Having read a number of threads concerning people being charged wrongly for national rail journeys using Pay as You Go on an Oyster Card, I thought some people may be interested to know what happened to me earlier this year:
First here is the email that I sent to the Oyster Customer Services after the situation happened:
For 6 days from 4th-10th April I used my Oyster Card for Pay as You Go journeys and most days reached the £7.50 off peak price cap for zones 1-6.
However, I notice that on the two occasions when I used National Rail services after midnight I was charged for these journeys even though I had already reached the £7.50 price cap earlier in the day and was no longer being charged for tube and bus journeys.
The first occasion was in the early hours of Tuesday 6th April when I was charged £2 for travel between Clapham Junction ( touch in 0156) and East Croydon (touch out 0217).
The second occasion was in the early hours of Saturday 10th April when Iwas charged £2.60 for travel between Victoria Platforms 9-19 (touch in 0255) and East Croydon (touch out 0320).
Although it would be nice to get a refund I am not overly concerned about the small total of only £4.60. What does concern me is that this did happen on the two occasions during the week when I used National Rail after midnight, especially as it did not happen when I used buses after midnight. I would just like you to investigate why this should have happened and so that this does not happen again during future visits to London.
Here is the reply that I eventually received:
Thank you for your email.
Please be assured that the issue you have described is known to Transport for London's (TfL) fares and ticketing department who are working on a solution. However, The is a problem in its current state is essentially an unavoidable consequence of the extension of Oyster pay as you go to National Rail (NR). We have done checks and found that it is extremely rare that customers are affected by it. When customers use National Rail in the small hours, the Oyster daily price cappingprice arrangements occasionally don't work as intended due to the need to spread the times when the end of day/start of day processing takes place at individual stations. Thankfully we know that most customers usingOyster pay as you go on National Rail overnight are out of the scope of price capping anyway.
When the Oyster system moves over from one day to the next for charging purposes, the processing demands on the system are very heavy and to keep the system operational it is necessary to avoid having one single time point for all stations to change over. The processes have always been spread out for Underground stations, but with no impact on customers because the Underground does not operate at the hours concerned. Just occasionally customers travelling overnight with National Rail will find that the system fails to identify that their journey belongs to its correct day for capping purposes.
Having checked your journey history it has been confirmed that you were charged £4.60 more than wouldhave been if price caps had been applied as advertised. In order for me to arrange the most suitable medium through which you can receive the refund of the above amount, please contact me direct on ***********
Please be assured that the issue is being monitored and accept that if it turns out that significant numbers of customers are being affected, we will need to make arrangements for publicising that overnight NR journeys may fall outside the arrangements for daily price capping.
I hope the information I have provided has been helpful. Feel free to contact me should you have any future queries.
**********
Transport for London
Customer Relations
I did eventually get my £4.60 refunded last week.
I started this thread so that others may be aware of this situation.
I think in future if I am to be making journeys after midnight on days when I am likely to have reached the price cap I will get a one day paper ticket instead or if I am going to be travelling around London for a week I will get a 7 day travelcard loaded onto my Oyster.
First here is the email that I sent to the Oyster Customer Services after the situation happened:
For 6 days from 4th-10th April I used my Oyster Card for Pay as You Go journeys and most days reached the £7.50 off peak price cap for zones 1-6.
However, I notice that on the two occasions when I used National Rail services after midnight I was charged for these journeys even though I had already reached the £7.50 price cap earlier in the day and was no longer being charged for tube and bus journeys.
The first occasion was in the early hours of Tuesday 6th April when I was charged £2 for travel between Clapham Junction ( touch in 0156) and East Croydon (touch out 0217).
The second occasion was in the early hours of Saturday 10th April when Iwas charged £2.60 for travel between Victoria Platforms 9-19 (touch in 0255) and East Croydon (touch out 0320).
Although it would be nice to get a refund I am not overly concerned about the small total of only £4.60. What does concern me is that this did happen on the two occasions during the week when I used National Rail after midnight, especially as it did not happen when I used buses after midnight. I would just like you to investigate why this should have happened and so that this does not happen again during future visits to London.
Here is the reply that I eventually received:
Thank you for your email.
Please be assured that the issue you have described is known to Transport for London's (TfL) fares and ticketing department who are working on a solution. However, The is a problem in its current state is essentially an unavoidable consequence of the extension of Oyster pay as you go to National Rail (NR). We have done checks and found that it is extremely rare that customers are affected by it. When customers use National Rail in the small hours, the Oyster daily price cappingprice arrangements occasionally don't work as intended due to the need to spread the times when the end of day/start of day processing takes place at individual stations. Thankfully we know that most customers usingOyster pay as you go on National Rail overnight are out of the scope of price capping anyway.
When the Oyster system moves over from one day to the next for charging purposes, the processing demands on the system are very heavy and to keep the system operational it is necessary to avoid having one single time point for all stations to change over. The processes have always been spread out for Underground stations, but with no impact on customers because the Underground does not operate at the hours concerned. Just occasionally customers travelling overnight with National Rail will find that the system fails to identify that their journey belongs to its correct day for capping purposes.
Having checked your journey history it has been confirmed that you were charged £4.60 more than wouldhave been if price caps had been applied as advertised. In order for me to arrange the most suitable medium through which you can receive the refund of the above amount, please contact me direct on ***********
Please be assured that the issue is being monitored and accept that if it turns out that significant numbers of customers are being affected, we will need to make arrangements for publicising that overnight NR journeys may fall outside the arrangements for daily price capping.
I hope the information I have provided has been helpful. Feel free to contact me should you have any future queries.
**********
Transport for London
Customer Relations
I did eventually get my £4.60 refunded last week.
I started this thread so that others may be aware of this situation.
I think in future if I am to be making journeys after midnight on days when I am likely to have reached the price cap I will get a one day paper ticket instead or if I am going to be travelling around London for a week I will get a 7 day travelcard loaded onto my Oyster.
