London Travel - Oyster Card, Contactless, Apple Pay or ... ?

Jumblebumble

Mr_Singleton wrote: »

Always use a phone if your using contactless NEVER use a debit/Credit card on its own on the tube. It's massively profitable for TFL to get 'confused' when matching the tap in / out as TFL's own figures show. Without gate receipts they'll laugh all the way to the bank and there's nothing you can do about it.

You are the only person I have ever heard about having the issue you state.
TFL customer services refunded me just fine when I rather stupidly tapped in using 1 credit card and tapped out using another so I am not sure why they treated you differently.
I have applied for maximum fare refunds on a good few occasions and have never been refused
I would trust TFL over Googlepay any day of the week
The fact that Google pay show a payment does not necessarily mean that Google actually handed over the payment to TFL and I would suggest this is where your issue lies.
For future reference I would send a polite email to the MD of TFL expressing your concerns as the Helplines are outsourced and thus may not have full information

Mr_Singleton

Jumblebumble wrote: »

You are the only person I have ever heard about having the issue you state.
TFL customer services refunded me just fine

Leaving aside the rather weird reason you feel that your 0.00000001% of the total number of journeys is representative of all journeys I can only assume you don't talk to many people as looking at current TFL supplied figures which represents 100% of ALL journeys shows they are currently making just under £1,300,000 PER WEEK from supposed 'incomplete' journeys. I'll say it again.... £1,300,000 A WEEK!

You seem to be having trouble understanding my point regarding gate receipts..... let me give you an nice simple example that I hope even you can understand.

I'm stood next to the tube entry gate at Holland Park tube station. I open AndroidPay and touch the reader. My phone pings and GooglePay shows "Holland Park TFL 08:32am" the light on the gate goes green and the barrier opens. I get to Bank tube station my destination. I open GooglePay and touch the gate reader. My phone pings and shows "Bank TFL 08:48am". The light goes green on the gate and the barriers open.

In the above example both the gate and the phone must have communicated because A) AndroidPay knows the name of the tube station & time of the tap the gate has got the required payment information which has been validated so the gate has opened. They have communicated with each other!

All pretty straight forward but WAIT! The next morning you get hit with a maximum cash fare! After spending 20 minutes on hold to CS you get told..." Yes, I can see you tapped in at Holland Park tube station but you didn't tap out!" "Errrrr yes I did" to which you get the standard " you used the wrong card" etc etc yada yada yada.

Up to this point TFL point blank refuse to give a refund. Oddly mentioning AndroidPay gate receipts and they can't seem to give you a refund quick enough.

So how do you explain that? Other than TFL turning a blind eye to a bug(s) in its system because it's making them nearly £1,300,000 A WEEK!

Mr_Singleton

gt94sss2 wrote: »

Personally, I don't use a phone as they take longer at the gates and irritate other customers especially at peak periods.

Well, can I take this opportunity to thank you not only for myself but also on behalf of all tube users for graciously saving us 150 milliseconds every time you tap which is the difference between the 2 payment types. I've spent at least a minute thinking what I'll do with my addition 150 milliseconds.

Mr_Singleton

And your answer is?????

martindow

Mr_Singleton wrote: »

And your answer is?????

I don't know - what is the question?

Mr_Singleton

martindow wrote: »

I don't know - what is the question?

And people wonder why we have such a dysfunctional public transport system in the UK.

Jumblebumble

Mr_Singleton wrote: »

Leaving aside the rather weird reason you feel that your 0.00000001% of the total number of journeys is representative of all journeys I can only assume you don't talk to many people as looking at current TFL supplied figures which represents 100% of ALL journeys shows they are currently making just under £1,300,000 PER WEEK from supposed 'incomplete' journeys. I'll say it again.... £1,300,000 A WEEK!

You seem to be having trouble understanding my point regarding gate receipts..... let me give you an nice simple example that I hope even you can understand.

I'm stood next to the tube entry gate at Holland Park tube station. I open AndroidPay and touch the reader. My phone pings and GooglePay shows "Holland Park TFL 08:32am" the light on the gate goes green and the barrier opens. I get to Bank tube station my destination. I open GooglePay and touch the gate reader. My phone pings and shows "Bank TFL 08:48am". The light goes green on the gate and the barriers open.

In the above example both the gate and the phone must have communicated because A) AndroidPay knows the name of the tube station & time of the tap the gate has got the required payment information which has been validated so the gate has opened. They have communicated with each other!

All pretty straight forward but WAIT! The next morning you get hit with a maximum cash fare! After spending 20 minutes on hold to CS you get told..." Yes, I can see you tapped in at Holland Park tube station but you didn't tap out!" "Errrrr yes I did" to which you get the standard " you used the wrong card" etc etc yada yada yada.

Up to this point TFL point blank refuse to give a refund. Oddly mentioning AndroidPay gate receipts and they can't seem to give you a refund quick enough.

So how do you explain that? Other than TFL turning a blind eye to a bug(s) in its system because it's making them nearly £1,300,000 A WEEK![/QUote


To be fair I refuse to use such payment methods as Paypal or apple pay because I am the impression (which may be nonsense) they are not regulated properly
I don't use contactless but I like oyster because I can check on the spot what happened if there is any issue
Stories such as yours do nothing to convince me I am wrong
We will just have to agree to disagree

Mr_Singleton

Jumblebumble wrote: »

To be fair I refuse to use such payment methods as Paypal or apple pay because I am the impression (which may be nonsense) they are not regulated properly

Its going to be your money so fair enough but what do you nean by not properly regulated?