Wrong Railcard put on my oyster card, am I eligible for refund?

[Sweetjesus]

Approximately 6 months ago, I went to a tfl staff to ask put the disabled persons railcard on my oyster card.

After 6 months, I got myself an anniversary oyster card and decided to put a Railcard on it without transferring my old oyster card to it.

Now my commute are cheaper.

I travel almost everyday since 6 months ago and a lot of my trips were during peak time.

Can I get a refund on this?

 

[Watershed]

Unfortunately there is no entitlement to a refund of the amount you've overpaid by here. You could certainly ask TfL to pay something on a goodwill basis but I imagine they would refuse - as would be their right.

 

[Sweetjesus]

Can you explain why you believe that there is no entitlement given that this is error by tfl staff?

 

[fandroid]

Are you saying that you detected that a wrong Railcard had been loaded onto the first Oyster, by noticing that travel had become cheaper after the correct Disabled Railcard was loaded on the new card?

 

[AlterEgo]

Can you explain why you believe that there is no entitlement given that this is error by tfl staff?

You’d need to prove their error for a start, and you’ve had six months to notice it. I’d definitely complain, but you’ll have trouble getting a penny out of them I’m afraid.

 

[Sweetjesus]

You’d need to prove their error for a start, and you’ve had six months to notice it. I’d definitely complain, but you’ll have trouble getting a penny out of them I’m afraid.

Would the fact a national Railcard been added instead of disabled persons Railcard be enough?

Are you saying that you detected that a wrong Railcard had been loaded onto the first Oyster, by noticing that travel had become cheaper after the correct Disabled Railcard was loaded on the new card?

Yes.

 

[AlterEgo]

Would the fact a national Railcard been added instead of disabled persons Railcard be enough?

No, how would they know you didn’t add a previous railcard to it yourself? I had a 16-25 before my Disabled Railcard on my Oyster.

 

[swt_passenger]

No, how would they know you didn’t add a previous railcard to it yourself? I had a 16-25 before my Disabled Railcard on my Oyster.

Isn’t the whole serial number supposed to be recorded on the Oyster card? So the OP’s original card should still show the serial number of a Disabled Railcard alongside the National Railcard entitlement.

Which seems to be an error they’ve made a few times. There was a recent thread about someone having the wrong discount applied because staff didn’t find the right option on the staff menu on the POM. A customer cannot apply any railcard discount by themself, it needs staff intervention - so I think it should be worth pursuing with TfL.

This is the thread from a few weeks ago, unusually it was in the LU sub forum:

Disabled Person's Railcard on Oyster

I recently got a disabled person's railcard and had it added to my Oyster card last week at Wood Green tube. Today I made my first peak time pay as you go journey since and, surprise surprise, it turns out to have been added as a standard NR railcard, so I didn't get the 1/3rd off the cap...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[Adam Williams]

TfL could very easily validate that the LTOT in the railcard number (they follow a well-defined format, a disabled railcard should include the characters "ZMN") matches the discount that the member of staff is trying to add, if their Oyster POM actually let staff enter the full railcard number (I seem to recall that staff need to enter a subset of it, and only numbers for some bizarre reason). This sort of validation would completely eliminate this class of errors.

It is disappointing, but not surprising, that the Oyster system is so primitive in this respect.

 

[gray1404]

I have had the exact same issue as the OP. However I noticed the day after the mistake being made when I checked my previous days travel history. I contacted the help desk about this and they sent a £20 Goodwill gesture payment but this was only after I had escalated the matter as I was initially fobbed off.

 

[island]

TfL could very easily validate that the LTOT in the railcard number (they follow a well-defined format, a disabled railcard should include the characters "ZMN") matches the discount that the member of staff is trying to add, if their Oyster POM actually let staff enter the full railcard number (I seem to recall that staff need to enter a subset of it, and only numbers for some bizarre reason). This sort of validation would completely eliminate this class of errors.

It is disappointing, but not surprising, that the Oyster system is so primitive in this respect.

The Oyster card specification predates online Railcards and so all Railcards in issue at that time had a 5-digit number.

 

[lewesroad]

I need to have my Disabled Persons railcard added to Oyster. Is there any advice I should give to the staff member that does it for me to make sure that they add the correct railcard?

 

[sjb-2812]

TfL could very easily validate that the LTOT in the railcard number (they follow a well-defined format, a disabled railcard should include the characters "ZMN") matches the discount that the member of staff is trying to add, if their Oyster POM actually let staff enter the full railcard number (I seem to recall that staff need to enter a subset of it, and only numbers for some bizarre reason). This sort of validation would completely eliminate this class of errors.

It is disappointing, but not surprising, that the Oyster system is so primitive in this respect.

My DRC does not contain ZMN in the railcard number, though it does have a Z and an N; for what it's worth.

 

[Adam Williams]

My DRC does not contain ZMN in the railcard number, though it does have a Z and an N; for what it's worth.

Sorry, I think the LTOT might be ZMM for DIS. Does it contain ZMM after the first two chars?

 

[AlterEgo]

Sorry, I think the LTOT might be ZMM for DIS. Does it contain ZMM after the first two chars?

Mine is ZNJ, although it is a three year railcard expiring next August.

 

[Adam Williams]

Mine is ZNJ, although it is a three year railcard expiring next August.

Turns out 3-year (only disabled?) railcards have a different Lennon code, who knew!

 

[Sweetjesus]

Mine is also ZNJ, it's three year DRC. Will contact TFL thanks everyone