Unable to top-up Oyster card - question

[whole diary]

[Brucey]

This evening I travelled from Acton Main Line up to Greenford, to join the Central Line.  I allowed five minutes between arriving and the train departing - plenty of time.

The TVMs^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) (two S&B machines, in a mini bus shelter type canopy) were both working, in that holding my Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) card on the reader displayed my balance.  However as the screen was wet, nothing happened when I touched the screen.  No matter where I hit the screen, nothing happened, except when I managed to get "Start Again" to work

I had enough credit to cover the minimum fare, so the system let me "touch in".  I topped up at my destination before "touching out", luckily the destination station has an ungated side entrance with an adjacent TVM.

Question is ... what should I have done if I couldn't touch in because my Oyster card didn't have enough credit for the minimum fare and the TVM wouldn't work?  Find an Oyster Ticket Stop and miss my train?  Phone FGW^▸ (First Great Western) to seek advice and miss my train?  Not touch in and risk a penalty fare or prosecution?  There are no guards on these FGW trains, so talking to them before boarding is not a possibility.

[Kernow Otter]

In a similar vein, my wife took one of our Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) cards for a trip to Londonshire last week. 

This morning I have received an email from TFL^▸ (Transport for London) telling me that the card is owed a refund of ^ 2.80 owing to a technical error, and that to claim it we need to 'touch in' at Kings Cross, hardly practical from Lostwithiel.

I have emailed TFL, and await their response.....

[Brucey]

That is quite a common problem for visitors to London.  After 8 days, the credit will expire and you will get an email.  Keep the email and click the link a few days before your next visit to London, where you can select a station to pick up the credit from.

The system really isn't perfect, especially for infrequent travellers.

[thetrout]

I had a similar problem to Brucey a while ago.

I started my journey from Chalkwell and the ticket machine at the station was broken and ticket office closed. So I boarded the train into London and conducted the planned journey. Arriving at West Ham there were no staff on the barriers so I couldn't access the ticket machines there either. So continued to Waterloo effectively risking an Penalty Fare. However as the facilities were not available at Chalkwell I was reasonably confident that even if I were approached by revenue I'd be ok.

Anyway I got to Waterloo and went to Excess Fares to explain myself and was charged ^4.00 for a Zone 3 - Zone 1 Single. When I queried the part between Chalkwell and West Ham the chap in the LU ticket office said and I quote "That's their loss" and I was allowed on my way.


That being said I also had an issue with my OysterCard when I touched in at Upminster (Straight out of a c2c train and back into the same train again). It occured to me that I might not have the funds for the journey I was making. In this case Zone 6 - Zone 1. So I attempted a topup online at the TfL^» (Transport for London - about) website which was a nightmare from a phone on its own without the poor signal issues.

Eventually I secured a ^10.00 topup but had to collect it at Paddington on my way out rather than credit straight to the card. As it turned out I had more than sufficient funds so it was a baseless panic. But I wanted to be able to demonstrate I had made more than reasonable attempts to rectify the situation if I didn't have sufficient balance for the fare. But thankfully I needn't have panicked

[Brucey]

I have asked my original question to FGW^▸ (First Great Western) on their Facebook page.  Link to post on Facebook.