Oyster peculiarity (2x maximum fares charged)

Yesterday I travelled from Penge East to Herne Hill and back again using PAYG Oyster

I touched in at Penge East at 13.47 but upon arrival at Herne Hill, none of the oyster readers were working (?no power) meaning I was unable to touch out.

I approached the ticket office who, as expected advised me to contact TFL direct - which I did. After explaining my circumstances, the guy at TFL gave me a reference number but I didn't quite get what to do next.

I returned to find the oyster machines still out of action so caught a train and touched out at Penge East at 15.15. Interestingly, the oyster reader display acknowledged that I had touched in upon exiting. I then used my oyster to catch a bus around an hour later.

I looked at my history today and it shows the following:

"13.47???? Penge East, No touch-out"
"15.15???? Penge East, No touch-out"

The history shows a deduction of £5.40 each way when I think the fare is about £3.40.

Any thoughts/comments please?

Give TFL a call again. I have found it is much easier for them to solve things once the journey history is visible and I could imagine they will refund the fares in all likeliness.

Of course, they will have to make sure you do not pay more then the single fare for each journey/daily cap, whichever is lower.

Not so much a peculiarity, but a simple case of two maximum fares being charged because you have no corresponding touch-in and touch-outs for the system to work out what you should have been charged.

As gray1404 said, give the Oyster helpline a ring. They are normally fairly good at refunding overcharges if you explain to them what happened.

I suspect that rather than refund everything, they'll add the missing touch-out and touch-in, so you'll be refunded the difference between the two maximum fares and the two correct fares for the journey- so 2 x £5.40 - 2 x £2.10 = £6.60 refund.

They're pretty good- I tapped in out of habit at Liverpool Street on Saturday, even though I was travelling on a rail ticket with cross-London validity. I phoned them on Sunday, they checked and applied the credit. They said that they sometimes asked for evidence of the ticket (which I still had on me) but would not on this occasion. The credit was added to my card when I touched in today.

Thanks guys, I'll ring them tomorrow

Yes one can phone the help centre but its a hassle. Especially for days when I am going to reach my fares cap this type of event explains why I prefer prepaid paper tickets. There is less to go wrong and you are less likely to find yourself 'in financial trouble' (or perhaps 'in difficulty' / 'what do I do now'?) through no fault of your own.

Been there... done that... gone hungry because Oyster ate my lunch money because I was charged a maximum fare when I should not have been.

Simon

interesting how it ate your lunch money - wasn't aware that you could pay with oyster for food.

However if you are saying that a maximum fare was applied and as such you had to top up then I would wonder why you didn't call them there and then to sort the problem out so that you could indeed have you lunch money for food.

Oyster help centre has always been very good and quick for me.

Clip said:

interesting how it ate your lunch money - wasn't aware that you could pay with oyster for food.

However if you are saying that a maximum fare was applied and as such you had to top up then I would wonder why you didn't call them there and then to sort the problem out so that you could indeed have you lunch money for food.

Click to expand...

While they might be able to process an immediate refund now, until recently the earliest it would be available to pick up would have been at a specified station the next day. And whilst it wasn't lunch money, I have suffered in the past when a TOC screwed up child ticket acceptance and I had to top up my son's Oyster card additionally and claim a refund later.