The Key

I started using this ticket at the start of the year. For years we have been expecting Southeastern Trains (SET) to replace the paper tickets with a smart card. After all in London they have been using the Oyster card instead of paper and cash for a number of years.

In the photo you can just about detect the discoloration, bottom centre, where there is a little crack. The card now doesn't work at all. Unlike the Oyster it doesn't have an obvious microchip in it.

I reported this on the 7th April and expected a new card in about a week to ten days, this extended in an email from them to two weeks.  I called them today as the replacement hasn't arrived and they had a look. Twelve days ago the card was being tested. Six days ago it was being tested.  Today?  Who knows?

The Key from Southeastern Trains

Until it went wrong it has generally worked okay. I buy a new monthly travelcard that covers train from Kent and tubes/buses in London as well.   It ain't cheap folks. Luckily a kidney regrows each month in time for the next time I have to pay out.

Whilst the train section of my journey is okay, I show the emailed receipt for the kidney, and the conductor laughs it off , and the gate staff grumble and let me through.  But.  The Tube/Bus staff look at me as though I have printed my own non-working ticket and won't let me travel. So instead I have to use my contactless credit card to buy each journey. I can claim this back from SET once the new card is up an running, whenever that will be.

So far pretty poor service.

Update 5/5/17:

A flurry of phone calls after I had logged a complaint that I was still waiting and in the weeks since I had reported it the ticket had expired and I was now using a paper ticket again.

The upshot is that as it has expired, they will cancel the account and I can then order a new one, which has been done and I have ordered a new one.  Whether I use it of course is another question.

As for recovering my out of pocket tube fares, they say there is a form and I need to send my bank statements in with the amounts and they will pay it back.  Now that remains to be seen!