There does seem to be a fault with the oyster system.

Today a customer with a Zones23 travelcard made a journey from Camden Town
to Finchley Central and was charged £1.70 for the trip. The price should
have been £1.00.
I asked the Prestige helpdesk and was informed that there is a problem with
routeing. I am unsure exactly what that means.

Those of you who use a combination of travelcard and pre-pay should keep a
close eye on how much you are being charged. Though I am sure you already
do.

"Anon" wrote in message
...
There does seem to be a fault with the oyster system.



I still buy my weekly travel card and have no problems, yet
I seem to be constantly stuck behind Oyster users told
to "Seek assistance" by the barriers.

Judging by the cursing and moaning I think there are
more than a few teething problems with Oyster.


--
Edward Cowling - London - UK

On Fri, 6 Feb 2004 09:17:08 -0000, "Edward Cowling"
wrote:

Judging by the cursing and moaning I think there are
more than a few teething problems with Oyster.

Or teething problems with Oyster users who aren't touching their card to
the reader at both ends of their journey, regardless of whether or not
the gates are open, and ending up with unresolved journeys?

Mind you, it would help if TfL had stickers on the readers (and,
perhaps, included in the info you get when you get an Oyster card)
informing people that they need to do that...

Cya,

Barry

--
Barry Salter, barry at southie dot me dot uk
Read uk.* newsgroups? Read uk.net.news.announce!

DISCLAIMER: The above comments do not necessarily represent the
views of my employers.

Barry Salter wrote in
:
Mind you, it would help if TfL had stickers on the readers (and,
perhaps, included in the info you get when you get an Oyster card)
informing people that they need to do that...

I saw such a sticker on a reader at Charing cross. Whether it was meant to
be there or just a helpful idea by a member of staff at that station ...

I find it very hard to understand why the message isnt getting through to
people. I am getting fed up of hearing the announcement.

--
Andrew Black
andrewblack at despammed.com
London

On Thu, 5 Feb 2004 17:06:04 -0000, "Anon"
wrote:

There does seem to be a fault with the oyster system.

Today a customer with a Zones23 travelcard made a journey from Camden Town
to Finchley Central and was charged £1.70 for the trip. The price should
have been £1.00.
I asked the Prestige helpdesk and was informed that there is a problem with
routeing. I am unsure exactly what that means.

I've had the same problem, being charged £1.60 for a trip to Holloway
Road from South Wimbledon on a Z12 Travelcard. I think the only thing
to do is, as you suggest, keep an eye on it and complain at the
destination station when it happens.


Those of you who use a combination of travelcard and pre-pay should keep a
close eye on how much you are being charged. Though I am sure you already
do.


R

In message , Steve
writes
Barry Salter wrote in
:

On Fri, 6 Feb 2004 09:17:08 -0000, "Edward Cowling"
wrote:

Judging by the cursing and moaning I think there are
more than a few teething problems with Oyster.

Or teething problems with Oyster users who aren't touching their card to
the reader at both ends of their journey, regardless of whether or not
the gates are open, and ending up with unresolved journeys?

Thie excuse was tried on with me; the problem being is that when a get
tells me to seek assistance I can go to another gate and it will open; so
if your excuse is true then the system should not let me out; oh and there
are all the posted telling us to touch in and out - for prepay.

Look at the error code which shows with the Seek Assistance message; 70,
71, 94 all mean there's some sort of communication error. 21 and 22
(double exit/entrance attempted) often come up for no apparent reason
too.
If you are concerned about touching the reader again (Pre pay) then ask
someone to read the card on a MMF or with a hand-held device.
--
Kat Me, Ambivalent? Well, yes and no.

"Steve" wrote in message
...
Kat wrote in
:

In message , Steve
writes
Barry Salter wrote in
m:

On Fri, 6 Feb 2004 09:17:08 -0000, "Edward Cowling"
wrote:

Judging by the cursing and moaning I think there are
more than a few teething problems with Oyster.

Or teething problems with Oyster users who aren't touching their
card to the reader at both ends of their journey, regardless of
whether or not the gates are open, and ending up with unresolved
journeys?

Thie excuse was tried on with me; the problem being is that when a get
tells me to seek assistance I can go to another gate and it will open;
so if your excuse is true then the system should not let me out; oh
and there are all the posted telling us to touch in and out - for
prepay.

Look at the error code which shows with the Seek Assistance message;
70, 71, 94 all mean there's some sort of communication error. 21 and
22 (double exit/entrance attempted) often come up for no apparent
reason too.
If you are concerned about touching the reader again (Pre pay) then
ask someone to read the card on a MMF or with a hand-held device.

I think they are 7? and 9? so it does look like there are problems with
many of the readers. A shame every SA I have asked repeats the mantra
about
not tapping in or out rather than reporting these readers as faulty.

I don't have pre-pay so I don't need to tap in and out according to the
posters on all the stations.


I am slowly being convinced that some of the gate sensors are not working
properly. The stand alone validators seem to work much better but of course
they are not used as much so still have time to break down.
The publicity is shockingly bad as it is all focussed on Pre-pay users. I
have been trying to get hold of the persons who are running the campaign but
have been getting the run around. After two e.mails and several phone calls
without luck I think it is easier for staff just to remove anything which is
counter productive and wait for these people to come out of the wood work
and complain. At which point they can be asked to justify themselves.

It is very difficult to investigate gate faults as customers do not want to
be inconvenienced by hanging around having their oyster checked at the
ticket office. I have tried on several occasions and just got abuse for it

Yes you do have to tap in and tap out as you will get unresolved journeys
otherwise and maybe worse might even have a spurious charge to pay.

In message , Steve
writes
Kat wrote in
:
Look at the error code which shows with the Seek Assistance message;
70, 71, 94 all mean there's some sort of communication error. 21 and
22 (double exit/entrance attempted) often come up for no apparent
reason too.
If you are concerned about touching the reader again (Pre pay) then
ask someone to read the card on a MMF or with a hand-held device.

I think they are 7? and 9? so it does look like there are problems with
many of the readers. A shame every SA I have asked repeats the mantra about
not tapping in or out rather than reporting these readers as faulty.

7/9 means ticket upside down and ticket unreadable. These are common
error codes for magnetic tickets. If they are appearing when using your
Oyster on the same gates then the fault does need reporting. If your
Oyster appears to generate them whatever gate you use then your Oyster
may need replacing or you may like to check that you don't have any
other cards in the same wallet as your Oyster; the gates may be trying
to read those too. Many people seem to keep their bankcards and building
passes in their Oyster wallet. IMO this is not a good idea.

I don't have pre-pay so I don't need to tap in and out according to the
posters on all the stations.

You DO have Pre Pay. It's enabled on all Oyster cards; consequently you
can incur a Pre Pay debit if you go out of Zone.
Some publicity regarding Oyster is misleading but you certainly need to
touch in and out too.
--
Kat Me, Ambivalent? Well, yes and no.

In message , Steve
writes
Kat wrote in
:

In message , Steve
writes
Kat wrote in
:
Look at the error code which shows with the Seek Assistance message;
70, 71, 94 all mean there's some sort of communication error. 21 and
22 (double exit/entrance attempted) often come up for no apparent
reason too.
If you are concerned about touching the reader again (Pre pay) then
ask someone to read the card on a MMF or with a hand-held device.

I think they are 7? and 9? so it does look like there are problems
with many of the readers. A shame every SA I have asked repeats the
mantra about not tapping in or out rather than reporting these readers
as faulty.

7/9 means ticket upside down and ticket unreadable. These are common
error codes for magnetic tickets. If they are appearing when using
your Oyster on the same gates then the fault does need reporting. If
your Oyster appears to generate them whatever gate you use then your
Oyster may need replacing or you may like to check that you don't have
any other cards in the same wallet as your Oyster; the gates may be
trying to read those too. Many people seem to keep their bankcards and
building passes in their Oyster wallet. IMO this is not a good idea.

As I have stated, it will fail on one gate, work on another. This is in the
same station at the same time, points to faulty readers to me. Do they
check the stats and check those with high failure rates?

If it's always the same gate it fails on, note the number of the gate
and the error code and ask to speak to the station supervisor. Explain
what's been happening and ask that it be reported and a job generated on
that gate.

I have no idea if failures are being logged anywhere unless the fault is
reported.


I don't have pre-pay so I don't need to tap in and out according to
the posters on all the stations.

You DO have Pre Pay. It's enabled on all Oyster cards; consequently
you can incur a Pre Pay debit if you go out of Zone.
Some publicity regarding Oyster is misleading but you certainly need
to touch in and out too.

Given the general unreliability this is not practical.

I don't see why. If you are having trouble with one particular gate then
report it and use another gate until that one has been looked at. Have
you noticed other users having the same problem?
--
Kat Me, Ambivalent? Well, yes and no.

Thie excuse was tried on with me; the problem being is that when a
get tells me to seek assistance I can go to another gate and it
will open; so if your excuse is true then the system should not let
me out; oh and there are all the posted telling us to touch in and
out - for prepay.

Look at the error code which shows with the Seek Assistance
message; 70, 71, 94 all mean there's some sort of communication
error. 21 and 22 (double exit/entrance attempted) often come up for
no apparent reason too.
If you are concerned about touching the reader again (Pre pay) then
ask someone to read the card on a MMF or with a hand-held device.

I think they are 7? and 9? so it does look like there are problems
with many of the readers. A shame every SA I have asked repeats the
mantra
about
not tapping in or out rather than reporting these readers as faulty.

I don't have pre-pay so I don't need to tap in and out according to
the posters on all the stations.


I am slowly being convinced that some of the gate sensors are not
working properly.

Well given on gate will tell me to seek assistance and another will let
me through then it is nothing to do with unresolved journeys.

I have noticed a lot of sensors being taped over with out-of-order on
them.


The stand alone validators seem to work much better
but of course they are not used as much so still have time to break
down. The publicity is shockingly bad as it is all focussed on Pre-pay
users. I have been trying to get hold of the persons who are running
the campaign but have been getting the run around. After two e.mails
and several phone calls without luck I think it is easier for staff
just to remove anything which is counter productive and wait for these
people to come out of the wood work and complain. At which point they
can be asked to justify themselves.

It is very difficult to investigate gate faults as customers do not
want to be inconvenienced by hanging around having their oyster
checked at the ticket office. I have tried on several occasions and
just got abuse for it

When I queried mine I at the ticket office, all I got was "You must tap
out", they just could not understand that one gate letting the through
when another would not must mean something is at fault. I was not allowed
to see what the printed out from the machine - is this correct?


Yes you do have to tap in and tap out as you will get unresolved
journeys otherwise and maybe worse might even have a spurious charge
to pay.

I think I would dispute any such charges given that I have never been out
of zone; in any case, surely they would have to prove otherwise?



Unfortunatley at the moment some staff have more knowleadge than others. It
is a lottery if you can find one who could investigate your problem further.
Post which station and gate number you are having problems with and in the
meantime use another gate.

I have been giving out the printouts to customers. This may not be strickly
correct as there is information about your journeys that maybe you would not
want others to know but as most of the information can be attained from the
Multi Fare Machine its a mute point.

You can dispute over charges but you may be asked to take your comlaint to
Oyster via there Helpline. I have made two people do this so far because I
felt that if I had sorted out the problem at the station then it would never
be resolved universally.