Oyster PAYG problems

[soil]

...Do feel free to post details (in another thread maybe) of any issues you've had using Oyster at NR stations. If you've got a journey history scan that would help explain things. If the journey isn't too old you may still be able to get a refund from the helpdesk.

Two examples that I can think of is that we (my wife and I) had oyster cards and arrived at Waterloo by National Rail from outside London and touched a reader at Waterloo that appeared to be for entry to the tube. Then probably touched it again at another barrier The cards got some stupid negative balance (£7.80 fare?), made various attempts to reclaim it at Waterloo but they told us to go to another office or something, so no luck with that.

The negative balance triggered auto topup, but as the auto topup was old, my credit card had long since been cancelled so they sent me a couple of threatening emails before revoking the Oyster card, confiscating it when my wife tried to use it at Waterloo.

So we bought new Oyster cards after that.

Recently we went to London for the Jubilee boat pageant with a NR travelcard return. We went our separate ways unfortunately I still had my wife's ticket so when she went from Waterloo to CLJ she paid an Oyster fare for that. That brought the balance of the Oyster card too low, so she had to pay to get on the bus at Queenstown Road. But she got off at Queenstown road, and not Queenstown Road station as she was supposed to, so she paid again for another bus. Then at Battersea Park she topped up with £20 and tapped in at the Oyster reader there before travelling to Victoria. I checked the journey history at a reader at Victoria, Waterloo to CLJ was correctly charged but the Battersea Park - Victoria journey was showing as Victoria-Victoria, and charged at something like £4.30. I went to a ticket window to get it fixed but they told me to call the Oyster helpine. Haven't bothered yet.

 

[bb21]

Then probably touched it again at another barrier The cards got some stupid negative balance (£7.80 fare?)

That would be a maximum fare for an incomplete journey.

confiscating it when my wife tried to use it at Waterloo.

Do you mean they physically took it off you?

and charged at something like £4.30. I went to a ticket window to get it fixed but they told me to call the Oyster helpine. Haven't bothered yet.

Did you say that she touched in at Battersea Park? It sounded like a peak maximum fare when touching in at a Zone 2 station, however I am not 100% sure.

Do you have access to the journey history online? If so, could you post a screen-grab of the detailed journey history?

 

[MikeWh]

Two examples that I can think of is that we (my wife and I) had oyster cards and arrived at Waterloo by National Rail from outside London and touched a reader at Waterloo that appeared to be for entry to the tube. Then probably touched it again at another barrier The cards got some stupid negative balance (£7.80 fare?), made various attempts to reclaim it at Waterloo but they told us to go to another office or something, so no luck with that.

That sounds like the known issue using the platform entrances to the underground. The first set of readers are for exiting Waterloo NR which you didn't need to do as you hadn't used Oyster at that point. Were you trying to reclaim it from the NR ticket office or the LU one? You ought to have been able to resolve it at the LU one, but it's rather academic now.

The negative balance triggered auto topup, but as the auto topup was old, my credit card had long since been cancelled so they sent me a couple of threatening emails before revoking the Oyster card, confiscating it when my wife tried to use it at Waterloo.

So we bought new Oyster cards after that.

That doesn't surprise me at all. Auto top-up is done on trust. The payment is processed after the balance has been added to the card. If this fails then they contact you to resolve it in a timely manner. If you don't then they hotlist the card. They alert you when the expiry date on the card is about to pass, but they rely on you to keep the actual card number etc up to date.

Recently we went to London for the Jubilee boat pageant with a NR travelcard return. We went our separate ways unfortunately I still had my wife's ticket so when she went from Waterloo to CLJ she paid an Oyster fare for that. That brought the balance of the Oyster card too low, so she had to pay to get on the bus at Queenstown Road. But she got off at Queenstown road, and not Queenstown Road station as she was supposed to, so she paid again for another bus. Then at Battersea Park she topped up with £20 and tapped in at the Oyster reader there before travelling to Victoria. I checked the journey history at a reader at Victoria, Waterloo to CLJ was correctly charged but the Battersea Park - Victoria journey was showing as Victoria-Victoria, and charged at something like £4.30. I went to a ticket window to get it fixed but they told me to call the Oyster helpine. Haven't bothered yet.

Oh dear. At first glance that looks like the touch in at Battersea Park failed. If you can post a screenshot of journey history I'll be able to tell for sure. The journey history at an underground ticket machine looks quite different to the online record and can change thoughout the day as bits of journey get added together by OSIs. The online record with touching detail expanded is the best way to see exactly what happened.

If you call the helpline and explain what you did on the card they should refund the erroneous charge.