The great Oyster Card rip off

Jane_Rowley

An Oyster card is supposed to save you money, but I have been over-charged at least 7 times and I rarely use my card. I think it is outrageous that when the system fails to work properly the commuter is "fined" the maximum cost. I have been given a refund on every occasion I have complained, but the amount of time I have spent claiming these refunds has infuriated me. My last refund was for a charge listed on my statement as "unknown transaction £2.70" which Oyster put down to a faulty gate. Why was this error not picked up and statements automatically corrected? Let me guess, because they probably made thousands of pounds and few people would have checked their statements to know.

I requested compensation for the inconvenience of writing countless emails, but was ignored. When I said I wanted to make a formal complaint, one employee even went to the length of trying to deny the last over-charge, removing it from my statement!

I would recommend everyone who uses Oyster has a statement emailed to them monthly and checks the charges - you will probably get an unpleasant surprise.

katejo

Jane_Rowley wrote: »

An Oyster card is supposed to save you money, but I have been over-charged at least 7 times and I rarely use my card. I think it is outrageous that when the system fails to work properly the commuter is "fined" the maximum cost. I have been given a refund on every occasion I have complained, but the amount of time I have spent claiming these refunds has infuriated me. My last refund was for a charge listed on my statement as "unknown transaction £2.70" which Oyster put down to a faulty gate. Why was this error not picked up and statements automatically corrected? Let me guess, because they probably made thousands of pounds and few people would have checked their statements to know.

I requested compensation for the inconvenience of writing countless emails, but was ignored. When I said I wanted to make a formal complaint, one employee even went to the length of trying to deny the last over-charge, removing it from my statement!

I would recommend everyone who uses Oyster has a statement emailed to them monthly and checks the charges - you will probably get an unpleasant surprise.

Have a look at this http://www.claimmyrefund.co.uk/Home/About
It is an independent scheme which tracks your Oyster transactions and refunds you when problems occur. I have received 2 refund vouchers in the past week.

dzug1

If you are overcharged nearly every time you use your card as the tone of your post suggests then you are probably doing something wrong

Otherwise make a formal complaint - not by phone to the Oyster people (you've exhausted that line of enquiry) but more centrally in TfL

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/foi/893.aspx

I use my Oyster infrequently too - but I have never never had a problem

joolsybools

dzug1 wrote: »

If you are overcharged nearly every time you use your card as the tone of your post suggests then you are probably doing something wrong

Otherwise make a formal complaint - not by phone to the Oyster people (you've exhausted that line of enquiry) but more centrally in TfL

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/foi/893.aspx

I use my Oyster infrequently too - but I have never never had a problem

Ditto this. If you are getting problems so frequently your card might be faulty, why not get a new one?

Altarf

One of the reasons why people are overcharged is the complexity of the system and that the companies that run the rail networks are sometimes too close to the system to understand the problems real people have.

To give you an example. You arrive at London Waterloo by train with a paper train ticket and don't exit the platform onto the main concourse, but instead use the stairs in the middle of the platform that directs people to the tube. You go a fair distance through tunnels, needing to pick this way for that tube, and that way to another. And then in front of you are some barriers you need to go through to enter the tube. So you swipe your Oyster card.

Except these barriers are not the entry to the tube, they are the exit from the station. There is another set of barriers just around the corner that is the entry to the tube.

If you have swiped your Oyster card at both sets of barriers you will be charged for an incomplete journey on the first swipe (as an exit no entry) and the proper fare on the second swipe.

Now to the rail people will go "it's obvious that the first set of barriers is an exit not entry" and will give a whole load of reasons that will make sense *if* you are a railway person. But it is not obvious to a tourist, who only uses the tube occasionally.

It wouldn't be hard to differentiate by signs, different colours, etc, the purpose that the barrier served, i.e. exit or entry, and what you need to do, but the rail people won't see the need because it is obvious what you need to do.

And the end result is lots of people being overcharged.