"CJB" wrote in message
...
On Friday, 18 April 2014 16:56:11 UTC+1, David Cantrell wrote:
For the last few days I've been using a PAYG Oyster card instead of my

normal paper Travelcard.



I did one of my usual journeys - tube from Waterloo to Balham, then

train to Thornton Heath - on Wednesday evening. But the Oyster card

reader at Balham didn't work properly. The gate opened but didn't record

my touch-out, so I've got an unresolved journey.



TfL, despite knowing my email address because that's what I use to sign

in to their website to make sure they haven't ripped me off, couldn't be

bothered to notify me. I only know about the unresolved journey because

I don't trust Oyster and went and checked.



And of course I can't submit my claim for a refund using my normal web

browser which works on every other site. I have to use Firefox instead.



It remains to be seen whether I actually end up being charged the right

amount or not. And, of course, I have to use Oyster again to pick up my

refund. I didn't see any option on the website for "refund my credit

card" or "send me a cheque", they just blithely assume that I use Oyster

all the time, when in fact I was planning on getting a Travelcard

again on Tuesday and not using the trains at all this weekend.



--

David Cantrell | top google result for "topless karaoke murders"



More people are driven insane through religious hysteria than

by drinking alcohol. -- W C Fields

Isn't TfL coining it with thousands of unresolved journeys? I would opine
that its tourists who lose out most of the time. If regular commuters get
caught out then tourists must - all of the time.

The scam I have seen at Paddington mainly at weekends is to force pax to
touch in for the Heathrow Connect or a FGW local from platforms 12 / 13 /
14 - and then suddenly switch the service(s) to platform 11 (or whatever).
This means that they then have to touch out from 12 not having gone
anywhere and then touch back in to 11. And this is why so many pax. wait
at the indicator boards on 12 - effectively blocking the route for
tourists to/from the taxi rank - until they know that the Connect or FGW
locals really are departing from 12 / 13 / 14.

A few weeks ago I was inbound on the Connect and we came in on platform 9.
There were quite a few tourists with luggage already waiting on 12. They
had to come round to 9 thereby touching out from 12. But then 9 is open
access so when they got to Heathrow they would have touched in and out of
12 but not touched in on 11. They would have paid a maximum fare for that
journey.

The extraction of penalty fares for not touching in and out is tantamount
to theft. But like BT coin phones never giving back change form unused
coins these scams rake in millions of extra profit. Rip-off Britain as
usual.

----------------------------------------------------------------------


I don't think it at all reasonable to compare machines not giving change
with the "penalty" for not touching in/out correctly

machines the world over don't give change because the effort of stocking
them with the necessary supply is prohibitive

There is, of course, no such problem with electronic money

tim