On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 22:39 +0100 (BST), Colin Rosenstiel wrote:

Nor (again AFAIA) will it cause any problems if you touch-in a
second time, say if you weren't sure if you're first attempt was
successful.

The problem is when you touch in when you should have been using a paper
ticket for the particular journey. There appears to be no way to undo
that mistake at the time. It's easily done if you have to use a
combination of tickets.

Yes, this can't be all that uncommon. Only a few weeks ago I was
travelling with someone who accidentally used his PAYG Oyster to enter
the barriers at a Tube station, when we were travelling on ODTCs (as
we were using NR that day too). I sent him to the ticket office to try
and have the mistake undone. He returned an impressively short time
laster with it all sorted.

I can't understand why they'd want to make it so much harder for
people. If anything, they should be making it easier (by allowing
staff to do it even outside the ticket office opening hours).

On 17 Oct 2006 16:35:56 -0700, Mizter T wrote:

The dire warning displayed on the touch-screen ticket machines that
almost commands passengers to go at once to a ticket office to resolve
their unresolved journeys could - up to now at least - be ignored.
Presumably, given that under the incoming system (from November)
unresolved journeys cannot be resolved at ticket offices, this text
will be removed, and possibly replaced with some other explaination.

The warning notice now tells the user to phone the Oyster helpline to
resolve the journey (and has done for the past, umm, year or so?).

On Wed, 18 Oct 2006 00:36:40 +0100, Joyce Whitchurch wrote:

A standalone reader - one not attached to a gate - has a dot-matrix LCD
screen that displays some simple text. In standby mode it says
something like "READY" - once you do touch in it has a two line display
saying "DEDUCTED £1.00 / BALANCE £5.50" for example. There is also a
separate light that is normally yellow which will turn to green if you
successfully touch-in/out.

This is the bit that I don't get. My impression, from occasional very
hurried forays into the Metropolis, is that /some/ and by no means /all/
Oyster readers have this kind of display. Most have nothing. Perhaps I'm
missing them, perhaps I just don't know where to look. But when I'm
fleeing like the White Rabbit into the depths of t'Underground, the only
thing I really notice is whether the wretched gate opens or not.

Standalone readers (not at ticket gates) have a small LCD screen. The
newer ticket gates display the numbers on their main screen (where the
green arrow is). The readers on the older gates generally have an LCD
screen by the reader, although I'm fairly sure I've seen some that
don't have this (i.e. there's no display at all).

What I would /like/ to see is something that tells me how much money
I've just thrown away. At the ticket barrier, as I commence my journey.
It's not rocket science, surely?

No it's not, it's harder - as you commence your journey, the system
would need to be psychic to know how much it's going to cost...

In article om,
(Mizter T) wrote:

Colin Rosenstiel wrote:

In article . com,
(Mizter T) wrote:

You can also - if your card is registered - get a three month
print-out of your journey history sent to you from Oyster
customer services, and possibly get some kind of print out from LU
ticket offices.

Your card doesn't have to be registered to get a usage print out
from a ticket office.

I stand duly corrected! How far back does the journey history go?

Is it 8 journeys?

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Colin Rosenstiel wrote:

In article om,
(Mizter T) wrote:

Colin Rosenstiel wrote:

In article . com,
(Mizter T) wrote:

You can also - if your card is registered - get a three month
print-out of your journey history sent to you from Oyster
customer services, and possibly get some kind of print out from LU
ticket offices.

Your card doesn't have to be registered to get a usage print out
from a ticket office.

I stand duly corrected! How far back does the journey history go?

Is it 8 journeys?


I'll go and try it for myself and report back.

asdf wrote:

On 17 Oct 2006 16:35:56 -0700, Mizter T wrote:

The dire warning displayed on the touch-screen ticket machines that
almost commands passengers to go at once to a ticket office to resolve
their unresolved journeys could - up to now at least - be ignored.
Presumably, given that under the incoming system (from November)
unresolved journeys cannot be resolved at ticket offices, this text
will be removed, and possibly replaced with some other explaination.

The warning notice now tells the user to phone the Oyster helpline to
resolve the journey (and has done for the past, umm, year or so?).

Now you say that I'm not sure whether the wording has ever been any
different to that which you describe - perhaps it's always been the
current message (and my memory is failing me).

On Wed, 18 Oct 2006 08:22 +0100 (BST), (Colin
Rosenstiel) wrote:

In article om,
(Mizter T) wrote:

Colin Rosenstiel wrote:
Your card doesn't have to be registered to get a usage print out
from a ticket office.

I stand duly corrected! How far back does the journey history go?

Is it 8 journeys?

It is a mere 8. The printout has 2 forms: short and long. Long prints
the contents of the card: the slots, what they hold/held (7-day,
monthly, etc), much blurb on when registered, any topups and failures.
The short one lists the 8 journeys and topups as well as last failed
use (gate x in station y refused).

The online stuff goes back 3 months, with a delay of 2 or so days for
a recent journey to appear.

I use all the above to claim biz trips. The limit of 8 journeys was a
particular pain: journey 9 would knock off 1. I never had any success
in getting usage posted out though.

--
Old anti-spam address cmylod at despammed dot com appears broke
So back to cmylod at bigfoot dot com

In article .com,
(Mizter T) wrote:

asdf wrote:

On 17 Oct 2006 16:35:56 -0700, Mizter T wrote:

The dire warning displayed on the touch-screen ticket machines
that almost commands passengers to go at once to a ticket office to
resolve their unresolved journeys could - up to now at least - be
ignored. Presumably, given that under the incoming system (from
November) unresolved journeys cannot be resolved at ticket offices,
this will be removed, and possibly replaced with some other
explaination.

The warning notice now tells the user to phone the Oyster
helpline to resolve the journey (and has done for the past, umm,
year or so?).

Now you say that I'm not sure whether the wording has ever been any
different to that which you describe - perhaps it's always been the
current message (and my memory is failing me).

When I had my problem the ticket office at St James's Park thought they
could sort it out for me but eventually concluded that they couldn't.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

wrote:
A bit of advance warning for those who haven't heard - from November,
if you use pre-pay Oyster, and you fail to touch in or out at any point
of your travels where you're supposed to do so, you will find yourself
being charged £4.00 for the incomplete journey.

In addition to this charge, word on the street is LUL ticket offices
will be unable to adjust this (as they can now), and you will have to
call Oyster Helpdesk (which, like most call centres, can often mean
sitting on hold while you could be doing better things).

Just so you know.


Oh great, so the several times when the gates have cocked up (3 for me),
instead of paying an extra 50p, I'll pay £4.

Following having to apply for an under 16 and 16-17 Oyster Photocard,
TfL seem to be acting like a business in a quest to make profit, not a
government body!
--
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S Wright wrote:

wrote:
A bit of advance warning for those who haven't heard - from November,
if you use pre-pay Oyster, and you fail to touch in or out at any point
of your travels where you're supposed to do so, you will find yourself
being charged £4.00 for the incomplete journey.

In addition to this charge, word on the street is LUL ticket offices
will be unable to adjust this (as they can now), and you will have to
call Oyster Helpdesk (which, like most call centres, can often mean
sitting on hold while you could be doing better things).

Just so you know.


Oh great, so the several times when the gates have cocked up (3 for me),
instead of paying an extra 50p, I'll pay £4.


I've never had the gates "cock up" when I've been using them, in fact
I've found them very reliable and robust. What problems have you had?