Yesterday, I set and used an OEP for the first time.

I still feel kind of dirty. No one could have known, but I felt as if
they were all looking at me.

"MIG" wrote:
Yesterday, I set and used an OEP for the first time.

I still feel kind of dirty. No one could have known, but I felt as if
they were all looking at me.

;-)

Just don't set it then forget about it, because if you're off to that
mystery land yonder zone 6 armed with a Travelcard plus Boundary Zone
extension, as well as the potential for a battle with the likes of the
bearded red-coated ones you'll also find yourself down a PAYG 'entry fee' on
your credit.

Still, I'd like to have that confrontation with some SWT RPIs over my
missing OEP when the facility to obtain an OEP is helpfully unavailable from
SWT stations, but I rather suspect it's never going to happen!

On Nov 11, 9:33*pm, "Mizter T" wrote:
"MIG" wrote:
Yesterday, I set and used an OEP for the first time.

I still feel kind of dirty. No one could have known, but I felt as if
they were all looking at me.

;-)

Just don't set it then forget about it, because if you're off to that
mystery land yonder zone 6 armed with a Travelcard plus Boundary Zone
extension, as well as the potential for a battle with the likes of the
bearded red-coated ones you'll also find yourself down a PAYG 'entry fee' on
your credit.

Still, I'd like to have that confrontation with some SWT RPIs over my
missing OEP when the facility to obtain an OEP is helpfully unavailable from
SWT stations, but I rather suspect it's never going to happen!

Well, perhaps on principle I wouldn't set one on the grounds that they
are silly, but I had to go to the machine to check my credit anyway,
so it only took a few more seconds to set.

An observation: the NR barriers at London Bridge (within the
travelcard zones) normally display nothing on entry if there's a
travelcard on it, or maybe warn if it's close to expiring, but the OEP
triggers them to display the PAYG balance.

On Nov 11, 9:51 pm, MIG wrote:

On Nov 11, 9:33 pm, "Mizter T" wrote:

"MIG" wrote:
Yesterday, I set and used an OEP for the first time.

I still feel kind of dirty. No one could have known, but I felt as if
they were all looking at me.

;-)

Just don't set it then forget about it, because if you're off to that
mystery land yonder zone 6 armed with a Travelcard plus Boundary Zone
extension, as well as the potential for a battle with the likes of the
bearded red-coated ones you'll also find yourself down a PAYG 'entry
fee' on
your credit.

Still, I'd like to have that confrontation with some SWT RPIs over my
missing OEP when the facility to obtain an OEP is helpfully unavailable
from
SWT stations, but I rather suspect it's never going to happen!

Well, perhaps on principle I wouldn't set one on the grounds that they
are silly, but I had to go to the machine to check my credit anyway,
so it only took a few more seconds to set.

Ni implied criticism - you've got to try it once after all. And like you
say, once you've tried it once, then you can see how easy it is to do, at
least in certain situations - in other positions however its rather harder,
bordering on the impossible even...


An observation: the NR barriers at London Bridge (within the
travelcard zones) normally display nothing on entry if there's a
travelcard on it, or maybe warn if it's close to expiring, but the OEP
triggers them to display the PAYG balance.

Interesting observation - here's another - if the card is associated with an
online account, then it also makes all the journeys appear in the online
journey history (normally it's only the PAYG chargeable ones, those covered
entirely by a Travelcard are absent).

Basically, an OEP kinda makes your Travelcard on Oyster prostitute itself as
if it were a mere PAYG card (...ok, I've gone too far now! You started it
though ;-).

MIG wrote:

Yesterday, I set and used an OEP for the first time.

I still feel kind of dirty. No one could have known, but I felt as if
they were all looking at me.

I sympathise. I feel kind of dirty whenever I've used Oyster or a
Travelcard. They're both disgusting, evil concepts that should be
abolished and replaced by very cheap, point-to-point paper tickets
instead. So something like an OEP, which AIUI is some kind of side-
effect of an both Oyster and a Travelcard on it, must feel very, very
disgusting indeed.

And SWT turning traitor and joining the pro-Oyster brigade, means
we'reactually further away from that frabjous day when Oyster and
zonal Travelcards are finally abolished for good. So we'll just have
to go on feeling filthy and unclean every time we use one, Depressing
thought isn't it...?

On Nov 13, 10:17*am, solar penguin wrote:
MIG wrote:
Yesterday, I set and used an OEP for the first time.

I still feel kind of dirty. No one could have known, but I felt as if
they were all looking at me.

I sympathise. *I feel kind of dirty whenever I've used Oyster or a
Travelcard. *They're both disgusting, evil concepts that should be
abolished and replaced by very cheap, point-to-point paper tickets
instead. *So something like an OEP, which AIUI is some kind of side-
effect of an both Oyster and a Travelcard on it, must feel very, very
disgusting indeed.

And SWT turning traitor and joining the pro-Oyster brigade, means
we'reactually further away from that frabjous day when Oyster and
zonal Travelcards are finally abolished for good. *So we'll just have
to go on feeling filthy and unclean every time we use one, *Depressing
thought isn't it...?

Well, without scooping everything in the same net, there is a
particular silliness to OEPs that even fans of Oyster object to.

That is, season tickets were introduced over a century ago to take
away the need to queue and pay every day for every journey, if one was
making the same journey on a regular basis.

Then season travelcards were introduced to save people who travelled
across a particular range of routes on a regular basis having to queue
and pay every day.

Then Oyster PAYG was introduced, and was meant to avoid the need to
queue and pay for every journey, even when the journey was not regular
or in the same zones*.

Now finally, for people who have chosen to combine ...

season ticket
zonal coverage
PAYG

.... NR now requires them to queue up at a machine or counter again for
every f*cking journey. That's why the OEP concept is such a pile of
pus.




*Although various problems resulted in overcharging and expensive
phone calls about once a week for the period I was using it lately,
but that's another story.

On Nov 13, 1:09*pm, MIG wrote:
On Nov 13, 10:17*am, solar penguin wrote:





MIG wrote:
Yesterday, I set and used an OEP for the first time.

I still feel kind of dirty. No one could have known, but I felt as if
they were all looking at me.

I sympathise. *I feel kind of dirty whenever I've used Oyster or a
Travelcard. *They're both disgusting, evil concepts that should be
abolished and replaced by very cheap, point-to-point paper tickets
instead. *So something like an OEP, which AIUI is some kind of side-
effect of an both Oyster and a Travelcard on it, must feel very, very
disgusting indeed.

And SWT turning traitor and joining the pro-Oyster brigade, means
we'reactually further away from that frabjous day when Oyster and
zonal Travelcards are finally abolished for good. *So we'll just have
to go on feeling filthy and unclean every time we use one, *Depressing
thought isn't it...?

Well, without scooping everything in the same net, there is a
particular silliness to OEPs that even fans of Oyster object to.

That is, season tickets were introduced over a century ago to take
away the need to queue and pay every day for every journey, if one was
making the same journey on a regular basis.

Then season travelcards were introduced to save people who travelled
across a particular range of routes on a regular basis having to queue
and pay every day.

Then Oyster PAYG was introduced, and was meant to avoid the need to
queue and pay for every journey, even when the journey was not regular
or in the same zones*.

Now finally, for people who have chosen to combine ...

season ticket
zonal coverage
PAYG

... NR now requires them to queue up at a machine or counter again for
every f*cking journey. *That's why the OEP concept is such a pile of
pus.

Oh and I forgot to mention NR stations not (at least initially) even
providing the facility to load the OEP that they insist on.

"MIG" wrote in message
...

... NR now requires them to queue up at a machine or counter again for
every f*cking journey. That's why the OEP concept is such a pile of
pus.

If there really is anyone who is setting an OEP and adding a PAYG extension
for EVERY journey they make, surely they've got the wrong zones loaded in
the first place?

Also, unless all their journeys are out of their travelcard zones, and they
never come back on rail, 50% of their journeys don't need an OEP anyway. So
they aren't using it right.

Paul S

On Nov 13, 3:45*pm, "Paul Scott"
wrote:
"MIG" wrote in message

...

... NR now requires them to queue up at a machine or counter again for
every f*cking journey. *That's why the OEP concept is such a pile of
pus.

If there really is anyone who is setting an OEP and adding a PAYG extension
for EVERY journey they make, surely they've got the wrong zones loaded in
the first place?

Also, unless all their journeys are out of their travelcard zones, and they
never come back on rail, 50% of their journeys don't need an OEP anyway. *So
they aren't using it right.

Paul S

I meant every return journey for which the punter is combining all
three queue-avoiding strategies. One would have bought an extension
return ticket before PAYG.

What if you have a monthly season, but a relative is in hospital
beyond your zones and you visit every day for a week? Used to be a
similar (but worse) problem with not being able to get extensions to
travelcards except by queuing at the counter.

On 11/11/2010 23:01, Mizter T wrote:

Basically, an OEP kinda makes your Travelcard on Oyster prostitute
itself as if it were a mere PAYG card (...ok, I've gone too far now! You
started it though ;-).

An OEP effectively turns your Oyster into a PAYG one until such time as
the OEP is cleared, albeit one that credits the entry charge back if you
stay within your zones.

So, for example, here's the (online) version of the last journey I
undertook using an OEP:

02/10/10 13:52 Bus PAYG enabled £0.00 £9.80 [1]
02/10/10 13:56 Marylebone [National Rail] Entry -£3.30 £6.50 [2]
02/10/10 14:17 South Ruislip Exit £2.00 £8.50 [3]
02/10/10 14:18 South Ruislip Exit £0.00 £8.50 [4]

[1] Not sure where the "Bus" bit comes from, given I set the OEP on one
of the Shere Self-Service Ticket Machines at Marylebone.

[2] I've got an Annual 1 to 4 Travelcard and Gold Card discount loaded
onto said Oyster, but I can't work out why this is £3.30 instead of the
usual £4.20.

[3] Validator in subway

[4] Ticket gates

Cheers,

Barry