Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at
12:51:23 on Tue, 28 Feb 2006, Richard J.
remarked:
Even better, with Auto Top-up it's done automatically by direct
debit, with an e-mailed confirmation, whenever the balance gets
below £5

But don't you have to collect the "auto top-up" at a *nominated*
station?

I tried to do this, but my travel plans changed; so I didn't, after
all, visit the station I'd nominated (but did visit some others). As a
result, the auto top-up failed and I [eventually] got a refund.

So instead of being nice and easy, I now have two additional
transactions on my bank account to reconcile, and no auto top-up.

I think it's only the initial set-up of Auto Top-up that may have to be
done at a nominated station. I just chose my local station, touched in
there to set up Auto Top-up, and got the ticket office to erase the
resultant unresolved journey (as I wasn't planning to use the Tube
during the few days that the set-up is available). AFAIK all subsequent
top-ups are done automatically at any tube station gates.

The main problem was that the ticket office staff weren't properly
trained on how Auto Top-up works.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

"Richard J." wrote in message
k...
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at
12:51:23 on Tue, 28 Feb 2006, Richard J.
remarked:
Even better, with Auto Top-up it's done automatically by direct
debit, with an e-mailed confirmation, whenever the balance gets
below £5

But don't you have to collect the "auto top-up" at a *nominated*
station?

I tried to do this, but my travel plans changed; so I didn't, after
all, visit the station I'd nominated (but did visit some others). As a
result, the auto top-up failed and I [eventually] got a refund.

So instead of being nice and easy, I now have two additional
transactions on my bank account to reconcile, and no auto top-up.

I think it's only the initial set-up of Auto Top-up that may have to be
done at a nominated station. I just chose my local station, touched in
there to set up Auto Top-up, and got the ticket office to erase the
resultant unresolved journey (as I wasn't planning to use the Tube during
the few days that the set-up is available). AFAIK all subsequent top-ups
are done automatically at any tube station gates.

The main problem was that the ticket office staff weren't properly trained
on how Auto Top-up works.

Various Auto Top-Up FAQs at http://makeashorterlink.com/?B522229BC
--
David Biddulph

On Wed, 1 Mar 2006 09:05:25 +0000 (UTC), "David Biddulph"
wrote:

"Richard J." wrote in message
. uk...

are done automatically at any tube station gates.

The main problem was that the ticket office staff weren't properly trained
on how Auto Top-up works.

Various Auto Top-Up FAQs at http://makeashorterlink.com/?B522229BC

Two errors in the FAQs are :

It does actually work at National Rail gatelines where Prepay is
valid. (I've had it work at City Thameslink & Limehouse.)

It claims that you can go into negative balance when using buses. This
seems not to work.

In message , at 08:40:06
on Wed, 1 Mar 2006, Richard J. remarked:
Even better, with Auto Top-up it's done automatically by direct
debit, with an e-mailed confirmation, whenever the balance gets
below £5

But don't you have to collect the "auto top-up" at a *nominated*
station?

I tried to do this, but my travel plans changed; so I didn't, after
all, visit the station I'd nominated (but did visit some others). As a
result, the auto top-up failed and I [eventually] got a refund.

So instead of being nice and easy, I now have two additional
transactions on my bank account to reconcile, and no auto top-up.

I think it's only the initial set-up of Auto Top-up that may have to be
done at a nominated station. I just chose my local station,

Living, as I do, outside London, don't have a predictable "local
station". Not even KX-StPancras as on the journey in question I might
easily have been on a Thameslink train rather than MML. As it turned
out, we got a taxi from StPancras mainline instead. I had chosen the
*destination* tube station as my "nominated" one, to get over the
Thamelink/MML issue, but as we arrived by taxi even that was foiled

--
Roland Perry