"Roland Perry" wrote:

Here's another wrinkle, by email overnight they said:

"touch your Oyster card on a yellow reader at the location shown above as
you start a journey."

Which makes a choice of station even more complex (if they mean it). I
can't predict in advance what station I'm going to be using to travel home
*from* (in central London), even though I'm fairly sure which station I'm
heading *to*[1]. It depends what pub we go to after the meeting etc.

So it has to be St Pancras (or if I was wider awake when answering "what
station am I changing to the tube at") Kings Cross.


I am 99% certain that's just badly worded and shouldn't be taken at literal
face value - Oyster 'products' can be collected either when starting or
finishing a journey, i.e. when touching-in *or* touching-out.

wrote:

In article
,
(Mizter T) wrote:

On Feb 8, 12:25 am, wrote:
[snip]
I don't think the different LUL gatelines are distinguished for the
purpose of picking up credit. When I had to pick up some credit at the
Cross recently they told me it didn't matter where I entered the tube.
I have a feeling that in the end I exited there rather than entering
but still got my credit.

If you'd read my post you'd see that I was *not* referring to
different LUL gatelines, but to the distinction between the LUL
gatelines at KXSP and the NR gateline at St Pancras (same goes for the
NR gatelines at Kings Cross for that matter).

In other words, if you're collecting a top-up/ refund/ whatever from
KXSP LUL, then it won't be available for collection at St Pancras NR
(i.e. the Thameslink gateline) or King's Cross NR (i.e. any of the
gatelines leading to the NR platforms at King's Cross).


[Found my email now}

*Date:* Tue, 7 Dec 2010
I ve processed a refund of 0.45 for you at Kings Cross underground
station, it will load at any underground entrance you use there,
from 30 November-7 December. Just touch in and make a journey as
normal; the money will automatically go onto your card as you make
a journey and pass through the ticket-gates.

I realised today that I didn't enter the tube at King's Cross last
night as expected. The disrupted East Coast timetables led to a
later arrival and I decided to use my bus pass to get to Putney
rather than the tube.

However, I was pleased to find that the credit seemed, somewhat to
my relief, to be applied to my Oyster card when I exited at King's
Cross StPancras this afternoon.

Eh?
All that happened on that occasion is that you picked up the refund at
KXSP LUL when you exited there (on & Dec) - perhaps the email from
Oyster customer services isn't crystal clear but collecting Oyster top-
ups/ refunds/ whatever can be done either when entering or when
exiting a station (i.e. either when starting or ending a journey).

Can't help but feel you've rather missed the pertinent points being
discussed here Colin!

I wasn't using Oyster on NR of course and neither is Roland. I have to
admit being somewhat puzzled that LUL should offer pickup at an NR
gateline. I rather assumed they meant one of theirs.


If you read Roland's post that started this thread, he very clearly implies
that his chosen pick-up location is "St Pancras (National Rail)".

Reading the rest of the thread it's fairly clear he didn't really want to
pick it up from the NR gateline but rather an LU one - so the selected
location of "St Pancras (National Rail)" isn't really the location he
wanted, but was instead the result of a little understandable confusion
(which we discuss on this thread) - but regardless of any such confusion,
"St Pancras (National Rail)" refers to the NR Thameslink gateline at St
Pancras (and wishing otherwise doesn't change that fact!).

Also, it's not really LUL that's offering pick-up from an NR gateline, it's
Oyster customer services (aka the helpline) - and Oyster CS deal with (or
fail to deal with!) *all* customer service issues concerning Oyster
regardless of mode of travel, so if you encounter an issue making a journey
on NR whilst using Oyster PAYG then your contact point for this is Oyster
CS. (The fact that Oyster CS is part of LUL is irrelevant.)

Sorry for being sharp earlier, though I think we're still on different pages
it seems!

In article , (Roland
Perry) wrote:

I note that there's probably only Oyster capability at one of the
four stations comprising the St Pancras complex (FCC, not EMT, SET
or Eurostar), so maybe they could change that to "St Pancras Low
Level (National Rail)" and add a "St Pancras (Underground") being a
synonym for the three LUL gatelines shared with Kings Cross.

Meanwhile, I'll try the FCC in/out trick and see what happens; I'd
have to call the helpline anyway (to get the money transferred to a
different gateline) so I can use that call to sort out any anomaly;
and it'll be a good bit of research too!

I wouldn't advise doing that. I'd email LUL first in any case. I have
found email an effective and free alternative to phoning them up.

Note also that they told me I had to be starting a journey but I found
that finishing a journey worked instead.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 02:57:04
on Tue, 8 Feb 2011, remarked:

I wasn't using Oyster on NR of course and neither is Roland. I have to
admit being somewhat puzzled that LUL should offer pickup at an NR
gateline. I rather assumed they meant one of theirs.

That would be the reason I picked "St Pancras" originally (a bit
befuddled after half an hour talking to the Oyster helpline), but it
occurred to me later that this might not have been a wise move.

And we seem to have veered off into a discussion of which bits of the
LUL station are "in St Pancras"
--
Roland Perry

"Roland Perry" wrote:

In message
,
at 15:30:08 on Mon, 7 Feb 2011, Mizter T remarked:
I note your pick-up location is "St Pancras (National Rail)" - where
'National Rail' is specified in the name of the location, then that
means it's the NR gateline as opposed to the LU one.

I note that there's probably only Oyster capability at one of the four
stations comprising the St Pancras complex (FCC, not EMT, SET or
Eurostar), so maybe they could change that to "St Pancras Low Level
(National Rail)" and add a "St Pancras (Underground") being a synonym for
the three LUL gatelines shared with Kings Cross.

I agree that something like that would be helpful.

FWIW I've just had a quick look at the list of locations on Oyster online
and found that "King's Cross St Pancras" isn't even listed as such, instead
there's an entry for "King's Cross [London Underground / National Rail]",
which I assume is a combined location comprising of KXSP LU station and also
the NR gatelines at King's Cross. That's interesting because at nearly every
other termini station the LU and NR stations are listed as separate
locations, apart from Waterloo which like KX appears as "Waterloo [London
Underground / National Rail]". Victoria meanwhile uniquely has separate
locations listed for NR platforms 1-8 and NR platforms 9-19 as well as LU.


Meanwhile, I'll try the FCC in/out trick and see what happens; I'd have to
call the helpline anyway (to get the money transferred to a different
gateline) so I can use that call to sort out any anomaly; and it'll be a
good bit of research too!

I'm fairly confident it'll actually work - though we shall see!

In message , at 05:20:29
on Tue, 8 Feb 2011, remarked:

I'd email LUL first in any case.

Do you have a suitable address, I've just got
which it says is unmonitored.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 07:39:30 on Tue, 8 Feb
2011, Roland Perry remarked:

Meanwhile, I'll try the FCC in/out trick and see what happens

The chap manning the FCC barriers was convinced I'd be charged for the
In/Out *plus* a subsequent tube trip. But I tried it anyway. Without
looking at my online record, I think it docked me £4.20 for the In/Out,
then a credit of £2.50 when I touched out at the other end of the LUL Z1
journey - so a total cost of £1.70
--
Roland Perry

In article ,
(Mizter T) wrote:

wrote:
In article
,
(Mizter T) wrote:

On Feb 8, 12:25 am, wrote:
[snip]
I don't think the different LUL gatelines are distinguished for the
purpose of picking up credit. When I had to pick up some credit at
the Cross recently they told me it didn't matter where I entered
the tube. I have a feeling that in the end I exited there rather
than entering but still got my credit.

If you'd read my post you'd see that I was *not* referring to
different LUL gatelines, but to the distinction between the LUL
gatelines at KXSP and the NR gateline at St Pancras (same goes for
the NR gatelines at Kings Cross for that matter).

In other words, if you're collecting a top-up/ refund/ whatever from
KXSP LUL, then it won't be available for collection at St Pancras NR
(i.e. the Thameslink gateline) or King's Cross NR (i.e. any of the
gatelines leading to the NR platforms at King's Cross).

[Found my email now}

*Date:* Tue, 7 Dec 2010
I ve processed a refund of 0.45 for you at Kings Cross
underground station, it will load at any underground entrance
you use there, from 30 November-7 December. Just touch in
and make a journey as normal; the money will automatically go
onto your card as you make a journey and pass through the
ticket-gates.

I realised today that I didn't enter the tube at King's Cross
last night as expected. The disrupted East Coast timetables led
to a later arrival and I decided to use my bus pass to get to
Putney rather than the tube.

However, I was pleased to find that the credit seemed, somewhat
to my relief, to be applied to my Oyster card when I exited at
King's Cross StPancras this afternoon.

Eh?
All that happened on that occasion is that you picked up the refund
at KXSP LUL when you exited there (on & Dec) - perhaps the email from
Oyster customer services isn't crystal clear but collecting Oyster
top-ups/ refunds/ whatever can be done either when entering or when
exiting a station (i.e. either when starting or ending a journey).

Can't help but feel you've rather missed the pertinent points being
discussed here Colin!

I wasn't using Oyster on NR of course and neither is Roland. I have to
admit being somewhat puzzled that LUL should offer pickup at an NR
gateline. I rather assumed they meant one of theirs.

If you read Roland's post that started this thread, he very clearly
implies that his chosen pick-up location is "St Pancras (National
Rail)".

Reading the rest of the thread it's fairly clear he didn't really
want to pick it up from the NR gateline but rather an LU one - so
the selected location of "St Pancras (National Rail)" isn't really
the location he wanted, but was instead the result of a little
understandable confusion (which we discuss on this thread) - but
regardless of any such confusion, "St Pancras (National Rail)"
refers to the NR Thameslink gateline at St Pancras (and wishing
otherwise doesn't change that fact!).

Also, it's not really LUL that's offering pick-up from an NR
gateline, it's Oyster customer services (aka the helpline) - and
Oyster CS deal with (or fail to deal with!) *all* customer service
issues concerning Oyster regardless of mode of travel, so if you
encounter an issue making a journey on NR whilst using Oyster PAYG
then your contact point for this is Oyster CS. (The fact that
Oyster CS is part of LUL is irrelevant.)

All I can say is that I'm surprised. I can only speak from my own
experience of dealing with them by email. They were most helpful,
especially when I said I wasn't expecting to pass any gateline within the
period they first offered.

Sorry for being sharp earlier, though I think we're still on
different pages it seems!

No problem.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In article , (Roland
Perry) wrote:

In message , at
05:20:29 on Tue, 8 Feb 2011, remarked:

I'd email LUL first in any case.

Do you have a suitable address, I've just got
which it says is unmonitored.

My emails were to and from .

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 16:13:21
on Tue, 8 Feb 2011, remarked:
I'd email LUL first in any case.

Do you have a suitable address, I've just got
which it says is unmonitored.

My emails were to and from

Thanks. It looks like I don't need it though fingers crossed.
--
Roland Perry