tfl incomplete journey charge

You won't believe how much money TfL makes from incomplete journeys

You won't believe how much money TfL makes from incomplete journeys

Ever entered the sprawling labyrinth of London’s tube network and instantly fretted over whether you've tapped your Oyster Card properly? Or felt the sharp prang of paranoia when your contactless debit card doesn't seem to make the right beep?

Well you’d be right to worry. Incomplete journeys, otherwise known as when passengers do not swipe either in or out using their Oyster card or contactless debit card at a station, happen more than you’d think, and it’s padding the pockets of TfL like you wouldn’t believe.

As revealed by The Telegraph , between 2011 and 2016, TfL pocketed £277m from passengers making incomplete journeys - the sort of sum you’d probably need an eight carriage train to transport if ever laid out in cash.

When an incomplete journey is made a maximum fare - up to £8.90 per rail journey - is charged by the rail operator as it is not possible to assess the correct fare without both touch-in and touch-out data. There were 15.1m of these journeys last year alone, and even after the refunds given, TfL still made £58.7m from it.

So what do the TfL chiefs have to say? Not much really, arguing that charging these fees “protects all users of public transport from the cost of fare evasion" - or fare dodging as the rest of us call it.

Speaking to The Telegraph , a spokesperson for consumer rights group Resolver, which has been critical over the money TfL makes from incomplete journeys, said:

“This is another example of the transport industry profiting from consumer confusion. Train companies are making millions from confused consumers buying travel cards for children and making incomplete journeys.

“Excessive effort is put into excess fares and charging but not into ensuring pricing is plain and simple, or that we get back what we are owed.”

It also appears that there is double the chance of having a technical glitch on your Oyster or contactless card if you’re on the overground: stats from last year show that 3.8 per cent of London’s National Rail journeys were incomplete, compared to just 1.5 per cent of Underground and DLR journeys.

Be careful out there.

[Via: The Telegraph ]

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Watch out! How your smart device can charge you twice on London transport

26 October 2022

Do you have your mobile phone or another smart device connected to your bank account so you can travel without a second thought? This saves on the need to buy paper tickets or delve into your wallet for a debit or Oyster card.

But did you know that if you touch in with your mobile phone and out with your smartwatch at a TfL station, you may be charged the maximum ticket fare? Twice.

This is a big bugbear for passengers riding the tube, DLR, London Overground, Elizabeth line and even Thames Clipper boat services.

The double charge occurs because while the same bank account is usually registered to the smart phone or watch, they carry separate unique device codes (or Permanent Account Numbers). Therefore, the ticket readers think that two separate journeys are ‘incomplete’ as the person using their mobile phone did not touch out while the person with the smartwatch seemingly did not touch in to start their journey.

Joanna Davidson, CEO for London TravelWatch, said:

“We’d like TfL to work with the issuing banks to see if this issue can be resolved in the interests of hard-pressed passengers where every penny really does count right now.

We don’t think it should matter if the devices being used are different, only that the same registered bank account is paying for the journey.

We know that once someone works out they have been charged twice due to a ‘mixed-device payment’ issue, requesting a refund is relatively straightforward. But it is not immediately obvious that a double charge has taken place as the ticket gates still open as normal.”

To avoid unnecessary charges, Transport for London encourages passengers to always touch in and out using the same device.

In 2022, the London TravelWatch casework team has received concerns from customers about this issue. Many did not find out about being charged twice for some time, with multiple journeys affected. That is because the ticket gates open as normal even if you’ve used multiple devices to complete your journey. They do not beep to warn passengers there might be an issue.

In industry speak this issue is called a ‘mixed-device payment’. People either touch in and out on card readers using different devices in error, or because they believe the system will be able to tell it is the same person making the journey. Either way, the result is that they then need to request a refund.

London TravelWatch is recommending that if you do pay for travel using smart devices you should check your bank statements regularly and keep on top of any of these potential issues, so you don’t lose out.

• You can register for an online account with TfL at https://contactless.tfl.gov.uk and information on using contactless with mobile devices can be found here – https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/how-to-pay-and-where-to-buy-tickets-and-oyster/pay-as-you-go/contactless-and-mobile-pay-as-you-go
• Around 30 per cent of incomplete Oyster journeys and 50 per cent of Contactless journeys are corrected either automatically or by the customer requesting a refund via TfL’s website or customer services team. Data on incomplete journeys can be found online at https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publications-and-reports/contactless-payment

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TFL Incomplete Journey Process - collection period - London Forum

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Apparently the touch in failed to register - so it shows as a touch out at Liverpool Street without touch in.

(We both went through a 'constantly open' wide gate at South Ken because it was chaos at the normal gates with long queues - my card touched in okay and showed 'enter' whilst my wife put her card up to the reader and thought it was touched properly. The staff member even seemed to acknowledge the 'swipe' though she was being hassled by others asking questions at the time. One guy wanted to take a group of 50 through behind us!).

So she's been charged full fare of £8.90 rather than the £2.50 that the tube ride should have cost.

The incomplete journey now shows up (48 hours later) on our Oyster account - but if we apply for a refund, entering the missing journey details, it states that it will need to be collected within the next few days - we won't be travelling for a week at least.

Question is - what's the process around this - will the refund get lost if not collected at a reader?

I could defer the refund application (it gives 8 weeks to apply) until just before our next trip, but would prefer to get it sorted now.

If the refund wasn't collected at a reader would it go back to the original funding source, or as a credit on the online account?

Stop press - whilst typing this I managed to get through by phone to an agent at TFL who has put it through as a credit (choice offered was bank card or to online account). It would still be useful to know the online process.

Are the cards registered on an account with TfL? If so I believe you can get a refund via there, if not I have contacted the help desk and got a refund that way many times, they have refunded to a bank account as well if you are not using the card in the near future.

Call 0343 222 1234 (Charges may apply)

I used to get uncompleted journies all the time. I always made a point if for any reason the gates were open to check when I got a green light. Also bear in mind if you swipe in and there is no service then swipe out and walk to the next station station and swipe in again you get charged twice.

Also if you are at a large station and you swipe in then there is a platform change and you swipe out and in again you get charged twice.

Yes, the Oyster cards are registered on the TFL account along with our other contactless cards that we can use if we wish - that's why I put "The incomplete journey now shows up (48 hours later) on our Oyster account".

I've now got a refund sorted by calling TFL and it's now showing as a 'web credit' - the remaining question was around what happens if you apply for an incomplete journey refund online but don't collect the refund by touching in at a reader within a few days - the answer seems to be that it will be credited to your online account as a 'web credit' or original funding source.

Thanks anyway...

Not sure where it is but somewhere on the gate is a display with amber or green LED. Some sort of error code as well.

Yep, if you don't use your Oyster card within five days the credit becomes web credit. Which you can then add to your PAYG amount as part of a payment onto your card.

Thanks - that’s the answer I was looking for - might have saved a call to TFL, but the agent was nice to talk to…

Hopefully my wife won’t do such again…..

This topic has been closed to new posts due to inactivity.

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How to use contactless payments on the London Underground

For those that live in Greater London, the contactless revolution has truly arrived, with TFL offering contactless payment since Tuesday, in addition to regular Oyster cards. Utilising Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, this system makes life quicker, easier and even cheaper for anyone using public transport in the capital.

Using contactless payments on TFL: how does it work?

The wireless readers used to touch in and out with Oyster cards work via NFC chips. These are the same chips that Apple recently incorporated into the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus , also found in certain credit and debit cards, and they enable wireless payment transference.

To learn more about NFC technology, read our article: What is NFC?

Transport For London has recently upgraded the system used by these readers to also incorporate the use of NFC chips in bank cards and phones, which allows you to tap in with your bank card or NFC-enabled device. That means you don’t having to regularly top up your Oyster card.

To use contactless payment, simply touch a compatible phone or bank card to the reader as you would with your Oyster card.

Using contactless payments on TFL: Which banks and cards can use it?

Many banks now offer contactless cards, which can be used to pay for small transactions without going through the hassle of entering your PIN; the system has already been adopted by many high-street brands, including Wetherspoons and McDonalds. Contactless cards are currently only issued by:

• Capital One
• Co-operative Bank Plc
• Barclays (Barclays Bank and Barclaycard)
• Lloyds Banking Group (Halifax)
• The Royal Bank of Scotland Group (NatWest and RBS)
• Nationwide (only to FlexPlus and FlexDirect upon request)

You can tell if your card supports contactless by looking for a symbol that looks like a Wi-Fi symbol turned sideways.

Barclays currently provides contactless wristbands that you can link to cards, allowing you to tap in and out with your wrist. It’s called a bPay Band and you can find out more at the bPay website

Using contactless payments on TFL: Can I use my mobile phone?

Contactless is supported by some mobile networks, although the only UK carriers currently offering NFC payment technology are Vodaphone and EE, through their SmartPass and Cash On Tap schemes respectively.

To use the system through your mobile network, you will need a smartphone with an NFC chip already built in. You can then use your network’s scheme to pay contactlessly on TFL, as well as anywhere else supporting NFC payment.

Using contactless payments on TFL: How much does it cost?

The fares for contactless payment are exactly the same as Oyster, with the added bonus that the system will automatically calculate the cheapest fare for you based on your journey patterns.

So if you do most of your travelling during the week in central London, it will charge you for a weekly travelcard rather than a series of single fares.

Using contactless payments on TFL: What is card clash and how can I avoid it?

Touching in with two cards at once, or using different cards to touch out at either end of your journey, will result in something called card clash.

This means that there is a risk of being charged the full fare two times, as the reader registers each card as one part of an incomplete journey.

The easiest way to avoid this is by making sure that you only touch one card for journeys by moving the card you use to pay for travel to a separate card wallet similar to Oyster card.

Using contactless payments on TFL: Where is it supported?

Contactless payment is supported everywhere that Oyster currently is, including buses and trams, and is used in exactly the same way.

Pay as you go with contactless on tram

What's on this page.

• How to pay contactless

Touch in, touch out

Check for the green tick, how the fares are worked out.

• Save money with early bird bonus
• Incomplete journeys

Ticket inspections and penalty fares

Everything else to know, it’s easier to pay for tram travel with contactless.

• Touch in with your card or device to start a journey, touch out when you finish your journey
• We’ll automatically charge you the right adult fare for your trip, day or week, so you only pay for what you use, up to a daily or weekly cap.
• buy weekend, 28-day or annual tickets
• qualify for a discount
• are under 18 – check out our fares and passes for young people.

Here’s how it all works.

How to pay with contactless

Have a Visa, Mastercard or Maestro card with this symbol?

Then you can use contactless right away. Just use your card, phone or even watch to pay as you go.

When you start a journey, touch in using one of our smart readers.

Then when you get where you’re going, touch out. (If you change trams between, there’s no need to touch in or out at that tram stop).

Make sure you use:

• the same card or device for all your trips to benefit from daily or weekly caps
• a different card for each adult – family travelcards from the ticket machines on stops may offer better value for those travelling with children
• one card at a time. Take it out of your wallet so you charge the right one.

If your card has been accepted, you’ll see a green tick like this:

If it hasn’t, you’ll see a message like this:

If that keeps happening, you will need to pay another way. Try a ticket machine or the Bee Network app .

You don’t need to keep track of where you’ve travelled or what zones you’re in. We’ll work it out from where you’ve touched in and touched out. And we’ll automatically charge you based on our most up-to-date fares.

For one day

If you take one trip, we’ll just charge you for that trip – between £1.40 and £4.60 depending on how many zones you travel through.

If you take several trips, we’ll cap what you pay at our daily travelcard prices for adults this will be between:

If you travel more than one day between Monday and Sunday, we’ll look back through your journeys and charge the best-value fare for the week.

So long as you’re touching in and touching out for each journey, you’ll never pay more than a 7-day travelcard price for the zones you’ve travelled through – up to £31 for all zones.

Set that alarm: if you can avoid travelling between 7am and 9.30am, Monday-Friday, you’ll pay off-peak prices.

How the early bird bonus works – Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays)

Example one:

• touch-in at 6.50am in zone 4 and touch-out at 7.30am in zone 1
• touch-in at 5.10pm in zone 1 and touch-out at 5.50pm in zone 4

You pay £4.90 - the off-peak 1-day travelcard price for zones 1 to 4 - because you haven't started any of your journeys between 7am and 9:30am.

Example two:

• touch-in at 7am in zone 4 and touch-out at 7.30am in zone 1

You pay £7.10 - the anytime 1-day travelcard price for zones 1 to 4 - because you started a journey between 7am and 9.30am.

You must use the same card or device to touch-in and touch-out, so all journeys are completed and we can apply the daily cap.

If you touch in, remember to touch out at the end of your journey (you have up to 2 hours to complete a single journey). If you don’t:

• Your journey will be incomplete (you have up to 2 hours to complete a single journey)
• we’ll charge you £4.60 – that’s our maximum single fare
• this journey won’t count towards your daily or weekly cap
• the next time you use contactless with a smart reader, you’ll start a new journey. So if you’re using a phone or smart watch, check your battery before you travel. Also, do not touch in and out at the same stop. Because we won’t know where you’ve been, we’d charge £4.60 for an incomplete journey.

And if you forget to touch in – or it didn’t work but you still travelled – you will be liable to pay up to £120 for the Metrolink penalty fare.

During ticket checks, present the card or device you used to touch in to the inspector’s ticket reader when asked. If you haven’t touched in before starting your journey (or you used a different card), we’ll charge:

• £60 to the card you present to the inspector or
• the full £120 penalty fare.

Don’t chop and change

If you use a device like a smartphone, it’s worth knowing that we see a ‘Device Number’ – not your card number. So when you’re showing your payment method to the inspector (or touching in or out), don’t switch between card and phone. Use the same thing every time.

It’s all in our terms and conditions , but if you wish to appeal then please fill in this form .

If trams services are disrupted, can I use contactless on the bus or train?

If the trams are disrupted, you can use a local bus where Metrolink ticket acceptance is in place (or replacement bus service) instead. Check our website or X (formerly Twitter) for details at the time of disruption.

• As usual, if using contactless, touch in at the tram stop at the start of your journey, and touch out at the end. Don’t touch in and out at the same stop – this won’t cancel your journey.
• Show your contactless card or device to the driver
• Call us on 0161 244 1000 if you’re not able to touch out – give it 24 hours for our systems to update, so we can see all touches on the smart readers.

If you’re taking a train, you’ll need to buy a ticket. Keep this ticket and call us on 0161 244 1000 for help with payments. (For example, if you’re due a refund.)

Can I have a receipt?

Yes - download an online statement to see everything you’ve been charged.

Can I check my travel charges?

Yes – you can see your tram journeys, check charges and get statements online .

You can look up journeys for the past 12 months and download statements, including:

• the total charges for each day and week you travelled
• a breakdown of the journeys you made, including the stop name, date and time
• details of additional charges for contactless standard fares (after a ticket inspection)

If you can’t find the information you need, use this form to get in touch . Or call 0161 244 1000.

What can I use to pay?

Aside from a physical debit or credit card with the contactless symbol, you can pay through a mobile wallet (like Apple Pay or GPay) using:

• a smart watch
• any other NFC device with a mobile wallet installed – for example, a tablet.

We accept Mastercard, Maestro, Visa and VPAY. Our readers do not accept American Express.

Please note, we are aware that some wearable payment methods including some rings do not provide users with details of the associated account details. We do not recommend that these devices are used for travel using contactless on Metrolink. Whilst the device will work for travel, without the account details we cannot provide support in the event that there are problems.

What will it say on my bank statement?

It depends on the situation.

TFGM.COM/CHARGES – you’ve paid us for your journeys TFGM.COM/REFUNDS – we’ve refunded you for something TFGM.COM/UNPAID – you’ve paid an outstanding charge from an earlier date TFGM.COM/STANDFARE – we’ve charged you £60 because you didn’t touch in TFGM.COM – something else (call 0161 244 1000 if you don’t know what)

If you’re using a Mastercard, you’ll see a 10p charge occasionally, and the first time you use it on the tram. That’s just an authorisation from your bank – it’ll be reversed. And the same thing happens with Maestro cards, except it’s £20.

Will overseas cards work?

Yes – plenty of contactless cards from outside the UK work for pay as you go on our readers: Mastercard, Maestro, Visa, VPAY. You might pay an overseas transaction fee, though.

Why isn’t my contactless working for pay as you go?

If you’re not able to touch in, that might be because:

• our reader is broken. Try another and tweet us at @BeeNetwork
• all our smart readers are down. Buy a ticket from the machine or our Bee Network app
• it’s a new card – you sometimes need to make a chip and PIN transaction before contactless works
• there’s not enough money in your account. Top it up or call your bank
• it’s an overseas card we don’t accept
• your card is damaged or has expired
• we’ve stopped accepting your card for some reason – like unpaid fares or unusual travel.

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‘TfL, why am I paying four times the normal Tube fare?’

The consumer champion solves a spat with transport for london, a nightmare journey with avanti and a run-in between the young farmers’ club and hollywood bowl.

I am owed about £200 by Transport for London (TfL) because it has been overcharging me for journeys when I tapped in and out of the barrier with my Chase credit card. I have been trying to sort it with TfL. I had a phone conversation two weeks ago with the only really helpful person I have spoken to, and he admitted that it looks like I am owed this money. He said that there were, and I quote, “issues with Chase cards” on the underground and that the Tube “can also double charge if your card is linked to Apple Pay”.

I sent an email to TfL to explain the amounts owed to me up to the end of November that I knew of, attaching my bank statements and highlighting the charges in question (there could be more that I haven’t spotted). I have also been overcharged in December a couple of times.

I spoke with TfL again yesterday and it has escalated my case to its tech department because the journeys in question show on my bank statement but not my TfL account, where I have registered the card I use.

I think I am halfway to getting my refund, but I’m sure there are many more people out there being overcharged that don’t know about it or don’t think to look. I have spent at least eight hours so far trying to get my money back because of errors on TfL’s system and, quite frankly, I’m fed up.

Jill replies

You commute to work two or three times a week from Clapham Junction to Canary Wharf via Canada Water (all in London). You touch the card reader every time, so your commute should total £3.80 (£1.90 per journey for that route). But on checking your Chase bank account statements you noticed that since September you have been charged between £8 and £16.50. You calculated that you were overcharged by £21.45 in September, £80.20 in October and £18.15 in November. December’s payments were not yet showing but you were also charged £16.50 for unpaid fares which you have no knowledge of.

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By the time you contacted me in December, two of your friends had told you they had similar experiences with cards from other banks. So it’s not an issue for Chase cards alone.

I asked TfL to investigate your complaint. Your journey history was not visible on TfL’s website, so it suggested that you unregister your Chase card, then register it again.

On January 2 TfL told you it had detected overpayments totalling £102, which was less than you expected. I asked TfL to check again. A month later you were offered a refund of £155 plus £100 in compensation which you have accepted.

What you don’t accept is TfL’s explanation as to why this happened. It told me your problem was probably caused by you using multiple devices or cards to tap in and out of stations. To ensure that you are charged correctly, you need to use the same payment method at the beginning and end of your journey. If you tap in with a mobile phone but out with a smart watch or your actual bank card, for example, you will be charged as having an “incomplete journey” and incur the maximum charge for the travel zone in which you do the tapping.

You were adamant that this couldn’t have happened. Although you have Apple Pay on your iPhone, you said: “For clarity there was just one time where I did accidentally tap out with my phone because I was in a rush, but apart from that I never do it. I always use my physical card.” You do not have another device like an Apple Watch.

I asked TfL if it was possible that the station card readers were picking up Apple Pay from your mobile while you tapped in and out with your Chase card. The answer of “it could do, but it shouldn’t” didn’t reassure me.

The easiest way to avoid this problem is to use an Oyster card — the payment method sold by TfL. If you prefer the ease of using your mobile, smart watch or bank card to pay, then registering your payment method with TfL will make it easier and quicker to correct overpayments. Customers can register for an online account at contactless.tfl.gov.uk . Customers using a Chase card and wishing to register will need to log into their Chase app, locate a “TfL — Transport for London” transaction record, scroll to the bottom and click on “adding your card to TfL” to get the unique card details to allow TfL to share journey history and complete refunds.

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Still at school, but left cold and afraid on the platform by Avanti

I am an 18-year-old student and have been visiting a lot of university open days recently in hope of starting a degree in September. I have been working part-time to afford travel costs, and decided to go by train so I didn’t have to ask my parents to take me. After an appalling journey to Edinburgh, I made a claim against Avanti West Coast but have received minimal compensation and had most of my claims denied.

I was travelling alone on the 6.24pm service from Milton Keynes to Edinburgh where I was due to be met by friends. I had never travelled far on my own before, but I felt safe doing this as I was going through busy stations and only needed to change once. Milton Keynes to Edinburgh Waverley, via Manchester, was meant to take five hours and 17 minutes and the ticket cost £19.45 with a 16-25 railcard.

The Milton Keynes to Manchester train was cancelled an hour before departure so I had to book another train that left at 6.19pm. This was the only train which could connect with the second leg of my journey. It cost £35.55, involved a change at Nuneaton and was meant to arrive in Manchester at 8.19pm, giving me three minutes to change to the 8.22pm train to Edinburgh.

This train arrived in Manchester Piccadilly 35 minutes late, by which time the Edinburgh train had left. An Avanti representative told me there were no more trains to Edinburgh that night and suggested that I should catch a train to Preston and ask an Avanti representative there what to do. I caught the next train to Preston, where I was advised to take yet another train to Glasgow, and contact the Glasgow staff in advance so that a taxi could be arranged to get me to Edinburgh. The train for Glasgow was delayed by an hour and did not arrive in Preston until 10.39pm.

After crossing the Scottish border this train was stuck at Lockerbie station until 2.10am because of a derailed freight train. I had been planning to eat out with my friends so had no food with me. Everyone on the train was told that we could use the onboard café but we weren’t told whether the food and drinks were complimentary, so I didn’t eat or drink anything.

The train was then sent back to Carlisle. En route, a staff member asked passengers whether they needed a taxi to their destination. Everyone got off at Carlisle with much confusion, and the train manager at Carlisle described his colleague’s taxi idea as “ridiculous”.

I returned to the train and waited there. Sleep was not possible as the situation might have changed, and I was made to get off the train at 6am. By now I was cold, afraid and hungry, waiting on the platform for the 6.51am train to Carstairs and then the 7.49am train from Carstairs to Edinburgh. I arrived, more than nine hours late, cold, hungry and tired, having taken six instead of the intended two trains to get to Edinburgh. This more or less trashed the whole of the next day.

I later learnt that my parents had endured a difficult night too, beside themselves with worry about my safety. What should have been an exciting weekend with friends, exploring the city where I hope to study, turned into a nightmare. I don’t know how much compensation could make up for this, but the £19.45 I’ve had does not seem adequate.

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This seemed an astonishingly insignificant amount of compensation for what was truly a journey from hell. But it wasn’t even compensation — it was the refund of your £19.45 single fare to Edinburgh. I asked Avanti West Coast to reconsider.

It decided to refund the second ticket you had bought, costing £35.55, and said: “Following Avanti West Coast cancelling a service, passengers can use tickets valid for that particular service on the Avanti West Coast service either immediately before or after their scheduled train. It does not appear that you were made aware of this at the time, and I would like to sincerely apologise.” Again this seemed completely inadequate (nine hours late, six trains instead of two …) so I asked Avanti to think again.

This time it explained that your journey had been disrupted due to train crew shortage causing the cancellation of your original train, followed by a trespass incident in the Crewe area and then a broken-down freight train near Lockerbie — “both of which were out of our control”. It apologised to the 100 or so customers who were caught up in the disruption at Carlisle, and said that due to lack of taxis and hotel rooms they were offered shelter and warmth on board the train instead (according to booking.com there are at least 28 hotels within a mile of Carlisle city centre. Avanti staff stayed overnight at Carlisle station to provide assistance to customers where possible.

It told me that the cancelled trains on which you were trying to travel from Manchester to Glasgow were not Avanti West Coast services, but it has offered you a complimentary journey as a gesture of goodwill.

Hollywood Bowl strikes twice

On a Tuesday evening in January I booked and paid £217.80 for 33 tickets for Hollywood Bowl in Hull for my local Young Farmers’ club. I waited an hour for a confirmation email, but didn’t receive one. I checked online banking and the money hadn’t gone out and wasn’t pending, so I booked and paid again. The next day both payments went through. I still haven’t got a confirmation email.

I immediately rang Hollywood Bowl customer service which put one of the two bookings on hold. On Wednesday evening when we went in to bowl, I asked if they could repay the £217.80. Instead they gave me 33 vouchers with a use-by date of May 3, and told me that in the terms and conditions it states that the company doesn’t give refunds. It said: “When making a booking you would have agreed to our no refund policy before making payment. Bookings cannot be cancelled or refunded.”

This is a lot of vouchers to use in such a short amount of time. I could have used a few with my family, but 33 is overwhelming. I didn’t book twice deliberately.

I was pretty sure that while Hollywood Bowl won’t give refunds if a customer simply changes their mind about going bowling, it would refund in your case which was clearly a mistaken double booking — partly caused by you not being sent a confirmation for your first booking.

The next day Hollywood Bowl told me that it takes customer service very seriously and has refunded you in full.

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