National Rail journey that exceeded Oyster maximum journey time

[hkstudent]

I am planning to take a journey from Welling to Wembley Central, avoiding zone 1 via Clapham Junction.
However, when checking the national rail journey planner, it advised me to take a journey of 1 hour 47 minutes to 1 hour 52 minutes, which would very likely exceed the 110 minutes permitted time for oyster (across 5 zones, z4-z2-z4) if arrive Welling more than 3 minutes ahead, or any delays on Southern Train, or long walk on Wembley Central platform.
Can i still take this journey and dispute with TfL if they charge me 2 maximum fare?

Journey planned:
http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/servi.../131118/1445/dep?avd=London,Elephant_&_Castle
(Avoid any possibilities of through zone 1)

And, in TfL Single Fare finder, avoid zone 1 option is via Peckham Rye and Clapham Junction.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

I am planning to take a journey from Welling to Wembley Central, avoiding zone 1 via Clapham Junction.
However, when checking the national rail journey planner, it advised me to take a journey of 1 hour 47 minutes to 1 hour 52 minutes, which would very likely exceed the 110 minutes permitted time for oyster (across 5 zones, z4-z2-z4) if arrive Welling more than 3 minutes ahead, or any delays on Southern Train, or long walk on Wembley Central platform.
Can i still take this journey and dispute with TfL if they charge me 2 maximum fare?

Journey planned:
http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/servi.../131118/1445/dep?avd=London,Elephant_&_Castle
(Avoid any possibilities of through zone 1)

And, in TfL Single Fare finder, avoid zone 1 option is via Peckham Rye and Clapham Junction.

Can you dispute it? Absolutely.

Are they likely to reimburse any maximum fare(s) you are charged? If you have not previously raised many such requests, probably.

 

[hkstudent]

Can you dispute it? Absolutely.

Are they likely to reimburse any maximum fare(s) you are charged? If you have not previously raised many such requests, probably.

But It seems that in TfL site, they indicated no refund on 2 maximum fare charged due to exceeding journey time (they seems just refund on missed touch out cases)

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

But It seems that in TfL site, they indicated no refund on 2 maximum fare charged due to exceeding journey time (they seems just refund on missed touch out cases)

You are not entitled to a refund. But you are likely to be granted one if you have not claimed "too many" within the history they hold for you. Ultimately, if you decide to make that journey by Oyster, the contractual charge depends on the time it takes you to complete the journey. Is that fair? In this context, no. But those are the terms of the contract; if you don't like it, the option to purchase a paper ticket (or even a Travelcard) remains open to you.

 

[AndrewE]

I don't know what the small print (or any website's dumbed-down summary) says about this issue, but I will say again, whenever I have had any problem with charges on my Oyster card the TfL call centre have been superb. Sympathetic, well-informed (unlike most call-centres) and helpful every time. This is the sort of thing they seem to do very well, understanding what you are getting at and sorting it out straight away.
The only thing to note is that (as mentioned somewhere here recently) refunds can only be credited to wherever you funded the card from, not to the card itself.
p.s. I use mine 3 or 4 times a year and seem to be prone to getting into trouble! I've never lost out though.

 

[CatfordCat]

Possibly stating the obvious, but you will need to 'beep' your oyster card on the pink oyster reader at clapham junction (and if changing at willesden junction, doing the same there won't do any harm) so the system knows you have not travelled via zone 1.

 

[MikeWh]

Don't worry. The same maximum journey time is applied to every variation of route between two stations and is, AFAIK, the longest possible route. In your case I would expect it to cater for 4321234, so 7 zones or 130 minutes.

 

[swt_passenger]

But It seems that in TfL site, they indicated no refund on 2 maximum fare charged due to exceeding journey time (they seems just refund on missed touch out cases)

They will fix this if you ring up and explain. I’ve had a journey via the WLL that timed out by just a few minutes, resulting in 2 max fares, and they sorted it with no quibbles at all. I think I just missed a connection at Clapham Jn, but it was a few years ago now.

 

[robbeech]

As MikeWh says above this should not be calculated as such. Even if it is you’ll have absolutely no problems getting it rectified if you call them. They’re very helpful and if what has happened goes a little above their heads for very complicated journeys (not likely here) then they tend to just side with the passengers and refund to an appropriate level. I remember clocking up £30 one day after a random Sutton farce and a Lewisham OSI miscalculation on my part. They happily refunded me down to a Z1-6 (or 4. I can’t remember) price even when I pointed out there was a HS1 trip later in the evening they seemed happy to ignore that.