Discount on my Oyster card

[James Wake]

Hi all

Just visited Holborn station to add my new 26-30 railcard for the next year onto my Oyster that already has that discount, the chap was helpful but no NR railcard came up in the scroll list so he applied priv TfL, I guess that’s wrong and potentially an issue?

 

[James H]

Yes that's a big problem.

 

[James Wake]

I wonder if he had to press NR railcard or the date that was next to it and select a new date

 

[WizCastro197]

Yes that's a big problem.

Why? What is a 'priv' Oyster?

 

[James H]

'Priv' is a staff concession. The National Rail Railcard discount should have been set.

 

[Hadders]

You must not use this Oyster card until the Priv discount has been removed. The discount that needs to be set is the one called National Railcards & Gold Cards.

 

[Adam Williams]

There's some real irony in legitimate rail staff having genuine problems getting the Priv discount applied, and then stuff like this happening because TfL staff couldn't work out how to apply a National railcard discount correctly.

Why is there still a human involved in this process at all?

 

[RJ]

There are two "pages" of discounts in some machines - I think NR Railcard is on the second page.

When I got my Priv NR Only discount loaded the other week, the member of staff was about to load NR Railcard but I said no thank you please!

 

[WAB]

It really needs to be drilled into TfL staff: if in doubt, check. They should have been issued with a manual to refer to if necessary. Particularly as errors will land customers with prosecutions for travelling with a discount they are not entitled to. Totally unacceptable.

 

[James Wake]

There are two "pages" of discounts in some machines - I think NR Railcard is on the second page.

When I got my Priv NR Only discount loaded the other week, the member of staff was about to load NR Railcard but I said no thank you please!

It didn’t seem to be on the second page, did the assistant just need to update the date? I already had put on my railcard from last year

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Nov 2022 ==

You must not use this Oyster card until the Priv discount has been removed. The discount that needs to be set is the one called National Railcards & Gold Cards.

Ok, will cost me a bit of extra money on Wednesday then, will have to get a return paper ticket instead of my usual paper ticket into work and Oyster to Gatwick home

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Nov 2022 ==

Thank you all for confirming that for me

 

[miklcct]

Ok, will cost me a bit of extra money on Wednesday then, will have to get a return paper ticket instead of my usual paper ticket into work and Oyster to Gatwick home

Thank you all for confirming that for me

You should write to TfL and ask for compensation as a result of the staff failing to load the appropriate discount onto your Oyster card.

 

[SargeNpton]

For future reference... I always find the TfL information office at St Pancras really good for getting Oyster card discounts done right first time.

 

[greyman42]

It really needs to be drilled into TfL staff: if in doubt, check. They should have been issued with a manual to refer to if necessary. Particularly as errors will land customers with prosecutions for travelling with a discount they are not entitled to. Totally unacceptable.

How would it ever stand up in court?

 

[James H]

Either way, it has the potential to generate a LOT of hassle for the holder of the incorrectly discounted card.

 

[Surreytraveller]

How would it ever stand up in court?

Exactly. There's no way for a passenger to know what discount is loaded onto an Oystercard. Nothing in an online account or anything.

 

[Haywain]

here's no way for a passenger to know what discount is loaded onto an Oystercard. Nothing in an online account or anything.

However, in this case the holder of the Oyster card is fully aware that the wrong discount has been loaded. Being unable to see it in the online account doesn't change anything.

 

[Surreytraveller]

However, in this case the holder of the Oyster card is fully aware that the wrong discount has been loaded. Being unable to see it in the online account doesn't change anything.

Nothing flashes up on a barrier, there's nothing indicated in the Online Oyster Account. My Oystercard has a discount loaded, and checking online there's nothing to indicate a discount apart from the fare charged. I'm not sure it would stand up in court or anywhere else if someone was accused of something. Would barrier or revenue protection staff even know there was a discount loaded?

 

[Haywain]

Nothing flashes up on a barrier, there's nothing indicated in the Online Oyster Account. My Oystercard has a discount loaded, and checking online there's nothing to indicate a discount apart from the fare charged. I'm not sure it would stand up in court or anywhere else if someone was accused of something. Would barrier or revenue protection staff even know there was a discount loaded?

It’s got nothing at all to do with your Oyster card. The OP is clearly aware of what discount has been loaded on his card and therefore would be foolish to use it. Unless you are suggesting he does so and when taken to court perjures himself by claiming not to know the discount is loaded.

 

[Surreytraveller]

It’s got nothing at all to do with your Oyster card. The OP is clearly aware of what discount has been loaded on his card and therefore would be foolish to use it. Unless you are suggesting he does so and when taken to court perjures himself by claiming not to know the discount is loaded.

Thing is Priv TfL would charge him more when using National Rail (except Overground and Elizabeth Line) than they are entitled to. So they might not even be doing TfL out of any money anyway

 

[Richardr]

The OP is clearly aware of what discount has been loaded on his card and therefore would be foolish to use it.

In this case the OP is, but purely because he came onto this forum and raised the question. Most people would have no idea which discount had been recorded against the oyster card, and even if they saw PRIV, which is very unlikely, wouldn't have a clue what it meant, and was wrong.

 

[Haywain]

Most people would have no idea which discount had been recorded against the oyster card, and even if they saw PRIV, which is very unlikely, wouldn't have a clue what it meant, and was wrong.

That may be so, but the thread isn't about "most people". The thread title, presumably as typed by the OP, is 'Discount on my Oyster card'.

 

[Skimpot flyer]

I have a Gold Card discount loaded on my Oyster card, and during ticket checks on London Overground services, the hand-held readers that staff use always prompts the question ‘can I see your railcard?’
So I’d imagine using an Oyster with the wrong discount and nothing to back up the PRIV discount could be a major problem??

 

[greyman42]

It’s got nothing at all to do with your Oyster card. The OP is clearly aware of what discount has been loaded on his card and therefore would be foolish to use it. Unless you are suggesting he does so and when taken to court perjures himself by claiming not to know the discount is loaded.

How would he perjure himself?

 

[Mojo]

There's some real irony in legitimate rail staff having genuine problems getting the Priv discount applied, and then stuff like this happening because TfL staff couldn't work out how to apply a National railcard discount correctly.

It really needs to be drilled into TfL staff: if in doubt, check. They should have been issued with a manual to refer to if necessary. Particularly as errors will land customers with prosecutions for travelling with a discount they are not entitled to. Totally unacceptable.

It sounds like this was done by LU staff at Holborn rather than TfL staff.

 

[Wallsendmag]

How would he perjure himself?

"I didn't know what that discount was" or "I had no idea that the incorrect discount was loaded onto my Oyster card"

 

[Adam Williams]

It sounds like this was done by LU staff at Holborn rather than TfL staff.

I thought LUL was wholly owned by TfL - TfL themselves refer to LU staff as "Our staff" on their own site, so I'm not sure this is particularly meaningful distinction to make.

 

[Mojo]

I thought LUL was wholly owned by TfL - TfL themselves refer to LU staff as "Our staff" on their own site, so I'm not sure this is particularly meaningful distinction to make.

The staff of each organisation are employed on separate contracts (which states the organisation they work for), with different training & management regimes, with differing disciplinary & comptence management policies. So it is quite different, especially people have reported better success rates at TfL-run locations rather than LU.

 

[aelius]

It would be useful if the app or ticket machines showed the discount applied. I have a disabled railcard. The railcard that was added in error was a National railcard. I only noticed something was amiss when a particular journey seemed to be usually high. I think something to do with different discounts for peak travel. That got me investigating and had to get it amended. Because of daily caps the excess charges were not excessive but it would have been different if I had only made a peak journey on a day.

 

[greyman42]

"I didn't know what that discount was" or "I had no idea that the incorrect discount was loaded onto my Oyster card"

People make statements in their defence all the time that are not true. They rarely end in perjury charges.

 

[Haywain]

People make statements in their defence all the time that are not true. They rarely end in perjury charges.

Indeed, in most cases they just get found guilty. However, the lack of a charge does not mean it isn't perjury.