£12 for London zones 1-3 off peak Travel Card

hussain

Hey all,

This is more a sort of warning then anything else.

I used PAYG on my oyster card the other day (saturday).

My Journey:

1. Went to wembley from upton park to watch the stadium.
2. Returned from wembley to Liverpool street.
3. From LS to Rectory Road (National RAil)
4. Return Rectory Road to LS in a couple of hours
5. LS to Upton Park.

I assumed after I make all these journeys my ticket will automatically become a day travelcard and I will be charged £5 or whatever it is for the off peak day travel card. Only to my horror, I was charged £12 for the day. and why because National rail does not accept PAYG so it charged me £4 for LS to RR and £ for RR to LS.

My question is:

1. Why would it not warn me that I cant use them before I enter or sign posts at exits?
2. If it doesn't warn me then why allow me to go through the barriers at all?
3. Even if it does allow me to get through the barriers, then why not charge me for the travel card as opposed to charging me some insane price (and it does accept day travelcards on national rail).

The train companies are making ridiculous profits at the expense of us consumers. All I want is that if it doesnot accept the PAYG, then rather than just simply debiting the cash from my oyster card without my knowledge or consent, it should just simply stop accepting all oyster cards and prevent me from using their services as I would have been quite happy to travel on the bus considering it is only a 15 minute journey from Liverpool Street.

I also tried contacting the oyster card customer services and must say that everyone I spoke to was extrememly rude. I cant tell you how pathetic I felt speaking to them as they had absolutely no respect for the customer at all and simply insulted our intelligence saying that I was to be blamed for it and it was mistake since TFL and National rail our 2 different companies. Then why do these two different companies become one when using a travel card since you can use a travel card but not PAYG? WHy have dozens of complex condions and rules and not a simple thing that we can understand?

Is there nothing we can do about this scam?

Regards,
Hussain

rdwarr

I think Ken's already got this one in had. There was a story a couple of weeks ago about making all TOCs in London accept Oyster in the same way as TFL.

hussain

What can I do in the meanwhile? How do I protest or show my dissatisfaction ?

waster_2

The NR Stations that you can use Travelcards from are clearly shown in the TfL information on their website. You should have a bought a paper Travelcard to obtain the benefit of using all NR services in the GLA area. TfL are as irked by NR as you are so it's no good blaming them for your predicament which is clearly identified in their T&C's.

hussain

yeah thats true, but I wonder how many people actually read the T&C's. I have given up all hopes of getting the £8 back, its just that I don't want them to screw any other person who is unaware about this. So was wondering how I can let every one else know.

Anyways, public transport has always been a pain in the [you know what].

Thanks for the reply.

H

moonrakerz

Oyster is just like Red Ken's other brainwave, the congestion charge.

The money is made, not from the people who use the system and know all the silly little rules, but from all those suckers who don't !

Sorry Hussain, you've been fleeced, like thousands of others, just remember that at the next election !

hussain

Yeah, I regret voting for him.

brazilianwax

I use overland trains in London all the time and every single station I've ever been to has giant posters everywhere telling you that oyster prepay cannot be used.

They also have them on the trains and announcements on the platforms and trains.

I can't believe there is one station with no warnings anywhere!

black-saturn

Similar thing happened to me a few weeks ago. You should write to them and complain. Yesterday I received a £12 good will gesture.

strawberries1

Hi Black-saturn this happened to me last week as well. Did you write to TFL or to National Rail?
I usually buy a zone 1-3 monthly but as I was going away on holiday for a while I called TFL to find out wether to top up or buy a weekly card but he advised that oyster top up was always cheapest. So I topped my oyster with £20 as I had £5 on it already and from his calculation It'll cost me abot £25 a week. Alas, I travelled zones 1-3 but got charged £13.10 for a day. i couldn't beleive it. I got my oyster statement printed and was told National Rail charged me £5 extra for going through Kings cross and the zone 2 station I can out of did not have their oyster reader activated yet. Plus I got a bit or wrong info from the TFL customer service phone guy as weekly will be cheaper. So I then bought a weekly about £30 to start from the next day.

I need to write to TFL or national rail?
Thank you.

KeithP

Hi Strawberries1,
you may not get an answer from Black-saturn, as it was over two and a half years since his last post in this thread.

:rolleyes: