Oyster annoyance

By Ashok Argent-Katwala

Mary & I were both overcharged on a recent jaunt around London. The barriers beeped and didn't let me out, so the station staff opened the barrier to let me through. The barriers did let Mary out, but it turned out she had been charged two lots of the we-didn't-see-you-touch-out-so-we'll-take-four-pounds.

(Oyster is London's RFID-based ticketing system. You can put travelcards on them, but I use it as a pay-as-you-go card. It charges you for each journey and they promise not to charge you more than the equivalent travelcard. In practice this goes wrong a bit: it's a very complex system, and the software must be a nightmare.)

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Mary's card is registered. She's less concerned about keeping her journey details in a central database that I'm guessing will eventually get sold for marketing purposes or knocked over by some enterprising criminals. Since she uses the tube infrequently and without much regular pattern, she's probably right. She spotted the overcharge on her card because mine misbehaved at the barrier, and we're both smart enough (and know how shonky/complex the Oyster system is) that we check the screens whenever something odd happens.

Here's what it showed me:

The chap who let me through the barrier says he can't fix it from there, and tells me to contact the Oyster helpline. (I'm a little perturbed that his view of my recent usage is different, but I'll return to that.)

I called the helpline this morning, and was told they can't do anything unless it is registered. The woman claims this is because of the Data Protection Act, but can't tell me whose Data are being Protected like this. She says there is no-one else I can talk to about the problem, I just need to go back to the station to register it. I ask if they mind if I register fake details, but she seems unconcerned. I'm worried that they'll accuse me of fraud if I do that.

I go back to the station, planning to give them their own name and address (Thomas F. Lansdowne, 55 Broadway – or something like that) and a much friendlier chap says that what I've been told on the phone is "a load of crap". He apologises for not being able to sort it out in the station, but says that if they try that again, I should just speak to a supervisor.

Finally, I get someone useful on the phone, who doesn't try and fob me off with some data protection rubbish. I try asking what went wrong, as the screen showed I had enough on my card to pay the £1.80 that would take me up to the cap. His view of the database differs, and he says I only had £1.70 at that point. Fortunately, he agrees that they took £7 last Saturday, so I can have my £2.20 back sometime next week.

I'm left quite annoyed by the whole process. I'm angry at number of things:

• the complete rubbish spouted about the Data Protection Act – that modern cover-all for computer-says-no or we-can't-be-arsed
• the worse level of service given to me because I would like to retain a sliver of anonymity in my movements
• the differing views of the same data; on the agent's screen, he was saying that they take £4 off the card on entry to a tube station, then put some of that back when you exit
• the flat-out lie that the first 'helpline' bod claimed, that I would need to register the card to receive any "after-sales service"

They (spontaneously) emailed Mary to say her refund had been loaded on to the barrier at Earl's Court, and it was all very straightforward. I asked the useful chap on the phone why they couldn't do something similar for unregistered cards and he said:

"I can only think that it's a way to induce people to register their Oyster cards."

I appreciate they need to know which station to bink your card at, but there must be a better way than taking names and addresses. Hell, just giving the power to handle ticketing cock-ups back to the people working in the ticket office would be a real start.

Unregistered Oyster cards as a whole are a bit of a mess. I like that I can keep rotating around different cards. What happens in practice is that I sometimes leave my Oyster card behind, so I pay another three pound deposit and get the cheap ticket prices. Eventually, I end up with three or four on my desk and I cash them back in.

With an unregistered Oyster card, when you cash it back in to retrieve the £3 deposit, they ask you to sign the bottom of the receipt. I've done this about half a dozen times, and have never been given a reason. There is no signature they have to compare it against. There's no particular space on the receipt for a signature, and I've no idea why they want one, but they do always insist. I started signing them 'X', but the guy got shirty. Now I sign them 'Bob', and they're fine with that.

I guess I'll write a proper complaint to them shortly.