this whole place is a joke

[dieselboy]

do you lot know what an oyster card is?
basically its a swipe pass like some of you might have at work to let you through doors etc. you swipe it to get through the barriers at the train, underground stations, and to get on busses.

well, i ordered mine on the tinternet last month, and it arrived in a few days, been using it for a whole month. its a travelcard. i get on where there are no barriers, but get off at victoria to change, so i swipe out at victoria, back in at the underground and back out at the other end.

i renewed or 'topped up' the card yesterday, and recieved all confirmation. it said to pick a station to swipe in from to 'activate' the card.

so i get to victoria, and it wont let me out the fkin station! i think, ok well i'll just explain to the bloke and he will sort it.
he turns round and says i got to pay £3 for the trip..
obviosly i refuse as i have already paid £150 for the month starting today.
i try to leave the station by explaining to someone else, then the community police were called over, by this point im furious.
after about 10 mins or telling them, a real police officer came over. by this point im still refusing to pay extra when i have already paid. i explain thatwhy would anyone pay twice for anything.
i give up and say arrest me then, because im not paying a penny.
they say its either £3 or £20 fine (even though i have a ticket!!! in front of me)

eventually a nice lady explained its happened before to people and she let me through and said next time bring the email reciept..

but it took 20 mins of arguing with police, in a packed rush hour victoria station. joke.
but i survived!

[gwh200]

good luck getting hom tonight then !!!

i presume you can get a receipt printed today, but it begs the question wtf should you have to?

[pirate-storm]

you was lucky they didnt shoot you if you was a terrorist youd have prob be let through. i would have said arrest me then least i havent lost 25 million peoples bank details

[dieselboy]

HAHA!!

the thing was, the card needed to be re-activated upon touching in at victoria.. so this then caused two problems,
1) i was trying to get out 'touch out' and this wasnt activating it
so i did explain this to them, and ask them if they would walk through, touch it in for me so that i could get out - they said why should they have to.. fair enough
2) the nice lady then explained that although it said touch in at victoria, it actually meant victoria underground, so even if they did walk round and do it, it apparently wouldnt have worked.

victoria underground is 5 min walk from where i was at the overground bit.
once they let me through, i walked to the underground and touched in as normal... its been fine since...

mayor of londons team hasnt quite thought this through have they...

[pirate-storm]

HAHA!!

the thing was, the card needed to be re-activated upon touching in at victoria.. so this then caused two problems,
1) i was trying to get out 'touch out' and this wasnt activating it
so i did explain this to them, and ask them if they would walk through, touch it in for me so that i could get out - they said why should they have to.. fair enough
2) the nice lady then explained that although it said touch in at victoria, it actually meant victoria underground, so even if they did walk round and do it, it apparently wouldnt have worked.

victoria underground is 5 min walk from where i was at the overground bit.
once they let me through, i walked to the underground and touched in as normal... its been fine since...

mayor of londons team hasnt quite thought this through have they...

they never think once they in power goes to their head time for people power i think

[Chillitt]

You do realise there is now a little flag on your card, don't you....

[dieselboy]

You do realise there is now a little flag on your card, don't you....

what saying 'GAY' ?

[Chillitt]

what saying 'GAY' ?

Next time you use it, see if anyone follows you.... they got you down as a trouble maker now..

[captain_chaos]

those oyster cards work ok in the inner zones when the barriers are always working. But when I lived in Tolworth the stations in that area (Tolworth, surbiton, Kingston) left them open and so the touch out bit never worked. Still got my card, but i never got it on line through TFL. Just went to local shop and got one there, put a few £s credit on now then when I needed it. The trouble with registering your card it now means Red Ken now knows what times you travel, where you go to and how you get there

[pirate-storm]

Next time you use it, see if anyone follows you.... they got you down as a trouble maker now..

you mean they got him in their sights now

[captain_chaos]

that's the other problem of your card being registered, they know you're a trouble maker now. They're on to you, not to make you paranoid lol

[dieselboy]

Next time you use it, see if anyone follows you.... they got you down as a trouble maker now..

lol 'cover yer bums!'

they better not be on to me, i dont need zone 5 anymore so its saved me £30 a month!
the last place i use my oyster is victoria. i touch in. and dont touch out till the next morning. so there is no way of knowing where i live by looking at that alone.
my address is registered to the card though

[fergus]

red ken isnt the mayor any more as far as i know

[dieselboy]

now im mad, i just read this email i recieved from Oyster yesterday evening

The products you ordered through Oyster online are now ready to be
uploaded onto your Oyster card as you walk through and touch your Oyster
card on any ticket gate at:
Victoria station.

it says ANY gate!!
im going to phone them up and find out whats going on.

im annoyed, because other people who just accept stuff, would have paid the £3 and left it there. if the ticket officer got me on the train, they would have tried a £20 fine, and some people would have just paid it and left it there! this isnt on,

power to the people

[Sancho]

Oysters are activated by you touching in at your nominated station. If you have a reader at your station, you just need to nominate that, not Victoria, and touch in there to activate your card. If not, you just need to plan it so that the first journey you make on the ticket is from Victoria.

It's not all that hard and you were lucky they let you off the fine because you were travelling on a ticket that wasn't valid because you hadn't activated it.

Personally, I like Ken (who is still the Mayor) knowing where I travel. The whole point of Oysters, other than getting rid of costs for handling money - which is why they're cheaper, is that they monitor who uses what services so they can make them more efficient i.e. more buses/trains on the routes where they're needed and less where they're not.