I lost my Oystercard this evening, and tried to report this at the Tube Station. The chap said I had to report it to Oystercard direct, and gave me a phone number. I was anxious to do this straightaway because, not only does it have an unspent balance on it, but, every time it falls below £5, it is automatically topped up (ATU) with £20, so, unstopped, it could give a thieving toerag unlimited free travel on London Transport at my expense.
Apparently, it's not registered. Which is strange, because I filled in a form at St James's Park Station when I first got it to enable me to buy a weekly or monthly travel card. I was told specifically that you to use pay-as-you-go did not need registration, but for a weekly or longer season ticket, it did. And I purchased quite a few weekly season tickets - although I stopped doing that when I went part time. And, when I enquired, I gave my post code and house number, and they confirmed that they had two cards with ATU at that address. One last used on 7 July on the 45 bus, and another one, not registered, with a balance of £12 with ATU. Guess which is his and which is mine...
I also registered it at the website. That's why I have a user name; that's why they were able to email me to notify me about the introduction of ATU. According to the man on the phone, because it hasn't been registered, I can't get a refund of my outstanding balance. Not only that, but they can't stop it. and, furthermore, there's nothing I can do to stop the ATU.
I was very nearly hysterical, and although I made it clear that my argument was not with him personally, it was still utterly unacceptable. He said I could make a complaint about St James's Park Underground. With increasing anger - but cold, restrained anger...no, I was bloody hysterical, I asked him exactly what was acceptable about some thieving toe-rag being able to keep using my Oystercard as the money keeps coming out of my account, £20 a time.
Surprise, surprise, I'm suddenly on hold and talking to the supervisor. Suddenly, the card is cancelled, so if thieving toe-rag decides to try and use it, they won't be able to. Suddenly, they can stop the ATU and suddenly I have a transaction number generated by the supervisor as a result of a) cancelling the card and b) cancelling the ATU.
And yet, even though I had to fill in a form originally in order to be able to purchase a season ticket, and even though they are able to match the card to my house number/post-code, tell me the balance, tell me when it was last used, and they have - even if not directly accessible at that point - my bank details, they are perfectly entitled to steal £12 off me, because they swear it isn't registered. It's not in my nature to say 'nice little scam' but hey, it seems like a nice little scam. My word against theirs that it's registered. If they do they this for every lost card - tell people it's not registered, they can make a fucking fortune. I wonder if some people would have taken "I'm afraid we can't cancel ATU because it's not registered" as the final answer.
The only way I can complain is by writing a letter. No email address or web-form, they say. Well, we shall see. I know it's only twelve pounds, but it's the principle of the matter. If I do not get a satisfactory response to my first complain, I'm going to my AM, and, if necessary Ken himself.
