Oyster problem

[ValleyLines142]

On Wednesday 17th and Thursday 18th July 2013, I made the following journeys in London, all on my Oyster. Not all at once of course; just hopping around London doing various things.

Wednesday 17th July 2013:
(Put £10 on Oyster at Victoria)
Victoria to Earls Court
Earls Court to Leicester Square
Leicester Square to Waterloo
Waterloo to Kingston (2H31 1242 Waterloo to Shepperton)
Kingston to Twickenham on 281 bus
Twickenham to Waterloo (2C60 1812 Reading to Waterloo)
Waterloo to Piccadilly Circus
Piccadilly Circus to Victoria
Victoria to Waterloo (at Victoria, I tapped onto the Victoria Line, and not the Circle Line as I intended to. Could this be a potential problem? I believed I'd reached the price cap).
Waterloo to Twickenham (2C79 2350 Waterloo to Wokingham)

Thursday 18th July 2013:
(Put £5 on Oyster at Twickenham)
Twickenham to Waterloo (2C24 0912 Reading to Waterloo)
Waterloo to Baker Street
Baker Street to Shepherd's Bush
Shepherd's Bush Main Line to Knightsbridge (tapping the pink reader at West Brompton)
Knightsbridge to North Greenwich
North Greenwich to Royal Victoria (Emirates Air Line) (topped £3 on Oyster at North Greenwich)
Royal Victoria to Pudding Mill Lane via Poplar (DLR)
Pudding Mill Lane to Stratford (DLR)
Stratford to Victoria

At Poplar, changing onto a Stratford-bound DLR, I put my Oyster on the reader and realised I was -£7.10 in debt!! Why was this?! I then put on £15 to make sure I wasn't, but then I had too much on there when I checked again at Pudding Mill Lane and couldn't claim the money back!!

Does anyone know what I did wrong?! And what to do next time?! Just put a travelcard on Oyster maybe?! Admittedly I should have been checking how much was on there throughout the day, but I didn't!! I will next time.

Thanks!

 

[yorkie]

Without seeing your Oyster journey history, we cannot analyse the charges, but we can give generic advice, as it's clear that you would have encountered issues due to exceeding the maximum journey time, due to unwanted use of OSIs.

This has happened numerous times before, and there are many threads about it, and as mentioned previously you either need to wait for the OSI to expire, avoid using OSIs, or additionally touch in/out at stations that are en-route but not OSIs, or touch on a bus (or a combination of these techniques).

I then put on £15 to make sure I wasn't, but then I had too much on there when I checked again at Pudding Mill Lane and couldn't claim the money back!!

You can claim back the money that was unnecessarily spent by contacting the Oyster Helpdesk. You need to make a claim within 28 days. They will arrange for the money to be collected by your Oyster card at your nominated station (if you are not travelling to London within 7 days then you will need to call again to arrange that).

As for the money on your card, it stays on your card, but if you decide to cancel your card, you can do that, and you will get the money on your card back. I advise against this if you travel to London every now and then.

Just put a travelcard on Oyster maybe?!

Only if you are in London for long enough to warrant a 7-day Travelcard. One Day Travelcards cannot be loaded onto Oyster.

In order to ensure I can determine where & when something has gone wrong, I recommend registering our Oyster card online and looking at your online journey history.

If you want to ensure your balance never goes negative, I recommend considering auto top-up. Even though I don't live in London, I have enabled this. It saves time and gives you peace of mind.

 

[maniacmartin]

If you are doing many trips like this for fun I recommend a paper travelcard. Oyster's magical OSI linking will otherwise join journeys together, which I suspect is what happened here.

 

[MikeWh]

If you can indicate where you touched out and in (unless each of those lines was a complete journey) then I can try and work out where you might have gone wrong. Also please confirm if it is an adult Oyster card with 16-25 discount applied and whether any of the journeys started before 0930. Also, did you note the balance when topping up at the start of day 2. That might rule out some of the travel.

 

[ValleyLines142]

Without seeing your Oyster journey history, we cannot analyse the charges, but we can give generic advice, as it's clear that you would have encountered issues due to exceeding the maximum journey time or due to unwanted use of OSIs

I cannot access my journey history, as I have literally just registered my Oyster online, so what I will do is next time I'm in London, I will go to a ticket office and get history, and then I will sit down somewhere and look at where I went wrong.

You either need to wait for the OSI to expire, avoid using OSIs, or additionally touch in/out at stations that are en-route but not OSIs, or touch on a bus (or a combination of these techniques).

In fairness, I did only come across one OSI, and that was at West Brompton changing from the Overground to the District Line.

You can claim back the money that was unnecessarily spent by contacting the Oyster Helpdesk. You need to make a claim within 28 days. They will arrange for the money to be collected by your Oyster card at your nominated station (if you are not travelling to London within 7 days then you will need to call again to arrange that).

As for the money on your card, it stays on your card, but if you decide to cancel your card, you can do that, and you will get the money on your card back. I advise against this if you travel to London every now and then.

Will sort this later. Thanks.

In order to ensure I can determine where & when something has gone wrong, I recommend registering our Oyster card online and looking at your online journey history.

Which I have now done

If you want to ensure your balance never goes negative, I recommend considering auto top-up. Even though I don't live in London, I have enabled this. It saves time and gives you peace of mind.

This sounds like a good idea; however, I've been told that it always has a minimum of £10 on there, which would mess my bank account up! So for example, if I have £12 on my Oyster card, and I spend about £4.50 on travel, then there will be £7.50 left. £2.50 will then be taken out of my bank account to top it back up to £10; therefore I will never use that £10.

If you are doing many trips like this for fun I recommend a paper travelcard. Oyster's magical OSI linking will otherwise join journeys together, which I suspect is what happened here.

I've used paper travelcards prior to my Oyster, but the issue I have with them is that they bend, fade, are used so much in the barriers they are sometimes rejected, and on a more lazier note you have to keep taking it out of a travel wallet.

If you can indicate where you touched out and in (unless each of those lines was a complete journey) then I can try and work out where you might have gone wrong. Also please confirm if it is an adult Oyster card with 16-25 discount applied and whether any of the journeys started before 0930. Also, did you note the balance when topping up at the start of day 2. That might rule out some of the travel.

There was no 16-25 railcard added and I didn't travel before 0930. If I remember rightly, my balance was about £4 on the start of day 2; I topped up from a newsagent in Twickenham.


Thanks to all three of you for advice.

 

[yorkie]

In fairness, I did only come across one OSI, and that was at West Brompton changing from the Overground to the District Line.

That's not an OSI. If you went outside the station, touching out and back in, it would have split your journey into two.

This sounds like a good idea; however, I've been told that it always has a minimum of £10 on there, which would mess my bank account up! So for example, if I have £12 on my Oyster card, and I spend about £4.50 on travel, then there will be £7.50 left. £2.50 will then be taken out of my bank account to top it back up to £10; therefore I will never use that £10.

If your finances are that tight, and you prefer to do it all manually, that's up to you, but you must regularly check your balance, and top up manually when required, as if you make a journey without sufficient balance to cover the journey you could be prosecuted.

There was no 16-25 railcard added and I didn't travel before 0930. If I remember rightly, my balance was about £4 on the start of day 2; I topped up from a newsagent in Twickenham.

If all your journeys had been 'resolved' (ie, not exceeded the maximum journey time) then you would have been capped at £8.50
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Leicester Square to Waterloo
Waterloo to Kingston (2H31 1242 Waterloo to Shepperton)

Piccadilly Circus to Victoria
Victoria to Waterloo (at Victoria, I tapped onto the Victoria Line, and not the Circle Line as I intended to. Could this be a potential problem? I believed I'd reached the price cap).

Depending on how long you spent at Waterloo/Victoria, these could have been OSIs, though I don't think either would pose a problem (Victoria - Twickenham would normally be a simple change at Clapham Jn and you went a long way around but I don't think that would have exceeded the journey time, but I am guessing as times are not provided)

Twickenham to Waterloo (2C24 0912 Reading to Waterloo)
Waterloo to Baker Street

Again one journey, but shouldn't be a problem.

Baker Street to Shepherd's Bush
Shepherd's Bush Main Line to Knightsbridge (tapping the pink reader at West Brompton)

That is going to be a problem, as that would all be linked as one journey. (Tapping the pink reader would have no effect as you were travelling to/from Zone 1), this would almost certainly be counted as two separate unresolved journeys, each with maximum fares applied, neither of which would go towards your cap.

I am assuming that a journey is shown on each line, ie you exited/entered at each line break, and not simply changes in trains, ie. Royal Victoria to Pudding Mill Lane via Poplar (DLR) is one journey touching in at Royal Victoria and touching out at Pudding Mill Lane.

The problem is that on some occasions an OSI will link what you think of as two (or more) journeys, as one journey. This normally saves money but it can't cope when convoluted routes are done, or for journeys made for purposes of document exchange/collecting something or someone or simply travelling for the purpose of travelling.

 

[maniacmartin]

Touching a pink reader will enable you to get alternative (cheaper) fares.

This is a totally different concept to an OSI. An OSI is where you leave the station and then shortly afterwards touch in at a designated nearby gateline in the same or another station, and the journeys are linked together as one journey - ie they just assume you are interchanging between lines/stations as part of one continuous journey

 

[MikeWh]

There was no 16-25 railcard added and I didn't travel before 0930. If I remember rightly, my balance was about £4 on the start of day 2; I topped up from a newsagent in Twickenham.

Ahhh, that makes a difference. Twickenham and Kingston are in zones 5 and 6 respectively so you would cap at the full £8.50 on each day. The Emirates cable car costs a further £3.20 on top of the cap, so your total spend for the days should have been £20.20. Presumably you had some spare balance at the start as you only put £18 on before your issue.

Baker Street to Shepherd's Bush
Shepherd's Bush Main Line to Knightsbridge (tapping the pink reader at West Brompton)

That is going to be a problem, as that would all be linked as one journey. (Tapping the pink reader would have no effect as you were travelling to/from Zone 1), this would almost certainly be counted as two separate unresolved journeys, each with maximum fares applied, neither of which would go towards your cap.

I can see where yorkie is coming from, but I doubt it would be a problem. Baker Street to Knightsbridge is a single zone journey but it allows 90 minutes because it's in the Central few zones. Looking at how much other travel was done that day I'd be surprised if those two legs took more than an hour and a half combined. If they had done then it would almost certainly have caused problems before Poplar.

North Greenwich to Royal Victoria (Emirates Air Line) (topped £3 on Oyster at North Greenwich)
Royal Victoria to Pudding Mill Lane via Poplar (DLR)
Pudding Mill Lane to Stratford (DLR)
Stratford to Victoria

At Poplar, changing onto a Stratford-bound DLR, I put my Oyster on the reader and realised I was -£7.10 in debt!! Why was this?! I then put on £15 to make sure I wasn't, but then I had too much on there when I checked again at Pudding Mill Lane and couldn't claim the money back!!

Can you be sure that you touched in and out on the DLR stages? Virtually all the DLR is open (no gates) with only validators at each entrance. Did you have to leave the station at Poplar? Is it one of the few gated DLR stations? (I've never exited there so I don't know). If you hadn't touched in at Royal Victoria and touched a validator twice at Poplar then that would be recorded as a same station exit. If done within two minutes then it would be a maximum journey charge of £7.20 (was it between 1600-1900) which would not count towards the cap.

As has been mentioned, without journey history it's difficult to be more specific, but the scenario above seems the most likely to me. If you haven't used your Oyster since the second day and can get it to an Underground station before much else has happened then you can get a printout of the last 8 journeys on the card. There is no time limit for this, the card just stores the last 8 journeys.

Hopefully I've given you a few pointers to where it might have gone wrong.

 

[ValleyLines142]

That's not an OSI. If you went outside the station, touching out and back in, it would have split your journey into two.

Ah, of course. Apologies. An OSI is like between Bow Church and Bow Road for example, isn't it? For some reason I briefly forgot what they were and thought they were the pink readers.

If your finances are that tight, and you prefer to do it all manually, that's up to you, but you must regularly check your balance, and top up manually when required, as if you make a journey without sufficient balance to cover the journey you could be prosecuted.

Oh god, maybe I might do that then!

If all your journeys had been 'resolved' (ie, not exceeded the maximum journey time) then you would have been capped at £8.50.

This is what I thought

Depending on how long you spent at Waterloo/Victoria, these could have been OSIs, though I don't think either would pose a problem (Victoria - Twickenham would normally be a simple change at Clapham Jn and you went a long way around but I don't think that would have exceeded the journey time, but I am guessing as times are not provided)

It wasn't long at all, barely more than five minutes.

That is going to be a problem, as that would all be linked as one journey. (Tapping the pink reader would have no effect as you were travelling to/from Zone 1), this would almost certainly be counted as two separate unresolved journeys, each with maximum fares applied, neither of which would go towards your cap.

Possibly so. I forgot to mention, at Shepherd's Bush, we were waiting for nearly an hour for a train to West Brompton, due to a problem with line-side equipment. I tapped in at Shepherd's Bush at around 1335, but the first train in the West Brompton direction was the 1419 to South Croydon. Could this delay have anything to do with it?

I am assuming that a journey is shown on each line, ie you exited/entered at each line break, and not simply changes in trains, ie. Royal Victoria to Pudding Mill Lane via Poplar (DLR) is one journey touching in at Royal Victoria and touching out at Pudding Mill Lane.

Yes. This is what I did every time.

Ahhh, that makes a difference. Twickenham and Kingston are in zones 5 and 6 respectively so you would cap at the full £8.50 on each day. The Emirates cable car costs a further £3.20 on top of the cap, so your total spend for the days should have been £20.20. Presumably you had some spare balance at the start as you only put £18 on before your issue.

Indeed so.

Can you be sure that you touched in and out on the DLR stages? Virtually all the DLR is open (no gates) with only validators at each entrance. Did you have to leave the station at Poplar? Is it one of the few gated DLR stations? (I've never exited there so I don't know). If you hadn't touched in at Royal Victoria and touched a validator twice at Poplar then that would be recorded as a same station exit. If done within two minutes then it would be a maximum journey charge of £7.20 (was it between 1600-1900) which would not count towards the cap.

I tapped in at Royal Victoria, boarded a service towards Tower Gateway, then got off at Poplar. I then checked my balance on the reader (I have no idea why I decided to check that late in the day, but there we are!), then I asked my friend who lives in London and uses Oyster daily whether I should tap in, to which he said no, which I believed but wanted to double-check anyway. I don't believe there are barriers at Poplar; I also did not exit the station. I then boarded a Stratford service, got off at Pudding Mill Lane, tapped out at Pudding Mill Lane, then about an hour later I tapped back in at Pudding Mill Lane and caught a Stratford service.

AHHH, I think I know where it's gone wrong. I tapped a reader by the DLR platforms at Stratford, then tapped out again at the main barriers to the station!!

It was also between 1600 and 1900.

 

[maniacmartin]

Suddenly the hassle of getting a paper ticket of your wallet doesn't seem that bad compared to the mysteries of Oyster!

 

[yorkie]

Possibly so. I forgot to mention, at Shepherd's Bush, we were waiting for nearly an hour for a train to West Brompton, due to a problem with line-side equipment. I tapped in at Shepherd's Bush at around 1335, but the first train in the West Brompton direction was the 1419 to South Croydon. Could this delay have anything to do with it?

Absolutely. I still don't know how long you spent at Shepherd's Bush, but assuming the OSI was activated, as Mike says you are allowed up to 90 minutes for the Baker St - Knightsbridge journey, so if around 60 of those minutes were spent on the platform at Shepherd's Bush then you're well over the 90 minute maximum.

I tapped in at Royal Victoria, boarded a service towards Tower Gateway, then got off at Poplar. I then checked my balance on the reader (I have no idea why I decided to check that late in the day, but there we are!), then I asked my friend who lives in London and uses Oyster daily whether I should tap in, to which he said no, which I believed but wanted to double-check anyway.

You were already touched in at the start of your journey. If you touched a standalone reader at Poplar, that would touch you out.

AHHH, I think I know where it's gone wrong. I tapped a reader by the DLR platforms at Stratford, then tapped out again at the main barriers to the station!!

I don't think that would have caused a problem. I think that the standalone reader by the DLR plaforms would have touched you out (in 'continuation exit' mode, meaning the journey can potentially be resumed) and when you exited the station this would have merely confirmed the touch out, as the barriers to exit would be exit-only readers. (MikeWh can correct me if I've got that wrong, but I am pretty sure that's right)
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Suddenly the hassle of getting a paper ticket of your wallet doesn't seem that bad compared to the mysteries of Oyster!

Very true, but as long as you have an Oyster online account and auto-topup enabled, give some thought about OSIs and the like, and are prepared to call the Helpdesk (not straight away - you have to leave it approximately 24 hours) and collect a refund later, then there's no reason not to.

But if you don't want the hassle of applying for refunds, then I would advise a paper ticket, if doing convoluted journeys.

 

[ValleyLines142]

Absolutely. I still don't know how long you spent at Shepherd's Bush, but assuming the OSI was activated, as Mike says you are allowed up to 90 minutes for the Baker St - Knightsbridge journey, so if around 60 of those minutes were spent on the platform at Shepherd's Bush then you're well over the 90 minute maximum.

Well, if you look at my previous post, it was around 1335 when I entered Shepherd's Bush and I eventually left there at 1419, so that's forty-four minutes to be exact. So that probably is the reason.

Also, with regards to Baker Street to Knightsbridge, I left at Shepherd's Bush Underground station (having caught a Central Line service from Oxford Circus), left the station and went to Westfield for the best part of two hours, then checked back in at Shepherd's Bush Overground. However, I presume these were OSIs?

You were already touched in at the start of your journey. If you touched a standalone reader at Poplar, that would touch you out

To confirm, I didn't touch the standalone reader at Poplar; I tapped in at Royal Victoria, and out at Pudding Mill Lane.

I don't think that would have caused a problem. I think that the standalone reader by the DLR plaforms would have touched you out (in 'continuation exit' mode, meaning the journey can potentially be resumed) and when you exited the station this would have merely confirmed the touch out, as the barriers to exit would be exit-only readers. (MikeWh can correct me if I've got that wrong, but I am pretty sure that's right)

Fair play.

Very true, but as long as you have an Oyster online account and auto-topup enabled, give some thought about OSIs and the like, and are prepared to call the Helpdesk (not straight away - you have to leave it approximately 24 hours) and collect a refund later, then there's no reason not to.

But if you don't want the hassle of applying for refunds, then I would advise a paper ticket, if doing convoluted journeys.

Maniacmartin has got a good point actually! I just like Oyster because it's quite sophisticated! (albeit a bloody nightmare!). If I 100% know what I'm doing next time, I shouldn't have any problems!

PS: For more in-depth information about my travels, where you can see what transport methods I used, please see my trip report here.

 

[jon0844]

Is there ever any plan to allow a One Day TC to be put on Oyster? I can see that there's the argument about why you'd want to, if it caps anyway, but clearly there are a number of issues with managing funds and a lot of people would prefer to just have no hassle.

 

[tony_mac]

Very true, but as long as you have an Oyster online account and auto-topup enabled, give some thought about OSIs and the like, and are prepared to call the Helpdesk (not straight away - you have to leave it approximately 24 hours) and collect a refund later, then there's no reason not to.

Yes, if it wasn't for the possibility of being overcharged, the difficult of finding out what the overcharge was for, the hassle of arranging any refund, and the hassle of arranging to actually collect the refund, I would use Oyster all the time!

But if you don't want the hassle of applying for refunds, then I would advise a paper ticket, if doing convoluted journeys.

It isn't just convoluted journeys that can cause problems!

 

[yorkie]

Well, if you look at my previous post, it was around 1335 when I entered Shepherd's Bush and I eventually left there at 1419, so that's forty-four minutes to be exact. So that probably is the reason.

But I still don't know if an OSI was activated or what the journey was considered to be. All I know is :
Baker Street [touch-in time unknown] to Shepherd's Bush [touch-out time unknown]
Shepherd's Bush [touch-in time 1335] to Knightsbridge [touch-out time unknown though I could guess around 1440-1450]

So still a lot of guesswork.

Also, with regards to Baker Street to Knightsbridge, I left at Shepherd's Bush Underground station (having caught a Central Line service from Oxford Circus), left the station and went to Westfield for the best part of two hours, then checked back in at Shepherd's Bush Overground. However, I presume these were OSIs?

I think you must have missed the hyperlink I posted earlier, so here it is again:

http://www.oyster-rail.org.uk/out-of-station-interchange-osi

As you can see, the OSI would not have been activated as you spent 2 hours there.

I am sorry but I think it's best we leave it there, until we see your journey history (or, perhaps, a rough list of timings that you touched in/out, from memory, in tabular format could possibly do).
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

It isn't just convoluted journeys that can cause problems!

True, though what I mean is, if I specifically knew I was going to do convoluted journeys then I probably wouldn't use Oyster. But incomplete journeys can happen for a variety of reasons, as you quite rightly say.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Is there ever any plan to allow a One Day TC to be put on Oyster? I can see that there's the argument about why you'd want to, if it caps anyway, but clearly there are a number of issues with managing funds and a lot of people would prefer to just have no hassle.

I very much doubt they will listen to us, no.

(and if anyone from TfL is reading this who would like to start a dialogue and prove me wrong, I'd very much like to hear from you!)

 

[Antman]

Is there ever any plan to allow a One Day TC to be put on Oyster? I can see that there's the argument about why you'd want to, if it caps anyway, but clearly there are a number of issues with managing funds and a lot of people would prefer to just have no hassle.

If I am going to make a number of journies (which would reach the cap) I'll just buy a ODTC and that's payment done and dusted for the day. Is there really and benefit to putting it onto an Oyster rather than using a paper ticket?

 

[Mojo]

I suppose there are a number of advantages including not having to mess about with paper tickets and ticket gates

 

[jon0844]

If I am going to make a number of journies (which would reach the cap) I'll just buy a ODTC and that's payment done and dusted for the day. Is there really and benefit to putting it onto an Oyster rather than using a paper ticket?

The benefit to me is that it's easier to tap in and out. It's why I split tickets years ago to travel around London with Oyster, even though I couldn't have Oyster from Hatfield.

 

[bb21]

I fully echo the advice to use Day Travelcards if there is a fair bit of travelling around. Even experienced people like myself get caught up in unexpected OSIs at times.

The last time it happened to me, ironically I took special care to ensure that I touched in and out correctly for every journey, whereas a colleague messed things up a bit at an LU station which broke his OSIs. As we were both already capped for the day, he ended up just fine, yet I ended up with two unresolved journeys by the time we got to Willesden Junction due to these OSIs. Not too much a hassle ringing the Oyster helpline to get the money back, but certainly something I could have done without.

 

[OwlMan]

Oyster is an advantage if you go to the areas that use payg but are not part of the travelcard area

 

[jon0844]

Oyster is an advantage if you go to the areas that use payg but are not part of the travelcard area

Yes, but you could still buy, say, a Z1-6 TC and put it on your Oyster, and then use PAYG beyond that.

 

[mattdickinson]

Is there ever any plan to allow a One Day TC to be put on Oyster? I can see that there's the argument about why you'd want to, if it caps anyway, but clearly there are a number of issues with managing funds and a lot of people would prefer to just have no hassle.

Not directly, but when ITSO on Prestige actually happens, Out-Boundary One Day Travelcards will be a ticket type that can be loaded on ITSO cards for journeys starting outside London.

 

[transmanche]

As TfL didn't offer ODTCs loaded onto Oyster cards when it would have been really useful to lots of people (i.e. when most TOCs didn't accept Oyster PAYG) I really can't see them doing it now.

In 10 years of Oyster usage I've only ever had a couple of issues caused by a missed touch out or exceeding the journey time. In both those cases, I got it sorted via the website without needing to call the helpline. Just click Oyster help and Make a complaint and then Oyster. You'll find a myriad of categories to select including Maximum Journey Time and Touch In/Touch Out Issues. Nice and straightforward. Probably takes a bit longer to get your refund, but saves faffing around on the phone.

 

[MikeWh]

Well, if you look at my previous post, it was around 1335 when I entered Shepherd's Bush and I eventually left there at 1419, so that's forty-four minutes to be exact. So that probably is the reason.

Also, with regards to Baker Street to Knightsbridge, I left at Shepherd's Bush Underground station (having caught a Central Line service from Oxford Circus), left the station and went to Westfield for the best part of two hours, then checked back in at Shepherd's Bush Overground. However, I presume these were OSIs?

Two hours in Westfield means that it was definitely two journeys. Shepherds Bush to Knightsbridge is two central zones so 100 minutes is allowed, so even a 40 minute wait for a train is going to struggle to jeopardise that.

To confirm, I didn't touch the standalone reader at Poplar; I tapped in at Royal Victoria, and out at Pudding Mill Lane.

So you touched on a ticket machine at Poplar? That explains it all then. Your balance was 10p as you'd already capped, but even when capped it deducts a maximum journey fare every time you touch in (then refunds it all when you touch out). If you check your balance while in the system it will include the extra deduction. 10p - £7.20 = -£7.10. When you touched out at Pudding Mill Lane it will have given you the £7.20 back.

Yorkie is right about the continuation exit at Stratford. You did precisely what the system is designed to cope with, touching out twice. It can cause problems if you aren't about to leave the system, so it's a good idea not to do it the other way round.

 

[ValleyLines142]

Bloody hell I'm so having a paper ticket next time! Or just sticking to Zone 1!

 

[yorkie]

.... In both those cases, I got it sorted via the website without needing to call the helpline. ...

Ah but does that work when capped?

I had a journey automatically resolved, but it only wanted to refund me the difference between the fare for the journey and the fare paid. In reality the fare for the journey should have been zero as I was already capped. A nice system, yes, but has its limitations.

 

[transmanche]

I had a journey automatically resolved, but it only wanted to refund me the difference between the fare for the journey and the fare paid. In reality the fare for the journey should have been zero as I was already capped. A nice system, yes, but has its limitations.

I'm not talking about automatic resolutions (that's a different ball game), but using the function on the website to send a specific message (see previous post) - rather than having to phone up.

Last time I had to do it was a couple of summers ago, changing from DLR to Jubilee at Canning Town I found the Jubilee line with extensive delays following an earlier suspension. I let quite a few train go by as they were wedged. I wasn't in a hurry and it was a hot evening. So I sat on a platform bench and read a book for a while, until things got quieter. Coupled with the fact that I'd let quite a few DLR trains go by earlier when I bumped into a friend going the opposite direction, I ended up exceeding the maximum journey time. Rather than ring up to resolve, I just used the process on the website that I described earlier. It also meant I could log the request when I got home that night, rather than waiting until morning to call an expensive 0845 number too (although they do now have a mobile-friendly 0343 number).

 

[CNash]

Did you have to leave the station at Poplar? Is it one of the few gated DLR stations? (I've never exited there so I don't know).

Moot now, of course, but in case you were wondering - Poplar isn't gated. There are validators on (or leading up to) the footbridge that spans the main road.

 

[paddington]

Bloody hell I'm so having a paper ticket next time! Or just sticking to Zone 1!

I'm a bit surprised that it took so long for people to figure out what happened.

Basically, you made the mistake of checking your balance DURING a journey.

NEVER do this (unless you are morbidly fascinated with the programming behind Oyster)!

If you had touched in at (e.g.) Knightsbridge, then handed your Oyster to a mate to check at the ticket machine outside the gated area, it could and would have shown a balance of -£7 or so as well.

 

[maniacmartin]

You can see this quirk in action when changing between LU and NR at Finsbury Park, where the gates show your balance with the mid-journey deductions. It confuses no end of passengers - when I was there a member of platform staff seemed to have a full time job explaining the problem repeatedly to people who passed through the gateline!