"David A Stocks" wrote in message
...
"Zen83237" wrote in message
...

"Mizter T" wrote in message
...

On Sep 1, 9:54 pm, "Zen83237" wrote:
How come if I get a refund it can be added at Watford Junc but if I do
an
online top up it can't be added at Watford Junc or Euston main line.

Possibly might be the TOC, London Midland, protecting their ticket
office takings at WJ?

But Watford Junc is never the less a London Overground station, seems odd
that it isn't a station that you do an online top up at.


Isn't it that you can only do online top up at *Underground* stations?

I've never understood why anybody bothers with online top up. I tried it
once or twice and rapidly came to the conclusion it is the utterly useless
and inconvenient way to administer a PAYG balance that it is.

In a previous post on uk.railway under the subject "Oyster top up at Kings
Cross" I wrote:

"Online top-up is for those who are prepared to use a klunky web interface
to buy something that has to be collected at a nominated place within a
certain time window with the risk that if the oyster balance runs out in
the meantime they might not be able to get to the nominated collection
point to collect the purchase in the first place."
...

"The only benefit I can see is the avoidance of ticket office/machine
queues. With my frequent but irregular travel patterns I always found it
easier and just as inconvenient to stuff a card into a ticket machine when
I spotted one without a queue. Then I activated auto top-up."

D A Stocks

But they can add a refund at Watford Junc.

Kevin

"Zen83237" wrote in message
...

"David A Stocks" wrote in message
...
"Zen83237" wrote in message
...

"Mizter T" wrote in message
...

On Sep 1, 9:54 pm, "Zen83237" wrote:
How come if I get a refund it can be added at Watford Junc but if I do
an
online top up it can't be added at Watford Junc or Euston main line.

Possibly might be the TOC, London Midland, protecting their ticket
office takings at WJ?

But Watford Junc is never the less a London Overground station, seems
odd that it isn't a station that you do an online top up at.


Isn't it that you can only do online top up at *Underground* stations?

I've never understood why anybody bothers with online top up. I tried it
once or twice and rapidly came to the conclusion it is the utterly
useless and inconvenient way to administer a PAYG balance that it is.

In a previous post on uk.railway under the subject "Oyster top up at
Kings Cross" I wrote:

"Online top-up is for those who are prepared to use a klunky web
interface to buy something that has to be collected at a nominated place
within a certain time window with the risk that if the oyster balance
runs out in the meantime they might not be able to get to the nominated
collection point to collect the purchase in the first place."
...

"The only benefit I can see is the avoidance of ticket office/machine
queues. With my frequent but irregular travel patterns I always found it
easier and just as inconvenient to stuff a card into a ticket machine
when I spotted one without a queue. Then I activated auto top-up."

D A Stocks

But they can add a refund at Watford Junc.

Kevin
I assume this is yet another weirdness of online top up.

Somewhere near the start of this thread I asked for people who use online
top up and find it to be easier and more convenient than manual top up at
ticket machines to tell us why they found this to be the case.

Somebody posted a valid but rather spurious suggestion that using a ticket
machine means somebody might get to see your credit/debit card PIN. If I
were to post my PINs here on a newsgroup what would anyone be able to do
with them without the cards? I suggest people have a *lot* more to be
worried about in terms of security when entering into online transactions
over the web from a PC.

From there the thread went off into discussions about the progress Foyles
have made in book retailing over the last 30 years. Meanwhile, I'm still
waiting for the online top up user to pop up and tell me what I've been
missing out on over the years.

I suppose that's Usenet for you ...

D A Stocks

From there the thread went off into discussions about the progress
Foyles have made in book retailing over the last 30 years. Meanwhile,
I'm still waiting for the online top up user to pop up and tell me
what I've been missing out on over the years.


I'm not claiming it was a great contribution but was the reason I gave
for using online top-up at least once wholly irrelevant? For ease of
reference I have copied it below.


"My reason for using the online top-up facility was to gain online
access
to my journey history.

That seems still to be a requirement. From the Oyster site:

"You need to have an Oyster online account and have purchased pay as you
go online to view your journey history online. Once you are logged in,
select the Journey History option under the 'My card' tab."

That may of course simply change the question to why online top-up is
required. I'd guess as a security check (with DPA in mind) that the
person gaining access is the owner of the card. Not foolproof of course
but it seems to me a reasonable safeguard."

--
R

"neverwas" wrote in message
m...
From there the thread went off into discussions about the progress
Foyles have made in book retailing over the last 30 years. Meanwhile,
I'm still waiting for the online top up user to pop up and tell me
what I've been missing out on over the years.


I'm not claiming it was a great contribution but was the reason I gave for
using online top-up at least once wholly irrelevant? For ease of
reference I have copied it below.


"My reason for using the online top-up facility was to gain online access
to my journey history.


No, I accept that. For the odd one-off transaction the inconvenience is just
about acceptable; the last time I collected anything at a ticket gate was
when I set up auto top-up. What I'm particularly interested in is anyone who
prefers online over manual top ups for putting PAYG value on their Oyster on
a regular basis.

D A Stocks

On Sep 6, 1:28*pm, "David A Stocks" wrote:

"neverwas" wrote:

From there the thread went off into discussions about the progress
Foyles have made in book retailing over the last 30 years. Meanwhile,
I'm still waiting for the online top up user to pop up and tell me
what I've been missing out on over the years.

I'm not claiming it was a great contribution but was the reason I gave for
using online top-up at least once wholly irrelevant? *For ease of
reference I have copied it below.

"My reason for using the online top-up facility was to gain online access
to my journey history.

No, I accept that. For the odd one-off transaction the inconvenience is just
about acceptable; the last time I collected anything at a ticket gate was
when I set up auto top-up. What I'm particularly interested in is anyone who
prefers online over manual top ups for putting PAYG value on their Oyster on
a regular basis.

There's a difference between asking that question, which is totally
fair enough, and simply branding it "utterly useless and inconvenient"
- the latter comment hardly sounds like you have an open mind on the
matter.

"David A Stocks" wrote in message

"neverwas" wrote in message
m...
From there the thread went off into discussions about the progress
Foyles have made in book retailing over the last 30 years.
Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for the online top up user to pop up
and tell me what I've been missing out on over the years.


I'm not claiming it was a great contribution but was the reason I
gave for using online top-up at least once wholly irrelevant? For
ease of reference I have copied it below.


"My reason for using the online top-up facility was to gain online
access to my journey history.


No, I accept that. For the odd one-off transaction the inconvenience
is just about acceptable; the last time I collected anything at a
ticket gate was when I set up auto top-up. What I'm particularly
interested in is anyone who prefers online over manual top ups for
putting PAYG value on their Oyster on a regular basis.

As I said previously, when I use on-line top-up, I use Amex, which I
thought was not accepted at ticket machines. I may be out of date on
that point, but hadn't bothered checking. I also like the emailed
receipt you get with an on-line top-up without having to ask for one.

No, I accept that. For the odd one-off transaction the inconvenience
is just about acceptable; the last time I collected anything at a
ticket gate was when I set up auto top-up. What I'm particularly
interested in is anyone who prefers online over manual top ups for
putting PAYG value on their Oyster on a regular basis.


Are you looking for script ideas for a variation on "what did the Romans
ever do for us?".

There's many other possible reasons. 2 which will count for me when our
corner shop closes:

o the local ticket machine is exposed to the elements; my PC ain't;

o the local ticket machine is exposed to street robbers; my PC is
only exposed to the burglars.
--
R

In message , at
06:42:38 on Mon, 7 Sep 2009, neverwas remarked:
o the local ticket machine is exposed to street robbers; my PC is
only exposed to the burglars.

That's a bit naive - there's all kinds of malware out there.
--
Roland Perry

That's a bit naive - there's all kinds of malware out there.

Am I also naive in thinking that the maximum loss I risk from using my
credit card online is £50 (as I have up to date security software albeit
only domestic)? (Consumer Credit Act 1974 IIRC.) That's rather less
than I risk losing to a sadly rather high proportion of Hackney
residents on the rob.
--
R

"neverwas" wrote in message
om...
No, I accept that. For the odd one-off transaction the inconvenience
is just about acceptable; the last time I collected anything at a
ticket gate was when I set up auto top-up. What I'm particularly
interested in is anyone who prefers online over manual top ups for
putting PAYG value on their Oyster on a regular basis.


Are you looking for script ideas for a variation on "what did the Romans
ever do for us?".
No, just interested in who uses the facility and why. So far the the only
reasons given have been

o physical security, unsatisfactory siting of machine (so use a machine
elsewhere?)
o ticket machines don't take Amex (they do).

That's it.


There's many other possible reasons. 2 which will count for me when our
corner shop closes:

o the local ticket machine is exposed to the elements; my PC ain't;

o the local ticket machine is exposed to street robbers; my PC is only
exposed to the burglars.
--
R

The machines I used for manual top up when I did it were Victoria, St
James's Park, Mansion House, Warwick Avenue and Maida Vale; all roughly
equally local to Hove, which is where I live. One of the nice things about
manual top up is that you're not tied to any particular machine or place or
time, and you don't have to take a journey to collect it. The major
irritation of online top up for me was that I was forced to use the
Underground when I wouldn't necessarily choose to; I might want to take a
bus or walk instead.

The original post that started off this thread was about the inability to
collect online top up at Watford Junction. If this is a preview of how
Oyster is to be rolled out on NR routes south of the river then it will only
serve to reinforce my views about online top up.

D A Stocks