"Mizter T" wrote in message
ups.com...
asdf wrote:

On Mon, 15 Jan 2007 14:09:21 -0000, tkd wrote:

I, and other people I know, have been told a variety of crap from NR
staff
regarding Oyster including:

2) Oyster pay as you go not valid on sections of NR where it is valid
(Thameslink Farringdon-London Bridge)

Barrier staff at London Bridge (NR) appear to be under specific
instructions to tell you that PAYG is *not* valid at that station.

The ticket gates there reject PAYG-only Oyster cards, so you have to
go to the manual gate. The staff there say, every time, that PAYG is
not valid, and will only let you in/out after you insist that it is.

Is that still going on? I fell foul of that quite a long time ago.

When I have some spare time soon and am vaguely in the area I'll make
an FCC Thameslink journey starting/finishing at London Bridge to
investigate. If I encounter trouble I'll write to complain about it.

It really doesn't bode well for Oyster being implemented on National
Rail :-(


Not if it is anything like it is now at c2c stations. When anything went
wrong with PAYG journeys they just keep on touching it on the side gate
validator over and over again as if some special message might appear after
enough tries. The staff at the tickets windows (those with Oyster capable
equipment - about 50%) could not even accurately tell you your balance. I
think they could see the last three PAYG top up amounts and often confused
one of those for the current balance. They could not see any journey history
or remove a last entry/exit from the card, even if it was caused by their
own staff at the gate repeatedly touching the thing on the validator.

tkd wrote:

"Mizter T" wrote in message
ups.com...
asdf wrote:

On Mon, 15 Jan 2007 14:09:21 -0000, tkd wrote:

I, and other people I know, have been told a variety of crap from NR
staff
regarding Oyster including:

2) Oyster pay as you go not valid on sections of NR where it is valid
(Thameslink Farringdon-London Bridge)

Barrier staff at London Bridge (NR) appear to be under specific
instructions to tell you that PAYG is *not* valid at that station.

The ticket gates there reject PAYG-only Oyster cards, so you have to
go to the manual gate. The staff there say, every time, that PAYG is
not valid, and will only let you in/out after you insist that it is.

Is that still going on? I fell foul of that quite a long time ago.

When I have some spare time soon and am vaguely in the area I'll make
an FCC Thameslink journey starting/finishing at London Bridge to
investigate. If I encounter trouble I'll write to complain about it.

It really doesn't bode well for Oyster being implemented on National
Rail :-(


Not if it is anything like it is now at c2c stations. When anything went
wrong with PAYG journeys they just keep on touching it on the side gate
validator over and over again as if some special message might appear after
enough tries. The staff at the tickets windows (those with Oyster capable
equipment - about 50%) could not even accurately tell you your balance. I
think they could see the last three PAYG top up amounts and often confused
one of those for the current balance. They could not see any journey history
or remove a last entry/exit from the card, even if it was caused by their
own staff at the gate repeatedly touching the thing on the validator.

I really hope that someone at TfL Rail and/or TfL ticketing is reading
this.

I can't believe they couldn't even manage to tell you your balance!
It's bizarre that their systems can't even let them see the last eight
journeys - the details of these are held on the card after all, there's
no need to have access to the Oyster database.

"Mizter T" wrote in message
oups.com...
tkd wrote:

"Mizter T" wrote in message
ups.com...
asdf wrote:

On Mon, 15 Jan 2007 14:09:21 -0000, tkd wrote:

I, and other people I know, have been told a variety of crap from NR
staff
regarding Oyster including:

2) Oyster pay as you go not valid on sections of NR where it is valid
(Thameslink Farringdon-London Bridge)

Barrier staff at London Bridge (NR) appear to be under specific
instructions to tell you that PAYG is *not* valid at that station.

The ticket gates there reject PAYG-only Oyster cards, so you have to
go to the manual gate. The staff there say, every time, that PAYG is
not valid, and will only let you in/out after you insist that it is.

Is that still going on? I fell foul of that quite a long time ago.

When I have some spare time soon and am vaguely in the area I'll make
an FCC Thameslink journey starting/finishing at London Bridge to
investigate. If I encounter trouble I'll write to complain about it.

It really doesn't bode well for Oyster being implemented on National
Rail :-(


Not if it is anything like it is now at c2c stations. When anything went
wrong with PAYG journeys they just keep on touching it on the side gate
validator over and over again as if some special message might appear
after
enough tries. The staff at the tickets windows (those with Oyster capable
equipment - about 50%) could not even accurately tell you your balance. I
think they could see the last three PAYG top up amounts and often
confused
one of those for the current balance. They could not see any journey
history
or remove a last entry/exit from the card, even if it was caused by their
own staff at the gate repeatedly touching the thing on the validator.

I really hope that someone at TfL Rail and/or TfL ticketing is reading
this.

I can't believe they couldn't even manage to tell you your balance!
It's bizarre that their systems can't even let them see the last eight
journeys - the details of these are held on the card after all, there's
no need to have access to the Oyster database.

Oddly, it is the oldest ticket machines with the small LCD screens that have
been adapted for Oyster while the ticket windows with the PC based system
have signs up saying "Oyster not sold at this window". You would have
thought the antiquated machines would be harder to adapt. Its also annoying
if you are at the front of the queue and the next ticket window that becomes
free is the one that does not accept Oyster. Obviously the self service
ticket machines did not have Oyster pads fitted, even though they were
willing to adapt them by adding a PIN pad (Why couldn't the work be done at
the same time?). Barking station is particularly annoying. There are five or
six self service ticket machines, the majority take credit card only and
none of them work with Oyster.