The Oyster is my world
SO I walked into the station yesterday morning, picked up my obligatory copy of the Metro- obviously it carried a headline relating to a story not seen on any daily broadsheet or tabloid, The New York Times, Le Monde or Bunty, strolled over to the jaws of death a.k.a. the ticket barriers and slapped my wallet down....Angry buzz!! Red light of shame!! Seek Assistance!!!
Tried again...
Angry buzz!! Red light of shame!! Seek Assistance!!!
Walked over to the troll at the gate to seek assistance to be told that after looking at the coded error message my OysterCard had been cancelled. Hmmm, worked fine two days ago, was well after the first of the month so there should be money for it to top-up from account. Very confused. I presented it to the person in the kiosk (the ticket kiosk not the one selling mags, fizzy drinks and dodgy samosas). He said my pre-pay had been cancelled and gave me a “failed card” form. Fine but didn’t solve my problem of how to get to work on the cheap.
I love pre-pay, as I make a conscious effort not to use public transport at the weekends doing ten single journeys from zone 6 to zone 1 works out about a fiver cheaper than a travelcard. Fortunately the a station assistant who looked like Cap’n Birdseye waved me through the frosted glass frieght gate to the side of the skinny barriers- maybe they’re forward planning for when the population of London are so obese they can’t wedge themselves through the normal sized gates.
At Farringdon however the station assistant, think his name was Lionel Jobsworth tried to make me pay for my journey, the bastard! How dare he- it wasn’t my fault the bloody card had packed up. The ticket man at the excess fares window decided to investigate why the card had been cancelled, aparently an auto-top-up hadn’t gone through and the card had been hot-listed and by rights he should have cut it up! I didn’t care, I was already 20 minutes late for work. I started pleading with him “please mister, I just want to get to work, please!” so he gave me my dud card back, gave me a number to ring and some phoney £3.00 ticket to get through the barrier. Not bad, 0.50p cheaper than pre-pay. Yay!
So, I rang the Oyster helpline number and recited humiliatingly stupid sentences to get throught to the right department and speak to an agent to confirm that a payment hadn’t been collected, TfL regarded me as a criminal and my card had been stopped and was therefore useless. I settled my debts, most of whic they will now refund as way of an apology(!) and I have a new OysterCard.
So the moral of the story... Oyster Pre-Pay is the cheapest way to travel unless your card is broken and you can convey the right mix of desparation and frustration in which case it gets even cheaper!
Just goes to show, you don’t miss it until its gone, the world was my OysterCard – Hey I just got it!
Last modified: Thursday, April 9th, 2026 at 9:34am
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