[cross-posted to utl]
"Mizter T" wrote
(3) Some refunds *are* issued semi-automatically - this started last
year, maybe beforehand - anyhow it seems that a trawl is done through
the Oyster travel records and where there's the OSI time-out derived
'max cash fare' double-whammy [1], and where identified - for
registered card holders at least - a refund is sent for pick-up by
Oyster at the station they use the most often and an email is sent to
them - I'm looking at such an email now and it says:
" REFUND DETAILS [...] Reason: Overcharged because of an operational
issue Reason: Overcharged because of an operational issue"

I don't know whether this is also done for those with unregistered
cards, whereby money magically (and confusingly!) appears on their
card.

Anyhow this refund seems to be processed maybe three or four days
after the event. I'm half wondering whether your card might have been
identified and you might have got an automatic refund via this
process, were you not to have made contact with them first.

My Oyster card is registered. On two or more fairly recent occasions, I've
made contact with the helpline when separate journeys have been linked by an
OSI, thus causing a time-out after the second or subsequent 'leg'. On each
occasion, the following has (perhaps with slight variations) been the
sequence of events: (a) I've been offered a refund, to be picked up at Kings
Cross (Northern, Piccadilly, Victoria lines) (I think that's because I once
asked to collect a top-up there, so it's regarded as my home station); (b)
I've declined that method of refund because I live 140 miles away and I'm
not likely to be in London within the required time (7 days?); (c) I've
therefore been offered (and received) a credit direct to my bank account
(usually for the wrong amount, because my enthusiast-based journeys are too
complex for them to understand!) (d) I've received an offer of a (correct)
"semi-automatic" refund (as you've described above); (e) I failed to pick up
within the time limit because I'm 140 miles away; (f) I've contacted the
helpline and told them what has happened; (g) the correct refund (in
addition to the wrong one I got at (c) above) has been credited to my bank
account.

I have therefore made a profit, but probably not much (or at all) after
taking into account the cost and time taken in contacting the helpline.
Should I feel guilty?

On Aug 11, 8:33*pm, "John Salmon" wrote:

[cross-posted to utl]
"Mizter T" wrote

(3) Some refunds *are* issued semi-automatically - this started last
year, maybe beforehand - anyhow it seems that a trawl is done through
the Oyster travel records and where there's the OSI time-out derived
'max cash fare' double-whammy [1], and where identified - for
registered card holders at least - a refund is sent for pick-up by
Oyster at the station they use the most often and an email is sent to
them - I'm looking at such an email now and it says:
" REFUND DETAILS [...] Reason: Overcharged because of an operational
issue Reason: Overcharged because of an operational issue"

I don't know whether this is also done for those with unregistered
cards, whereby money magically (and confusingly!) appears on their
card.

Anyhow this refund seems to be processed maybe three or four days
after the event. I'm half wondering whether your card might have been
identified and you might have got an automatic refund via this
process, were you not to have made contact with them first.

My Oyster card is registered. *On two or more fairly recent occasions, I've
made contact with the helpline when separate journeys have been linked by an
OSI, thus causing a time-out after the second or subsequent 'leg'. *On each
occasion, the following has (perhaps with slight variations) been the
sequence of events: (a) I've been offered a refund, to be picked up at Kings
Cross (Northern, Piccadilly, Victoria lines) (I think that's because I once
asked to collect a top-up there, so it's regarded as my home station); (b)
I've declined that method of refund because I live 140 miles away and I'm
not likely to be in London within the required time (7 days?); (c) I've
therefore been offered (and received) a credit direct to my bank account
(usually for the wrong amount, because my enthusiast-based journeys are too
complex for them to understand!) (d) I've received an offer of a (correct)
"semi-automatic" refund (as you've described above); (e) I failed to pick up
within the time limit because I'm 140 miles away; (f) I've contacted the
helpline and told them what has happened; (g) the correct refund (in
addition to the wrong one I got at (c) above) has been credited to my bank
account.

I have therefore made a profit, but probably not much (or at all) after
taking into account the cost and time taken in contacting the helpline.
Should I feel guilty?

Ha ha, no! Next time you could just try waiting to see if a 'semi-
automatic' refund might be in the pipeline, though I'm tempted to
think that a Day Travelcard might just be easier! (i.e. for those all
over town type jaunts)

Thanks for the first hand account of dealing with it all. Curious as
to whether you've ever tried using the secure webform to contact
Oyster CS, as opposed to calling them up?


{Also, I see you've x-posted this to utl - well, utl-ers, it's been a
bit of a journey, I can tell yer! The whole thread - at present all 53
posts (well, 54 now) is over on uk.railway if anyone is mad enough to
want the full low down (not, for a change, an OSI time out issue
either but something quite new instead - well, new to me at least.) }

"Mizter T" wrote
"John Salmon" wrote:
"Mizter T" wrote

(3) Some refunds *are* issued semi-automatically - this started last
year, maybe beforehand - anyhow it seems that a trawl is done through
the Oyster travel records and where there's the OSI time-out derived
'max cash fare' double-whammy [1], and where identified - for
registered card holders at least - a refund is sent for pick-up by
Oyster at the station they use the most often and an email is sent to
them - I'm looking at such an email now and it says:
" REFUND DETAILS [...] Reason: Overcharged because of an operational
issue Reason: Overcharged because of an operational issue"

I don't know whether this is also done for those with unregistered
cards, whereby money magically (and confusingly!) appears on their
card.

Anyhow this refund seems to be processed maybe three or four days
after the event. I'm half wondering whether your card might have been
identified and you might have got an automatic refund via this
process, were you not to have made contact with them first.

My Oyster card is registered. On two or more fairly recent occasions,
I've
made contact with the helpline when separate journeys have been linked by
an
OSI, thus causing a time-out after the second or subsequent 'leg'. On
each
occasion, the following has (perhaps with slight variations) been the
sequence of events: (a) I've been offered a refund, to be picked up at
Kings
Cross (Northern, Piccadilly, Victoria lines) (I think that's because I
once
asked to collect a top-up there, so it's regarded as my home station);
(b)
I've declined that method of refund because I live 140 miles away and I'm
not likely to be in London within the required time (7 days?); (c) I've
therefore been offered (and received) a credit direct to my bank account
(usually for the wrong amount, because my enthusiast-based journeys are
too
complex for them to understand!) (d) I've received an offer of a
(correct)
"semi-automatic" refund (as you've described above); (e) I failed to pick
up
within the time limit because I'm 140 miles away; (f) I've contacted the
helpline and told them what has happened; (g) the correct refund (in
addition to the wrong one I got at (c) above) has been credited to my
bank
account.

I have therefore made a profit, but probably not much (or at all) after
taking into account the cost and time taken in contacting the helpline.
Should I feel guilty?

Ha ha, no! Next time you could just try waiting to see if a 'semi-
automatic' refund might be in the pipeline, though I'm tempted to
think that a Day Travelcard might just be easier! (i.e. for those all
over town type jaunts)

Thanks for the first hand account of dealing with it all. Curious as
to whether you've ever tried using the secure webform to contact
Oyster CS, as opposed to calling them up?

I did try that several months ago - January-ish I think - in relation to
various queries I had at the time (which I think I posted here). I did get
a reply, but only after a long time and after sending a reminder, so more
recently I have used the helpline in order to get a more immediate response.
Some of my earlier attempts entailed hanging on the phone for several
minutes, but more recently it hasn't been too bad - perhaps I've chosen
quieter times of day.

I'm still an Oyster enthusiast, but I think the advice to rail enthusiasts
to use Day Travelcards instead is probably good. Unless TfL change the
rules so that Day Travelcards can be loaded on Oyster...