On Tue, 8 Dec 2015 09:48:32 +0000
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 09:21:55 on Tue, 8 Dec
2015, d remarked:
now the blonde buffoon has closed all the ticket offices it'll make it
harder for people to buy Oyster cards.

It's actually vastly easier now, because they can be bought from the
ticket machines.

How is using the convoluted menus on a ticket machine "vastly easier" than
going to a window and saying "Can I have an Oyster please?" ? Or if you're
a tourist and don't have a clue , well, good luck.

To get one from a window you had to queue, and when I got mine there was

And of course there are never queues at ticket machines with confused people
trying to use them are there.

a form to fill in. On the machines it's a very simple couple of button

Why did you have to fill a form in for an Oyster? Hand over 5 quid, get oyster
card. Sorted.

presses, and at the places tourists might be arriving (like St Pancras)
the queues for the ticket machines are much shorter now than for the
windows in the past.

Probably because they've given up bothering.

Do you have aspergers? Is that why you prefer machines over people?

--
Spud

In message , at 11:00:37 on Tue, 8 Dec
2015, d remarked:

How is using the convoluted menus on a ticket machine "vastly easier" than
going to a window and saying "Can I have an Oyster please?" ? Or if you're
a tourist and don't have a clue , well, good luck.

To get one from a window you had to queue, and when I got mine there was

And of course there are never queues at ticket machines with confused people
trying to use them are there.

There are some queues, but buying an Oyster from a machine is simplicity
itself. Even you could manage it.

a form to fill in. On the machines it's a very simple couple of button

Why did you have to fill a form in for an Oyster?

Originally they all had to be registered.

Hand over 5 quid, get oyster card. Sorted.

--
Roland Perry

On 2015-12-08 11:00:37 +0000, d said:

Do you have aspergers? Is that why you prefer machines over people?

Or simply that you can get 3 machines in the space of one ticket window.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

In message , at 12:28:33 on Tue, 8 Dec
2015, Neil Williams remarked:

Do you have aspergers? Is that why you prefer machines over people?

Or simply that you can get 3 machines in the space of one ticket
window.

To be fair, there wasn't usually a shortage of windows at the most
congested stations, just a shortage of *staffed* windows.

A bit like our old Post Office here which eight windows, usually with
just two manned even at the busiest times. Sometimes three for the short
duration of a shift change.

The new Post Office has just two windows, plus a "parcels reception
desk". Normally they again have just two staff on duty. For whatever
reason the queues are now much shorter, although this may be a result of
them having institutionally dumped almost all the types of business
other than weighing and stamping letters and parcels.
--
Roland Perry

On 08/12/2015 11:59, Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 11:00:37 on Tue, 8 Dec
2015, d remarked:

Why did you have to fill a form in for an Oyster?

Originally they all had to be registered.

No they didn't, though perhaps the ticket office in question didn't give
you the choice to walk away with an unregistered one.

On Tue, 8 Dec 2015 11:59:48 +0000
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 11:00:37 on Tue, 8 Dec
2015, d remarked:

How is using the convoluted menus on a ticket machine "vastly easier" than
going to a window and saying "Can I have an Oyster please?" ? Or if you're
a tourist and don't have a clue , well, good luck.

To get one from a window you had to queue, and when I got mine there was

And of course there are never queues at ticket machines with confused people
trying to use them are there.

There are some queues, but buying an Oyster from a machine is simplicity
itself. Even you could manage it.

Simpler than asking someone for an Oyster? Short of the machine being psychic
and knowing what you want as soon as you get there I doubt it.

a form to fill in. On the machines it's a very simple couple of button

Why did you have to fill a form in for an Oyster?

Originally they all had to be registered.

I never registered any of mine.

--
Spud

On Tue, 8 Dec 2015 12:28:33 +0000
Neil Williams wrote:
On 2015-12-08 11:00:37 +0000, d said:

Do you have aspergers? Is that why you prefer machines over people?

Or simply that you can get 3 machines in the space of one ticket window.

2 maybe, 3 might be pushing it. But people tend to take twice as long to do
the same thing as at a window.

--
Spud

In message , at 15:04:40 on Tue, 8 Dec
2015, d remarked:
There are some queues, but buying an Oyster from a machine is simplicity
itself. Even you could manage it.

Simpler than asking someone for an Oyster? Short of the machine being psychic
and knowing what you want as soon as you get there I doubt it.

There was talk, earlier, of tourists. Non-English speakers will find a
machine less daunting than a grumpy Tfl employee.
--
Roland Perry

On Tue, 8 Dec 2015 15:17:38 +0000
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 15:04:40 on Tue, 8 Dec
2015, d remarked:
There are some queues, but buying an Oyster from a machine is simplicity
itself. Even you could manage it.

Simpler than asking someone for an Oyster? Short of the machine being psychic
and knowing what you want as soon as you get there I doubt it.

There was talk, earlier, of tourists. Non-English speakers will find a
machine less daunting than a grumpy Tfl employee.

Possibly. But they'll still take far longer to figure out how to use it than
just asking the grumpy sod behind the counter for a ticket in broken english.

--
Spud

On 2015-12-08 12:35:42 +0000, Roland Perry said:

The new Post Office has just two windows, plus a "parcels reception
desk". Normally they again have just two staff on duty. For whatever
reason the queues are now much shorter, although this may be a result
of them having institutionally dumped almost all the types of business
other than weighing and stamping letters and parcels.

Or because it is much more convenient for the majority of the
population to access Government services online rather than via the
post office. The future of the post office is in my view local shops
able to offer postal[1] services.

[1] That assumes a postal service even has a future. It doesn't seem
to do anything a courier can't, other than universal service, which
could be offered in a different way.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.