http://www.tfl.gov.uk/microsites/itunes/default.aspx

It's only available to customers setting up Auto top-up for the first
time (though I'm not sure how this will be policed with regards to
people who might have more than one registered Oyster card). There are
10,000 promotion codes available, and if they haven't all been dished
out by 29 February '08 already the promotion will end then. And
they'll only give you the code once Auto top-up has actually been set
up on your Oyster card.

An innovative promotion to encourage further take up of Auto top-up,
which is a pretty handy facility.

The limitation of Auto top-up is that it must be ordered online the
day before travel and must specify a particular LU station where one
will start or end a journey, so one must think and plan ahead. I know
several people who would find the Auto top-up facility very useful but
just don't operate like that.

Nonetheless I'd suggest that for some people the expenditure of a bit
of advanced planning, £1 or £1.50 for a single stop Tube journey and a
short walk might be worth it in order for them to set up Auto top-up
on their Oyster cards.

On Dec 5, 4:09 pm, Mizter T wrote:
Nonetheless I'd suggest that for some people the expenditure of a bit
of advanced planning, £1 or £1.50 for a single stop Tube journey and a
short walk might be worth it in order for them to set up Auto top-up
on their Oyster cards.

Some limitations for people who only use oyster very occasionally.

It can be hard to know when you are next going to use oyster until you
are remote from the ability to get online and set it up.

It limits you to a minimum of 20GBP top up. For occasional users this
is a ridiculous amount. In my case this is something like six months
of oyster usage[1]. Given that when you initially setup auto top up
you can add 10GBP, it should be possible to auto top up with a similar
amount.

[1] This will change from tomorrow when I intend to try PAYG from
Watford Junction before deciding whether to renew my season ticket.


Other problems with very limited usage is that you don't know about
unresolved journeys. My partner used Oyster PAYG for the first time
last Thursday from Euston to WJ at about 19:50. She topped up the card
yesterday and just happened to ask what the balance was - when it was
obvious to me that her journey had been charged 5GBP instead of 3GBP.
This is, beyond any doubt whatsoever, a fault in the oyster system
because I saw her use the barriers at each end and she successfully
opened them with her Oyster card. However, as she will now not be
within 200 miles of London until February it would have been very easy
not to know that this had happened.

(Additionally, after 24 minutes in the queue to the oyster helpline,
when she was third in the queue, she was suddenly disconnected. We
realized that she was disconnected because it was now 8pm. IIUC,
that's an 84p call (3.5p per minute that should have cost 5p via 020
7227 7886 - which she now has written on her oyster card) plus another
three or four calls before we worked out what was going on - selecting
option 6 just disconnects you with no message, selecting option 5 at
least gives a message that the office is closed and gives the hours of
opening, can't remember exactly what those options were)

Tim.

On Dec 5, 6:54 pm, "
wrote:
that's an 84p call (3.5p per minute that should have cost 5p via 020
7227 7886 - which she now has written on her oyster card) plus another

Actually that could be wrong - according to wikipedia an evening call
from BT to 0845 costs 0.5p/min so only 12p.

It's remarkably difficult to find how much these calls actually cost
the person calling them but easy to find how much (or little)
businesses will pay or get paid to have these numbers for people to
call.

Tim.

On 5 Dec, 18:54, " wrote:
On Dec 5, 4:09 pm, Mizter T wrote:

Nonetheless I'd suggest that for some people the expenditure of a bit
of advanced planning, £1 or £1.50 for a single stop Tube journey and a
short walk might be worth it in order for them to set up Auto top-up
on their Oyster cards.

Some limitations for people who only use oyster very occasionally.

It can be hard to know when you are next going to use oyster until you
are remote from the ability to get online and set it up.

It limits you to a minimum of 20GBP top up. For occasional users this
is a ridiculous amount. In my case this is something like six months
of oyster usage[1]. Given that when you initially setup auto top up
you can add 10GBP, it should be possible to auto top up with a similar
amount.

[1] This will change from tomorrow when I intend to try PAYG from
Watford Junction before deciding whether to renew my season ticket.

Other problems with very limited usage is that you don't know about
unresolved journeys. My partner used Oyster PAYG for the first time
last Thursday from Euston to WJ at about 19:50. She topped up the card
yesterday and just happened to ask what the balance was - when it was
obvious to me that her journey had been charged 5GBP instead of 3GBP.
This is, beyond any doubt whatsoever, a fault in the oyster system
because I saw her use the barriers at each end and she successfully
opened them with her Oyster card. However, as she will now not be
within 200 miles of London until February it would have been very easy
not to know that this had happened.

(snip)


Regarding your partner's issue, without knowing the details it's hard
to analyse that much further.

The questions that initially spring to mind are what (if any) other
journeys did she make during the day; did she properly touch-in at
Euston and touch-out when exiting Watford Junction; did the journey
definitely commence after 1900 etc.

On Wed, 5 Dec 2007 11:20:09 -0800 (PST),
Mizter T wrote:
On 5 Dec, 18:54, " wrote:
Other problems with very limited usage is that you don't know about
unresolved journeys. My partner used Oyster PAYG for the first time
last Thursday from Euston to WJ at about 19:50. She topped up the card
yesterday and just happened to ask what the balance was - when it was
obvious to me that her journey had been charged 5GBP instead of 3GBP.
This is, beyond any doubt whatsoever, a fault in the oyster system
because I saw her use the barriers at each end and she successfully
opened them with her Oyster card. However, as she will now not be
within 200 miles of London until February it would have been very easy
not to know that this had happened.

(snip)


Regarding your partner's issue, without knowing the details it's hard
to analyse that much further.

The questions that initially spring to mind are what (if any) other
journeys did she make during the day; did she properly touch-in at
Euston and touch-out when exiting Watford Junction; did the journey
definitely commence after 1900 etc.

No other journeys at all. Infact, that was the only use she'd ever had
with oyster until yesterday. And definitely after 7pm. I can be certain
that she touched in and out given that she managed to get through the
automatic barriers which were closed and not just left open. Also, on
the way in she said, after entering at Euston "he, he, it works! And it
opens the gates!" and on leaving at Watford "it gives you a little green
light when you go through" I'm pretty sure she did everything correctly
(unfortunately she didn't notice the little LCD that gives you your
balance)

She spoke to the London Midland people at Euston today - and it sounds
like this is a common complaint but there is nothing they can do about
it.

She called the Oyster line today and, no more than three days before she
uses the card again, she has to call and they will set it up so she gets
a 2GBP credit (which will be some time in February - it will be
interesting to see if, by that time, they can still do this). The oyster
line also said she must have not touched in or out correctly, despite
her saying that they were automatic barriers that opened for her when
she used her card. (And, for the avoidance of any doubt, she only has
one oyster card and she had no other ticket at all that she could have
used to open the barriers at either end)

Tim.


--
God said, "div D = rho, div B = 0, curl E = - @B/@t, curl H = J + @D/@t,"
and there was light.

http://tjw.hn.org/ http://www.locofungus.btinternet.co.uk/

In article ,
wrote:
On Dec 5, 6:54 pm, "
wrote:
that's an 84p call (3.5p per minute that should have cost 5p via 020
7227 7886 - which she now has written on her oyster card) plus another

Actually that could be wrong - according to wikipedia an evening call
from BT to 0845 costs 0.5p/min so only 12p.

It's remarkably difficult to find how much these calls actually cost
the person calling them but easy to find how much (or little)
businesses will pay or get paid to have these numbers for people to
call.

http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumer/consumerProducts/pdf/SpecialisedNos.pdf
is quite useful to find non-geographic call costs from a BT line.

It gives 0.5p/minute inc VAT for 0845 off-peak calls provided you
subscribe to BT Together. If you don't, the cost is the full local call
rate (currently seems to be 1p/minute inc VAT for residential lines in
the evenings).

Nick
--
Serendipity: http://www.leverton.org/blosxom (last update 3rd Nov 2007)

"The Internet, an ersatz counterfeit of real life"
-- Janet Street-Porter, BBC2, 19th March 1996

Nick Leverton wrote
l.me.uk wrote:
On Dec 5, 6:54 pm, "
wrote:
that's an 84p call (3.5p per minute that should have cost 5p via
020
7227 7886 - which she now has written on her oyster card) plus
another

http://www.productsandservices.bt.co...oducts/pdf/Spe
cialisedNos.pdf
is quite useful to find non-geographic call costs from a BT line.

It gives 0.5p/minute inc VAT for 0845 off-peak calls provided you
subscribe to BT Together. If you don't, the cost is the full local
call
rate (currently seems to be 1p/minute inc VAT for residential lines
in
the evenings).

"Everybody" is now on BT Together (except LUS and Business lines).

And at peak times a 0845 number is 2.0/min so better value than the
3.25/min cost of the 020 variant.

--
Mike D