Oyster card users: always touch in and out or get fined!

thepikie

jordylass wrote:

The Pikie, I find it hard to sympathise, because your girlfriend hadn't been caught before didn't mean it hadn't happened before, and what if she hadn't had an Oyster card, would she have thought it was OK to get shuffled past the driver without paying?

Jordylass, as someone else pointed out, that is a very rude thing to say. I'd just like to make a few points. She had never missed touching in before. NOT 'hadn't been caught before'. If she hadn't had an Oyster card, this would not have been a problem. She would have paid for a ticket- like she had done. Someone else said that she hadn't bought a ticket. SHE HAD, that's the daft thing. The Oyster Card had £10 worth of ticket and had been used every day but one. And she didn't shuffle past anyone, she was herded past. And I wasn't asking for sympathy, I was asking for advice. I didn't appreciate logging on to read an uninvited and ill-informed judgement , when all I was wondering was if other people have experienced similar.

The assumption you made, is exactly the one that Transport for London have made. The Oyster card is abused all the time- particularly on the rubbish bendy buses -and for that reason, they're handing out exorbitant £95 fines as a deterrant. But not everyone is deserving of this fine, or done much wrong. We're paying for their inefficiency- did you know that they were drafting in police on overtime from Hertfordshire to catch dodgers? And this for a bus designed to save money spent on conductors.

Incidentally- my girlfriend's written a letter to tfl, requesting to pay the normal £20 fine, apologising, and explaining the situation. We've also asked them to look at the Oyster card, and see that it was used every weekday on the 253 for as long as my girlfriend had it. I'll let you know what they say.

Also, my regular buses seem to terminate early, more often. I think they've done a cost-analysis on the oyster card, and seen that ferrying people to the extremities of hackney is a waste of money. And that making people get 2 buses, instead of what used to be 1, makes people get travelcards instead of using top-up.

peter999

wendy_ann1983 wrote:

So I guess you ticked the box that said they weren't allowed to use your details when they sell the list every year to varying companys, it is not used to varify identity just address and if your not registered we can still do the card it just takes longer, my point was trying to put down a fake address that doesnt exist.

And I don't know about native British as I myself am English. You sound like you have a real bee in your bonnet over this, (even though you say you do not use public transport) I would suggest you sit back, take a deep breath and relax, there are far worse things out there than the Oyster card. What about those pesky store points cards keeping track of everything you purchase?

All sensible British people I know, now tick that box on the Electoral Roll form
so their data is not sold for junk mailing, misuse & abuse.

Before this change the government conveniently decided any old tom/!!!!!! & harry
could use your data for anything they liked
-even though the data was only given for Electoral Roll registration & public are legally obliged to give it.

I know it's not the employees fault.

peter999

gromituk

peter999 wrote:

All sensible British people I know, now tick that box on the Electoral Roll form
so their data is not sold for junk mailing, misuse & abuse.

Unfortunately, this box was only added a few years ago, and, unbelievably, doesn't apply retrospectively. So, if you haven't moved house in the past few years, you still appear on all the websites, and the only way to remove yourself is to write to them all individually.

peter999

Old_Gold wrote:

Be careful Peter you may have a certain someone asking you for proof of what you have said.

What are you referring to:
-that London is a melting pot of migrants ??
-that the Electoral Roll is unreliable in verifying identity of people in a place like London, many people: not entitled to register/ change addresses/ just passing through ??

peter999

wendy_ann1983

Old_Gold wrote:

Wendy I am not going to condone the actions of any passenger abusing staff but I find it just as offensive when people in senior positions hide away from irate passengers. They are just cowards and it inflames the situation and therefore many staff take the abuse meant for them.

Your not alone on that thought, all staff have asked for senior management to come out and see what we put up with on a daily basis, but they are far to busy making dodgy decisions that make working life even worse.:mad:

Latest good idea is to close ticket offices early (in some cases 2 in the afternoon) and hope staff can help people through the barriers, give directions, help people use the ticket machines, on top of being shouted at by the customers that you have taken longer than 3 seconds to get to. And we have to keep smiling through it all.

siennalizard

Dear all,
I've written an open letter to Oyster on this subject. Please e-mail them and back me up if you agree.

http://jdv.hopto.org/index.php?/archives/72-Open-Letter-to-Oyster-have-card,-will-travel.html

Cheers!
J.

M_Thomson

siennalizard wrote:

Dear all,
I've written an open letter to Oyster on this subject. Please e-mail them and back me up if you agree.

http://jdv.hopto.org/index.php?/archives/72-Open-Letter-to-Oyster-have-card,-will-travel.html

Cheers!
J.

Your letter is wrong on one point. You do not have to have a minimum balance of £4 on your card at all times under the new November 19 regime. Oyster cards can have negative balances, so you will be charged £4 if you do not touch out.

siennalizard

M_Thomson wrote:

Your letter is wrong on one point. You do not have to have a minimum balance of £4 on your card at all times under the new November 19 regime. Oyster cards can have negative balances, so you will be charged £4 if you do not touch out.

Thank you, M. I have never had a negative balance on my card, though, so this must apply only to fines and the new charging regime. Surely if that is the approach they are taking, people will use, then dispose of cards with a negative balance? Maybe the system requires at least one payment by CC.

J.

M_Thomson

siennalizard wrote:

Thank you, M. I have never had a negative balance on my card, though, so this must apply only to fines and the new charging regime. Surely if that is the approach they are taking, people will use, then dispose of cards with a negative balance? Maybe the system requires at least one payment by CC.

J.

I guess the way it will work is that if you only have £1.50 for a central London Single tube journey, it will make you -£2.50 until you touch out. I doubt there will be much incentive to dispose of an oystercard to avoid the £4 if you have to pay a £3 deposit each time you get a new Pre Pay card.

wendy_ann1983

As far as staff are aware it will not let you in unless you have a min £4 on your card. I am trying to find someone who can answer this for definate, but even from the inside its not easy.