Slovak make-up artist Zuzana Mračková, who has more than 47,000 followers on the social network, complained about a really unpleasant situation. “Yesterday I went to Fashion Live by tram. Nothing unusual, we are from the old town and we travel by trams and buses non-stop. I’m approaching the stop, I see in the distance that elina is going, I send an SMS (buying a ticket), it’s 5:23 p.m. As soon as I enter, the inspector comes to me, it’s 5:24 p.m. I say, I was still buying a ticket outside, aha,” she described what she experienced.
Zuzana thought everything was fine, but the opposite was true. “He – well, madam, this is not valid, a fine. I’m dumbfounded that I’m dreaming. After all, I have bought a ticket, in the meantime I received an SMS, but I bought it at 17:23. After all, I was wrongly fined for a public transport ticket I bought. Yes, I was arguing the whole tram, even people were standing behind me! This is not normal!” she got upset and added that she was fined up to 90 euros.
The amount of the fine does not bother her. “Just to say, well I really don’t care about the 90 euros I have to pay as a fine, let it be even more, hey? But I actually bought a ticket and it is an absolute outrage and injustice, and I personally think that this would not happen in any other state. Like, I have no words. It’s absolutely terrible. And then I was only sorry when I replayed it so much that I should have told the auditor that it’s about people and it shows only and only about him, what he is” he thinks.
The website contacted the Transport Company of the City of Bratislava, which commented on the unpleasant situation. “We understand situations when passengers buy an SMS ticket in a hurry just before getting into the vehicle. However, we consider it important to emphasize that, according to the Transport Order of the Integrated Transport System in the Bratislava Region, the passenger is obliged to have a valid SMS ticket at the moment of boarding the vehicle,” said spokesman Jozef Vozár.
The situation can be quite treacherous. “With SMS tickets, the validity of the travel ticket is acquired only after the delivery of the confirming SMS message. The time between dispatch and delivery may vary and depends on the processing speed of the mobile operator. For this reason, we recommend that passengers purchase the SMS ticket well in advance of getting into the vehicle,” he explained and continued.
“With this mechanism in mind, SMS tickets are valid for a longer period of time than other types of tickets in order to provide passengers with a sufficient reserve. The inspectors always proceed in accordance with the transport regulations and are obliged to base their checks on the current state of validity of the travel document. If the passenger has not yet received a confirmation SMS at the time of the check, the ticket is not valid,” said the spokesman.
Vozár recommends in cases where a person is catching up on a bus at the last minute, to use other options for purchasing a ticket. “At the same time, we recommend using the convenient options for buying tickets, which are valid immediately. For example, buying a ticket with a payment card or smart device through the Tapni sa system,” he added.
