The oyster-only tube
 

Ran out of credit on my prepay oyster this morning, so I was faced with
a 10 minute queue to one of 2 machines that can do topups at Oxford
Circus. Almost everyone else in the queue was topping up.

There were 8 unused cash ticket machines. What a waste of space, why
haven't the majority (or all) of these been converted to card/oyster
machines? Is it a deliberate decision to raise more money from those in
a rush?

The oyster-only tube
 

Ran out of credit on my prepay oyster this morning, so I was faced with
a 10 minute queue to one of 2 machines that can do topups at Oxford
Circus. Almost everyone else in the queue was topping up.

There were 8 unused cash ticket machines. What a waste of space, why
haven't the majority (or all) of these been converted to card/oyster
machines? Is it a deliberate decision to raise more money from those in
a rush?

Or is it a deliberate decision to encourage you to sign up for auto top up?

The oyster-only tube
 

On 29 Aug 2006 11:02:55 -0700, "Paul Weaver"
wrote:

Ran out of credit on my prepay oyster this morning, so I was faced with
a 10 minute queue to one of 2 machines that can do topups at Oxford
Circus. Almost everyone else in the queue was topping up.

There were 8 unused cash ticket machines. What a waste of space, why
haven't the majority (or all) of these been converted to card/oyster
machines? Is it a deliberate decision to raise more money from those in
a rush?

They did announce a new type of ticket machine a few weeks ago that
will fit into many of these spaces. You expect them to do it
overnight?

Why don't you just register for auto-topup and avoid the problem
altogether?

The oyster-only tube
 

Peter Frimberley wrote:
On 29 Aug 2006 11:02:55 -0700, "Paul Weaver"
wrote:

Ran out of credit on my prepay oyster this morning, so I was faced with
a 10 minute queue to one of 2 machines that can do topups at Oxford
Circus. Almost everyone else in the queue was topping up.

There were 8 unused cash ticket machines. What a waste of space, why
haven't the majority (or all) of these been converted to card/oyster
machines? Is it a deliberate decision to raise more money from those in
a rush?

They did announce a new type of ticket machine a few weeks ago that
will fit into many of these spaces. You expect them to do it
overnight?

Oyster was launched in 2003, and the ridiculous cash prices were
launched 8 months ago. It's either malaice or incompetence. They should
have known that once prices were half-price on oyster, hardly anyone
would buy cash tickets, and have had drop in machines designed and
ready to slowly take over.

Why don't you just register for auto-topup and avoid the problem
altogether?

Because that involves registering my oyster and tying it with a credit
card, rather than anonymous cash top-ups.

The oyster-only tube
 

Peter Frimberley wrote:


Why don't you just register for auto-topup and avoid the problem
altogether?

I don't believe it works. I've tried various online things so far
(buying a new ticket, buying new credit...) and none of them have
worked. Station staff have told me they often don't and not to bother
with Oyster online.

It sounds like a really rubbish system with little thought gone into
it.

Francis

The oyster-only tube
 

The oyster-only tube
 

wrote in message
oups.com...

I don't believe it works.

Believe! It works fine - never had a problem.

I've tried various online things so far
(buying a new ticket, buying new credit...) and none of them have
worked.

You must be doing it wrong.

Station staff have told me they often don't and not to bother
with Oyster online.

They are idiots.

Ian

The oyster-only tube
 

On 31 Aug 2006 01:16:01 -0700, wrote:


Peter Frimberley wrote:


Why don't you just register for auto-topup and avoid the problem
altogether?

I don't believe it works. I've tried various online things so far
(buying a new ticket, buying new credit...) and none of them have
worked. Station staff have told me they often don't and not to bother
with Oyster online.

It sounds like a really rubbish system with little thought gone into
it.

Francis

It's only rubbish in that you have to go down to £5 to trigger the
next top up, which used to be a problem for me since I get a lot of
buses rather than tubes. But I *think* I read that it works on buses
as well now, so the low threshold should no longer be a problem for
me.

Besides the low threshold it works perfectly. It even emails to say
that you got topped up successfully.

The oyster-only tube
 

Ian F. wrote:


You must be doing it wrong.



How on earth do you know that? No system is infallible.

This is what I did: my Oyster card is registered. I used the Oyster
website and asked it to add some credit to my card. I selected my local
station. All this was confirmed. After the usual period (something like
a week) when I had swiped the card at my station twice every day, I
received the email from Oyster that says that for some reason the
increase in credit failed to take effect.

I cannot see what I *could* have done wrong. I followed the
instructions to the letter and the system failed me.

My suspicion is that either (a) it can't cope with the fact that I am
using a season ticket and for some reason doesn't understand that it
needs to credit me; or (b) there is some problem with the fact that my
card is a replacement (after the old card stopped working).

I have also tried buying a new season ticket online and had the same
experience (it failed to be added). It took me ages to get it sorted
out and a refund.

I can try again if you like, but really don't expect it to work. Can
you suggest anything I might have done wrong?

Francis

The oyster-only tube
 

In message .com,
writes
I cannot see what I *could* have done wrong. I followed the
instructions to the letter and the system failed me.

My suspicion is that either (a) it can't cope with the fact that I am
using a season ticket and for some reason doesn't understand that it
needs to credit me; or (b) there is some problem with the fact that my
card is a replacement (after the old card stopped working).

Now Paul C might be able to shed more light on this but I suspect you
are still trying to put credit on the old card and not the new one
that's been issued. I think I saw (hereabouts?) that you need to
re-register the replacement card and have the Oyster helpdesk 'unlink'
the old one from your account.

If you blindly attempt to put money/travelcards onto a cancelled card,
it's not surprising if it won't work.
--
Steve Fitzgerald has now left the building.
You will find him in London's Docklands, E16, UK
(please use the reply to address for email)

The oyster-only tube
 

In message .com,
writes

Ian F. wrote:


You must be doing it wrong.



How on earth do you know that? No system is infallible.

This is what I did: my Oyster card is registered. I used the Oyster
website and asked it to add some credit to my card. I selected my local
station. All this was confirmed. After the usual period (something like
a week) when I had swiped the card at my station twice every day, I
received the email from Oyster that says that for some reason the
increase in credit failed to take effect.

I cannot see what I *could* have done wrong. I followed the
instructions to the letter and the system failed me.

My suspicion is that either (a) it can't cope with the fact that I am
using a season ticket and for some reason doesn't understand that it
needs to credit me; or (b) there is some problem with the fact that my
card is a replacement (after the old card stopped working).

I have also tried buying a new season ticket online and had the same
experience (it failed to be added). It took me ages to get it sorted
out and a refund.

I can try again if you like, but really don't expect it to work. Can
you suggest anything I might have done wrong?

Francis

I believe if you don't swipe your card with a few days the transaction
is cancelled. If my memory serves its less that a week.
--
martyn dawe

The oyster-only tube
 

Steve Fitzgerald wrote:

Now Paul C might be able to shed more light on this but I suspect you
are still trying to put credit on the old card and not the new one
that's been issued. I think I saw (hereabouts?) that you need to
re-register the replacement card and have the Oyster helpdesk 'unlink'
the old one from your account.

If you blindly attempt to put money/travelcards onto a cancelled card,
it's not surprising if it won't work.

I'm not blindly doing anything. I am following the instructions on the
Oyster website. As I recall, whenever I access it, I am asked which
card I want to deal with. Of course I have checked that carefully.

The new season ticket failure happened when I had only one card btw.

It all seems rather ghastly to me.

Francis

The oyster-only tube
 

wrote:

Steve Fitzgerald wrote:

Now Paul C might be able to shed more light on this but I suspect you
are still trying to put credit on the old card and not the new one
that's been issued. I think I saw (hereabouts?) that you need to
re-register the replacement card and have the Oyster helpdesk 'unlink'
the old one from your account.

If you blindly attempt to put money/travelcards onto a cancelled card,
it's not surprising if it won't work.

I'm not blindly doing anything. I am following the instructions on the
Oyster website. As I recall, whenever I access it, I am asked which
card I want to deal with. Of course I have checked that carefully.

When your oyster card was replaced the number will have changed (same
happened with mine). Register your *new* card with it's *new* number
and apply auto topup to that card.

The oyster-only tube
 

Chris! wrote:


When your oyster card was replaced the number will have changed (same
happened with mine). Register your *new* card with it's *new* number
and apply auto topup to that card.

That is what I did do. I checked the number on my card against the
number I was applying auto topup to.

Is it worth me having another go?

Francis

The oyster-only tube
 

In article ,
(tkd) wrote:

Ran out of credit on my prepay oyster this morning, so I was
faced with a 10 minute queue to one of 2 machines that can do topups
at Oxford Circus. Almost everyone else in the queue was topping up.

There were 8 unused cash ticket machines. What a waste of space,
why haven't the majority (or all) of these been converted to
card/oyster machines? Is it a deliberate decision to raise more
money from those in a rush?

Or is it a deliberate decision to encourage you to sign up for auto
top up?

For those of us living outside London auto-top-up is impossible. I don't
know which tube station I will use next for the rare occasions I use my
Oyster card. Since I have no desire to lend TfL any more money at no
interest than absolutely necessary I buy top-up as I use it only,
keeping a minimum £1.50 balance so I can always start a journey if I
can't get top-up at the station I do arrive at.

Why auto or web top-up can't just work at the tube gate that next sees
the card (I realise it might be asking too much for buses to do this) I
don't know.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

The oyster-only tube
 

In article ,
(Peter Frimberley) wrote:

It's only rubbish in that you have to go down to £5 to trigger the
next top up

Why? My card only very rarely has as much as £5 credit on it. I make
little use of Oyster because I have paper tickets for the great majority
of my London tube and bus journeys.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

The oyster-only tube
 

Peter Frimberley wrote:

They did announce a new type of ticket machine a few weeks ago that
will fit into many of these spaces. You expect them to do it
overnight?

Call me mad, but I would personally consider it essential to have all
required infrastructure in place before launching a new ticketing
system, and *certainly* before raising prices on the old system to an
effective penalty rate.

TfL have not done this.

Why don't you just register for auto-topup and avoid the problem
altogether?

Others have stated good reasons why not.

Neil

The oyster-only tube
 

On Fri, 15 Sep 2006 00:57 +0100 (BST), (Colin
Rosenstiel) wrote:

In article ,
(tkd) wrote:

Ran out of credit on my prepay oyster this morning, so I was
faced with a 10 minute queue to one of 2 machines that can do topups
at Oxford Circus. Almost everyone else in the queue was topping up.

There were 8 unused cash ticket machines. What a waste of space,
why haven't the majority (or all) of these been converted to
card/oyster machines? Is it a deliberate decision to raise more
money from those in a rush?

Or is it a deliberate decision to encourage you to sign up for auto
top up?

For those of us living outside London auto-top-up is impossible. I don't
know which tube station I will use next for the rare occasions I use my
Oyster card. Since I have no desire to lend TfL any more money at no
interest than absolutely necessary I buy top-up as I use it only,
keeping a minimum £1.50 balance so I can always start a journey if I
can't get top-up at the station I do arrive at.

Why auto or web top-up can't just work at the tube gate that next sees
the card (I realise it might be asking too much for buses to do this) I
don't know.

It does work at any tube gate, and buses now too. I think it is just
the very first auto topup instruction that needs to be done at a
nominated station, presumably because there is more data to be
transmitted to the card, and if they had all oyster readers
network-wide looking out for all cards needing this special data
transfer, the whole system would be that much slower, perhaps
unworkable. By keeping a more manageable list of cards needing any
rare "special update" operations at individual stations, the whole
system can run more efficiently.

I don't think it's particularly onerous to have to collect the first
auto-top up instruction from a particular nominated station.

The oyster-only tube
 

On Fri, 15 Sep 2006 00:57 +0100 (BST), (Colin
Rosenstiel) wrote:

In article ,
(Peter Frimberley) wrote:

It's only rubbish in that you have to go down to £5 to trigger the
next top up

Why? My card only very rarely has as much as £5 credit on it. I make
little use of Oyster because I have paper tickets for the great majority
of my London tube and bus journeys.

Because for regular Oyster users, £5 is gone in no time.

I would just prefer if I could choose the "refill now" point myself.

But as in my previous posts, it would probably not be an efficient
system to allow user-settable limits such as that, as it would
introduce a whole raft of extra lookups.

The oyster-only tube
 

On 15 Sep 2006 00:49:16 -0700, "Neil Williams"
wrote:

Peter Frimberley wrote:

They did announce a new type of ticket machine a few weeks ago that
will fit into many of these spaces. You expect them to do it
overnight?

Call me mad, but I would personally consider it essential to have all
required infrastructure in place before launching a new ticketing
system, and *certainly* before raising prices on the old system to an
effective penalty rate.

TfL have not done this.

Having oyster machines sit there unused during the transition phase,
taking spaces from the cash only machines, would also have provoked
heaps of complaints.

They converted all/most (?) of the "big" ticket machines (which used
to have a button per station) to new hybrid Oyster/Credit Card/Cash
Sales machines; they also put in loads of those "Quick Fare" machines,
or upgraded existing "Quick" machines to Oyster features.

It's a balance, they can't please all of the passengers all of the
time. We are in a migratory phase. Right now the only people still
suffering problems are those who can't or won't use the facilities
such as auto-topup which have been made available to them. I fear you
fit into the latter "won't" category for reasons best known to
yourself.


Why don't you just register for auto-topup and avoid the problem
altogether?

Others have stated good reasons why not.

And have been discounted or discredited.

What are *your* reasons for not using auto-topup, just to prove you're
not on some anti-TFL rant purely for the sake of it.

The oyster-only tube
 

In article ,
(Peter Frimberley) wrote:

On Fri, 15 Sep 2006 00:57 +0100 (BST), (Colin
Rosenstiel) wrote:

In article ,
(tkd) wrote:

Ran out of credit on my prepay oyster this morning, so I was
faced with a 10 minute queue to one of 2 machines that can do
topups at Oxford Circus. Almost everyone else in the queue was
topping up.

There were 8 unused cash ticket machines. What a waste of
space, why haven't the majority (or all) of these been
converted to card/oyster machines? Is it a deliberate decision
to raise more money from those in a rush?

Or is it a deliberate decision to encourage you to sign up for
auto top up?
For those of us living outside London auto-top-up is impossible. I
don't know which tube station I will use next for the rare
occasions I use my Oyster card. Since I have no desire to lend TfL
any more money at no interest than absolutely necessary I buy
top-up as I use it only, keeping a minimum £1.50 balance so I can
always start a journey if I can't get top-up at the station I do
arrive at.

Why auto or web top-up can't just work at the tube gate that next
sees the card (I realise it might be asking too much for buses to
do this) I don't know.

It does work at any tube gate, and buses now too. I think it is just
the very first auto topup instruction that needs to be done at a
nominated station, presumably because there is more data to be
transmitted to the card, and if they had all oyster readers
network-wide looking out for all cards needing this special data
transfer, the whole system would be that much slower, perhaps
unworkable. By keeping a more manageable list of cards needing any
rare "special update" operations at individual stations, the whole
system can run more efficiently.

I don't think it's particularly onerous to have to collect the first
auto-top up instruction from a particular nominated station.

I don't want auto-top-up unless they pay me interest for all the money
spent that I won't use for months. But internet top-up might be useful
if I knew where I was going next. What you can't do AIUI is top up a
card without using it at the same time.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

The oyster-only tube
 

"Colin Rosenstiel" wrote in message
...

It does work at any tube gate, and buses now too. I think it is just
the very first auto topup instruction that needs to be done at a
nominated station, presumably because there is more data to be
transmitted to the card, and if they had all oyster readers
network-wide looking out for all cards needing this special data
transfer, the whole system would be that much slower, perhaps
unworkable. By keeping a more manageable list of cards needing any
rare "special update" operations at individual stations, the whole
system can run more efficiently.

I don't think it's particularly onerous to have to collect the first
auto-top up instruction from a particular nominated station.

I don't want auto-top-up unless they pay me interest for all the money
spent that I won't use for months. But internet top-up might be useful
if I knew where I was going next. What you can't do AIUI is top up a
card without using it at the same time.

Surely the 50p interest a year that you might lose is more than outweighed
by the time saved by not having to queue up at ticket machines every
journey?

Peter Smyth

The oyster-only tube
 

Peter Smyth wrote:
"Colin Rosenstiel" wrote in message
...

It does work at any tube gate, and buses now too. I think it is just
the very first auto topup instruction that needs to be done at a
nominated station, presumably because there is more data to be
transmitted to the card, and if they had all oyster readers
network-wide looking out for all cards needing this special data
transfer, the whole system would be that much slower, perhaps
unworkable. By keeping a more manageable list of cards needing any
rare "special update" operations at individual stations, the whole
system can run more efficiently.

I don't think it's particularly onerous to have to collect the first
auto-top up instruction from a particular nominated station.

I don't want auto-top-up unless they pay me interest for all the money
spent that I won't use for months. But internet top-up might be useful
if I knew where I was going next. What you can't do AIUI is top up a
card without using it at the same time.

Surely the 50p interest a year that you might lose is more than outweighed
by the time saved by not having to queue up at ticket machines every
journey?

Peter Smyth


I was also quite sceptical about Oyster.

I used to use monthly travelcards and applied them using the Oyster web
site.
I found it a pain to have to nominate a station.
I live in an area where my journey patterns because of work could
nessitate a tube/DLR or bus. And I couldn't necessarily tell where i
would swipe in first.
I ended up just buying paper travelcards (in advance usually) when I
was near a tube station. Just to make it easier.

However, due to the fact I dont make journeys every day anymore.
I now use Pay As You Go with auto top up. And i have to say it works
quite well.
When it goes below a specified level, the card gets topped up. Be that
on the bus/DLR or tube. It's better than quueing at the ticket office
or machine to top up.

The biggest improvement has to be to include national rail.
But that's going to take some work. For example my local station
doesn't even have a ticket machine/office. Let alone Oyster.

The oyster-only tube
 

On Fri, 15 Sep 2006 19:15 +0100 (BST), (Colin
Rosenstiel) wrote:

I don't want auto-top-up unless they pay me interest for all the money
spent that I won't use for months. But internet top-up might be useful
if I knew where I was going next. What you can't do AIUI is top up a
card without using it at the same time.

Even if your Oyster balance across a year was a whole £10, the
interest you're missing out on is measurable in pennies (considerably
fewer than 50 of said pennies, even with a decent high interest
savings account). You could not even buy a Mars Bar with the money
you're talking about.

If half a Mars Bar is more important to you than a whole year's
ticketing convenience, I guess there is no helping you.

Bizarre.

The oyster-only tube
 

Peter Frimberley wrote:

Having oyster machines sit there unused during the transition phase,
taking spaces from the cash only machines, would also have provoked
heaps of complaints.

There's no reason why a touch-screen machine that did both couldn't fit
the small slots.

What are *your* reasons for not using auto-topup, just to prove you're
not on some anti-TFL rant purely for the sake of it.

Because I don't use Oyster often enough, nor (under the old system) was
there a station where I was most likely to want to pick it up (I mostly
used it for buses, though now this has changed so auto top-up works on
buses I might well set it up).

Notably, the only place where I had a potential issue was Richmond,
where there are *no* LUL ticket machines. Fortunately I had (only
just) enough credit.

That said, the current arrangement has not been a real problem *to me*
- but it clearly is for others.

Neil

The oyster-only tube
 

In article ,
(Peter Smyth) wrote:

"Colin Rosenstiel" wrote in message
...

I don't want auto-top-up unless they pay me interest for all the
money spent that I won't use for months. But internet top-up might be
useful if I knew where I was going next. What you can't do AIUI is
top up a card without using it at the same time.

Surely the 50p interest a year that you might lose is more than
outweighed by the time saved by not having to queue up at ticket
machines every journey?

Hardly every journey. One in 20 perhaps.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

The oyster-only tube
 

Peter Frimberley wrote:

If half a Mars Bar is more important to you than a whole year's
ticketing convenience, I guess there is no helping you.

Once other locations move to smartcards, that's a lot of 20 quids you
have to leave on cards if you visit many locations regularly, for
example on business...

There is a dire need for a national scheme before the PTEs' own get out
of hand...

Neil

The oyster-only tube
 

On 16 Sep 2006 03:37:25 -0700, "Neil Williams"
wrote:

Peter Frimberley wrote:

Having oyster machines sit there unused during the transition phase,
taking spaces from the cash only machines, would also have provoked
heaps of complaints.

There's no reason why a touch-screen machine that did both couldn't fit
the small slots.

Development and installation costs, waste of money developing two
sizes of cash/oyster hybrid machines.

The oyster-only tube
 

Peter Frimberley wrote:

Development and installation costs, waste of money developing two
sizes of cash/oyster hybrid machines.

Then only develop one size - the smaller one.

Neil