Is it just me or are NR station staff outside London complete arseholes? At
Waterloo on Friday I showed my Oyster card to the ticket person, told them
it was zone 1-4 and I was charged the extra to Staines. I couldnt buy a
return cause I was coming back the next day (is this for real?). When I was
at Staines today for my return journey, the price back to Waterloo was £6
and when I showed him my Oyster card, he asked what it was. I did a double
take and explained it was a zone 1-4 Oyster pass. He looked at it in great
detail, in a childish 'what is this?' melodramatic method. "I cant see any
dates on this", he said. "It doesnt show the dates", I said. "It's an
electronic card. Dont you have a reader?". And suddenly I'd enountered
arsehole of the day. Until I remembered I had a receipt for the last
purchase this dick was determined to be as unhelpful as possible. He seemed
almost annoyed that I had the receipt. Why are people like this employed?

Martin

In article , Martin
writes
Is it just me or are NR station staff outside London complete arseholes?
[...]
When I was
at Staines today
[...]
Why are people like this employed?

I think you're being unfair.

Assume that he hasn't been trained on the presence of Oyster and what to
do with them. How would you expect him to behave when presented (from
his point of view) with some oik claiming that this blank lump of
plastic entitles him to a discount on his ticket?

He seemed
almost annoyed that I had the receipt.

At this point I suspect it's human nature - he's been so sure he was in
the right and you were trying it on, and then he turns out to be wrong.
Some people are interested in learning, but most just get annoyed.

--
Clive D.W. Feather, writing for himself | Home:
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Written on my laptop; please observe the Reply-To address

In article ,
(Clive D. W. Feather) wrote:
I think you're being unfair.
Assume that he hasn't been trained on the presence of Oyster and what
to do with them. How would you expect him to behave when presented
(from his point of view) with some oik claiming that this blank lump of
plastic entitles him to a discount on his ticket?

He's pretended, over six months after they started, that he's never seen
one of them before.

Training or not, I think you're being extraordinarily generous to an
obvious grumpy jobsworth.