With First Capital Connect, I was getting nowhere

When I renewed my First Capital Connect monthly season ticket, the clerk at my local station charged £116 to my Oyster card. She handed back my card and processed payment to my bank account. I assumed she had credited the Oyster card as she gave me a receipt. In the past, I had been given a paper travelcard to use at mainline ticket machines so assumed that payment could now be made directly from a national rail station within the Oyster scheme, and it was no longer necessary to have a separate record card. But when I tried to use the Oyster card it would not work. The payment had not been incorporated on to it and I did need the separate record card. An employee suggested I buy another £116 monthly travel card and reclaim the first payment from FCC. According to FCC, however, the clerk insists she did provide me with a record card so it will not refund £116. FCC offered me a duplicate card for £10 but that was useless as I already had a season ticket for that month and, in any case, it would take two weeks to arrive. I complained to London Travel Watch which recommended that FCC refund me. FCC refused and offered me a derisory £10 as a goodwill gesture. AM, London FCC says it does not retail Oyster cards at your local station so, if you had handed one over, it would have been given back. Its internal auditor later visited the station, watched the staff selling tickets and listened to the advice they gave customers. It says every request for an Oyster card was refused. You then wrote to FCC before threatening to go to the small claims court. FCC admitted that you had received confused information and agreed to send you, as a gesture of goodwill, travel vouchers worth £116 to use in a future month. You tried to persuade FCC to convert these to cash but vouchers are as far as it will go. • Email Margaret Dibben at [email protected] or write to Margaret Dibben, Your Problems, The Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU and include a telephone number. Do not enclose SAEs or original documents. Letters are selected for publication and we cannot give personal replies. The newspaper accepts no legal responsibility for advice.