On 12 Feb, 09:56, Walter Briscoe wrote:
I was recently doing a lot of London Underground journeys with a pay as
you go adult Oyster card which is registered without automatic top-up.
As I entered the system, I noticed a red message flash by. When I took
time to look, I saw it said "Seek Assistance" and did so. A Customer
Service Assistant told me it was a code 94 error which means "Card comms
failed" but was unable to enlighten me on the reasoning for giving this
error which does not prevent the gate from opening. I got a delayed,
non-responsive, allegedly confidential answer from Customer Services.
I also asked for a list of responses and was told none was published.
I thought "Freedom of Information". Google turned out to be quicker and
I found a list at
http://groups.google.com/group/uk.tr...thread/thread/
1129556cecc35169/39d9557e8057792f?lnk=st&q=&rnum=7#39d9557e8057792f

Their are suggestions a 94 is the result of waving a card over the
reader rather than placing it.

Can anyone here shed light on the logic behind displaying this code -
and others which do not result in card rejection? They seem to me to do
nothing more than frighten the customer without cause. The fear is of
being stuck beyond walking range without cash as a backup.
--
Walter Briscoe


I have to say I think you're making a bit of a mountain out of a
molehill!

Nevertheless there is a possible issue here. I too have found that, on
occasion when using Oyster, the LU gates will display the red "Seek
Assistance" text but the gate will nonetheless open (I think I've seen
this behaviour exhibited by both the older pneumatic gates and also
the newer models).

Given that the gates open I always walk through them, as do all the
other passengers I've seen who've experienced this - and I should add
that when this has happened to me it has nevertheless always
registered as a touch-in or touch-out on my Oyster (i.e. it hasn't
resulted in incomplete journeys).

I'd suggest that what is happening is this - the card readers doesn't
initially communicate with the Oyster card (perhaps because the card
isn't held flat to the reader) which triggers the error message, but
split seconds later communication is established successfully, and the
Oyster card is accepted and the gate opens. The glitch (if there is
one) is that the "Seek Assistance" error message remains on the
display rather than being cleared off when there's no longer a
problem.

My advice to Walter and anyone else who experiences this is not to
worry about it - if the gate opens it means there's nothing wrong with
your card, just walk on through. Perhaps it's one for LU, TranSys and
Cubic to look at - though I'm sure they'd be aware of it already.