Refund of excess when Overground suspended

[burgesst]

Recently, I was hoping to travel from Richmond to Willesden Junction on my zones 3-6 annual season Oyster.

The train never left, as the service became suspended. I had to get the tube to Hammersmith, and then a bus, and this cost me £1.70 extra, as I went outside my zones.

I successfully submitted a customer charter refund request, and was successful.

I also called, and asked for a refund of the £1.70 excess, and they agreed, but this never arrived, so I need to chase it up.

So my question is, how to avoid all this hassle. If they say tickets are valid for other routes, how do I take that other route without being charged for going outside my zones ?

 

[maniacmartin]

The term "excess" has a very specific meaning in railway ticketing terminology so that term is best avoided in this situation.

I would advise calling the Oyster helpline who are usually good at dealing with this sort of thing

 

[Be3G]

In Oyster parlance, ‘tickets are valid on alternative routes’ does essentially just mean what you've discovered: ‘make the journey and we'll refund you anything extra that you pay’. However, seeing as you have a season ticket you have no obligation to touch in/out when making a journey that's covered by your travelcard. In this situation, I would therefore have tried asking TfL's gateline staff at Hammersmith to let you out manually.

 

[bb21]

However, seeing as you have a season ticket you have no obligation to touch in/out when making a journey that's covered by your travelcard. In this situation, I would therefore have tried asking TfL's gateline staff at Hammersmith to let you out manually.

Unless they have hand-held machines handy, how do they know you are telling the truth?

 

[burgesst]

Oyster helpline who are usually good at dealing with this sort of thing

Last time I did that, after going round the houses and constantly being told to phone other numbers and ignore the voice activated system and pick option 4 when it said to pick 3, I was eventually told I'm supposed to claim it from Overground not Oyster (although they did it 'just this once').

I did call Overground about it, and they said they'd send a refund, but that was 2 weeks ago so I need to chase it up.

I'm just fed up of all the time it wastes, hence my original question!

I'll try not touching out at Hammersmith next time, I'll let you know if the staff let me or not!

 

[Be3G]

Unless they have hand-held machines handy, how do they know you are telling the truth?

Unfortunately they don't – hence I said ‘tried asking’! I've found TfL's gateline staff can be quite helpful in slightly unusual situations such as this though, so I figure taking a few seconds to ask them would be easier then resigning oneself to having to phone the Oyster helpdesk with its impenetrable menus. Plus the staff would have hopefully been advised of the service suspension so would be aware of the possibility of people trying to travel with otherwise invalid tickets.

 

[burgesst]

Update:

This happened again today - Overground suspended, so I asked the man at the gate line at Hammersmith what to do.

He was very helpful, and let me through the barrier without touching out, and even went as far as to explain not to touch in/out again until I was in my zones as then the system would charge me.

So all in all, a big success.