At no point - in the information provided with my card, on the website,
nor during the phone call to the number provided in the email I
received when I paid for my second weekly travelcard - did I see a
reference to the word `validator`! I'll look out for them when I next
have some time to kill there. (I got a little bit of a funny look
this morning when I validated next week's travelcard but no-one said
anything.)

On the plus side, if you change your mind and don't wanna renew that
particular week, you can just not validate, and in 7 days the
transaction is void.

The advice I usually give to customers is to visit any ticket office at
any convenient time that it is open, and top up then. If you avoid
peak times, even popping in on a weekend if its convenient at all, you
can just renew it then. Or use the ticket machines, again out of the
peak hours.

wrote:
At no point - in the information provided with my card, on the website,
nor during the phone call to the number provided in the email I
received when I paid for my second weekly travelcard - did I see a
reference to the word `validator`! I'll look out for them when I next
have some time to kill there. (I got a little bit of a funny look
this morning when I validated next week's travelcard but no-one said
anything.)

On the plus side, if you change your mind and don't wanna renew that
particular week, you can just not validate, and in 7 days the
transaction is void.

The advice I usually give to customers is to visit any ticket office at
any convenient time that it is open, and top up then. If you avoid
peak times, even popping in on a weekend if its convenient at all, you
can just renew it then. Or use the ticket machines, again out of the
peak hours.

Sometimes that might be handy. But i'm online now, and I might receive
a reminder to top up my travelcard (4 days before it expires), so it's
more convenient to quickly log onto the Oyster site and transfer some
funds than it is to remember to queue up some time before I actually
need to. I'm going to check and see if these rumours of
"validators" are true and that I can simply swipe my card without
opening a gate - that would seem to be the best solution.

Sometimes that might be handy. But i'm online now, and I might receive
a reminder to top up my travelcard (4 days before it expires), so it's
more convenient to quickly log onto the Oyster site and transfer some
funds than it is to remember to queue up some time before I actually
need to. I'm going to check and see if these rumours of
"validators" are true and that I can simply swipe my card without
opening a gate - that would seem to be the best solution.

The validators you mention exist, they are remote and often placed by
manual gates (the big glass gates for luggage etc). They're usually
inside the gate, so you'd have to ask a member of staff to let you in
to touch on it.

It won't be a problem for you with a season ticket, but for people
using pre-pay on Oyster and no season ticket, they'd start a journey by
doing this, and end up paying at least a minimum fare, with an
incomplete journey to sort out at the ticket office (thus they might as
well have just queued up in the first place).

Its one of the restrictions of Oyster unfortunately.

wrote:
Sometimes that might be handy. But i'm online now, and I might receive
a reminder to top up my travelcard (4 days before it expires), so it's
more convenient to quickly log onto the Oyster site and transfer some
funds than it is to remember to queue up some time before I actually
need to. I'm going to check and see if these rumours of
"validators" are true and that I can simply swipe my card without
opening a gate - that would seem to be the best solution.

The validators you mention exist, they are remote and often placed by
manual gates (the big glass gates for luggage etc). They're usually
inside the gate, so you'd have to ask a member of staff to let you in
to touch on it.

It won't be a problem for you with a season ticket, but for people
using pre-pay on Oyster and no season ticket, they'd start a journey by
doing this, and end up paying at least a minimum fare, with an
incomplete journey to sort out at the ticket office (thus they might as
well have just queued up in the first place).

Its one of the restrictions of Oyster unfortunately.

I have just experienced this last problem myself!

I added on £10 credit to my pay-as-you go card earlier this week at
Fulham BRoadway (the station I had nominated) but made no journey from
that station - and have now discovered that £1 has bee deducted from
my card!

This is outrageous. I have now queued at another station to try and
sort this out, only to be told that my card is showing an "error" and
they can't refund the £1 even though they KNOW that I made no journey
to that value, but suggested I ring the helpline. I have done so, and
am awaiting a reply (at number 30 in the queue as I write this!) from
them.

When I asked how else I could have credited my card the station
assistant at Bow Road today said that I'd best queue at the station
ticket office when I want to credit pay as you go! Just the very thing
I am trying to avoid (as others have stated)!

What a bloody ridiculous system. Why, if the system shows that I have
not "touched out" at any station, does it not refund the £1 initially
debited automatically, say after 2 hours?

Marc.

wrote:
wrote:
Sometimes that might be handy. But i'm online now, and I might receive
a reminder to top up my travelcard (4 days before it expires), so it's
more convenient to quickly log onto the Oyster site and transfer some
funds than it is to remember to queue up some time before I actually
need to. I'm going to check and see if these rumours of
"validators" are true and that I can simply swipe my card without
opening a gate - that would seem to be the best solution.

The validators you mention exist, they are remote and often placed by
manual gates (the big glass gates for luggage etc). They're usually
inside the gate, so you'd have to ask a member of staff to let you in
to touch on it.

It won't be a problem for you with a season ticket, but for people
using pre-pay on Oyster and no season ticket, they'd start a journey by
doing this, and end up paying at least a minimum fare, with an
incomplete journey to sort out at the ticket office (thus they might as
well have just queued up in the first place).

Its one of the restrictions of Oyster unfortunately.

I have just experienced this last problem myself!

I added on £10 credit to my pay-as-you go card earlier this week at
Fulham BRoadway (the station I had nominated) but made no journey from
that station - and have now discovered that £1 has bee deducted from
my card!

This is outrageous. I have now queued at another station to try and
sort this out, only to be told that my card is showing an "error" and
they can't refund the £1 even though they KNOW that I made no journey
to that value, but suggested I ring the helpline. I have done so, and
am awaiting a reply (at number 30 in the queue as I write this!) from
them.

When I asked how else I could have credited my card the station
assistant at Bow Road today said that I'd best queue at the station
ticket office when I want to credit pay as you go! Just the very thing
I am trying to avoid (as others have stated)!

What a bloody ridiculous system. Why, if the system shows that I have
not "touched out" at any station, does it not refund the £1 initially
debited automatically, say after 2 hours?

Marc.

I have now spoken to a most helpful assistant at the Oyster helpline,
who has agreed to make a £1 refund to my credit card.

For the future, he has suggested the only way around the problem is to
go for auto-top-up, which allows buses to top-up the card (which is the
only time I use Pay as you go anyway).

He also asked for the name of this discussion group, so T.f.L. may well
be watching us on this forum! Let's hope they sit up and take note of
the obvious improvements that could be made.

Marc.

On 11 Oct 2006 09:21:53 -0700, "
wrote:

I added on £10 credit to my pay-as-you go card earlier this week at
Fulham BRoadway (the station I had nominated) but made no journey from
that station - and have now discovered that £1 has bee deducted from
my card!

This is outrageous.

If you knew you were going to the station, but also there was a chance
you might not be making a journey from it (a stated requirement of
online manual topup) why did you not just take your £10 note or use
your credit card at one of the ticket machines in the station, and
forget about the online topup?

When I asked how else I could have credited my card the station
assistant at Bow Road today said that I'd best queue at the station
ticket office when I want to credit pay as you go! Just the very thing
I am trying to avoid (as others have stated)!

Why not use the machines?

What a bloody ridiculous system. Why, if the system shows that I have
not "touched out" at any station, does it not refund the £1 initially
debited automatically, say after 2 hours?

Because that would be a fare-dodgers paradise, as you well know if you
would think about it for a second.

Peter Frimberley wrote:
On 11 Oct 2006 09:21:53 -0700, "
wrote:

I added on £10 credit to my pay-as-you go card earlier this week at
Fulham BRoadway (the station I had nominated) but made no journey from
that station - and have now discovered that £1 has bee deducted from
my card!

This is outrageous.

If you knew you were going to the station, but also there was a chance
you might not be making a journey from it (a stated requirement of
online manual topup) why did you not just take your £10 note or use
your credit card at one of the ticket machines in the station, and
forget about the online topup?

I don't often have cash on me on Monday mornings, and certainly don't
have time to queue up at ATM and then the ticket machine.

Paying online in advance gives me the security of knowing that a bare
minimum is left to be done on a rushed Monday morning when (as was
indeed the case) a long bus wait means I am in even more of a rush.

Moreover, online top-up allows you to have a record of jouneys online,
which other forms of top-up do not.


When I asked how else I could have credited my card the station
assistant at Bow Road today said that I'd best queue at the station
ticket office when I want to credit pay as you go! Just the very thing
I am trying to avoid (as others have stated)!

Why not use the machines?

See above. Also, I hardly want to be feeding notes into a machine
which may reject them and cause a whole load of hassle.


What a bloody ridiculous system. Why, if the system shows that I have
not "touched out" at any station, does it not refund the £1 initially
debited automatically, say after 2 hours?

Because that would be a fare-dodgers paradise, as you well know if you
would think about it for a second.

Well, the system is hardly failsafe is it?! With that £1 debit, I
could have spent the whole day riding around the Underground with
impunity - just as much of a fare dodgers' paradise.

As for fare-dodging, when I topped up, the gates were open for about 5
or 6 seconds, during which time anyone else could have walked in or out
with impunity.

As an interesting aside, what would have happened if I'd topped up,
then gone through the barrier and immediately left by an adjacent gate,
by touching out? Would my £1 have been debited and refunded as being
an "obvious" non-journey?

Marc.

On 11 Oct 2006 13:21:37 -0700, wrote:

When I asked how else I could have credited my card the station
assistant at Bow Road today said that I'd best queue at the station
ticket office when I want to credit pay as you go! Just the very thing
I am trying to avoid (as others have stated)!

Why not use the machines?

See above. Also, I hardly want to be feeding notes into a machine
which may reject them and cause a whole load of hassle.

The machines also accept cards. Many stations also have an Oyster-only
credit-card-only machine with a much shorter queue.

What a bloody ridiculous system. Why, if the system shows that I have
not "touched out" at any station, does it not refund the £1 initially
debited automatically, say after 2 hours?

Because that would be a fare-dodgers paradise, as you well know if you
would think about it for a second.

Well, the system is hardly failsafe is it?! With that £1 debit, I
could have spent the whole day riding around the Underground with
impunity - just as much of a fare dodgers' paradise.

Erm, only if by fare dodger you mean someone who rides around on the
Tube all day without paying just for the thrill of it...

As for fare-dodging, when I topped up, the gates were open for about 5
or 6 seconds, during which time anyone else could have walked in or out
with impunity.

This is hardly a huge hole in the system (and you're not even
"supposed" to top up in the manner described).

As an interesting aside, what would have happened if I'd topped up,
then gone through the barrier and immediately left by an adjacent gate,
by touching out?

The gate would have refused to let you out, displaying a "seek
assistance" message.