Oyster 'penalties' = theft, help us Martin!

Consumervigilance

Martin, please, please, please could you help us with the Oyster card penalties? :mad:

If you do not swipe in and out properly, you are penalised £6. However, I and other people I know have also been charge this £6 DESPITE swiping in and out correctly. The machines must go wrong a lot and charge innocent people.

And that's just when we've noticed the money go missing... how many times do they incorrectly penalise people without them noticing? How much money do they make this way I wonder? Thousands, even millions I expect.

When I noticed by chance that it must have happened to me (I had just topped up but suddenly ran out after just one return journey), I naturally went to the kiosk and asked for it to be put back on. They told me they are not authorised to do so and told me to ring Oyster... on an 0845 number that will cost me even more money! So I complained online, and they simply ignored your email. I am still fighting on principle but I expect most people don't bother.

This is THEFT! It is shameful that they do this, and I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't legal, like the bank charge penalties weren't. But they'll keep on doing it regardless, until people stand up to them.

We are forced to use Oyster cards because they've made the fares twice as expensive otherwise. This makes me so angry. :mad:

Does anyone else have any experience with this? Or are you blissfully ignorant of the times they will have undoubtedly stolen your money without you noticing?

I recommend we all complain to TFL/Oyster about this practice, demanding that they scrap the penalty, reply to emails, refund people from the kiosks when something goes wrong, and give people an ability to check their Oyster record on the little screens so they can check they haven't been unfairly charged without having to queue up for ages at a kiosk.

It would be great if people would go to the TFL website complain about this practice (you have to put in an incident date, maybe just put in today's etc). I can't post the link but a kind person who's not a new user would be able to for me?:)


Help us Martin! :money:

Badger_Lady

I've never noticed but then I don't tend to pay much attention (thankfully I claim my top-ups on company expenses).

Very rough going

olly300

if you are lucky you can get through immediately and they recredit your Oyster card or debit card.

If you are unlucky the person will cut you off on the phone after carefully not giving their name out.

surreysaver

Consumervigilance wrote: »

And that's just when we've noticed the money go missing... how many times do they incorrectly penalise people without them noticing? Does anyone else have any experience with this? Or are you blissfully ignorant of the times they will have undoubtedly stolen your money without you noticing?

I recommend we all complain to TFL/Oyster about this practice, demanding that they scrap the penalty, reply to emails, refund people from the kiosks when something goes wrong, and give people an ability to check their Oyster record on the little screens so they can check they haven't been unfairly charged without having to queue up for ages at a kiosk.

In the past when I've been overcharged they just send me a cheque in the post, after I've emailed them. You can check your balance at ticket machines, also online if you've registered it. I know on buses when you swipe it it tells you how much credit you've got left, I presume the machines on the Underground do too?

surreysaver

Sorry - double post. The computer led me to believe my first post didn't work.

MX5huggy

on an 0845 number that will cost me even more money

Try http://www.saynoto0870.co.uk/

taffy056

They issued about £32m of these penalties in about 2 years, making a pure profit of £18m in that time, its a major cash cow, and I am surprised that martin and others have not highlighted it as it effects hundreds of thousand of people

https://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23488225-tfl-collects-32m-in-oyster-card-penalty-fares.do

dzug1

Consumervigilance wrote: »

ring Oyster... on an 0845 number that will cost me even more money!

0845 numbers are free (inclusive) with some providers/tariffs

surreysaver

dzug1 wrote: »

0845 numbers are free (inclusive) with some providers/tariffs

Some. But not most.