Oyster card refunds for delays - A simple way to claim refunds

I am endebted to Councillor Robert Rams for drawing my attention to http://www.claimmyrefund.co.uk/, a simple and easy to use service which lets Oyster card holders receive refunds for  delayed or incomplete tube journeys. According to their website

 

ClaimMyRefund is an independent service, identifying and submitting refund applications for delayed tube journeys for Oyster card holders.
Within the two week claim limit set by Transport for London, using bespoke technology will check all your journeys and identify those that qualify for a refund, process the information required, finally submiting each one on your behalf.
You will receive an email each time a claim is made.
ClaimMyRefund's goal is to provide a 'while you sleep' delayed journey refund claim service to all Oyster card holders.

 I have to confess that I didn't even know you could claim a refund for a late tube journey. I thought these only applied to season ticket holders. The service only costs £2 a year, which means for most regular tube users, it will more than pay for itself after a month or two.

Anyway, check it out. It could save you a few quid and make those nightmare journeys seem a bit more palatable. Personally I think that people who develop technology like this deserve support and if they make a pretty penny out of it, all the better.

Just a quick word about Councillor Rams. I follow his twitter feed and he tweeted about the service in response to someone who asked how they could get a refund. Councillor Rams is one of the very few Barnet Councillors who use twitter and I do think many of them are missing a trick. In the course of their work, Councillors come across all manner of useful information which can be of use to the people they serve. Using twitter and blogs to get this information across is the way forward. I recently commended Robert Rams for also blogging about his diabetes - http://robertrams.wordpress.com/2013/07/29/dealing-with-diabetes-an-open-letter-to-theresa-may/ - I personally would like to see all our councillors use their knowledge and experience to help the rest of us. The Barnet Eye believes in giving credit where credit is due so today we say well done to Councillor Rams for passing on this useful tip. We suggest that he does what we've done and adds a link from his blog to the site as well, so his army of avid readers can receive the benefit of the information in the way that the readers of the Barnet Eye will.

First Capital Connect and the Oyster Pay as You Go daylight robbery scam

On Wednesday 30th September I posted this blog about the awful experience my daughter had at the hands of an aggressive bully of a ticket inspector at Mill Hill Broadway Station. She didn't realise that you can't use Pay as You Go Oyster Cards at Mill Hill and got a £20 penalty fare, even though she'd touched in at St Pancras, where there are no warning signs. As she couldn't touch out she was also deducted a fare higher than the one she should have paid.

I got quite a response from the story. People told me many tales of rude and surly inspectors. What I didn't expect was the email I got today. This was from someone who has used a Pay as You Go Oyster card at Mill Hill. This is an extract from his statement

22/09/09
21:28 Mill Hill Broadway Exit £1.70 £9.40
21:00 Farringdon Entry - £4.00 £7.70

He explained that on the 22/09/09, the Oyster PAYG readers at Mill Hill were working. he touched out with them and as his statement clearly shows, he was deducted the fare.

What does this mean. It means that all of those people like my daughter, who suffered abuse and humiliation have been scammed. The system is there, it works, they just don't want to use it.

Yesterday (Tuesday) I saw a team of inspectors again fining people for using PAYG Oyster cards. I'd suggest that anyone receiving a penalty fare from these people informs them that the system is working and that they are extorting money under false pretences. I don't know when the system became usable, but usable it is.Point this out to them.

YOU HAVE A TICKET, THEY HAVE A MACHINE THAT CAN READ IT, IF THEY CHOOSE TO NOT USE THAT MACHINE, THEY CANNOT JUSTIFY CHARGING YOU A PENALTY CHARGE.

I have proof that the system works, so there is no longer any justification for this scam and the humiliation of law abiding customers to continue. As before, urge Boris Johnson, James Cleverly and Brian Coleman to bang some heads together to stop this scam.

A question for James Cleverly GLA member and Boris Ambassador - Where is the common sense?

I despair of this country sometimes. It seems to me that that there is no such thing as common sense or common decency in the petty minded, bureaucrats we have to deal with. If you received an official letter from an arm of the government about one of your children, how would you react.

Putting aside the obnoxious and patronising tone for one second, you might think that my child had been up to some serious no good. Talk of courts and sentences. What henious crime do you think the offspring of Rog T have been getting up to.

Well one of my children went down to London for the day with some friends. On the way back, she decided to use the Thameslink Service from St Pancras to Mill Hill. She touched in at the Thameslink station and the barrier opened. She went and got on the train.At Mill Hill, she was stopped by a ticket inspector. "Where's your ticket" He asked. She produced her pay as you go Oyster card. He said "That's not valid at this station" My child replied "Oh, I'm sorry I didn't know, it let me get on the train and it's in zone 4 so I thought it was". The inspector replied "You should know that Thameslink isn't covered by Pay as you go". My child replied "There were no signs". The inspector was adamanant "You should have checked, I'm giving you a £20 penalty fare notice". My child has never been in trouble and was quite traumatised. As she'd touched in but not touched out, she'd actually been charged more than the cost of the journey, she'd been terrorised by a bully in a uniform and she'd been told she'd have to pay a fine.

My wife wrote a letter of appeal to the appeals service. She explained that my daughter, had made a genuine mistake. Shes not familiar with the ins and outs and arcane payment rules. She didn't realise that Thameslink is not in the scheme. There are even PAYG readers in the station. She explained that for young people, unfamiliar with all of this the system can be confusing. She explained that my daughter had used her Oyster PAYG at ST Pancras, so presumably had actually been charged for her journey. She assumed that as PAYG worked in St Pancras it would work in a Station in zone 4. The fact that Boris can't get the system to work at Mill Hill, despite having the readers installed for nearly a year, is not relevant. The fact that there are no big signs alerting kids. The fact that she'd never done it before. Nothing mattered to the cash hungry vultures. Here's what the reply said.  Click on the letter for a readable view.

Even more insulting to me was the letter from the "revenue collection" side. This is the bit of the organisation which wants your dosh. If this is how they treat youngsters who have made a genuine and understandable mistake, is there any wonder that we are losing respect for such institutions.

What justification can there possibly be for being so threatening and patronising to parents of a child who has made a genuine mistake. I can think of nothing worse than bullies in uniforms picking on children. Especially when they are backed by a cruel, heartless and aggressive bureaucracy. One other point I will make. Boris Johnson said when he took over that he'd sort out pay as you go Oyster cards on National Rail. There was a revenue protection hit squad at Mill Hill Broadway on Tuesday evening, giving penalty fares to people with PAYG Oyster cards. I asked one of these people when the PAYG Oyster, which they have readers for at Mill Hill would be available. His reply "I'm not here to answer questions". Boris's deputy mayor for Young People is a Conservative GLA member called James Cleverely. He's a good guy, by all accounts. He talks straight and seems honest. I have this question for you James. What message has all of this sent to my child? What opinion of authority will she have now? Have a word with your boss Boris and get him to sort these numskulls out. By all means fine kids if they lie, repeatedly get caught or try and evade fares. In this case a polite explanation and a warning not to do it again would have sufficed. It appalls me. Here is the full letter from the purple nasties.