Gold Card Oyster Discount

[Deleted]

Hi all,

I am a Gold card holder, and as such am entitled to discounted Oyster fare, like this one:

www.oyster-rail.org.uk/railcard-discounts/

When I renewed my card the ticket office staff member told me that the discount was now pre-loaded on the ticket, and she didn't need to add it manually, but I am not receiving discounts on the card.

When I try and ask for my discount, most ticket staff are baffled - they haven't been trained to include it.

Does anyone have a hint for a ticket office where they will be able to set the discount up? And why doesn't it happen automatically?!

[metrailway]

The ticket offices at the National Rail terminals in London should be able to load your discount with no problem.

You could also try a 'joint' station LUL booking office like Harrow on the Hill or West Ruislip as staff knowledge on National Rail related matters, such as railcards, tends to be better at joint stations.

You are certainly not the only one to have experienced this.

[norbitonflyer]

Having renewed my season ticket earlier this week at an NR station that doesn't do Oyster, and reminded by danb's post (thanks!), I got the discount applied at St Pauls with little trouble, as I have done in the past. However, unlike last time when they just did something to the Oyster, this time I had to fill in a form to register the card - although I thought it was registered already

[Deleted]

Only yesterday I had my 16-25 railcard added to my oyster card at Sloane Square. Took less then a minute, the guy just pressed loads of buttons and kept tapping my card on the reader - about 5 times in all I think... :/
Toby

[Tomcakes]

They are better than they used to be - when they first offered railcard discounts, it was often a struggle to find a member of staff who knew how to add them to your card.

(Although it was much easier to find a ticket office...)

[Chris M]

Stratford station LU ticket office staff always seem competent in these matters in my experience with YP discounts.

[snoggle]

Leicester Square added mine to my card without any problems in Feb this year.

I would have expected staff to be alert to this particular discount and also familiar with how to do it because this is the time of year when a lot of annual tickets are renewed.

[alholmes]

There's an interesting FoI request here (http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/annual_travel_cards_and_gold_car#incoming-340267) that showed that:
a) Section 10 of the Ticketing & Revenue Book 2 states "When issuing an adult rate Annual Travelcard on an Oyster card, you must also add a Railcard discount entitlement with the same expiry date as the ticket"
b) Of the 107,000 oyster cards that currently hold an annual travelcard sold at an LU station, only 21% have the discount registered.

I renewed my ticket today at Liverpool Street (Central line) ticket office and had no problem at all.

Interesting that norbitonflyer had to fill in a form at St Pauls - last year the staff at that station were asking me for my username and password to register the railcard discount - something which I refused to give. Stratford had no problem registering the discount later that day.

[Deleted]

I tend to present my Oyster Card and National Rail Gold Card at a Central Zone One ticket office, where they add it on without any form filling needed. (It's a Barclaycard type Oyster card though).

[Deleted]

Has policy changed when you no longer need a card?

To attempt a refund I had to go to three separate stations.

At the first station I was told to cancel my card. I'd need to register it at the ticket online and at the ticket office then bring in photo I'd and two proofs of address (have not been asked for that ever before)

At the second station I was told that next year the deposit for a card was going up to £50 and that he would be ripping me off if he let me hand it back and refused to do it.

At the third station they just asked me to sign the receipt and withdrew my card.


Why do you get so much conflicting advice? Or are the first two LU policy now?

[bicbasher]

Dec 21, 2012 21:13:31 GMT alholmes said:

I renewed my ticket today at Liverpool Street (Central line) ticket office and had no problem at all.

Interesting that norbitonflyer had to fill in a form at St Pauls - last year the staff at that station were asking me for my username and password to register the railcard discount - something which I refused to give. Stratford had no problem registering the discount later that day.

I was asked to fill in a form at Elephant & Castle to add a Bus & Tram Photocard. I refused. Leicester Square wanted me to register the card, it was already registered, so the clerk got on the phone to ask permission for him to add the photocard without me filling a form in. In the end he just asked for my postcode and added it manually into the system along with the photocard data.

No problems at all at Charing Cross or Victoria.