On Tue, May 06, 2008 at 11:06:01AM +0100, Tom Barry wrote:

That's dreadful. I think Boris should introduce a scheme whereby you
can top up your Oyster automatically when it runs out...

Yes, he should. And it should work for people who live south of the
river and don't use the tube.

--
David Cantrell | Minister for Arbitrary Justice

Anyone willing to give up a little fun for tolerance deserves neither

On Tue, May 06, 2008 at 03:12:27AM -0700, John B wrote:

[as well as the auto-top-up point someone else mentioned, aren't there
any newsagents near your house?]

Of the last three newsagents that TfL's lovely call centre staff directed
me to, none could do something as simple as selling me an Oystercard. I
hate to think how much harder it would be for them to top up an existing
card.

--
David Cantrell | Official London Perl Mongers Bad Influence

comparative and superlative explained:

Huhn worse, worser, worsest, worsted, wasted

David Cantrell wrote:
On Tue, May 06, 2008 at 03:12:27AM -0700, John B wrote:

[as well as the auto-top-up point someone else mentioned, aren't there
any newsagents near your house?]

Of the last three newsagents that TfL's lovely call centre staff directed
me to, none could do something as simple as selling me an Oystercard. I
hate to think how much harder it would be for them to top up an existing
card.


Odd, at the one round the corner from me it's trivially easy. My son
takes me there to practice buying lollipops, I stick five quid on the
Oyster. Job done. Now all we need is the SWT station next door to
start accepting the thing...

Tom

On Tue, 6 May 2008 03:49:51 -0700 (PDT), Boltar
wrote:

On May 6, 11:12 am, John B wrote:

[as well as the auto-top-up point someone else mentioned, aren't there
any newsagents near your house?]

If i'd known it had run out I'd have topped it up beforehand. Its a
bit late when I'm already on the bus.

In other words, you didn't keep track of the balance on your card, an
entirely trivial thing to do.

--
James Farrar
. @gmail.com

On May 8, 7:30 am, James Farrar wrote:
On Tue, 6 May 2008 03:49:51 -0700 (PDT), Boltar

wrote:
On May 6, 11:12 am, John B wrote:

[as well as the auto-top-up point someone else mentioned, aren't there
any newsagents near your house?]

If i'd known it had run out I'd have topped it up beforehand. Its a
bit late when I'm already on the bus.

In other words, you didn't keep track of the balance on your card, an
entirely trivial thing to do.

Of course , when I'm in a hurry back from somewhere I'll always glance
at the gate to see the balance left with a dozen people in a hurry
behind me to get out - oh wait , not all of them show it. But thats
easily solved - next time I want to get a bus I'll just head off down
the tube station to see how much I have on my card - oh wait , its a
mile away and the nearby NR station doesn't take prepay and has no
machines to read it. Well thats ok , I'll just go to the nearby
newsagents and ask them. Oh , its bank holiday and they're closed.

Yes , trivial, and I should be punished by having to pay double fare.

Do you work for the Labour party by any chance?

B2003

Oh , its bank holiday and they're closed.

Or you will register your card and check your balance online - Oyster
website is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. No excuse now, eh?

On May 8, 11:24 am, alex_t wrote:
Oh , its bank holiday and they're closed.

Or you will register your card and check your balance online - Oyster
website is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. No excuse now, eh?

No excuse at all , because obviously I always carry a laptop around
with me wherever I go. Why didn't I think of logging on when I was
standing in that bus queue? Must've just slipped my mind.

B2003

No excuse at all , because obviously I always carry a laptop around
with me wherever I go. Why didn't I think of logging on when I was
standing in that bus queue? Must've just slipped my mind.

No excuse, because judging from your posting frequency you obviously
have an Internet connection around the clock - and may be it's about
time to start using it for something useful, don't you think?

P.S. Oyster website works from mobile phone too - no need for laptop.

On 8 May, 11:39, Boltar wrote:
On May 8, 11:24 am, alex_t wrote:

Oh , its bank holiday and they're closed.

Or you will register your card and check your balance online - Oyster
website is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. No excuse now, eh?

No excuse at all , because obviously I always carry a laptop around
with me wherever I go. Why didn't I think of logging on when I was
standing in that bus queue? Must've just slipped my mind.

B2003

There seems to be a standard pattern to these exchanges.

Person A points out that certain people (eg those living in South
London or occasional visitors) are disadvantaged by rules which need
not be as they are and suggests a simple change to the rules.

Person B pointlessly (I mean helpfully) explains how you can do some
laborious things to avoid the situation.

Person A says yes I know all that, but there are situations where a
person can still legitimately be in a position where they are
disadvantaged (eg machine not working, shop in wrong direction, bank
holiday etc etc), and that rather than them have to get round it, they
are still suggesting that the rule could be changed.

Person C chimes in with something really ludicrous like suggesting
that you are an idiot for not logging into the Web from a bus queue or
planning every journey days in advance.

Person A says for Godsake, I am just pointing out that the unfairness
is unnecessary and could be solved (repeating whatever the suggestion
was, eg normal priced extensions for paper travelcards).

Person B comes back and says "you are making a mountain out of a
molehill".


The thing about all this is not the scale of the molehill, just that
when there is a molehill, however small, for which there is a
solution, it is sheer bloody-mindedness that makes TfL and its
defenders refuse to contemplate addressing it.

Incidentally, I find that no LU barriers seem to do anything other
than let me though, and give no indication of remaining credit.

Boltar wrote:
On May 8, 11:24 am, alex_t wrote:
Oh , its bank holiday and they're closed.

Or you will register your card and check your balance online - Oyster
website is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. No excuse now, eh?

No excuse at all , because obviously I always carry a laptop around
with me wherever I go. Why didn't I think of logging on when I was
standing in that bus queue? Must've just slipped my mind.

If checking your balance is so difficult for you to organise, why not use
auto-top-up?

--
Richard J.
(to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address)