

I am not an expert on the detailed performance of the cards and readers
but did you get any form of bleeped warning on entry at Camden Town?
From the description you give it sounds like something was written to
the card but not enough.

Nope, it worked fine - my friend (who has a Child Oystercard) also had
the same problem, an unresolved journey, but his cap remained at £1.

I assume your journey where you exited at Camden was deducted correctly?
If your previous journey was on pre-pay and not correctly recorded then
you would have had an unresolved journey so it sounds like you exited
OK. If so the card would next expect some form of entry transaction
which it sounds like you attempted to make.

I'm not sure - but I ended up paying £2.50 Instead of £2 capping.

I would query it with the Oyster Help Desk as something certainly does
not sound right. If you can provide any more detail then it may help
get to the cause.

Called them before - certaintly not going to bother again spending £1.50
reclaiming 50p - so writing a letter this time.

Thanks for your help.
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for misplaced apostrophes by the common sense scanner. However, some
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Oyster - cheaper, easier, but certaintly not smarter
 

Joe Patrick wrote:

I would query it with the Oyster Help Desk as something certainly does
not sound right. If you can provide any more detail then it may help
get to the cause.

Called them before - certaintly not going to bother again spending £1.50
reclaiming 50p - so writing a letter this time.


The experience of many people (including myself) suggests that a letter
is a far preferable way of solving any Oyster problems than calling the
helpdesk. Nothing complicated needed, just a concise bullet point
rundown of the problem that you had.

IME letters are answered pretty quickly, and they do actually deal with
the issue as well.

Oyster - cheaper, easier, but certaintly not smarter
 

On Mon, 31 Jul 2006 17:28:43 GMT, Joe Patrick
wrote:

Are you using Pre-Pay or a Travelcard or a combination?

Prepay (with a 16-17 discount)

I am not an expert on the detailed performance of the cards and readers
but did you get any form of bleeped warning on entry at Camden Town?
From the description you give it sounds like something was written to
the card but not enough.

Nope, it worked fine - my friend (who has a Child Oystercard) also had
the same problem, an unresolved journey, but his cap remained at £1.

I assume your journey where you exited at Camden was deducted correctly?
If your previous journey was on pre-pay and not correctly recorded then
you would have had an unresolved journey so it sounds like you exited
OK. If so the card would next expect some form of entry transaction
which it sounds like you attempted to make.

I'm not sure - but I ended up paying £2.50 Instead of £2 capping.

Hmmm - sounds like some combination of card and equipment problems. As
it has happened before that would make the card the common factor unless
you did the identical journey and used identical gates on each trip.

It sounds to me as if there is some failing in the way records are being
written back to the card memory and then processed for capping.

I would be tempted to ask them to replace your card unless they can give
you a more plausible explanation relative to the validation equipment at
the locations you have used.

--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!

Oyster - cheaper, easier, but certaintly not smarter
 

Hmmm - sounds like some combination of card and equipment problems. As
it has happened before that would make the card the common factor unless
you did the identical journey and used identical gates on each trip.

I was wondering if it could be the system charging the max fare - is the
cap from Zone 1-6A £2.50 rather than the £2 for 1-6?
--
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