Oyster Card nonsense - TFL's new Maximum Cash Fare Rip-Off

peterbaker

I have just received a letter from a Shashi Verma, Director, Oyster card apparently informing me that I have had 'the maximum cash fare for a Tube or DLR journey' deducted from my Oyster card.

It goes on to say "to avoid incurring this maximum fare again...bla, bla".

I don't use my oyster card very often, so I can guess what this was - basically the Oystercard system being incapable of sorting out a simple situation the other day when I popped up to Canary Wharf and back on the DLR.

This is some of what happened:

1. I touched in at my local DLR. It beeped twice.
2. I had been walking as I touched. I stopped. (Two beeps didn't sound right)
3. I touched again. 1 beep. Nothing obviously unusual.
4. I travel a few stops and got off at Canary Wharf. I forgot to touch out (you have to hunt for the touch out buttons - its easy to forget).
5. I shopped for about 30 minutes.
6. I got back to Canary Wharf DLR and remembered I hadn't touched out. So I touched out, and then a second or two later,
7. I touched in (thinking surely the system can sort that out)
8. I travelled a few stops back to my local DLR and touched out.

I think there is a cheap rate for using DLR only in the middle of the day. I expected that my little return journey would have cost perhaps £2 or £3 at most. Damn it had I not been in a hurry, I could have walked there and back in a leisurely 30 mins!

End of story, or so I thought.

So how much have I been charged? Any guesses anyone? While you are guessing, I shall try to log on to my account and decipher what happened.

I bet it isn't pretty...


Edit1:

Well this is what it says:
Date
13/12/06
Time Location Action Fare Balance
11:13 My Home DLR Entry £4.00 £4.70
11:04 Canary Wharf DLR Exit £0.00 £8.70
11:04 Canary Wharf DLR Exit £3.00 £8.70
10:27 My Home DLR Entry £4.00 £5.70

What am I to assume has happened? Can I assume I only spent £1?

Edit2: The Answer

TFL introduced the maximum cash fare penalty on 19th November 2006. Basically it treats every customer as a criminal the moment they Enter the system and deducts the maximum cash fare (£4 for DLR or Tube) right there and then whether the customer goes anywhere or not. In the example above, my balance was actually £9.70 when I entered the system. So we have false accounting by TFL.

Then they treat me like a criminal and take and hold £4 from me in case I don't pay (just like the Shell petrol station I described in another thread recently).

Then they de-tune their clever computer so that it chooses not to make sense of my total four touches on my simple return journey.

Then their computer sends me an odd letter which I may or may not have time to investigate.

And if I do have time to investigate online, TFL gives me misleading information that suggests I may only have spent £1.

Only if I am as tenacious as a terrier and willing to find their telephone number (it isn't on the letter and possibly not on the website - I found it in an old emailed top-up notification) then might I get to the bottom of the matter.

Then I have to ask for special treatment to get the £3 overcharge given back by way of a VISA credit.

Finally I get told if I do it again I won't be given any money back.

Do we really want to support rip-off systems like this, people?

christopher_h

thanks for going to the trouble to post your story peterbaker - I think the obvious rule for the future is that we all make sure we touch out our Oyster card at the station we end up at.

Funnily enough the other day I almost didn't touch out either after a security alert where everyone told to disembark at South Kensington Tube - it was chaos in the ticket hall at the barriers and the gate was just open for everyone to walk thru. Now I'm guessing a lot of people might be getting the same letters that you got.

Let Peter's story be a lesson for us all !!

peter999

christopher_h wrote:

...I almost didn't touch out either after a security alert where everyone told to disembark at South Kensington Tube - it was chaos in the ticket hall at the barriers and the gate was just open for everyone to walk thru. Now I'm guessing a lot of people might be getting the same letters that you got.

So who will benefit in this sort of confused situation (security alert, ticket barrier problems)
-TFL & public pay !!

It is very important, because they will steal/rip off people's money !!

peter999

peter999

peterbaker wrote:

And if I do have time to investigate online, TFL gives me misleading information that suggests I may only have spent £1.

Only if I am as tenacious as a terrier and willing to find their telephone number (it isn't on the letter and possibly not on the website - I found it in an old emailed top-up notification) then might I get to the bottom of the matter.

Then I have to ask for special treatment to get the £3 overcharge given back by way of a VISA credit.

Finally I get told if I do it again I won't be given any money back.

Do we really want to support rip-off systems like this, people? [/B]

Please fight it.

I am sure there are many people like you who have been stitched up & had their money taken

Did you see this thread:

Oyster card users: always touch in and out or get fined!
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=284954


peter999

reehsetin

this maximum cash thing does my head in
was going to east or west croydon wherever it was asked the dude if they accepted oytser (its a national rail one),told yup, zone 5 but i was paug so thought it would be ok. went there and it wouldnt let me out
got a very snooty attitude from one of the women there
said my card wouldnt work
she said 'you know why!' implying i was lying 'because your on paug'
let me through on the way back was recomended to buy an a single to the next stop which was zone 4 then tap out as usual on other side
got the same email saying i hadnt tapped in and out so fined
grrrrr not my fault i didnt know about blumin croydon station

peter999

reehsetin wrote:

this maximum cash thing does my head in

...got the same email saying i hadnt tapped in and out so fined
grrrrr not my fault i didnt know about blumin croydon station

Complain & kick up a stink.
People are having their money stolen.

peter999

moonrakerz

Sorry folks - but you voted for "red ken" - twice !

reehsetin

^at least once i was under voting age! dont even know when the last vote was?
whens the next one

impy78

moonrakerz wrote:

Sorry folks - but you voted for "red ken" - twice !

Oh yes, that famous unanimous election... because obviously we have the fore sight to vote for the winning candidate.

peterbaker

peter999 wrote:

Please fight it.

I am sure there are many people like you who have been stitched up & had their money taken

Did you see this thread:

Oyster card users: always touch in and out or get fined!
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=284954


peter999

Well as I may not have made clear, I did get my money back via a specially authorised VISA credit in the same call in which I asked for it ... this time.

I can't understand how managers who know where the line is drawn on what's right and what's rip-off get support for their ideas in this crazy new millennium. I can only conclude that the majority of the population is bent or thinks bent is cool or perhaps is just too dumb to know what hits them. Personally I find it all very wearysome, day after day, always some paid irk with their hand in my pocket.

Thanks for the pointer to the other thread peter999....so I can now see Martin was right on the ball weeks ago with this:D ... he gets around!

moonrakerz

A more serious point than my previous post:-

This is heading the same way as the Congestion Charge. The money isn't made from those who pay up and obey the rules. It's made from those who are confused, don't know or forget. That's why you cannot set up a "direct debit" on your credit card, too many people would pay on time then ! and Ken would lose millions.

Just another Stealth Tax.