Oyster. WTF?

Jonny69

Jonny69

Jonny69

Man of Honour
Man of Honour
Joined
3 May 2004
Posts
17,722
Location
Kapitalist Republik of Surrey
I've been using an Oyster card regularly for just over a year and a half now. Because I'm technically a student I can load on my travelcard for the week or month and get a discount. All great. Except there's nothing to tell you when the travelcard runs out (unless you've kept the receipt or you check it at a ticket machine) because the message on the gate is less than helpful. This resulted in a few expensive on-peak journeys at first.

So I get a zones 2-6 Travelcard because I live in zone 4 and travel to zone 6 for work. Sometimes I travel into London, so I tap my card in and it lets me out at zone 1 charging me £2.60 from the PAYG balance. Any zone 1 travel on top of that is charged on the PAYG balance but doesn't appear to cap at a travelcard rate any more, so I have to plan my journeys if I think it's going to hammer my PAYG balance.

Yesterday I tapped in as normal, arrived at Charing Cross and the card wouldn't let me out. According to the staff, with a 2-6 Travelcard loaded on I should not be travelling into zone 1, the PAYG balance is not there to cover the difference and I was supposed to enable Oyster Extension each time if I wanted to travel to zone 1. Then the guy started to write me out a £20 fine.

Just to put this into perspective: Oyster Extension is something that is free, it's like a switch that you have to flick to give you permission to travel into London. But that doesn't explain why I've been able to use it for over a year and a half?

Who dreams these schemes up? I'm not one for 'money making' conspiracy theories, but for Christ sake there are so many things with Oyster that can catch you out. I've lost count of the times I've accidentally forgotten to tap out when using PAYG because there's no gate (normally don't have to with the travelcard) and it's fined me. I'd then have to go into London to get it rectified which would cost me more and cost me time. What a damn stupid system.

/rant over
 
I honestly thought this would be a rant about the shelled sea life. :p

Yup, it's scary how much rules and regulations are in-place just to fine you. It does get rather obscene.
 
simulatorman said:
An Oyster coding error or bug. Time to call the Oyster helpline.
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No point. Up to now it has never charged me too much for going into London. A ticket from the boundary of zone 2 to London is £2.60 and that is what it charges me each time.

Forgot to mention that the guy eventually backed down and let me get a 2-1 extension for... £2.60. I then enabled the Oyster Extension for what it's worth. What's even more stupid is they are getting rid of them from Monday:

TFL said:
Oyster Extension Permits weren't well understood so we have decided that passengers should no longer have to use them
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http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/newscentre/archive/19358.aspx

I didn't even know it existed until yesterday. Idiots :rolleyes:
 
Why not just let any extension costs come out of your PayGo balance? There is no need for anything more complicated.

*hugs his 1-4 travelcard*
 
I don't live in London but I visit there regularly. I put money on my oyster card and tap in/tap out of each station. I put more money on when it tells me to. Is it really more complicated than that?
 
Deadbeat said:
I don't live in London but I visit there regularly. I put money on my oyster card and tap in/tap out of each station. I put more money on when it tells me to. Is it really more complicated than that?
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Only for some. :D If you use it regularly then why not set up auto top up.
 
I cant stand the ticket inspectors at Liverpool street. I have a yearly card that i have forgot a few times and i have always got a fine. I dont see why they cant find your details out and let you through without a fine.
Once my yearly ticket run out on that day and i was told if i get a new ticket on that same day i would be able to get my £20 back. So i spend £2000 on a new ticket starting that day and i get a letter through saying a cant get a refund.
 
I honestly don't understand oyster it's really stupid the couple of times I been to London I just get a ticket to and from my dest, it's way way overly complicated.

Yet when i went to hong kong I used there travel card and it was dead simple, you pay a set rate per mile, end of. And when you get in the station there are machine to see ur balance, even though it tells you it every time you go in and out the gates, why can't London do this?!?
 
Passengers using an Oyster Travelcard who wanted to travel outside their Travelcard zones have had to load an Oyster Extension Permit onto their Oyster card to indicate their intention to extend their travel using Oyster pay as you go credit.
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Oops, never knew this. Good thing I haven't had my Oyster card inspected in the past 18 months!
 
Almost all of my time is spent in zones 1-3 so the travelcard + student discount has been a godsend.

Jonny69 said:
...I've lost count of the times I've accidentally forgotten to tap out when using PAYG because there's no gate (normally don't have to with the travelcard) and it's fined me. I'd then have to go into London to get it rectified which would cost me more and cost me time. What a damn stupid system...
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Yea I've done that more than once, actually got stuck once at east croydon because of it. It wasnt *actually* my fault that all my money was lost, but that's another story :p
 
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