View Full Version : Oystercard customer services
Ok I'll admit it I'm quietly impressed, since I regularly use a bus to get to work both myself and Chimaera have oystercards in case we want to pop into london etc and don't want to have to mess about buying tickets.
On Wednesday evening I re-charged both cards with credit online thorugh the oystercard site and Friday evening we popped into the local station to complete the transaction to the cards. After a bit of trouble getting the card to complete the credit transfer we finally sorted it all out with instructions from the member of staff in the ticket booth. However after using our cards yesterday to go into London for drinkies with a couple of forum members we checked our cards on the display to find they were showing an open journey that we were being charged for even though we hadn't gone anywhere (this journey was from being told to use the gates to complete the recharge).
Not amused by this we looked on the oystercard.com site and after getting the helpline number and finding out they close at 8pm I emailed the "Ask Oyster" address with the query and seeing that it was stating a 3 day response time we resigned ourselves to having to call them today.
Imagine my suprise when I logged into my oyster account today and had a reply email from a real life person who has checked into my purchase details, got my oyster card number and chimaeras, seen the mistaken charge, rectified the mistake and sent a cheque out re-imbursing us :Yikes: Talk about effecient :tu:
Well done Georgeia of oystercard.com :D
I have to admit, I have only used the online facility to add credit to my Oystercard once, and the gate came up with an error code. When I phoned Oyster to find out what had happened, they did re-apply the travelcard and I was told to scan the card in any Underground ticket gate or machine to complete the transaction.
I have to admit, they did update it, but I haven't trusted the online system since. No point really, the nearest tube station (Canary Wharf) to where I work is only ten minutes away, and they have a rather nice sandwich bar there, so I just go there once a month during my lunch hour to renew my ticket in person.
I was listening to a discussion about this card on the radio earlier this week, whereby they are going to introduce using this card for shopping and maybe later internet shopping.
It would seem a good idea on the face of it because you charge the card from your bank account, and if I remember correctly there is no information linking back to your bank account details, so if this card was lost or misused or even fraudulently used, the only monies available will be the money that has been credited to the card.
It sounds a pretty good idea to me :tu:
Maybe others on this forum might have some further info ?
What is oystercard?
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Just had a look, a travel card...
What is oystercard?
As I understand it, it is a card that is currently used for travel in London
Link (http://www.oystercard.com/)
fireman328
05-03-2005, 23:33
I hope they improve the reliability and up time on the system. I travel to London Bridge station about 3 times a week and all the "Oyster" readers have hand written notices on them saying they are out of service and instead of passengers being passed through the barrier they have to show their card like everyone else.
What showing the card to a ticket collector proves, I don't know as the card has no external means of showing if it is charged with any money or not.
I hope they improve the reliability and up time on the system. I travel to London Bridge station about 3 times a week and all the "Oyster" readers have hand written notices on them saying they are out of service and instead of passengers being passed through the barrier they have to show their card like everyone else.
What showing the card to a ticket collector proves, I don't know as the card has no external means of showing if it is charged with any money or not.
They do have handheld readers that they should be using.
I personally have been using Oyster for several months now, and have had problems twice.
Even went to London Bridge the other day, and all the Oyster readers were working.
Well just to hammer home the point of my initial post I thought I would share a recent situation with you all.
Somehow I managed to lose my Oyster card after travelling home from my training center in London on the 18th April, I don't know where I lost it but I'm assuming it was somewhere between Dagenham East and Rainham. Due to not realising it was lost and the fact that I had to be on the train by 07.55 the next morning I couldn't report the card lost until till I returned home at 7pm on the 19th April.
I reported the loss via the Oyster card site facilities and thought nothing of it until recently when I realised that I was still without a card and hadn't been contacted by Oyster or received the remaining credit from my card back :( At this point I decided to call the oyster card helpline and was told that my card had not been registered as lost on the system and that there was only 50p on the card when I lost it :erm: Which was strange as I had topped it up knowing that I was tubing to and from Kings Cross each day that week!
Thinking I may have dreamed the whole reporting of the card etc I decided to email "Ask Oyster" yesterday and requested further information from them on as to wether or not I had reported the card lost and what was on it.
Tonight I checked my emails and found a reply from a Miss S Herbert at Oystercard Help desk who confirmed the card had been reported lost on the 19th April and was rather confused herself as to why the call center had said otherwise :rolleyes: She was also confused as to why I hadn't already received a cheque for the outstanding credit that was on the card when lost (£16.70 not 50p as advised by the call center). Having re-assured me that the cheque is at this moment winging its' way to me she has apologised profusely in the email for something that to be honest was never her fault :confused:
All I can say is that in future I'm not even going to bother ringing Oystercard as it's becoming obvious that the email support is far superior :tu:
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